Title: Assembling the Tree of Life (ATOL)
Date: 11/17/04
Replaced: NSF 04-526




Assembling the Tree of Life (ATOL)

Program Solicitation
NSF 05-523
Replaces Document NSF 04-526

[NSF Logo]   National Science Foundation
             Directorate for Biological Sciences
             Directorate for Geosciences
             Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
             Directorate for Computer and Information Science and
             Engineering



Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitter's local time):

     March 28, 2005

     March 27, 2006

REVISIONS AND UPDATES

Revisions to NSF 04-526 include a change in deadline dates for 2005 and
2006, updated contact information, updated URLs, and anticipated budgetary
increases for fiscal years 2005 and 2006.

SUMMARY OF PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

General Information

Program Title:

     Assembling the Tree of Life (ATOL)
     To construct a phylogeny for the 1.7 million described species of
     life.

Synopsis of Program:

     A flood of new information, from whole-genome sequences to
     detailed structural information to inventories of earth's biota,
     is transforming 21st century biology. Along with comparative data
     on morphology, fossils, development, behavior, and interactions
     of all forms of life on earth, these new data streams make even
     more critical the need for an organizing framework for
     information retrieval, analysis, and prediction. Phylogeny, the
     genealogical map for all lineages of life on earth, provides an
     overall framework to facilitate information retrieval and
     biological prediction. Currently, single investigators or small
     teams of researchers are studying the evolutionary pathways of
     heredity usually concentrating on phylogenetic groups of modest
     size. Assembly of a framework phylogeny, or Tree of Life, for all
     1.7 million described species requires a greatly magnified effort
     by large teams working across institutions and disciplines. This
     is the overall goal of the Assembling the Tree of Life activity.
     The National Science Foundation announces its intention to
     continue support of multidisciplinary teams to conduct creative
     and innovative research that will resolve phylogenetic
     relationships for large groups of organisms on the Tree of Life.
     Teams of investigators also will be supported for projects in
     data acquisition, analysis, algorithm development and
     dissemination in computational phylogenetics and
     phyloinformatics.

Cognizant Program Officer(s):

   * AToL Working Group, telephone: (703) 292-8480, email: BIO-atol@nsf.gov

Applicable Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s):

   * 47.074 --- Biological Sciences
   * 47.070 --- Computer and Information Science and Engineering
   * 47.050 --- Geosciences
   * 47.075 --- Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences

Eligibility Information

   * Organization Limit: None Specified.
   * PI Eligibility Limit: None Specified.
   * Limit on Number of Proposals: None Specified.

Award Information

   * Anticipated Type of Award: Standard or Continuing Grant
   * Estimated Number of Awards: 3 to 6 - awards anticipated in Fiscal
     Years 2005 and again in 2006
   * Anticipated Funding Amount: $29,000,000 is anticipated ($14,000,000 in
     FY 2005 and $15,000,000 in FY 2006), pending the availability of
     funds. Each award, whether single-institution or collaborative
     project, may range up to $3M total, for durations up to five years.

Proposal Preparation and Submission Instructions

A. Proposal Preparation Instructions

   * Full Proposal Preparation Instructions: This solicitation contains
     information that supplements the standard Grant Proposal Guide (GPG)
     proposal preparation guidelines. Please see the full text of this
     solicitation for further information.

B. Budgetary Information

   * Cost Sharing Requirements: Cost Sharing is not required by NSF.
   * Indirect Cost (F&A) Limitations: Not Applicable.
   * Other Budgetary Limitations: Not Applicable.

C. Due Dates

   * Full Proposal Deadline Date(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitter's local time):
          March 28, 2005
          March 27, 2006

Proposal Review Information

   * Merit Review Criteria: National Science Board approved criteria.
     Additional merit review considerations apply. Please see the full text
     of this solicitation for further information.

