National Science Foundation, US: Molecular foundations for biotechnology partnerships to transform emerging industries

03/02/2022

14/02/2022

The National Science Foundation's directorate for mathematical and physical sciences solicits proposals for its molecular foundations for biotechnology programme partnerships to transform emerging industries. This solicitation calls for synergistic scientific research collaborations that involve innovative machine learning methods to foster advances in research on the function of biomolecular systems and have the potential to drive innovation in biotechnology. The award is worth approximately USD 9 million.

The solicitation calls for synergistic, interdisciplinary research endeavors that: •bring together computer science expertise in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence on one side and chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, and mathematics on the other side; •focus on integrated, convergent research projects that create new mechanism-guided machine learning frameworks for the prediction and detailed characterisation of the function of biological macro molecules; •test the validity, specificity, and generalisability of the proposed ML frameworks with robust experimental platforms.

Foreign organisations may apply provided they do so in consortium with US organisations. The proposer must explain why local support is not feasible and why the foreign organisation can carry out the activity more effectively.