Dear
Colleague
Letter
-
Assembling
the
Tree
of
Life
Solicitation
Dear Colleague,
The
National
Science
Foundation’s
Assembling
the
Tree
of
Life
(AToL)
solicitation
has
recently
been
renewed
and
updated
(see
the
program
solicitation,
NSF
08-515; http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf08515).
As
in
the
past,
the
AToL
competition
will
support
creative
and
innovative
research to
resolve
evolutionary
relationships
for
large
groups
of
organisms.
The
program
also
supports
research
on
theory
and
methods
and
tool
development for
these
large
scale
phylogenetic
investigations. With
this
letter
we
wish
to
draw
your
attention
to
several
new
and/or
enhanced
areas
of
interest.
Proposals
in
the
following
areas
are
especially
encouraged:
-
Proposals
that
seek
to
understand
the
role
and
importance
of
lateral
gene
transfer
and
reticulation
in
evolutionary
history,
as
well
as
proposals
to
develop
methods
and
theory
that
will
address
this
important
issue
in
phylogenetic
research
and
phyloinformatics.
-
Proposals
to
develop
tools
to
facilitate
the
efficient
integration
and
management
of
the
diverse
types
of
data
and
extensive
amounts
of
data
that
are
generated
by
these
large-scale
phylogenetic
studies.
-
Proposals
that
focus
on
major
taxonomic
groups
not
yet
addressed
in
ongoing
or
completed
AToL
projects.
Examples
include
but
are
not
limited
to:
viruses
and
the
various
major
groups
of
prokaryotes,
protists,
and
lower
invertebrates.
The
deadline
date
for
proposal
submission
to
the
AToL
program
is
14
March
2008.
NSF
FastLane
requirements
(www.fastlane.nsf.gov)
apply
to
all
proposals.
Proposals
must
conform
to
all
format
requirements
in
the
Grant
Proposal
Guide http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=papp;
in
addition
there
are
special
proposal
requirements
for
this
competition
(see
AToL
solicitation http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf08515).
Investigators
with
questions
about
AToL
proposals
are
encouraged
to
contact
the
AToL
Working
Group
(BIO-atol@nsf.gov).
A
link
to
the
list
of
previous
AToL
awards
and
abstracts
can
be
found
on
the
AToL
web
page
(http://www.nsf.gov/ef).
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