Award Administration Information

   * Award Conditions: Additional award conditions apply. Please see the
     full text of this solicitation for further information.
   * Reporting Requirements: Additional reporting requirements apply.
     Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

     Summary of Program Requirements

  I. Introduction

 II. Program Description

III. Eligibility Information

 IV. Award Information

  V. Proposal Preparation and Submission Instructions
       A. Proposal Preparation Instructions
       B. Budgetary Information
       C. Due Dates
       D. FastLane Requirements

 VI. Proposal Review Information
       A. NSF Proposal Review Process
       B. Review Protocol and Associated Customer Service Standard

VII. Award Administration Information
       A. Notification of the Award
       B. Award Conditions
       C. Reporting Requirements

VIII.Contacts for Additional Information

 IX. Other Programs of Interest

I. INTRODUCTION

Darwin's vision of the "great Tree of Life ... with its everbranching and
beautiful ramifications" has challenged scientists and others for
generations. Darwin's use of tree imagery inspired efforts to classify all
the major groups of organisms, and to reveal the pattern of historical
relationships that would explain the similarities and differences among
them. Phylogenetic knowledge, by virtue of its explanatory power, has
proven useful in many fields, such as choosing experimental systems for
biological research, tracking the origin and spread of emerging diseases
and their vectors, bioprospecting for pharmaceutical and agrochemical
products, preserving germplasm, targeting biological control of invasive
species, and evaluating risk factors for species conservation and ecosystem
restoration. Currently, the large-scale features of life's genealogy have
been captured in the three-domain model of Archaea, Bacteria, and
Eukaryota, but many branches of the overall Tree of Life remain unanalyzed
and unresolved. Patterns of phylogeny within the domains and within most
phyla, possible web-like connections among lineages, and the tempo and mode
of evolutionary change remain unknown for most species on earth.

Despite the enormity of the task, with 1.7 million described species and
the likelihood of vastly more yet to be discovered, now is the time to
reconstruct the tree of life: the conceptual, computational and
technological tools are available to resolve most, if not all major
branches of the tree of life. At the same time, progress in
many disciplines from genomics to evolution and development is currently
hampered by the lack of a rigorous phylogenetic framework to guide
research. Researchers in biological and computational fields have
recognized both the need and the potential for success and have called for
a national and international effort to Assemble the Tree of Life. Recent
workshops supported by the NSF identify strategies for achieving the Tree
of Life goals over the next 10-15 years.  There are three general goals:

  1. Creation and support of multidisciplinary teams of investigators to
     scale up the numbers of taxa and data sets beyond current practice.
     These teams of investigators will emphasize acquisition and
     integration of molecular, morphological, and physiological evidence
     on extant and extinct organisms in order to resolve phylogenetic
     relationships of large branches of the Tree of Life;

  2. Research and development of tools for computational phylogenetics and
     phyloinformatics. These projects might include the archiving and
     managing of phylogenetic data, matrices, trees and networks;
     collaborative work environments for large scale systematics; software
     development to improve construction, visualization and navigation of
     the Tree of Life; assessment of empirical support and uncertainty in
     trees and networks; and exploration of the predictive capabilities of
     hierarchical structure in the Tree of Life; and

  3. Outreach and education in comparative phylogenetic biology and
     paleontology, emphasizing new training activities, informal science
     education, and Internet resources and dissemination.

For examples of successful proposals for meeting these goals, the awards
for the Assembling the Tree of Life program can be accessed at
http://www.nsf.gov/bio/award.htm.

II. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Projects for Assembling the Tree of Life are expected to be ambitious,
large scale, and to involve multiple investigators from multiple
disciplines, likely from multiple organizations, and to include training,
outreach, and dissemination components. Tree of Life projects that are
taxon-oriented will focus on phylogenetic resolution of large lineages or
clades; this taxon focus is not intended to deflect interest in and
attention to theoretical or analytical issues, particularly when the clade
under study raises critical questions about the suitability or power of
current phylogenetic methods of analysis. Tree of Life projects may also be
method or theory-oriented, in which case they will address major analytical
or computational problems in phylogenetic research and phyloinformatics.
The taxon-focus and method-focus approaches described here are intended for
guidance only, and not as constraints on innovative projects for Assembling
the Tree of Life.

