Biodiversity on a Changing Planet (BoCP)

The Biodiversity on a Changing Planet program is a cross directorate and international program led by NSF that invites submission of interdisciplinary proposals addressing grand challenges in biodiversity science within the context of unprecedented environmental change. Environmental change takes many forms, including climate change. Biodiversity is one of the most complex features of our planet and is critical for the survival of our species. Current rates of rapid and permanent species loss require new knowledge about how the functional diversity of organisms interacts with, and responds to, environmental change. The program supports a comprehensive and integrative approach to understanding planetary biodiversity from a functional perspective, and it encourages the use of new technology and team science approaches. Research supported by this program will improve modeling and forecasting of the consequences of functional change in biodiversity in response to environmental change. Successful BoCP proposals will test hypotheses about functional biodiversity on a changing planet by integrating cellular, organismal, ecological, evolutionary, geological, and/or paleontological perspectives. While this focus complements several core programs at NSF, it differs by requiring an integrative approach to address the functional role of biodiversity in response to changing environmental conditions.

The program supports both US-only collaborative proposals and proposals with international partnerships with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) of Brazil, and the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. International collaborative proposals are to be submitted jointly, with the US PIs submitting to NSF and the collaborating Chinese, Brazilian, or South African PIs submitting to their appropriate national funding agencies. These agreements do not preclude other international collaborations (see below for additional details).

There are two proposal tracks covered by this solicitation: Design and Implementation.

It is strongly recommended that prospective PIs contact the BoCP Program Officer(s) to ascertain that the focus and budget of their proposed activities are appropriate for this solicitation.