The National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy (hereafter "the Government" or "the Participating Agencies") invite applications for the establishment or continuation of "International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups" to address the interdependence of biodiversity exploration for potential applications in health and energy, with investments in research capacity that support sustainable use of these resources, the knowledge to conserve them and equitable partnership frameworks among research and development organizations in the U.S. and low and middle income countries.

This competition of the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) program, continues several new emphases that began with the previous RFA (TW-08-003), including an emphasis on microbial and marine organisms, some changes in target health areas, greater involvement of funded consortia with government contract resources, greater use of molecular and genomic tools, and the opportunity to integrate energy- related discovery research into projects.

Research and training focused on plant biodiversity continues to be of interest, especially that which may inform us regarding composition, safety and efficacy of botanicals that may be used or marketed as dietary supplements, or novel scientific analyses of plants used traditionally as medicines. Information on the history of the ICBG program and previous competitions may be found at the following URL:  http://www.fic.nih.gov/programs/research_grants/icbg/index.htm and http://www.icbg.org/index.php .