Tree of Life projects that are taxon-oriented should address the following
issues:

   * the taxonomic scope of research, with justification for the proposed
     large-scale approach beyond the scope of current single-investigator
     or small-team projects, as well as summaries of current classification
     (including identification of specialists in the taxa) and current
     phylogenetic knowledge of the group and closest relatives, fossil
     record and its concordance with patterns of evolutionary divergence,
     major collections or stocks or cultures and their availability for the
     study, and Internet resources relevant to these organisms;
   * comprehensive plans for sampling and data collection, including choice
     of taxa and samples, types of data (genomic, morphological, other
     phenotypic data), retrospective data capture, procedures for
     acquisition and quality control for new data especially automatic or
     high-throughput data, curation and vouchering of specimens and
     cultures (and extracts, images, etc.), and databasing of observations
     and associated specimens and cultures with appropriate annotation and
     Internet access; and
   * description and justification of data analyses, with specific plans
     for dissemination of results, and including attention to tree-search
     criteria, data combinability and congruence, strategies for handling
     large data sets and for concatenating trees (if necessary), evaluation
     of tree robustness and of alternative topologies or networks, and
     archiving of datasets (specimens, characters, nomenclature, trees,
     character-by-taxon matrices), along with description of computer and
     software resources and expertise available to the project.  Knowledge
     of, contribution to, and explicit coordination with appropriate major
     global database and portal efforts to disseminate taxonomic data are
     expected.

Tree of Life projects that are method or theory-oriented should address the
following issues:

   * description and justification of research in computational
     phylogenetics and phyloinformatics, on problems such as data
     acquisition and management, alignment and analysis of gene order,
     combinability of data whether genomic or morphological or both,
     tree-search or network strategies with very large datasets, measures
     of robustness and support, methods for linking or concatenating trees
     ("supertrees"), evaluating molecular clock estimates, integrating
     fossil evidence, and assessing empirical support and alternative
     topologies; hardware and software resources required for the project
     should be described, with plans for dissemination of products
     developed from the project;
   * description and plans for archiving and managing data, trees,
     networks and associated character matrices and analytical methods from
     completed or ongoing phylogenetic projects, including development of
     efficient Internet tools for data submission from researchers in the
     community or other sponsors of phylogenetic research results; current
     NSF awardees conducting phylogenetic research are identifiable from
     the FastLane award abstracts posted on the NSF website
     (http://fastlane.nsf.gov/);
   * development of software for phylogenetic reconstruction, navigation,
     visualization, and query throughout the hierarchy of the Tree of Life
     and for data mining of associated character-by-taxon matrices
     developed as part of the project or available in other biological
     databases; and
   * development of databases of taxonomic or clade-based names, including
     names at upper ranks of the formal hierarchies, with associated
     taxonomic synonyms and vernacular equivalents in the major
     international languages, to facilitate sophisticated query and data
     mining functions; this activity should be closely coordinated with
     global efforts in this area and should include the use of globally
     recognized data standards, with appropriate metadata, and service, or
     update to, at least one major electronic database or portal.  Broad
     coordination with multiple providers is strongly encouraged.

Regardless of approach taken, whether taxon-oriented or method-oriented, a
mix or otherwise, all proposals for Assembling the Tree of Life should
address the following issues including submission of a Management Plan:

   * training and outreach activities, including field, laboratory, and
     museum experience for trainees, as well as communication among team
     members and expansion of the group if justified, integration with
     colleagues not formally part of the group whether national or
     international, and efforts to disseminate results to the public as
     well as to scientific communities. Hosting of workshops and other
     service activities are encouraged, to disseminate best-practices
     resulting from the project, new software, and other products.
     Activities designed to encourage participation of investigators at
     small institutions, minority serving institutions, community colleges,
     and secondary school teachers are encouraged; and
   * a Management Plan should identify personnel responsible for all major
     tasks with time-scheduling across all members of the team for the
     duration of the project, with annual milestones for judging
     productivity and progress; describe curatorial, computational,
     sequencing, and informatic facilities and resources; describe the
     database schema, if databases are being created as part of the
     project, including database design and metadata standards, interface
     for Internet query, and plans for maintenance beyond the duration of
     the grant, with identification of personnel charged with technical
     design and implementation; and describe plans for coordination with
     foreign-based projects on the same or related organisms. The
     Management Plan may be up to 5 pages in length and is in addition to
     the 15-page Project Description, and should be submitted in the
     Supplementary Documentation section of FastLane.

III. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

The categories of proposers identified in the Grant Proposal Guide are
eligible to submit proposals under this program announcement/solicitation.

IV. AWARD INFORMATION

Estimated program budget, number of awards and average award size/duration
are subject to the availability of funds. Three to six awards are
anticipated both in FY 2005 and FY 2006, made as standard or continuing
grants, from the anticipated $14M in FY 2005 and $15M in FY 2006 available
to the program. Each award, whether single-institution or collaborative
project, may range up to $3M total, for durations up to five years.

V. PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

A. Proposal Preparation Instructions

Full Proposal Instructions:

Proposals submitted in response to this program announcement/solicitation
should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the general guidelines
contained in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG). The complete text of the
GPG is available electronically on the NSF Website at:
http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg. Paper copies of
the GPG may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone
(703) 292-7827 or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov.

The following instructions supplement GPG guidelines.

Results from Prior NSF Support:
Be aware that if any PI or co-PI on the project has received NSF funding in
the past five years, information on the prior award(s) is required. Each PI
and co-PI who has received more than one prior award (excluding amendments)
must report on the award most closely related to the proposal. The
information required is described in the GPG. Reviewers will be asked to
comment on the quality of the prior work described in this section of the
proposal. Please note that the proposal may devote up to five pages to
describe the results, within the maximum 15 pages of Project Description.
Results may be summarized in fewer than five pages, which would leave the
balance of the 15 pages for the Project Description.

Management Plan for Assembling the Tree of Life:
A Management Plan, up to 5 pages maximum, as described in the Program
Description, should be included in the Supplementary Documentation section
of the FastLane proposal. This section, therefore, is in addition to the 15
pages of Project Description in the proposal, and should be coordinated
with the research and education activities therein described.

Coordination among Projects for Assembling the Tree of Life:
If phylogenetic research on the chosen group of organisms is already funded
by another NSF award (check the NSF FastLane website for award listings),
the PI will be asked to provide a plan for coordinating activities with the
funded project. If two or more proposals with substantially overlapping
goals and scope remain in consideration for funding after initial merit
review, the PIs of those proposals may be asked to collaborate, and to
submit a coordination plan prior to the final funding decision.

International Opportunity:
The Tree of Life activity encourages laboratory-to-laboratory interactions
between U.S. and foreign organizations to address Tree of Life goals. NSF
funds may be requested to support foreign investigators and students to
work in U.S. laboratories, and for U.S. investigators and students to work
in international laboratories. However, foreign counterparts should secure
support for their projects from their own national programs.

A "Conflicts of Interest" Document:
A "Conflicts of Interest" document must be included in the "Additional
Single Copy Documents" section of the FastLane proposal. Include a table,
in the format shown below, that lists the names of persons with conflicts
of interest for all senior personnel (PI and co-PIs) and any named
personnel whose salary is requested in the project budgets. Conflicts to be
identified are: (1) Ph.D. thesis advisor or advisee; (2) postdoctoral
adviser or advisee for the previous 48 months; (3) collaborators or
co-authors for the past 48 months; and (4) any other individual or
organization with which the investigator has financial ties (please
specify). Organize the information as shown in the sample table here; list
full names in each column in alphabetical order.

Last Name  First Name Institution      Conflict Type
Apple      Alison A.  Reed College     Ph.D. advisor for (Name)
Barley     Barry B.   Brown Institute  Collaborator for (Name)
Raspberry  Rudy R.    White University Financial ties with co-PI2 (Name)

Proposers are reminded to identify the program announcement/solicitation
number (05-523) in the program announcement/solicitation block on the
proposal Cover Sheet. Compliance with this requirement is critical to
determining the relevant proposal processing guidelines. Failure to submit
this information may delay processing.

B. Budgetary Information

Cost Sharing:

Cost sharing is not required by NSF in proposals submitted under this
Program Solicitation.

C. Due Dates

Proposals must be submitted by the following date(s):

Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitter's local time):

     March 28, 2005

     March 27, 2006

D. FastLane Requirements

Proposers are required to prepare and submit all proposals for this
announcement/solicitation through the FastLane system. Detailed
instructions for proposal preparation and submission via FastLane are
available at: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/a1/newstan.htm. For FastLane
user support, call the FastLane Help Desk at 1-800-673-6188 or e-mail
fastlane@nsf.gov. The FastLane Help Desk answers general technical
questions related to the use of the FastLane system. Specific questions
related to this program announcement/solicitation should be referred to the
NSF program staff contact(s) listed in Section VIII of this
announcement/solicitation.

