U.S. NSF invites math-bio cooperation

[Rodman, James E]

The U.S. NSF invites biologists (including systematists! - whether
phylogenetically minded, morphometrically minded, or otherwise) to join
their mathematically inclined colleagues to tackle those scientific
questions requiring union of the two fields. Please see the "Dear Colleague"
letter (NSF 00-149 on the NSF website, and appended below) for details.

Title: Quantitative Environmental and Integrative Biology (QEIB) --
          Dear Colleague Letter
Date:  September 19, 2000




                      National Science Foundation
                         4201 Wilson Boulevard
                      Arlington, Virginia  22230



Title: Quantitative Environmental and Integrative Biology (QEIB)

Dear Colleague,

We are announcing a new category of proposals entitled Quantitative
Environmental and Integrative Biology (QEIB) within our core program
competitions. The Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO) and
Mathematics & Physical Sciences (MPS) at the National Science Foundation
have a long history of supporting basic research relevant to
environmental biology. This letter is to inform the community of U.S.
scientists that BIO and MPS seek to encourage submission of proposals
that are at the interface of mathematics and environmental biology.

Environmental and integrative biologists are entering a new era in which
they possess the data necessary for building or testing models, but lack
the quantitative solutions to large-scale and complex problems. BIO and
MPS recognize that the time is especially ripe for accelerating progress
in understanding and predicting important phenomena in environmental and
integrative biology by using existing mathematical tools and by
developing new mathematical and statistical approaches. The burgeoning
base of theoretical and empirical work, made possible by new methods and
technologies, is providing the impetus to develop robust answers to the
major integrative biological and environmental challenges faced by our
society. Meeting those challenges will require new efforts to train
environmental and integrative biologists in mathematical sciences -
including analytical and numerical modeling, statistics and time series
analysis, and dynamical and nonlinear systems analysis.   We need a new
generation of empiricists with stronger quantitative skills and
theoreticians with a detailed understanding of the empirical structure
of biological processes.  The challenge also requires new efforts to
train mathematicians in the environmental sciences - including
ecological and evolutionary theory and empiricism.

Our goals are: 1) to encourage major mathematical advances of relevance
to ecological and evolutionary forecasting; 2) to foster collaboration
among environmental and integrative biologists and mathematicians; and
3) to enhance quantitative skills of students and investigators through
training activities.

Examples of areas in which mathematical advances are desired include,
but are not limited to:

* the integration of stochastic and nonlinear effects.
* the development of new statistical and mathematical methods.
* the development of new methods for characterizing variability and
  uncertainty across scales of space and time.

It is our hope that both the biological and mathematical sciences will
benefit from additional collaboration and cross training. Collaboration
between biologists with mathematicians can produce truly emergent
insights into biology and create interesting mathematical challenges,
the combination of which will exceed the sum of their individual
domains.

Titles of proposals submitted in response to this Dear Colleague letter
emphasizing Quantitative Environmental and Integrative Biology (QEIB)
should be prefaced with "QEIB:".  This is not a special competition or
new program. The purpose of this letter is to encourage submissions of
relevant proposals to existing core programs at the programs' regular
target dates. The most competitive proposals will be those that include
an explicit training element for graduate and/or undergraduate students.
These students should be full partners in the research, conceptually and
operationally.  It would be appropriate to include in the budget, items
to further this training.  Increased participation of members of groups
underrepresented in science is encouraged.

Target dates for applicable programs may be found at
<http://www.nsf.gov/bio/start.htm> or <http://www.nsf.gov/home/mps>.  NSF
FastLane requirements apply to all proposals submitted in response to
this Dear Colleague Letter. Proposals must conform to all format
requirements in the Grant Proposal Guide
(http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?gpg).  Investigators are
strongly encouraged to contact one of the following program officers to
determine if their proposed ideas fall within the QEIB goals:

Division of Environmental Biology, BIO Margaret Palmer
(mpalmer at nsf.gov), Mike Willig (mwillig at nsf.gov), or Sam Scheiner
(sscheine at nsf.gov; ph: 703-292-8481)

Division of Integrative Biology and Neuroscience, BIO Gene Bruce
(ebruce at nsf.gov; ph: 703-292-8413)

Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, BIO Joanne Tornow
(jtornow at nsf.gov; ph: 703-292-8441)

Division of Mathematical Sciences, MPS Mike Steuerwalt
(msteuerw at nsf.gov; ph: 703-292-4860), Keith Crank (kcrank at nsf.gov; ph:
703-292-4880), or William Smith (wbsmith at nsf.gov; ph: 703-292-4882)

NSF  00-149
Electronic Dissemination Only


[IDB/DPS/KD, 9/18/2000]

PLEASE NOTE NEW TELEPHONE NUMBERS

Dr. James E. Rodman
Program Director, Systematic Biology
Division of Environmental Biology, Rm 635
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22230

(voice) 703-292-8481, x7184
(fax) 703-292-9064
jrodman at nsf.gov (e-mail)