Welcome to the MCB Virtual Office Hours, we will begin at 2pm EST!

Please submit questions by selecting the Q&A function

available to you on Zoom.

Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB)

Virtual Office Hours

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.

Submit your questions via the chat/message box on your screen !

How to Find MCB Funding Opportunities

https://mcbblog.nsfbio.com/funding-opportunities-2/

MCB Virtual Office Hour

Today’s Topic

Funding Opportunity (NSF 21-017):

Planning Conferences on Information Synthesis

in Molecular and Cellular Bioscience

Submit your questions via the chat/message box on your screen !

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.

Publications on NSF/BIO Synthesis Centers

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 chacunni@nsf.gov

Manju Hingorani mhingora@nsf.gov

Arcady Mushegian amushegi@nsf.gov

Marcia Newcomer mnewcome@nsf.gov

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.