Submission of Electronically Signed Cover Sheets. The Authorized
Organizational Representative (AOR) must electronically sign the proposal
Cover Sheet to submit the required proposal certifications (see Chapter II,
Section C of the Grant Proposal Guide for a listing of the certifications).
The AOR must provide the required electronic certifications within five
working days following the electronic submission of the proposal. Proposers
are no longer required to provide a paper copy of the signed Proposal Cover
Sheet to NSF. Further instructions regarding this process are available on
the FastLane Website at: http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov

VI. PROPOSAL REVIEW INFORMATION

A. NSF Proposal Review Process

Reviews of proposals submitted to NSF are solicited from peers with
expertise in the substantive area of the proposed research or education
project. These reviewers are selected by Program Officers charged with the
oversight of the review process. NSF invites the proposer to suggest, at
the time of submission, the names of appropriate or inappropriate
reviewers. Care is taken to ensure that reviewers have no conflicts with
the proposer. Special efforts are made to recruit reviewers from
non-academic institutions, minority-serving institutions, or adjacent
disciplines to that principally addressed in the proposal.

The National Science Board approved revised criteria for evaluating
proposals at its meeting on March 28, 1997 (NSB 97-72). All NSF proposals
are evaluated through use of the two merit review criteria. In some
instances, however, NSF will employ additional criteria as required to
highlight the specific objectives of certain programs and activities.

On July 8, 2002, the NSF Director issued Important Notice 127,
Implementation of new Grant Proposal Guide Requirements Related to the
Broader Impacts Criterion. This Important Notice reinforces the importance
of addressing both criteria in the preparation and review of all proposals
submitted to NSF. NSF continues to strengthen its internal processes to
ensure that both of the merit review criteria are addressed when making
funding decisions.

In an effort to increase compliance with these requirements, the January
2002 issuance of the GPG incorporated revised proposal preparation
guidelines relating to the development of the Project Summary and Project
Description. Chapter II of the GPG specifies that Principal Investigators
(PIs) must address both merit review criteria in separate statements within
the one-page Project Summary. This chapter also reiterates that broader
impacts resulting from the proposed project must be addressed in the
Project Description and described as an integral part of the narrative.

Effective October 1, 2002, NSF will return without review proposals that do
not separately address both merit review criteria within the Project
Summary. It is believed that these changes to NSF proposal preparation and
processing guidelines will more clearly articulate the importance of
broader impacts to NSF-funded projects.

The two National Science Board approved merit review criteria are listed
below (see the Grant Proposal Guide Chapter III.A for further information).
The criteria include considerations that help define them. These
considerations are suggestions and not all will apply to any given
proposal. While proposers must address both merit review criteria,
reviewers will be asked to address only those considerations that are
relevant to the proposal being considered and for which he/she is qualified
to make judgments.

     What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?
     How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and
     understanding within its own field or across different fields? How
     well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to conduct the
     project? (If appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the quality of
     the prior work.) To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and
     explore creative and original concepts? How well conceived and
     organized is the proposed activity? Is there sufficient access to
     resources?

     What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?
     How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while
     promoting teaching, training, and learning? How well does the proposed
     activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g.,
     gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)? To what extent will
     it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as
     facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships? Will the
     results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and
     technological understanding? What may be the benefits of the proposed
     activity to society?

NSF staff will give careful consideration to the following in making
funding decisions:

     Integration of Research and Education
     One of the principal strategies in support of NSF's goals is to foster
     integration of research and education through the programs, projects,
     and activities it supports at academic and research institutions.
     These institutions provide abundant opportunities where individuals
     may concurrently assume responsibilities as researchers, educators,
     and students and where all can engage in joint efforts that infuse
     education with the excitement of discovery and enrich research through
     the diversity of learning perspectives.

     Integrating Diversity into NSF Programs, Projects, and Activities
     Broadening opportunities and enabling the participation of all
     citizens -- women and men, underrepresented minorities, and persons
     with disabilities -- is essential to the health and vitality of
     science and engineering. NSF is committed to this principle of
     diversity and deems it central to the programs, projects, and
     activities it considers and supports.

     Additional Review Criteria:

     Reviewers will look for sound and imaginative responses to the
     Program Solicitation and will judge the degree to which proposed
     activities meet the overall goals for Assembling the Tree of Life.
     Reviewers will also pay close attention to the Management Plan, and
     they will take note of efforts to engage current taxonomic specialists
     in the phylogenetic research proposed for the organisms under study.

