The U.S. National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states and U.S. territories. NSF was established in 1950 by Congress to promote the progress of science, advance the national health, prosperity and welfare, and secure the national defense.
The Core Programs Track by the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) seeks to fund research that deepens our understanding of why organisms are structured the way they are and function as they do, across a wide range of scientific areas. These areas include developmental biology, evolution of developmental processes, nervous system structures and functions, biomechanics, physiological processes, symbioses, microbial interactions, environmental interactions, genomics, and animal behavior. The grant encourages projects that view organisms as a fundamental unit of biological organization and favors approaches that promise conceptual, theoretical insights and predictions about emergent properties. The IntBIO Track specifically invites collaborative proposals that address bold biological questions needing an integrated approach, spanning subdisciplines and applying novel methodologies to uncover new insights into how biological systems operate and interact across different scales. This approach aims to foster discoveries that are more significant than the sum of their parts, contributing to new, holistic understanding and theories in biology.