Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention Phase I: Development Grants (PIPP Phase II Centers Program)

This solicitation is for Development Grants as part of NSF’s new Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) initiative. This initiative focuses on fundamental research and capabilities needed to tackle grand challenges in infectious disease pandemics through prediction and prevention. NSF anticipates releasing a Phase II Center Grants solicitation around 2023. Note that submission or award of a Development Grant is not required to participate in the anticipated PIPP Phase II Center Grants competition.

The PIPP Phase I initiative intends to support planning activities encompassing (1) articulation of a grand challenge centered around a critical and broad question in pandemic predictive intelligence; (2) proposals of novel conceptual research and technology developments that aim to advance state-of-the-art forecasting, real-time monitoring, mitigation, and prevention of the spread of pathogens; and (3) multidisciplinary team formation. Successful Phase I proposals must identify an innovative interdisciplinary grand challenge that engages integrated computational, biological, engineering, and social/behavioral approaches to formulate and solve critical problems relating to predictive intelligence for pandemic prevention. PIs of Phase I Development Grants are strongly encouraged to develop research and technical approaches that start to address critical aspects of the identified grand challenge.

NSF’s PIPP activities place great emphasis on high-risk/high-payoff convergent research that has the potential for large societal impact. To that end, prospective principal investigators (PIs) must develop teams and proposals that work across scientific, disciplinary, geographic, and organizational divides, push conceptual boundaries, and build new theoretical framings of the understanding of pandemic predictive intelligence.

The Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO), Computer Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE), are jointly collaborating to support the PIPP Phase I activities. Involvement of and collaboration with other research communities with significant effort in related spaces is highly encouraged.