INTERAGENCY OPPORTUNITIES IN MULTI-SCALE MODELING IN BIOMEDICAL, 
BIOLOGICAL, AND BEHAVIORAL SYSTEMS NSF 04-607

RELEASE DATE:  August 20, 2004

NOTICE:  NOT-EB-04-002

PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS:

National Science Foundation (NSF)
 (http://www.nsf.gov)
Directorate for Engineering
      Division of Bioengineering and Environmental Systems
      Division of Civil and Mechanical Systems
      Division of Chemical and Transport Systems
      Division of Design, Manufacture and Industrial Innovation
      Division of Electrical and Communications Systems
Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
      Division of Shared Cyberinfrastructure
Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences
      Division of Mathematical Sciences

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
 (http://www.nih.gov)
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)
 (http://www.nibib.nih.gov)
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
 (http://www.nci.nih.gov/) 
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
 (http://www.nichd.nih.gov/) 
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
 (http://www.nida.nih.gov)
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
 (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/)
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
 (http://www.nigms.nih.gov/) 
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
 (http://www.ninds.nih.gov)
National Library of Medicine (NLM)
 (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/) 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
 (http://www.nasa.gov) 
Bioastronautics Research Division

U.S. Dept. of Energy
 (http://www.energy.gov) 
Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research
Office of Science, Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research

LETTER OF INTENT RECEIPT DATE:  September 22, 2004

PROPOSAL (APPLICATION) RECEIPT DATE:  November 09, 2004 (due by 5 p.m. 
proposer's local time)

This Notice announces a joint initiative, Interagency Opportunities in 
Multi-Scale Modeling in Biomedical, Biological, and Behavioral Systems, 
between three National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorates, eight 
participating National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutes, the 
Bioastronautics Research Division of the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) and two offices in the U.S. Department of Energy 
(DOE). 

This NIH program announcement is released under NSF 04-607 
solicitation, http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04607/nsf04607.htm.  

This solicitation provides an opportunity for an interagency granting 
activity to promote the development and dissemination of tools to 
enhance computational modeling of biological, biomedical and behavioral 
sciences at multiple scales ranging from the molecular to population.  
Multiple agencies are providing research funding in support of this 
solicitation. Appropriate scientific areas of investigations are those 
that are currently supported by NSF, NIH, NASA and DOE, or related to 
the missions of the four agencies.

The intent of this interagency solicitation is to encourage the 
integrative systems engineering approach to multi-scale modeling, 
combining theoretical and computational approaches to: 1) Formulate and 
validate novel computational and statistical methods and relationships 
for spanning multiple scales, 2) Discover and/or investigate 
intermediate levels of organization above and below the currently 
established level of modeling expertise, 3) Form novel collaborations 
among the research community focused on expanding the breadth of multi-
scale modeling activities, 4) Produce models applicable to biological 
processes, diseases, environmental exposures and human behavior 
patterns that can be tangibly demonstrated to be of practical utility 
to the community at large for research or educational purposes, 5) Form 
a Consortium of Investigators for the purposes of information exchange, 
encouraging model intraoperability, model demonstration and evaluation, 
and discussion of critical issues pertaining to multi-scale modeling, 
and 6) Form a platform for open source software sharing.

Multi-scale modeling deals with spanning scales from molecular to 
population and is expected to largely impact the understanding of 
biological processes and also further the predictive capability in 
biological, biomedical and environmental systems.  This is a nascent 
research effort in biology; hence the modeling research that will be 
supported under this initiative must have an impact on systems at least 
on two levels of scale.  It is expected that: 1) Proposals will include 
establishing new collaborations between computational and/or modeling 
experts who have traditionally focused their models on the same system, 
but at different scales; or collaborations between computational and/or 
modeling experts and experimentalists currently working on a single 
experimental scale but for whom a multi-scale approach would be an 
appropriate complement to their ongoing research, 2) New and novel 
theories and modeling approaches will be developed to bridge across 
scales, and 3) The development of the multi-scale model will bring 
about new understanding of a system that would not have otherwise been 
achieved without the model.  Proposals not meeting these three 
requirements will be returned without review.  High priority will be 
given to projects that deal directly and explicitly with how to link 
multiple scales, as opposed to projects that deal with multiple scales 
separately.  