B. Review Protocol and Associated Customer Service Standard

All proposals are carefully reviewed by at least three other persons
outside NSF who are experts in the particular field represented by the
proposal. Proposals submitted in response to this announcement/solicitation
will be reviewed by Ad Hoc Review followed by Panel Review.

Reviewers will be asked to formulate a recommendation to either support or
decline each proposal. The Program Officer assigned to manage the
proposal's review will consider the advice of reviewers and will formulate
a recommendation.

A summary rating and accompanying narrative will be completed and submitted
by each reviewer. In all cases, reviews are treated as confidential
documents. Verbatim copies of reviews, excluding the names of the
reviewers, are sent to the Principal Investigator/Project Director by the
Program Director. In addition, the proposer will receive an explanation of
the decision to award or decline funding.

NSF is striving to be able to tell proposers whether their proposals have
been declined or recommended for funding within six months. The time
interval begins on the closing date of an announcement/solicitation, or the
date of proposal receipt, whichever is later. The interval ends when the
Division Director accepts the Program Officer's recommendation.

In all cases, after programmatic approval has been obtained, the proposals
recommended for funding will be forwarded to the Division of Grants and
Agreements for review of business, financial, and policy implications and
the processing and issuance of a grant or other agreement. Proposers are
cautioned that only a Grants and Agreements Officer may make commitments,
obligations or awards on behalf of NSF or authorize the expenditure of
funds. No commitment on the part of NSF should be inferred from technical
or budgetary discussions with a NSF Program Officer. A Principal
Investigator or organization that makes financial or personnel commitments
in the absence of a grant or cooperative agreement signed by the NSF Grants
and Agreements Officer does so at their own risk.

VII. AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

A. Notification of the Award

Notification of the award is made to the submitting organization by a
Grants Officer in the Division of Grants and Agreements. Organizations
whose proposals are declined will be advised as promptly as possible by the
cognizant NSF Program Division administering the program. Verbatim copies
of reviews, not including the identity of the reviewer, will be provided
automatically to the Principal Investigator. (See section VI.A. for
additional information on the review process.)

B. Award Conditions

An NSF award consists of: (1) the award letter, which includes any special
provisions applicable to the award and any numbered amendments thereto; (2)
the budget, which indicates the amounts, by categories of expense, on which
NSF has based its support (or otherwise communicates any specific approvals
or disapprovals of proposed expenditures); (3) the proposal referenced in
the award letter; (4) the applicable award conditions, such as Grant
General Conditions (NSF-GC-1); * or Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP)
Terms and Conditions * and (5) any announcement or other NSF issuance that
may be incorporated by reference in the award letter. Cooperative agreement
awards are administered in accordance with NSF Cooperative Agreement
Financial and Administrative Terms and Conditions (CA-FATC). Electronic
mail notification is the preferred way to transmit NSF awards to
organizations that have electronic mail capabilities and have requested
such notification from the Division of Grants and Agreements.

*These documents may be accessed electronically on NSF's Website at
http://www.nsf.gov/awards/managing/. Paper copies of these documents may be
obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-7827
or by e-mail from pubs@nsf.gov.

More comprehensive information on NSF Award Conditions is contained in the
NSF Grant Policy Manual (GPM) Chapter II, available electronically on the
NSF Website at http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpm.
The GPM is also for sale through the Superintendent of Documents,
Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402. The telephone
number at GPO for subscription information is (202) 512-1800. The GPM may
be ordered through the GPO Website at http://www.gpo.gov.

Special Award Conditions:

For awards that include specimen collection activities, the awardee shall
ensure that award activities carried on both inside and outside the U.S.
and its territories and possessions are coordinated, as necessary, with
appropriate Government authorities, and that appropriate licenses, permits,
or approvals are obtained prior to undertaking proposed activities. NSF
does not assume responsibility for awardee compliance with the laws and
regulations of the country in which the work is to be conducted.

C. Reporting Requirements

For all multi-year grants (including both standard and continuing grants),
the PI must submit an annual project report to the cognizant Program
Officer at least 90 days before the end of the current budget period.

