BIO Newsletter: August 2026

Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to share several updates from across our directorate.

As many of you are aware, the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences (NSF BIO) has undergone leadership transitions in the past two months. We said goodbye to our Assistant Director Susan Marqusee as she moved back to her home institution, UC Berkeley. We are deeply grateful to Susan for her insightful and thoughtful leadership, especially during our recent administrative and scientific reorganization. We also said goodbye to Leslie Rissler, a long-time program director in Evolutionary Processes who had stepped up to serve as acting deputy division director and then section head for our Living Systems theme. Leslie moved on to take on a deanship at the University of Montana. Her leadership and stewardship within and outside of NSF will be missed.

Last August, I assumed the role of directorate head, and I am now responsible for both the scientific direction and operations of the Biological Sciences Directorate. I have an outstanding leadership team who are helping to guide NSF BIO's three thematic research areas. Managing the Foundations of Life theme are Charlie Cunningham (deputy head) and section heads Wilson Francisco and Joanna Shisler. Leading Bioinnovation and Infrastructure are Jim Deshler (deputy head) and section heads Brent Miller and Katharina Dittmar. Leading Living Systems are Allen Moore (senior science advisor, serving in a capacity akin to the deputy heads), Section Head Patrick Abbot and a soon-to-be-named Acting Section Head.

As many of you know, BIO underwent a reorganization over the past year, but our active solicitations still reflected our former structure. I am delighted to report that our new solicitation to support Core Research in Biological Sciences (BIO Core; NSF 26-517) was just released. As we have been communicating for the past several months, BIO Core replaces the core program solicitations in the former divisions of Environmental Biology, Integrative Organismal Systems and Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. BIO Core will support foundational, curiosity-driven, use-inspired or interdisciplinary research across all areas of biology, including those that have been supported by legacy programs. You may ask questions and learn more by attending our next monthly NSF BIO Virtual Office Webinar on Sept. 16, 2026.

In addition, BIO welcomes proposals that will advance science at the intersection of other disciplines, including critical and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. For researchers with an interest in the BIO-AI intersection, we call your attention to two recently announced funding opportunities. First, an agencywide Dear Colleague Letter, "Unleashing a new age of AI-enabled scientific discovery through the Genesis Mission" (NSF 26-023), points to ways for the biological sciences community to leverage and build AI for science, to conduct foundational research in several biology-relevant challenge areas and to expand workforce and capacity-building in AI for advances across broad areas of biological sciences. Second, a cross-directorate solicitation, "Unlocking Dataset Value for AI-enabled Scientific Discovery" (NSF 26-512), will support efforts to make existing scientific datasets more accessible, easier to integrate and ready for automated AI-driven analysis. The goal is to increase the value from existing scientific datasets by leveraging novel methods and AI.

I will close with a reminder that most of BIO's funding opportunities have no deadlines. Please keep sending in proposals with your best scientific ideas when they are ready. We are eager to hear from you.

Theresa Good
NSF Directorate Head
NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences