July 06, 2005

First Wednesday in July

annually thereafter

Living Stock Collections (LSC)

The Living Stock Collections (LSC) program supports operation of and improvements in outstanding collections of living organisms used in basic biological research.  The program provides support for two types of projects. Short-term projects are one-time awards (up to 36 months) leading to innovative handling of living stocks or to well-defined improvements in existing collections, including those not otherwise supported by LSC.  Long-term awards (up to 60 months) support ongoing operation of significant collections.  Collections receiving long-term support are expected to receive support from other sources, including user fees. 

Since the 1970s, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has supported the operation and improvement of outstanding collections of living organisms through the Living Stock Collections (LSC) Program and its predecessors. Such collections have played a key role in the advancement and preservation of knowledge by providing well-characterized and documented experimental organisms to U.S. and foreign researchers at modest cost. The Living Stock Collections Program is administered by the Division of Biological Infrastructure with the goal of strengthening infrastructure critical to the conduct of basic research in areas within the purview of the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO). Thus, requests for support by the Program are expected to describe stock collection activities that emphasize maintenance and provision of living organisms needed for basic research in the biological sciences. In addition to the collected organisms, biological reagents relevant to their study (such as isolated DNA, DNA libraries, antibodies, etc.) may be included in the collection when appropriate. To facilitate public access to collections supported on an ongoing basis by the LSC Program, all such collections must have an up-to-date web site that provides information about the contents of the collection and about procedures for ordering strains.  In addition to requests for long-term support of basic collections activities, the LSC program accepts requests for short-term support for the development of innovative approaches to handling living stocks, and for one-time improvements in operations of established collections, including collections not otherwise supported by the LSC program. Requests for short-term funding to move valuable established collections to a new institutional home are also considered. In general, such requests must include an explicit plan to incorporate the collection into another collection. The LSC program does not expect to renew awards for support of these short-term projects.  The program does not  support the establishment of new collections.

The goal of the LSC Program is to support the operation and improvement of collections of living organisms used actively and widely in basic biological research. Thus, the LSC Program does not provide ongoing support for collections that are primarily archival or otherwise intended to document biodiversity. While the Program encourages the incorporation of biological reagents into collections, it does not provide significant direct support for the development of such reagents, and only limited support for their storage and distribution. Similarly, the Program does not provide funds to conduct research beyond normal and appropriate curatorial efforts. Support for development of biological reagents or for original research by collection staff should be sought from appropriate research programs at the NSF and at other public and private agencies. In identifying requests that deserve highest priority for funding, the Program will consider the following general characteristics:

• The importance of the collected organism(s) to basic biological research in the US. This could reflect, for example, the utility of the organism as a "model system" following years of concerted research effort by many investigators.
• The uniqueness of the collection, both within and outside the US.
• The breadth of usage of the collection by the potential user community. Both the types of use and numbers of users are considered to reflect the worth of the collection to the research community. 
• The relevance of the collection's usage to the goals of the Directorate for Biological Sciences. Thus, collections of organisms whose principal uses are in research areas supported by the NSF are given priority in selecting projects for support. 
• The active involvement of a scientifically-qualified collections manager with expertise in handling of the collected organism. 
• The location of the collection in an active research environment. 
• The availability of all relevant information about the collection via the internet. 
• The participation of an active external advisory group whose membership includes current or potential users drawn from areas of research under the purview of the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences. Such groups play an important role in advising the collection on matters of policy and practice including, for example, user fees and acquisition policies.

Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the LSC Program Director before beginning the effort of preparing a proposal. Potential applicants are also encouraged to seek support from other appropriate public and private sources of funding. Support by other sources will be considered a positive attribute of a collection seeking support from the LSC Program.

Organization Limit: The LSC Program accepts proposals from U.S. colleges, universities and non-profit organizations.  Submission of proposals that are similar or identical to proposals submitted to another federal agency is allowed with the prior approval of NSF and of the other agency.  Proposers planning such dual submission must contact the LSC Program Director in advance.

PI Eligibility Limit: None Specified.

Limit on Number of Proposals: None Specified.

NSF anticipates making 3 to 5 standard or continuing grants.  The anticipated funding amount is $1.5 million for new and renewal LSC awards in FY 2005.  Estimated program budget, number of awards and average award size/duration are subject to the availability of funds. Awards for short-term projects are usually made as standard grants of 12 to 36 months in duration; awards for long-term projects are usually made as continuing grants of up to 60 months in duration.  In general, short-term support is provided for projects with well-defined aims that can be accomplished within the period of the award. Thus, renewal of support should not be expected. Long-term awards are for projects that, by their nature, are expected to continue for the forseeable future. Requests for renewal of support of such projects are anticipated.

3. Prior Support Statement. Briefly describe the outcome of any prior support of the collection by the NSF in the last five years, irrespective of the PI or organization that received the support, and list all publications that resulted. If this is a renewal proposal, state the title, amount of funds received and duration of the award for which renewal is sought. Describe any accomplishments that are not included in the narrative section. Do not describe the results of other prior support received by the current PI, unless the support was intended to improve operation of the collection. This section is limited to five pages.

