In accordance with the bilateral cooperation agreement between the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), as well as the consensus reached with the S？o Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) of Brazil and the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF), the parties will continue to solicit and fund collaborative research and exchange projects in the area of “Biodiversity on a Changing Planet (BoCP)” in 2024.

The project aims to deepen bilateral cooperation between China and the United States in the field of biodiversity and encourage Chinese scientists to carry out multilateral cooperation such as China-U.S.-Brazil, China-U.S.-South Africa, and China-U.S.-Brazil-South Africa.

I. Introduction

The Biodiversity on a Changing Planet Program (BoCP) supports projects using an integrative approach to understand the connections between biodiversity dynamics (i.e. shifts in scope, structure, and interactions of biodiversity) and functional biodiversity under changing environmental conditions, including climate change. Successful projects will address theoretical, methodological, infrastructure, and data gaps regarding biodiversity dynamics and functional biodiversity, and their interactions with climate and Earth systems. Functional biodiversity refers to the numerous roles of traits, organisms, species, communities, and ecosystem processes in natural systems. Functional biodiversity also includes the roles of emergent properties and processes across all levels of biological organization. Changes in taxonomic and functional diversity can be both cause and consequence of changing environmental conditions, and the BoCP supports projects addressing both types of relationship, as well as feedback between them.

Interdisciplinary research across ecology, evolutionary biology, geology, and paleontology is necessary to achieve a deeper understanding of biodiversity dynamics and functional biodiversity. The BoCP program therefore encourages proposals from collaborative and diverse teams of scientists including, for example, evolutionary biologists, ecologists, paleontologists, organismal biologists, systematists, biogeographers, marine scientists, geobiologists, geochemists, critical zone scientists, hydrologists, modelers, and/or climatologists. Prospective principal investigators (PIs) must develop proposals that work across scientific, disciplinary, geographic, and organizational divides, push conceptual boundaries, and contribute new theory regarding the understanding of functional biodiversity and its relationship to shifting biodiversity dynamics under environmental change.

The program encourages inclusive science teams with meaningful involvement of individuals that span the full spectrum of diverse talent in STEM. NSF also recognizes that STEM research and education occurs at a wide range of institutions, including Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs), and two-year colleges, as well as major research institutions. NSF welcomes single-institution and multi-institutional collaborative proposals from all types of institutions and encourages authentic and substantive collaborations and partnerships across diverse geographies and types of institutions.？Proposals from EPSCoR jurisdictions are especially encouraged.

II. Program Description

The goal of the BoCP program is to achieve a deeper understanding of functional biodiversity and biodiversity dynamics in the context of changing biotic and abiotic conditions. The program encourages proposals that integrate ecological and evolutionary approaches to enhance understanding of functional biodiversity. Overall, projects should pursue development of a synthetic understanding of the continual loss, gain, maintenance, and reorganization of biodiversity on a changing planet. Projects should consider past and current ecological and evolutionary processes to enhance understanding of functional biodiversity under various types of environmental change. Successful proposals may take advantage of phylogenetic and biogeographic frameworks as well as insights from neontology (extant biodiversity) and paleontology (extinct biodiversity), fossil records, omics approaches, remote sensing, and/or the use of models and forecasting approaches

All proposals to the National Science Foundation must include plans for broader impacts, which are expected to provide benefits to society. We encourage broader impact activities that enhance the participation of the full spectrum of diverse talent in STEM. Additionally, the BoCP program encourages proposals that describe effective plans to find synergies between broader impacts and biodiversity science. Specific broader impacts may include plans to improve societal understanding of the roles of biodiversity, improve societal understanding of biodiversity change in the context of climate change, and/or translate specific research outcomes to education or conservation actions.

For information on research areas, award, eligibility, and other relevant details, please refer to the program solicitation at the following website:

https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/biodiversity-changing-planet-bocp/nsf24-574/solicitation

III. Contacts

US Contact:

Christopher Balakrishnan

Phone: +1 703 2922331

E-mail: biodiversity@nsf.gov

National Natural Science Foundation of China

Bureau of International Cooperation