Biodiversity on a Changing Planet | 22 508

Opportunity Information: Apply for 22 508

The National Science Foundation (NSF) "Biodiversity on a Changing Planet" (BoCP) program is a cross-directorate, internationally oriented research grant opportunity focused on one central problem: biodiversity is changing rapidly under multiple forms of environmental change, and science needs better, more integrated ways to understand what those changes mean for how ecosystems function now and in the future. The program is framed around "grand challenges" in biodiversity science, especially in the context of unprecedented environmental shifts such as climate change, and it treats biodiversity as a core feature of Earth systems that underpins ecological stability and human well-being. A major motivation behind the solicitation is the reality of accelerating, often permanent species losses, which creates urgency for new knowledge that can move beyond cataloging declines toward explaining how changes in the functional diversity of organisms alter ecological processes.

A defining feature of BoCP is its emphasis on functional biodiversity, meaning it prioritizes research that links biodiversity to what organisms do and how those roles shape ecosystem behavior under stress. Rather than focusing only on patterns of species richness or distribution, the program encourages proposals that investigate how traits, functions, and interactions (for example, physiological tolerances, trophic roles, mutualisms, microbial functions, or trait diversity across communities) respond to environmental change and, in turn, influence system-level outcomes like productivity, nutrient cycling, resilience, and stability. NSF is explicitly looking for projects that can improve modeling and forecasting of biodiversity change, with the idea that stronger predictive capacity will help anticipate ecological consequences and inform future decision-making.

BoCP proposals are expected to be genuinely interdisciplinary and integrative, and the solicitation is clear that this is not a standard single-discipline biodiversity competition. Successful proposals should test hypotheses about functional biodiversity on a changing planet by bringing together multiple perspectives and scales of analysis. The program specifically calls out integration across cellular, organismal, ecological, evolutionary, geological, and paleontological approaches, which signals that NSF is open to projects spanning everything from molecular or physiological mechanisms, to species interactions and community dynamics, to deep-time and Earth-history contexts that can reveal how biodiversity responded to past environmental upheavals. The program also encourages the use of new technologies and team-science approaches, implying that collaborative, multi-investigator projects using modern data streams (for example, advanced sensing, genomics, automated monitoring, informatics, and sophisticated modeling frameworks) are strongly aligned with the program's goals.

In terms of who can participate and how collaborations are structured, BoCP supports both U.S.-only collaborative proposals and projects that include specific international partnerships. The solicitation highlights joint opportunities with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) in Brazil, and the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa. For those international collaborations, proposals are submitted in parallel: U.S. principal investigators submit to NSF, while the collaborating investigators in China, Brazil, or South Africa submit to their respective national funding agencies under coordinated arrangements. At the same time, the program notes that these agreements do not prevent other international collaborations, indicating that teams may involve additional countries as long as the proposal structure and funding rules remain compliant.

The solicitation includes two proposal tracks: Design and Implementation. While the detailed requirements for each track are not fully described in the text provided, the intent is typically to support both earlier-stage efforts that develop and coordinate ambitious integrative research (Design) and more fully developed projects ready to execute extensive research plans (Implementation). Because the program is intentionally integrative and can involve complex budgets and cross-cutting activities, NSF strongly recommends that prospective principal investigators contact the BoCP Program Officer(s) in advance to confirm that the project scope, thematic fit, and budget align with the solicitation's expectations.

From the opportunity metadata, this is an NSF discretionary grant under the science and technology research and development category, associated with CFDA numbers 47.050 and 47.074. The funding opportunity number is 22-508, and the agency anticipated making around 12 awards. The original closing date listed for this particular posting was March 25, 2022, and the award ceiling is shown as 0 in the source data, which usually indicates that a fixed ceiling was not specified in that record and that budgets are likely evaluated based on project scope and solicitation guidance. Overall, the core message of the BoCP program is that NSF is seeking bold, team-based, cross-scale biodiversity research that can explain and predict how functional aspects of biodiversity are shifting under environmental change, and what those shifts imply for ecosystems and the services they provide.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Biodiversity on a Changing Planet" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.050, 47.074.
• This funding opportunity was created on Oct 14, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 25, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 22 508

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