• For proposals submitted via Fastane: The Prior Support Statement should be added to the end of the Project Description (See D. below).

• For proposals submitted via Grants.gov: The Prior Support Statement should be added to the end of the Project Description (See D. below) and be attached in Block 7 of the R&R Other Project Information Form.

4. Project Description. This section describes the project in detail and is limited to 15 pages, except as noted below for long-term projects.

• For short-term projects aimed at improving the methodology or technology of stock collection operations,the presentation should be consistent with that in a research proposal, including specific aims and sufficient technical detail to assess the need for and likely success of the project, and its expected impact on operation of stock collections. The anticipated timeline, with milestones as appropriate, should be included.  

• For other short-term projects, including collection relocation,  present sufficient detail to assess the need for the activity and the likely outcome if an award is not made. The content of such short-term requests should emphasize topics in items 1 through 7 in the following guidelines for descriptions of long-term projects. Information relevant to other items is helpful; however, the suggested extensive detail, especially for cost analysis (item11), is not required.  Collections requesting short-term support are not required to have an external advisory committee. 

• For long-term projects, the project description should describe the current and future operation of the collection in detail. Required lists and tables should be presented in the Supplementary Documents section of the proposal (see below). The project description should include the following:

1. Historical perspective and statement of goals. This introductory section should describe origins of the collection, the goals of its operation, and the areas of research that benefit from use of the collected organisms. 

2. Description of the collection. Provide a general summary description, including number of stocks and, where appropriate, number of mutant strains, species, genera, etc. Describe types of services and products other than stocks, if any. Provide the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the collection’s homepage.  In the event that a list of stocks is not available on line, you may include a list as the last item in the Supplementary Documents section (below).  However, if the list is longer than 10 pages, the LSC Program Director must be consulted before the proposal is submitted.

3. Use of the collection.  Provide summary comments on use of the collection in the last five years, with attention to changing patterns of use, new types of uses, etc. Indicate the fraction of orders received by World Wide Web-based forms, other electronic means, phone and mail in each of the last three years. Detailed quantitative information must be provided in the supplementary documents section (below).

4. Management structure. Describe the roles, qualifications and responsibilities of the Director of the collection, the collection manager, and any other key personnel. NSF expects that the manager will have a Ph.D. or equivalent research experience. Identify the academic department or other organizational unit in which the collection is located and the organizational official(s) to whom the Director of the collection reports. If extensive, this may be provided as a diagram.

5. Acquisition policy. Describe the policies for addition and removal of stocks; indicate how these reflect the statement of goals in item 1. Estimate the number of stocks added to, or removed from, the collection in each of the last three years. Indicate the number of duplicate or unidentified stocks at the current time. Justify the presence of any duplicates, and describe plans to identify any unknown stocks.

6. Relationship to similar collections. Identify other national or foreign collections of the same organism(s), if any, and estimate overlap in collection contents.

7. Documentation and ordering. Describe the use of electronic databases in operation of the collection and in provision of public access to information about the collection, including the frequency with which such public information is updated. Describe the ordering procedure.

8. Quality control practices. Describe procedures and practices intended to assure integrity of the individual stocks and other resources, and any steps to assess the quality of service provided to the community.

9. Future goals. Describe any expected changes in the scope of the collection, in its manner of operation, in staffing, or in facilities. Describe short and long term plans for the collection in the event of unanticipated changes in ability of the key personnel to participate.

10. Cost analysis. Estimate the staff time and other costs (pro rata cost of glassware, growth media, cage charges, etc.) required for accession and for yearly maintenance of a typical stock. List the fraction of the annual cost of operation of the collection currently provided by: 1) NSF; 2) Other Federal agencies; 3) Institutional contributions, if any; 4) User charges; and, 5) other sources, such as private foundations, endowments, and personal contributions. Estimate the expected change, if any, in this total cost of operation over the period for which funding is requested. Proposers should anticipate that the fraction of total cost borne by NSF will decrease over time, and that the actual amount of direct NSF support may itself decrease.

11. User charges. Describe the accounting basis or other strategy for establishment of user fees and use of fees to offset operational costs of the collection. Collections with long-term LSC support are expected to recover a significant fraction of the cost of operation through user fees. The fees for any additional services or products (i.e., those provided in addition to samples of living stocks from the collection) are expected to reflect the cost to the collection of providing the services or products. In the Supplementary Documents section, provide a current list of all user fees and the date on which these were last changed.

12. External advisory committee.  All collections supported on a long-term basis are required to have an external advisory committee that provides guidance to the collection and to the host organization with respect to collection operations and policies, including user fees, new acquisitions, other improvements, long-term plans, etc. The committee should also serve as a resource for user community input into assessment of the quality of services and products. The committee is expected to meet annually, and to provide a written report to the collection's Director following the meeting. The PI should include a summary of the report as part of the collection's annual progress report to NSF. In this section of the project description, outline the functions of the advisory committee and the mechanisms for assuring that the committee broadly represents the research community that uses the collection. The term of service of members and the mechanism for their selection should be described.  A list of current membership of the advisory committee should be presented in the Supplementary Documents section (see below).

