Opportunities for Promoting Understanding through Synthesis  (OPUS)

PROGRAM GUIDELINES

Solicitation  08-559

Please be advised that the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) includes revised guidelines to implement the mentoring provisions of the America COMPETES Act (ACA) (Pub. L. No. 110-69, Aug. 9, 2007.) As specified in the ACA, each proposal that requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals. Proposals that do not comply with this requirement will be returned without review (see the PAPP Guide Part I: Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II for further information about the implementation of this new requirement).

DUE DATES

Full Proposal Target Date:  July 9, 2009

July 9, Annually Thereafter

Participating Clusters expect to make 3-4 awards per target date or funding cycle, or 6-8 awards annually.

SYNOPSIS

All four clusters within the Division of Environmental Biology ( Ecological Biology, Ecosystem Science, Evolutionary Processes and Systematic Biology and Biodiversity Inventories) encourage the submission of proposals aimed at synthesizing a body of related research projects conducted by a single individual or a group of investigators over an extended period. OPUS proposals will often be appropriately submitted in mid-to-late career, but will also be appropriate early enough in a career to produce unique, integrated insight useful both to the scientific community and to the development of the investigator's future work. In cases where multiple scientists have worked collaboratively, an OPUS award will provide support for collaboration on a synthesis. OPUS awards will facilitate critical synthesis, and do so in a way that will acknowledge the prestige of this important component of scientific scholarship.

THIS PROGRAM IS PART OF

Additional Funding Opportunities for the DEB Community

Abstracts of Recent Awards Made Through This Program