Innovation: Instrumentation

The Instrumentation Programmatic Area supports the design of novel and innovative instrumentation and associated methods that address a clearly defined gap in biologists’ ability to capture observations of biological phenomena and that have the potential to be broadly applicable in biology. Proposed projects may include instrumentation for observing any level of biological phenomena (e.g., molecular, cellular, organismal, ecosystem, biome), and may propose either new and innovative instrumentation; instrumentation that significantly improves the accuracy, resolution, or throughput of data capture; or advancements that reduce costs of instrument construction or operation. The scope of the proposed instrumentation and associated methods can include, but is not limited to: microscopy; spectroscopy; imaging; environmental or biological sensors; robotic sampling; or remote image acquisition. Projects are expected to have a significant application to one or more biological science questions and have the potential to be used by a community of researchers beyond a single research team. In addition, PIs should include a description of the instrument design, the development plan, testing of a prototype, a plan for obtaining user community feedback, and a plan to broaden dissemination or future access of instruments to other researchers.