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Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB)
Virtual Office Hours
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MCB Virtual Office Hour
Today’s Topic
Funding Opportunity (NSF 21-017):
Planning Conferences on Information Synthesis
in Molecular and Cellular Bioscience
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Dear Colleague Letter: NSF 21-017
Transformation of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Research through Information Synthesis and Integration
• What is Information Synthesis?
• How does NSF support information synthesis?
• What is the purpose of the planning conferences?
• Q&A
Conference funding to plan for a Synthesis CenterBudget: Up to $100,000
Target date: April 1, 2021; reviewed on rolling basis
What is Information Synthesis?
Processing, organizing, analyzing and interpreting
multimodal data, methods, theories and related
information to:
• Build a more integrated knowledge base for
deeper qualitative and quantitative insights;
• Derive meaning that catalyzes new ideas,
applications and research directions;
• Create a collaborative community of researchers
who are better informed and prepared to address
complex problems on a large scale.
How does NSF support information synthesis?— Synthesis Centers
NCEAS: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu
NESCent: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
https://nescent.org
NIMBioS: National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis
http://www.nimbios.org
SESYNC: National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center
https://www.sesync.org
NSF 21-549: Center for Advancement and Synthesis of Open
Environmental Data and Sciences
NCEAS: National Center for Ecological Analysis
and Synthesis• 1995 NSF Award: University of California
Santa Barbara (NSF support: 17 years)
• First NSF synthesis center to harness
existing ecological data by providing
informatics support, promoting
collaborative science and building capacity.
• Goal: To seek fundamental, bigger picture
insights into the natural world by combining
disparate ecological data, from individual
organisms to global ecosystems
(synthesis), through unprecedented large-
scale collaborative efforts (team science).
• Snapshot (1995-2017):
5,000 visitors
200+ Working groups
150+ Postdocs, sabbaticals
• Participant surveys (2008):
74% more collaborative
77% more willing to share data
Synthesis science: NCEAS research
teams pull together datasets from many
sources and use their diverse expertise
to answer large-scale questions.
Team science: NCEAS facilitates
scientific collaborations among
researchers from across disciplines and
the globe through calls for proposals.
Open science: NCEAS teams aim to
make research more transparent and
reproducible, which enhances the
credibility, utility, and accuracy of the
science used to solve global
challenges.
NCEAS: Mission and Approach
Bigger data, more perspectives, faster science
Short, intensive skills courses in data science topics ranging from the programming basics to advanced computing techniques.
Turn big data into big insights that improve our world
We invite researchers to submit proposals for collaborative, synthesis research projects in both basic and applied environmental science. The selected teams meet a few times per year at NCEAS headquarters in Santa Barbara, CA to focus on their projects.
NESCent: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
• 2004 NSF Award: Duke University, The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
and North Carolina State University (NSF
support: 10 years)
• Promote the synthesis of information,
concepts and knowledge to address
significant, emerging, or novel questions in
evolutionary science and its applications.
What is expected of a Synthesis Center?
A cross-disciplinary endeavor to:
• Organize and synthesize distributed data in a scientific field to
increase their scope and applicability, and extract novel
insights.
• Provide the necessary support, including infrastructure, tools,
culture and leadership, to promote information synthesis on a
community-wide scale.
• Create a collaborative environment for cross-fertilization and
generation of innovative ideas and approaches to address
complex challenges.
• Train a diverse cohort of scholars for lasting impact on the
field.
15
Take-home MessagesKey outcomes:
• Value added to data collected in diverse
research projects across a wide range of
disciplines.
• Dedicated time, focus, deep cross-
disciplinary interactions, including with data
scientists, lead to bursts of high creativity,
new ideas and research directions.
• Accelerated development of
cyberinfrastructure and tools tailored to
address high risk/high reward questions
identified by the scientific community.
• Increased collaborative behavior that
spreads beyond participant community.
• Shorter time to actionable science and
policy decisions.
Key ingredients for success:
• Active management of intellectual
space and social dynamics in working
groups by center staff.
• Cutting-edge computing, data
management and informatics support.
