Molecular Foundations for Biotechnology (MFB)

NSF's implementation of the revised 2 CFR

NSF Financial Assistance awards (grants and cooperative agreements) made on or after October 1, 2024, will be subject to the applicable set of award conditions, dated October 1, 2024, available on the NSF website. These terms and conditions are consistent with the revised guidance specified in the OMB Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance published in the Federal Register on April 22, 2024.

Important information for proposers

All proposals must be submitted in accordance with the requirements specified in this funding opportunity and in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) that is in effect for the relevant due date to which the proposal is being submitted. It is the responsibility of the proposer to ensure that the proposal meets these requirements. Submitting a proposal prior to a specified deadline does not negate this requirement.

Updates to NSF Research Security Policies

On July 10, 2025, NSF issued an Important Notice providing updates to the agency's research security policies, including a research security training requirement, Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program annual certification requirement, prohibition on Confucius institutes and an updated FFDR reporting and submission timeline.

Partnerships to Transform Emerging Industries

Supports collaborative high-risk, high-payoff projects that develop new techniques to modify the structure, function and/or fate of biological molecules that have important applications in biotechnology.

Synopsis

This initiative calls for fundamentally new approaches in molecular sciences to drive new directions in biotechnology, a critical and emerging technology of the 21st century. This is the second year of a campaign targeting broad annual themes to be pursued through collaborative high risk/high reward projects.

This year’s solicitation calls for synergistic scientific research collaborations that involve innovative machine learning (ML) methods to foster advances in research on the function of biomolecular systems and have the potential to drive innovation in biotechnology.

Program contacts

Name	Email	Phone	Organization
Catalina Achim	mfb@nsf.gov	(703) 292-2048	MPS/CHE
Krastan B. Blagoev	mfb@nsf.gov	(703) 292-4666	MPS/PHY
Zhilan J. Feng	mfb@nsf.gov	(703) 292-7523	MPS/DMS
Wilson A. Francisco	mfb@nsf.gov	(703) 292-7856	BIO/MCB
Tingyu Li	mfb@nsf.gov	(703) 292-4949	MPS/CHE
Marcia E. Newcomer	mfb@nsf.gov	(703) 292-4778	BIO/MCB
Steven W. Peretti	mfb@nsf.gov	(703) 292-7029	ENG/CBET
Amarda Shehu	mfb@nsf.gov	(703) 292-8191	CISE/IIS

Program events

Awards made through this program

Browse projects funded by this program

Map of recent awards made through this program

Program status: Archived

Program 22-554 was archived.

Program guidelines

Previous guidelines NSF 22-554

Published:

January 14, 2022

Molecular Foundations for Biotechnology (MFB)

Status: Archived

Archived funding opportunity

NSF's implementation of the revised 2 CFR

Important information for proposers

Updates to NSF Research Security Policies

Synopsis

Program contacts

Program events

Awards made through this program

Molecular Foundations for Biotechnology (MFB)

Status: Archived

Archived funding opportunity

NSF's implementation of the revised 2 CFR

Important information for proposers

Updates to NSF Research Security Policies

Synopsis

Program contacts

Program events

Past

Awards made through this program

Organization(s)