On March 7, 2014, the NSF's Divisions of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) and Biological Infrastructure (DBI) issued a Dear Colleague Letter inviting proposals for Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) with the potential to transform our ability to analyze brain function underlying behavioral and cognitive processes. The neuroscience research community and specialists in other areas including, but not limited to genetics, physiology, synthetic biology, engineering, physics, mathematics, statistics, behavior and cognition are encouraged to work across disciplines to develop highly innovative, potentially groundbreaking approaches and neurotechnology focused on understanding the properties of circuits that underlie behavior and/or cognition in any organism. 

Interested PIs should email a two-page summary of their research ideas to BIO-BRAIN@nsf.gov by close of business, May 1, 2014. EAGER requests may typically be for up to $300,000 and of up to two years duration. Potential or active collaborations with investigators in Israeli institutions should be identified as they may be eligible for separate support from the US Israeli Binational Science Foundation. The two-page summaries will be reviewed internally and those ideas that best meet the goals of the Dear Colleague Letter will be invited to submit full EAGER proposals. Invited full EAGER proposals must be submitted via Fastlane or Grants.gov following the NSF's Grant Proposal Guide instructions and should clearly indicate the reason that the work would be appropriate for EAGER support. It is anticipated that all EAGER awards will be made in FY 2014.

The Dear Colleague Letter can be read in its entirety here.

Contact Jennifer Corby at jcorby@fas.harvard.edu in FAS Research Development with your questions or feedback.