AWARD INFORMATION 
 
The total estimated amount of funding available for inter-agency multi-
scale modeling support is approximately $15,000,000 over the 3 year 
granting period.  However, Agencies have no obligation to provide this 
amount of support if the quality of the proposals received does not 
justify such expenditure, and/or sufficient funds are not available.
Award sizes are expected to range from $100,000 to $500,000 in total 
costs per year (including indirect costs), with durations up to three 
years.  Most awards will be on the smaller end of this range.  
Estimated program budget, number of awards, and average award size and 
duration are subject to the availability of funds and the receipt of 
meritorious applications.  Since the proposals will be submitted 
originally in the NSF format, they will not use the modular budget 
format currently used by the NIH.  The maximum budgets of awards funded 
by the NIH will be $250,000 per year in direct costs.  The maximum 
budgets of awards funded by NSF will be $375,000 per year in total 
costs.  The maximum budgets of awards funded by NASA will be $500,000 
per year total cost.  The maximum budget of awards funded by DOE will 
be $500,000 per year in total costs.

Upon conclusion of the multi-agency review process, meritorious 
applications may be recommended for funding by either the participating 
NSF Directorates, NIH Institutes, NASA Division, or DOE Offices at the 
option of the agencies, not the applicant. 
 
PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS 
 
Letters of Intent (Required):  Proposals submitted without a Letter of 
Intent will be returned without review. 

Letters of intent must be submitted via the NSF Fastlane system 
(www.fastlane.nsf.gov). The letter of intent submission must include:

1. The names and institutions/organizations of PIs, Co-PIs, and maximum 
5 senior personnel
2. The title of the proposal
3. A 2500-character synopsis (abstract) of the proposal
4. An initial request for primary and secondary assignments, i.e., NSF 
Division, NIH Institute, NASA or DOE
5. The name of the program officer(s) who has expressed an interest in 
the project (see Agency Contacts listed in this Solicitation).

Letters of intent will be used by the program to guide the selection of 
reviewers.  PIs should not expect feedback on their letters of intent, 
beyond acknowledgment of their receipt.

Full Application Instructions:

Proposals submitted in response to this program 
announcement/solicitation should be prepared and submitted in 
accordance with the general guidelines contained in the NSF Grant 
Proposal Guide (GPG). The complete text of the GPG is available 
electronically on the NSF Website at: 
http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?gpg. Paper copies of the GPG may be 
obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-7827 
or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov. 

Proposers are required to indicate in the Project Summary which of the 
Participating Agencies or Departments has expressed an interest in 
their project.  Proposers are expected to prepare their proposals 
keeping in mind the budget limitations and review criteria specific to 
their agencies of interest (see Section VI of the NSF solicitation at 
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04607/nsf04607.htm). 

The proposal must include written statements signed by the officials of 
the proposing organizations responsible for intellectual property 
issues, that the organization supports and agrees to abide by the 
software dissemination plans put forth in the proposal (see Section II 
of the NSF solicitation at 
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04607/nsf04607.htm). These should be 
submitted as supplementary documents in the FastLane proposal.

Proposers are reminded to identify the program 
announcement/solicitation number (04-607) in the program 
announcement/solicitation block on the proposal Cover Sheet. Compliance 
with this requirement is critical to determining the relevant proposal 
processing guidelines. Failure to submit this information may delay 
processing.

INQUIRIES

Written and telephone inquiries are strongly encouraged.  Please see 
the NSF program announcement for names and contact information for the 
cognizant program officials in the participating agencies at
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04607/nsf04607.htm). 

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