Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics | 18 600

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The National Science Foundation (NSF) grant opportunity titled "Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics" (URoL: Epigenetics) is part of NSF's larger "Big Ideas" initiative launched in 2016, which set out 10 long-term priorities meant to push research at the frontiers of science and engineering. This particular solicitation sits under the Big Idea called "Understanding the Rules of Life: Predicting Phenotype," which aims to improve our ability to predict what traits and characteristics an organism will show (its phenotype) based on the interaction between its genetic makeup and its environment. While proposals are submitted through NSF's Division of Emerging Frontiers within the Biological Sciences Directorate (BIO/EF), the program is intentionally cross-cutting and is expected to be managed by a team of NSF program directors spanning multiple disciplines and directorates, reflecting NSF's emphasis on convergence research.

At its core, URoL: Epigenetics is focused on epigenetics as a key missing link between environment, biology, and phenotype. The program is designed to support innovative research and to build multidisciplinary education and workforce training around epigenetic processes. NSF is looking for projects that help explain how epigenetic mechanisms respond to environmental change, how those mechanisms shape observable traits in organisms, and how they contribute to robustness and adaptability at the level of organisms and populations. The solicitation highlights a major shift in biology: heritable changes in phenotype can sometimes occur without changing the underlying DNA sequence. That idea, often referred to as epigenetic inheritance, is presented as having implications across scales, from molecules and cells to whole organisms, and potentially all the way up to populations, communities, and ecosystems.

A strong proposal under this program is expected to go beyond documenting epigenetic patterns and instead work toward causal, mechanistic, and/or predictive understanding. NSF frames the desired outcome as discovering generalizable "rules of life," meaning theory-backed principles that can explain and predict how living systems behave. Projects are encouraged to connect genomic and epigenetic states with measured environmental conditions and resulting phenotypes, using modern tools that now make it easier to manipulate genomes, probe epigenetic marks, and quantify biological, physical, and even social or behavioral environments. Importantly, NSF is pushing for research that identifies broad principles that apply across different organisms (anywhere on the tree of life), across different levels of biological organization (molecular to population and beyond), and across time scales ranging from very rapid processes to long-term evolutionary or geologic time frames.

Interdisciplinarity is a non-negotiable feature of URoL: Epigenetics. NSF explicitly requires that projects integrate perspectives, methods, or conceptual approaches from more than one discipline. Examples of relevant contributing fields include biology and chemistry, but also computer science, engineering, mathematics, physics, geology, and the social and behavioral sciences. The idea is that understanding epigenetics in a way that supports prediction and general principles often demands combinations such as experimental biology plus modeling, high-throughput measurement plus data science, or molecular mechanisms linked to ecological dynamics. NSF also emphasizes that this interdisciplinary scope naturally supports broader impacts through training and outreach, such as preparing students and early-career researchers to work across fields and engaging broader audiences with the societal relevance of epigenetics and environmental change.

The program provides two funding tracks that differ by project scale. Track 1 supports smaller projects with total budgets up to $500,000 and project durations up to 3 years. Track 2 supports larger, more comprehensive efforts with total budgets up to $3,000,000 and durations up to 5 years. The funding instrument is a grant, and the opportunity is categorized under science and technology and other research and development. The solicitation anticipated about 12 awards, and the listed award ceiling in the source data is $12 (as shown in the record), though the practical budget limits are clearly defined by the two track caps above. The opportunity was created on September 27, 2018, with an original closing date of February 1, 2019. Eligibility is described broadly in the listing as "Others" with additional clarification referenced in the full solicitation's eligibility section.

In short, URoL: Epigenetics is NSF's attempt to accelerate a predictive, cross-disciplinary science of how environmental conditions can shape heritable and non-heritable traits through epigenetic mechanisms, and how those mechanisms scale up to influence resilience and adaptation. The strongest projects are expected to combine disciplines, generate mechanistic insight, and move toward general rules that can explain biological outcomes across organisms and contexts, while also contributing to training and workforce development in this rapidly evolving area.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.049, 47.050, 47.070, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, 47.079, 47.083.
• This funding opportunity was created on Sep 27, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 01, 2019. (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 $12.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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