Infrastructure Capacity for Biological Research
The Infrastructure Capacity for Biological Research Program supports building research tools and services in biology across cyberinfrastructure, collections, and field labs to benefit a wide range of researchers.
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation
Due Dates: Proposals accepted anytime
Funding Amounts: $25,000–$1,200,000 per award | Total program funding up to $18,000,000 | Estimated 60 awards
Summary: Supports implementation, scaling, or major improvements to research infrastructure tools, products, and services that advance contemporary biology across three areas: cyberinfrastructure, biological collections, and field stations/marine labs.
Key Information: No cost sharing required; proposals must benefit broad communities, not single labs/institutions.
Description
The Infrastructure Capacity for Biological Research (Capacity) Program, administered by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), is designed to build and enhance research infrastructure that advances contemporary biology. The program specifically targets the development, scaling, or major improvement of research tools, products, and services that are broadly applicable to the biological sciences community. The focus is on three main programmatic areas:
- Cyberinfrastructure: Development or improvement of digital infrastructure, such as databases, software, or computational resources, that supports biological research.
- Biological Collections: Enhancement or digitization of biological collections and associated data to increase accessibility and utility for research.
- Biological Field Stations and Marine Laboratories: Major improvements to field stations and marine labs to support research and education in terrestrial, marine, estuarine, or freshwater environments.
The program also supports planning activities and workshops to facilitate coordination and capacity building within the research community. Projects must serve a broad user base and be openly accessible, producing resources that benefit the wider scientific and educational community rather than a single research team or institution.
Instrumentation-focused projects should be submitted to the NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program, and infrastructure intended solely for a specific project or institution should be directed to relevant BIO programs.
