Biomedical Engineering  (BME)

PROGRAM GUIDELINES

Apply to PD 10-5345 as follows:

For full proposals submitted via FastLane: standard Grant Proposal Guidelines apply.
For full proposals submitted via Grants.gov: NSF Grants.gov Application Guide; A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of NSF Applications via Grants.gov Guidelines apply (Note: The NSF Grants.gov Application Guide is available on the Grants.gov website and on the NSF website at: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=grantsgovguide)

Please be advised that the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) includes revised guidelines to implement the mentoring provisions of the America COMPETES Act (ACA) (Pub. L. No. 110-69, Aug. 9, 2007.) As specified in the ACA, each proposal that requests funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals. Proposals that do not comply with this requirement will be returned without review (see the PAPP Guide Part I: Grant Proposal Guide Chapter II for further information about the implementation of this new requirement).

DUE DATES

Full Proposal Window:  February 1, 2010 - March 3, 2010

Full Proposal Window:  August 15, 2010 - September 23, 2010

SYNOPSIS

The mission of the Biomedical Engineering (BME) Program is to

• Provide opportunities to develop novel ideas into discovery-level and transformative projects that integrate engineering and life science principles in solving biomedical problems that serve humanity in the long-term
   
• Advance both engineering and life sciences with biomedical engineering projects that are at the interface of engineering and biomedical sciences

The BME program supports fundamental, transformative, and discovery research applied to biological systems.  The BME projects must

• Be fundamental, transformative, and discovery research
   
• Develop novel ideas integrating engineering and life science principles in solving biomedical problems that serve humanity in the long-term
   
• Focus on high impact transforming methods and technologies and include
  
      -  Methods, models and tools of understanding and controlling
          of living systems
  
      -  Fundamental improvements in deriving information from
          cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems
  
      -  New approaches to the design of structures and materials
          for eventual medical use
  
      -  Information technology relevant to biotechnology including
          bioinformatics
  
      -  New novel methods of reducing health care costs through
          new technologies
   
• Emphasize the advancement of fundamental engineering knowledge, possibly leading to the development of new methods and technologies in the long-term
   
• Emphasize novel application of existing technologies to advance fundamental knowledge of both engineering and life sciences
   
• Highlight multi-disciplinary nature, integrating engineering and the life sciences
   
• Balance theory, mathematical modeling, and experiment
   
• Advance both engineering and life sciences at the discovery-level

The BME program supports projects in the following BME themes:

• Neural engineering (brain science, computational neuroscience, neurotech, cognitive engineering)

• Gene and drug delivery systems
   
• Cellular and tissue engineering (cellular biomechanics, genetically engineered stem cell differentiation with long-term impact in tissue repair and regenerative medicine)
   
• Biomaterials and biomimetics

Additional information:

• The Biomedical Engineering (BME) program supports fundamental, transformative, and discovery research applied to biological systems.
   
• Integration of engineering expertise with life science principles is an essential requirement for advances in this field.
   
• Projects submitted to the BME Program must advance both engineering and life sciences and be at the interface of engineering and life sciences.

• The projects do not have to be hypothesis-driven.

• The projects can be computational modeling or can have computational parts.

• The projects can have diagnosis or treatment-related goals in the long-term.  The BME program does not support clinical studies.

• The long-term impact of the projects can be related to disease diagnosis and/or treatment, improved health care delivery, or product development.

Proposals should address the novelty of the concept being proposed, compared to previous work in the field.  Also, it is important to address why the novelty might be important in terms of engineering science, as well as to also project the potential impact on society and /or industry of success in the research.  The information requested in this paragraph should be included, as a minimum, in the Project Summary of each proposal.

The duration of unsolicited awards is generally one to three years.  The typical award size for the program is $100,000 for individual investigators or $200,000 for multiple investigators per year (including indirect cost).  Small equipment proposals of less than $100,000 will also be considered and may be submitted during the submission windows.  Any proposal received outside the announced dates will be returned without review.

The duration of CAREER awards is five years.  The submission deadline for Engineering CAREER proposals is in July every year.  Please see the following URL for more information: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08051/nsf08051.jsp.

Proposals for Conferences, Workshops, and Supplements may be submitted at any time, but must be discussed with the program director before submission.

Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) and EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) replace the SGER program.  Please note that proposals of these types must be discussed with the program director before submission.  Further details are available in the PAPPG download, available below. 

Please refer to the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG), January 2010, (NSF 10-1) when you prepare your proposal.  The PAPPG is available for download at:  http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf101

THIS PROGRAM IS PART OF

Biomedical Engineering and Engineering Healthcare

What Has Been Funded (Recent Awards Made Through This Program, with Abstracts)

News

Discoveries