Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics | 20 512

Opportunity Information: Apply for 20 512

The National Science Foundation (NSF) funding opportunity "Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics" (URoL: Epigenetics), Funding Opportunity Number 20-512, supports research that explains how epigenetic mechanisms shape observable traits (phenotypes) as environments change, and how those changes influence the robustness and adaptability of organisms and populations. It sits within NSF's broader "Understanding the Rules of Life: Predicting Phenotype" Big Idea, one of NSF's 10 long-term research priorities introduced in 2016 to push the frontiers of science and engineering through convergence research. While proposals are submitted through the Division of Emerging Frontiers in the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO/EF), the program is intentionally cross-directorate and is managed by a team of program directors spanning multiple parts of NSF, reflecting its emphasis on integrative, multidisciplinary work.

At its core, this program is motivated by the growing recognition that heritable traits and lasting biological effects can arise without changes to DNA sequence. Epigenetics, broadly defined, includes molecular and cellular processes that regulate when, where, and how genes are expressed, and how those regulatory states can be influenced by environmental conditions and sometimes transmitted across cell divisions or generations. URoL: Epigenetics encourages projects that connect three elements in a causal or predictive way: (1) epigenetic mechanisms, (2) environmental experience (which can include biological, physical, and even social dimensions of the environment), and (3) resulting phenotypes, including how organisms and populations maintain stability or adapt under changing conditions. NSF highlights that recent advances in measurement and manipulation tools now make it feasible to move beyond collecting epigenomic data toward building mechanistic explanations and predictive models that tie epigenetic states to phenotypic outcomes across contexts.

A major expectation of URoL: Epigenetics is that funded projects do more than document epigenetic patterns. Competitive proposals are expected to use complementary approaches and cross-disciplinary integration to uncover emergent properties and generalizable principles, the "rules," that help explain fundamental behaviors of living systems. These rules may apply within a single level of biological organization or connect multiple levels, such as molecular events influencing cellular function, which then scales up to organismal traits, population dynamics, and even community or ecosystem consequences. NSF explicitly welcomes studies spanning a wide range of scales of size and complexity, as well as time scales ranging from sub-second processes to changes unfolding over evolutionary or geologic time. Research can focus on any taxa across the tree of life, including humans, as long as it advances general principles rather than remaining purely descriptive or narrowly system-specific.

Interdisciplinarity is not optional in this solicitation. Projects must integrate perspectives, methods, or theory from more than one research discipline. The program explicitly mentions fields such as biology and chemistry alongside computer science, engineering, geology, mathematics, physics, and the social and behavioral sciences, signaling that strong proposals might blend wet-lab experimentation with computational modeling, theory development, advanced sensing, engineering of new tools, or sophisticated environmental characterization. The program frames this integrative requirement as essential for converting rapidly expanding genomic, epigenomic, and environmental datasets into causal, mechanistic, and predictive relationships that can be tested and generalized.

Beyond research results, URoL: Epigenetics places emphasis on education, workforce development, and broader engagement. The interdisciplinary nature of the program is viewed as an opportunity to train the next generation of scientists to work across methods and domains, and to develop outreach activities that help connect epigenetics research to society more broadly. In practice, this means proposals are expected to include thoughtful training components (for example, cross-training students in experimental and computational approaches, or creating collaborative training networks) and to consider ways to broaden participation and communicate outcomes.

The solicitation offers two funding tracks matched to project scope. Track 1 supports projects up to $500,000 total over up to 3 years, which is well-suited for focused interdisciplinary efforts, pilot studies with clear mechanistic hypotheses, or tool/model development that can be completed on a shorter timeline. Track 2 supports larger, more ambitious projects up to $3,000,000 total over up to 5 years, enabling broader teams, multi-scale or multi-system studies, substantial technology development, and integrated research plus training efforts with stronger infrastructure needs. NSF anticipated making around 10 awards under this opportunity. The original closing date listed for the solicitation was February 6, 2020, and the funding instrument is a grant within the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category (with multiple NSF CFDA numbers associated, reflecting the cross-directorate structure).

In summary, URoL: Epigenetics is designed to accelerate epigenetics research that can move from correlations to explanation and prediction, especially where environmental change interacts with epigenetic regulation to produce phenotypes that affect survival, performance, and adaptability. The program favors projects that combine disciplines, bridge biological scales, and produce broadly useful principles or predictive frameworks, while also building training and outreach activities that strengthen the future epigenetics workforce.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.049, 47.050, 47.070, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, 47.079, 47.083.
• This funding opportunity was created on Nov 02, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 06, 2020. (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 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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