NSF Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC): Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline

This program seeks to enhance and expand the national resource of digital data documenting existing vouchered biological and paleontological collections and to advance scientific knowledge by improving access to digitized information residing in vouchered scientific collections across the United States. The information associated with various collections of organisms, such as geographic, paleogeographic and stratigraphic distribution, environmental habitat data, phenology, information about associated organisms, collector field notes, and tissues and molecular data extracted from the specimens, is a rich resource providing the baseline from which to further biodiversity research and provide critical information about existing gaps in our knowledge of life on earth.

This solicitation focuses on proposals for Thematic Collections Networks (TCN) and proposals for Partners to Existing Networks (PEN) to link with existing TCNs. For both TCN and PEN proposals, priority will be given to innovative projects that fill gaps in the effort to provide online access to specimen data for existing biological and paleobiological collections; integrate with other ongoing digitization activities; and increase the efficiency and lower the cost of digitization. TCN proposals will digitize existing specimens based on a particular research theme. This research theme may be a grand challenge for biodiversity, a part of a grand challenge, or another important research theme requiring information from existing collections. The collaborating institutions will conduct the actual digitization of the specimens (including imaging and mobilization of the data). Additional information about the NSF ADBC opportunity is available here.

Harvard University, as a single institution, is limited to submitting one proposal as the lead organization to the Thematic Collections Networks (TCN) Track. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research will administer the internal competition to select the Harvard nominee. To be considered for the Harvard nomination, potential applicants must submit an internal pre-proposal via the link above.