Greetings from your program officers at the Animal Behavior program at NSF. Steve Vessey (svessey@nsf.gov) and Kim Sullivan (kasulliv@nsf.gov) are available to answer your questions about NSF funding.
Information about funding opportunities at the National Science Foundation is available at www.nsf.gov. Searching by program announcement number is much better than attempting to search by program name. To search by document number, go to http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/pubsys/browser/odbrowse.pl and type in the publication number preceded by nsf. We have also provided direct links for the programs mentioned below. The Animal Behavior program is in the Bio Directorate in the IBN Division (Integrative Biology and Neuroscience) - http://www.nsf.gov/bio/ibn/ibnphysio.htm - ab
Information for faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions
NSF defines these as campuses that graduate fewer than 10 (on average) PhDs per year in the areas of science supported by NSF. If so, you are eligible for certain types of research awards. RUI: Research at Undergraduate Institutions -http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2000/nsf00144/nsf00144.htm These are regular research proposals that are sent out for ad hoc reviews and go to the Animal Behavior panel for evaluation. Reviewers receive a special letter that describes the importance of research opportunities at undergraduate institutions and points out that faculty with relatively high teaching loads may be less productive than faculty at research institutions. The quality of work should be high, but expectations on the quantity of work are reduced. The principle investigator needs to include a statement describing the impact that the research will have on undergraduate education at their institution and the first 3 letters of the title should be RUI. RUI proposals compete with other proposals for the same funds, but panelists and program officers want to support high quality research at undergraduate institutions and will often try to find funding for the highest rated RUI proposals. RUI proposals are often judged to be too narrow in scope by reviewers. One way to broaden such proposals is to collaborate with researchers at other institutions, including research institutions.
C-RUI: Collaborative Research at Undergraduate Institutions - http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf019 This is a Bio Directorate program with its own funding. These proposals are reviewed in the Animal Behavior panels but do not compete for Animal Behavior program funds. In 2001 there was quite a bit of money available in this program and very few submissions. C-RUI proposals involve collaborations between two or more researchers at undergraduate institutions. The researchers can be at a single institution or at multiple institutions. The collaboration should bring together people from different fields or with different skill sets. The minimum award size is $200,000/ year (averaging over years). This is an opportunity for researchers at undergraduate institutions to “think big”. One C-RUI proposal was funded through the Animal Behavior program in 2001: Freeman-Gallant (Skidmore) and Wheelwright (Bowdoin) C-RUI: Inbreeding, female mating fidelity and the major histocompatibility complex in Savannah Sparrows. The C-RUI competition occurs every other year, but the program is considering offering it each year. Robert Taylor (rtaylor@nsf.gov) is in the program officer for this program.
Researchers should consider the full costs of carrying out their research. These proposals are often under-budgeted. If the addition of a post-doc or technician would greatly enhance the research project, such funds should be included in the budget. Faculty may want to consider “teaching post-docs.” The post-doctoral fellow would obtain both research and teaching experience. The faculty member would have a reduced teaching load and be able to devote more time to research and working individually with undergraduates.
Research Opportunity Awards (ROA) - http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2000/nsf00144/nsf00144.htm These are made as supplements to an active NSF award. Awards are usually about $15,000 and may cover summer salary, travel and research expenses to allow a faculty member (and students) at a primarily undergraduate institution to participate in an NSF sponsored research project. Check out the active awards managed by the Animal Behavior program (accessed from the Animal Behavior program page). Is there someone you would like to collaborate with on this list? If so, contact the principle investigator on the NSF award about the possibility of their submitting an ROA supplement on your behalf.
Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants (DDIG), from the Animal Behavior Program -
http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf0095. These awards are typically for $10,000 and can be used for travel, equipment, and supplies that would significantly enhance the student’s dissertation. The awards are intended to give students the opportunity to pursue research independent of their advisor’s research program. The deadline for proposals is the 3rd Friday in November. The panel meets to evaluate these proposals in February.
Dissertation Enhancement Projects, from International Programs, support dissertation research conducted by graduate students at a foreign site. Students are expected to work in close cooperation with a host country institution and investigator - http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2000/nsf00138/nsf00138.htm
Post-doctoral Fellowships
There is no special program for post-doctoral fellowships in animal behavior. The BIO Directorate has post-doctoral programs in microbial biology, pub. NSF99-142, biological informatics, pub. NSF98-162. The Minority Post-doctoral Research Fellowship program (pub. NSF00-139) has funding for minority graduate students to travel to meet prospective post-doctoral advisors. For information on international opportunities, go to http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2001/nsf01135/nsf01135.htm
Many post-doctoral opportunities are available as a part of regular research awards. These are advertised individually by the Principal Investigators of the those awards. Another way to obtain funding for a post-doctoral position is to submit a regular research proposal with the post-doctoral advisor as the principle investigator. Target date for research proposals are January 10 and July 10.