Research@UIC > Funding Opportunities > Finding Funding > Limited Competitions > NSF – Improvements to Biological Research Collections

NSF – Improvements to Biological Research Collections (BRC) NSF 09-548

Program Summary

The Improvements to Biological Research Collections Program provides funds for improvements to network, secure, and organize established natural history collections for sustained, accurate, and efficient accessibility of the collection to the biological research community. The BRC program is encouraging collaborative proposals to network collections on regional and continental scales, especially collaborations that bring large and small collections together into networks. The BRC program also provides for enhancements to existing collections to improve collections, computerize specimen-related data, develop better methods of specimen curation and collection management through activities such as symposia and workshops. Biological collections supported include those housing natural history specimens and jointly curated collections such as preserved tissues and other physical samples, e.g. DNA libraries and digital images. Such collections provide the materials necessary for research across broad areas of biological sciences.

Awards
Up to $500,000 total for individual awards of 1 to 3 years; up to $2,000,000 total for collaborative awards of 1 to 5 years.

Limits
In any single round of the BRC competition, only one proposal may be submitted from any individual collection within an organization.

Additional Information 
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09548/nsf09548.htm

Deadlines

Letter of Intent Instructions

OVCR may reserve submission slots for previously submitted but unfunded proposals that received highly competitive ratings from the external sponsor. These will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the Vice Chancellor. For consideration, scanned copies of your complete reviews (not just summary) must be included with LOI.

Depending upon the number of LOIs submitted, OVCR might be required to facilitate an internal peer review process to select UIC’s submission(s) to this program. White paper instructions will be posted if necessary.

eLOI Form & Instructions – Adobe Acrobat Requirements

1. Download the file directly to your computer or to a disk, right click on the link, then select "save link as" or "save target as" from the dropdown options.
2. Open eLOI.
3. Position the hand pointer inside a form field and click.
• To accept the field change and go to the next field, press Tab or use your mouse to click on the next form field.
• To accept the field change and go to the previous field, press Shift + Tab or use your mouse to click on the previous form field.
4. Complete the form fields.
5. After completing the form, click “Save” then click “Submit to RDS@uic.edu”.

Letter of Intent (LOI): eLOI Form (Fillable PDF*)

*Please note:

• Fields highlighted in red are required to successfully submit the form.
• Do not print then submit scanned version of e-LOI via email.

Please contact Tony Halford at ahalford@uic.edu or 312-996-7036  with any questions.

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