Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention Phase I: Development Grants | 21 590

Opportunity Information: Apply for 21 590

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) Phase I: Development Grants opportunity (Funding Opportunity No. 21-590) is a discretionary research grant program designed to jump-start a new NSF-wide initiative focused on the fundamental science, tools, and convergent capabilities needed to better predict and prevent infectious disease pandemics. Rather than funding a single narrow research thread, Phase I is structured as a development and planning stage that helps teams define and frame ambitious, high-impact problems in “pandemic predictive intelligence” and begin building the intellectual and organizational foundation needed to pursue them at scale. NSF indicated an intention to release a Phase II Center Grants competition around 2023, but it is explicitly not a requirement that applicants submit to, or win, a Phase I Development Grant in order to participate in a future Phase II centers solicitation.

At the core of Phase I is the expectation that each project will articulate a clear “grand challenge” question: a critical, broad, and innovative problem statement that matters for forecasting, real-time monitoring, mitigation, and prevention of pathogen spread. The program is not only looking for incremental improvements to existing outbreak modeling; it emphasizes pushing conceptual boundaries and developing new theoretical framings that can reshape how pandemic risk is understood and managed. Proposals are expected to pair this grand challenge framing with novel conceptual research directions and technology development ideas that can advance the state of the art in predictive intelligence, including approaches that can operate in real time, adapt as conditions change, and translate into actionable insights for prevention and response.

A defining feature of this solicitation is its emphasis on interdisciplinary and convergent research. Successful proposals must integrate computational, biological, engineering, and social/behavioral perspectives, not as parallel workstreams but as an interlocked approach to solving pandemic-scale problems. This reflects NSF’s view that pandemic prediction and prevention is not just a data science problem or a virology problem; it is a coupled human-technology-biology system where behavior, policy, infrastructure, health disparities, and communication dynamics can strongly influence outcomes. As a result, teams are expected to be multidisciplinary by design and to work across scientific, disciplinary, geographic, and organizational divides, assembling collaborations that can responsibly connect models and measurements to real-world interventions and societal contexts.

While Phase I is framed as planning-oriented, NSF strongly encourages principal investigators to begin developing research and technical approaches that directly address key aspects of the chosen grand challenge, even at an early stage. In other words, the awards are meant to enable both the coordination and the early technical lift required to move from a compelling idea to a coherent, testable, and scalable research agenda. NSF places particular value on high-risk, high-payoff efforts: projects where the uncertainty is real, but where success could produce major societal benefits, new capabilities for outbreak prevention, or transformational advances in prediction, monitoring, and decision support.

The opportunity is jointly supported by multiple NSF directorates, specifically Biological Sciences (BIO), Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). This joint backing signals that proposals will be evaluated with an expectation of genuine cross-domain integration and that projects should be credible across these communities. NSF also encourages involvement and collaboration with other relevant research communities that have significant activity in adjacent areas, reinforcing the idea that PIPP is meant to catalyze a broader ecosystem of pandemic-focused predictive intelligence research.

Key administrative details from the notice include that awards are grants, the program sits in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category, and the CFDA numbers listed are 47.041, 47.070, 47.074, and 47.075. The award ceiling is $1,000,000, with an expectation of about 30 awards. The solicitation was created June 2, 2021, with an original closing date of October 1, 2021. Eligibility is listed as “Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification),” indicating that applicants would need to consult the full solicitation for specifics on which organization types may apply and under what conditions.

Overall, PIPP Phase I Development Grants are meant to help research teams crystallize an ambitious pandemic prediction and prevention problem, propose bold new conceptual and technological directions, and build the integrated, cross-cutting collaborations needed to pursue that problem in a way that can ultimately produce major advances and public benefit.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention Phase I: Development Grants" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.070, 47.074, 47.075.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 02, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 01, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 30 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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