Supporting exciting biological sciences ideas and impacts on AI and biotechnology

Dear Biological Sciences Community,

The U.S. National Science Foundation continues to support bold biological sciences research and innovation to power our economy and strengthen our nation’s health and security.

To help keep America at the forefront of science, engineering and technology, NSF is making changes to our organizational structure and merit review processes. These changes are designed to increase our agency's efficiency and effectiveness by reducing administrative burdens both inside the agency and externally, while maintaining our strong commitment to scientific rigor.

As we described in our December Virtual Office Hour, the Directorate of Biological Sciences (NSF BIO) has taken advantage of the NSF reorganization as an opportunity to organize our proposal review on cross-cutting thematic areas:

• Foundations of Life (bio-fl@nsf.gov): Exploring natural or synthetic molecules, cells & physiology that build living things
• Living Systems (bio-ls@nsf.gov): Understanding how species evolve, interact, and shape Earth’s ecosystems
• Bioinnovation & Infrastructure (bio-bi@nsf.gov): Investigating the functional genomic complexity of life and developing the tools, data, and technologies to drive biological discovery

Reorganization offers us the advantage to leverage the existing cross-disciplinary overlaps among many of our traditional programs and to create agile structures and processes to serve both the science of today and the science of the future. In the coming months, additional information will be communicated and posted on NSF's website as these organizational changes and processes take effect.

For now, please continue to submit proposals to current solicitations and programs. NSF BIO remains committed to all areas of biology. We will continue to support interdisciplinary efforts, including at the interface with artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and biotechnology.

We also want to make you aware of the newly released funding opportunity for Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB; NSF 26-504). The focus is on the “Intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Biological Sciences to Strengthen and Safeguard Biotechnology Innovations.” An important goal of this program is to prepare early-career researchers to use AI to study complex, biological systems--like those found in the natural world--thereby revealing new mechanisms that can lead to technological breakthroughs. For more information, please visit the PRFB Program Page and sign up for the BIO Virtual Office Hour on June 17, 2026.

We encourage you to continue to send in proposals with your brightest ideas. Our program directors welcome you to reach out to them to discuss your project concepts.

Sincerely,