• Organizational flexibility to
accommodate scientific and intellectual
needs of working groups.
• Support for students and post-doctoral
scholars.
• Diversity of working group participants.
• Unstructured time and environment
conducive for group associative
thinking.
The vast amount of distributed molecular and cellular data being
generated requires that more scientists use data-driven approaches
and immersive collaborations to
• stimulate novel questions and theories about molecular, sub-cellular
and cellular systems and mechanisms underpinning life;
• develop innovative research and analytical strategies addressing
complex problems;
• test novel organizational models that advance science and
technology;
• tap new talent and train the future workforce
in order to pursue solutions to scientific and societal challenges.
Why a Center for
Molecular and Cellular Information Synthesis?
Project example: How to make sense
of the epigenome?
Problem: Can we achieve a fuller, predictive
understanding of how the epigenome directs the
workings and evolution of living organisms?
Especially given the multi-component composition,
dynamic nature and diversity of epigenomes, and the
complex interplay between genetic, epigenetic and
environmental factors on gene expression and
phenotype?
Information: We are generating reams of genomic,
transcriptomic, proteomic, epigenomic, structural and
imaging data that inform epigenetics, from the
molecular to global scale and at an accelerated pace.
Solution? Epigenomic Diversity in a Global Collection of Arabidopsis thaliana
Accessions Kawakatsu, Huang…Jupe, Weigel, Nordborg, Ecker;
Cell 2016
GoodenDonohueSimonGoogle Earth
Zsido, Hetenyi; IJMS 2020
Contact Program Officers:
Charlie Cunningham [email protected]
Manju Hingorani [email protected]
Arcady Mushegian [email protected]
Marcia Newcomer [email protected]
See NSF 21-017 for funding information on MoCeIS planning conferences
Budget: Up to $100,000
Target date: April 1, 2021; reviewed on rolling basis
Guide: https://www.nsf.gov/bio/mcb/confworkshopguidance.jsp
What is the Purpose of the Planning Conferences?
Outcomes for the community:
• Scientific themes to inspire an impactful synthesis center.
• Identification of the resources, organizational structure and
leadership that would maximize the success of the center.
• Strategies for engaging an inclusive community of diverse, multi-
disciplinary researchers in fulfilling the synthesis center goals.
• Approaches to training future scholars and educators.
Outcomes for NSF:
Community input for developing future funding opportunities.
Submit your questions via the Q&A function.
MCB Virtual Office HourQuestion and Answers Session
*For specific questions about your project,please contact a Program Director.
Click on the Q&A icon on the bottom of your Zoom
screen, shown here:
A Q&A box should appear on your screen.
Please enter your question or comment in the box. You may select to submit your question anonymously.
Next BIO-wide Virtual Office Hour:
Feb 10, 2021, 2-3pm EST
Topic:
Preparing a Great NSF Budget
https://mcbblog.nsfbio.com/office-hours/
MCB Virtual Office Hour
Dear Colleague Letter: NSF 21-017Transformation of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences
Research through Information Synthesis and Integration
Funding is available for planning conferences to build networks of
scientists to formulate ideas for Molecular and Cellular Information
Synthesis on a large scale. Conference programs must address:
(i) Scientific themes appropriate for a center-scale investment;
(ii) Modes of organization and community engagement;
(iii) Resource requirements;
(iv) Broadening participation and inclusion;
(v) Seeding and training future talent.
Conference Funding to plan for a Synthesis Center
NSF seeks to establish a Center fueled by open and freely available biological and other environmental data to
catalyze novel scientific questions in environmental biology through the use of data-intensive approaches, team
science and research networks, and training in the accession, management, analysis, visualization, and synthesis
of large data sets.
The Center will provide vision for speeding discovery through the increased use of large, publicly accessible
datasets to address biological research questions through collaborations with scientists in other related
disciplines.
The Center will be an exemplar in open science and team science, fostering development of generalizable
cyberinfrastructure solutions and community-driven standards for software, data, and metadata that support open
and team science, and role-modeling best practices.