Despite decades of research, scientists do not fully understand the dynamic nature of pathogen and disease emergence. Emerging (and re-emerging) pathogens represent a continuing risk to national security because they threaten health (animal, human, and ecosystem) and economic stability. Often, society falls short on the coordination and breadth of expertise needed to respond to such threats. Effective responses to emerging pathogens will require sustained, global-scale efforts of researchers and organizations. This can only be accomplished by synergistic integration of innovative scientific and technological advances across disciplines and scales, and effective knowledge transfer into practice. As part of these efforts, NSF is organizing a set of activities around the broad theme of Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP).
The PIPP initiative focuses on foundational research and development activities needed to tackle grand challenges in infectious disease pandemics through prediction and prevention. The PIPP Phase II Centers Program expands upon the Phase I Development Grant Program and is the NSF’s flagship program to establish a network of Centers or large-scale awards/investments that will support interdisciplinary team-based approaches to accelerate research and development activities in emerging infectious diseases and pandemics. The overall goal of the PIPP Phase II Centers program is to support research and development activities needed to transform society’s ability to forecast the likelihood of pandemic-scale events, detect outbreaks early, and respond efficiently.
Continued advancement, enabled by sustained federal investment channeled toward issues of national importance holds the potential for further economic impact and public health improvements.
Limit on number of proposals per organization: 1. An organization may submit no more than one Letter of Intent to this solicitation as lead organization. Duke's nominee will be Charles Nunn.
Deadlines:
Informed by visioning activities in the scientific community as well as a previous round of development grant activities (PIPP Phase I), the program invites proposals for Centers that have a principal focus in one of the following multidisciplinary themes:
Theme 1: Pre-emergence – Predicting and detecting rare events in complex, dynamical systems
Theme 2: Data, AI/ML and Design - Computing, manufacturing and technology innovation for pandemics
Theme 3: The Host as the Universe - Identifying host-pathogen tipping points that dictate control or spread of an infection
Theme 4: Human Systems – The role of human behavior, activities and environments in disease emergence, transmission, and response or mitigation
These components directly support the NSF’s strategic goals by funding cutting edge science aimed at societal challenges and opportunities that face the Nation, while concurrently working to develop a globally competitive and diverse science, engineering and technology-adept workforce.
Proposals may only be submitted by the following:
The Lead PI must be a faculty member or equivalent at the lead organization. A letter of commitment from the Dean or equivalent at the lead organization must be submitted as part of the proposal given the broad focus of the centers.
NOTE: Submission or award of a Development Grant (PIPP Phase I) is not required to participate in the PIPP Phase II Centers Program competition.
Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: 1. An organization may submit no more than one Letter of Intent to this solicitation as lead organization. An organization may submit up to one full proposal that corresponds to a Letter of Intent submitted to this solicitation. A full proposal that does not correspond to a Letter of Intent submitted to the program will be returned without review.
Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: 1. An individual may be designated as PI or co-PI (this doesn't include non PI/co-PI senior personnel) on at most one full proposal to this solicitation. In the event that an individual exceeds this limit at the full proposal submission stage, proposals will be accepted based on earliest date and time of submission, i.e., the first compliant full proposal will be accepted, and the remainder will be returned without review.
Estimated Number of Awards: 4 to 7
In total, 4 (four)-7 (seven) awards in the amount of $15-18M each (total over 7 years) are anticipated over the entire competition, subject to the availability of funds and the outcome of the proposal review process.
Anticipated Funding Amount: $126,500,000
Estimated program budget, number of awards and average award size/duration are subject to the availability of funds.