13. Organizational role. Describe the host organization's long term plans for maintaining the collection, including a view to the future beyond the period of requested support. Include a financial projection of support from all sources for the first year of operation following termination of the NSF support being requested.

14. Other support. Describe financial or other commitments to the proposed project by the host organization, if any, and those by any other sources.

5. References Cited. 

Provide any references necessary to support the project description (e.g., those cited in discussion of prior support). 

6. Budget and Budget Justification.

Provide a budget for each year of requested support. Budgets for short-term projects are limited to 36 months.  Long-term projects may request up to 60 months support.  Use the budget justification section to explain and justify the need for funds in each budget category. The following costs will be considered allowable under the terms of the grant:

1. Personnel and technical assistance (non-research).

2. Limited administrative assistance.

3. Equipment.

4. Travel. Include only travel directly related to collection activities. Support for travel to scientific meetings is not provided on long-term awards unless justified as necessary for the collection's operation.

5. Participant support. Include funds needed for annual advisory committee meetings (long-term projects only). No honoraria for committee members may be provided from NSF funds.

6. Other direct costs.  Include cost of materials and supplies, periodic publication of stock lists, development and maintenance of electronic databases and collection web site, and minor renovations (long-term projects only). In general, funds will not be provided for items that would normally be part of an individual research grant (such as salaries of investigators or research assistants, supplies for research or special equipment for particular research projects), except in the case of short-term projects aimed at improving methods or techniques.

7. Current and Pending Support.

Provide information about current and pending support for the PI and any other key personnel.

8. Biographical Sketches.

Provide a biographical sketch for the PI and for other key personnel using content guidelines in the GPG (limited to 2 pages per person).

9. Supplementary Documentation.

Provide the following information about use of the collection, using a tabular format for items 1. – 4. 

• For proposals submitted via FastLane: These supplementary documents should be attached in the Supplementary Docs section in FastLane.

• For proposals submitted via Grants.gov: These supplementary documents should be attached in Block 11 of the R&R Other Project Information Form.

  1. Table 1: Services and categories of products available to users. List user fees associated with stocks and any other individual services or products. If some stocks (or products or services) are priced differentially, indicate the number in each price category. Thus,  if some stocks are more expensive than others, indicate the number of stocks at each price. 

  2. Table 2: Organizational usage of the collection. Show numbers of orders and of stocks sent to U.S. and foreign organizations; categorize types of organizations - academic or non- profit research organizations, industrial, or governmental, internal versus external users, educational versus research, if known, etc.) on an annual basis for the past five years.

  3. Table 3: Individual usage of the collection. Indicate the total number of users, total number of orders, total number of stocks sent, and total user fees collected in each of the five years covered by Table 2. If the collection provides other products or services, give separate figures for stocks and for these other products or services.

  4. Table 4: Top individual users. Provide individual data for top 25 users of the collection in each of the last two full years, including number of orders and of stocks provided to each. If possible, combine usage by a single research group or laboratory. In providing this list, an anonymous identifier (e.g.,'user A' or 'group A') may be assigned to users, using the same identifier for each user or group from year to year. Each user's country (U.S., etc.) and organizational type (academic, medical, commercial, governmental) should be indicated.

  5. Other productive use of the collection. For example, provide a list of researchers visiting the facility in the last five years with purpose of visits, organizational affiliation and duration of stay; source of funding.  List any courses, workshops, etc. offered by the collection and provide a  selected list of publications resulting from research based on the collection.

  6. As appropriate, provide letters documenting agreement to collaborate or other resource commitments.  This is not considered auditable cost sharing.  Letters of endorsement may not be included.

  7. Provide a statement assuring that all pertinent regulations will be followed in receiving and sending the living stocks. All perishable biological materials must be shipped in compliance with postal regulations. Other applicable regulations may include Public Health Service regulations governing transportation of etiologic agents, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and the  USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's regulations governing transportation of animal and plant disease agents. For genetically engineered organisms, all pertinent permits must be obtained from appropriate agencies.

July 06, 2005

First Wednesday in July
annually thereafter

Annual reports for long-term projects should summarize salient features of collection operation over the past year of support.   The report must include up-to-date versions of Tables 1 - 4 as described in the Supplementary Documentation section of the proposal.  The report must also include a summary of the most recent written report of the external advisory committee, and a summary of the collection's written response to the report, if any.  Verbatim copies of the annual report and collection response are not required, but may be provided in lieu of the summaries.  Any workshop or course conducted by the collection's staff should be described.  Plans for operation of the collection in the coming year, including new acquisitions, date and location of the external advisory committee meeting if known, and any changes in user fees, should be outlined.