Division of Environmental Biology
Opportunities for Promoting Understanding through Synthesis
(OPUS)
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20091025044803im_/http://nsf.gov/images/greenline.jpg)
CONTACTS
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20091025044803im_/http://nsf.gov/images/bluefade.jpg)
PROGRAM GUIDELINES
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20091025044803im_/http://nsf.gov/images/bluefade.jpg)
Solicitation
08-559
As announced on May 21st, proposers must prepare and submit proposals to the National
Science Foundation (NSF) using the NSF FastLane system at
http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/.
This approach is being taken to support efficient Grants.gov operations during this busy
workload period and in response to OMB direction guidance issued March 9, 2009. NSF will
continue to post information about available funding opportunities to Grants.gov FIND and
will continue to collaborate with institutions who have invested in system-to-system
submission functionality as their preferred proposal submission method. NSF remains
committed to the long-standing goal of streamlined grants processing and plans to
provide a web services interface for those institutions that want to use their
existing grants management systems to directly submit proposals to NSF.
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).
SYNOPSIS
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20091025044803im_/http://nsf.gov/images/bluefade.jpg)
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
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20091025044803im_/http://nsf.gov/images/bluefade.jpg)
Additional Funding Opportunities for the DEB Community
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20091025044803im_/http://nsf.gov/images/x.gif)
Abstracts of Recent Awards Made Through This Program
|