The Principal Investigator shall provide a summary in the "Special
Requirements" section of each annual and final project report, of all
permits, licenses, or other necessary approvals associated with specimen
collection. The information should include the names of all
permits/licenses/necessary approvals, the granting authority, date
acquired, duration, and the purpose of the permit/license/approval.

Within 90 days after the expiration of an award, the PI also is required to
submit a final project report. Failure to provide final technical reports
delays NSF review and processing of pending proposals for the PI and all
Co-PIs. PIs should examine the formats of the required reports in advance
to assure availability of required data.

PIs are required to use NSF's electronic project reporting system,
available through FastLane, for preparation and submission of annual and
final project reports. This system permits electronic submission and
updating of project reports, including information on project participants
(individual and organizational), activities and findings, publications, and
other specific products and contributions. PIs will not be required to
re-enter information previously provided, either with a proposal or in
earlier updates using the electronic system.

VIII. CONTACTS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

General inquiries regarding this program should be made to:

   * AToL Working Group, telephone: (703) 292-8480, email: BIO-atol@nsf.gov

For questions related to the use of FastLane, contact:

   * BIO FastLane Experts, email: biofl@nsf.gov

IX. OTHER PROGRAMS OF INTEREST

The NSF Guide to Programs is a compilation of funding for research and
education in science, mathematics, and engineering. The NSF Guide to
Programs is available electronically at
http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?gp. General descriptions of NSF programs,
research areas, and eligibility information for proposal submission are
provided in each chapter.

Many NSF programs offer announcements or solicitations concerning specific
proposal requirements. To obtain additional information about these
requirements, contact the appropriate NSF program offices. Any changes in
NSF's fiscal year programs occurring after press time for the Guide to
Programs will be announced in the NSF E-Bulletin, which is updated daily on
the NSF Website at http://www.nsf.gov/home/ebulletin, and in individual
program announcements/solicitations. Subscribers can also sign up for NSF's
MyNSF News Service (http://www.nsf.gov/mynsf/) to be notified of new
funding opportunities that become available.

Related Programs:

The Systematic Biology Program within the Systematic Biology and
Biodiversity Inventories Cluster in the Division of Environmental Biology
continues to support high-quality phylogenetic research, as well as
development of tools and methods in computational phylogenetics and
phyloinformatics, as part of a broad portfolio of research. The
multi-investigator, multi-disciplinary approach for Assembling the Tree of
Life is intended to achieve economies of scale beyond the reach of
individual investigators or small teams supported by regular Systematic
Biology grants, and to compress the time frame for constructing a universal
Tree of Life for all organisms.

Other programs and special competitions potentially relevant to research in
phylogenetics include the following.

Biodiversity Surveys and Inventories Program, within the Systematic Biology
and Biodiversity Inventories Cluster, supports collecting, identifying,
vouchering, and describing the species-level diversity of all forms of life
on Earth, from microbes to mammals, including expeditionary work to
document biotic diversity in poorly known terrestrial, freshwater, and
marine environments. Supported surveys may be primarily area-based
(focusing on species inventory and new species discovery, plus in some
cases ecological, biogeographic, and/or evolutionary hypothesis testing),
primarily clade-based (continental-scale to global species inventory and
discovery within a particular taxonomic group), or primarily guild-based
(surveys that couple species inventory and discovery with macroecological,
historical biogeographic, and/or macroevolutionary hypothesis testing).

Revisionary Syntheses in Systematics (REVSYS), in the Systematic Biology
and Biodiversity Inventories Cluster. Seeks to revitalize revisionary and
monographic research on species so that it fully utilizes modern
information technology at all stages of the taxonomic enterprise from data
capture and analysis to electronic dissemination of results. Proposals are
submitted for regular target dates in the Division of Environmental
Biology.

Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy (PEET), in the Division of
Environmental Biology. Biennial special competition to address three
biodiversity-related goals: monographic research on poorly known groups of
organisms; training of at least two new taxonomic experts; and web-based
bioinformatics for taxonomic resources. The deadline in March of
odd-numbered years precedes panel review in late spring.

Biological Research Collections (BRC), in the Division of Biological
Infrastructure. Provides support for biological collections enhancement,
computerization of specimen-related data, research to develop better
methods for specimen curation and collection management, and activities
such as symposia and workshops to investigate support and management of
biological collections.

Biological Databases and Informatics, in the Division of Biological
Infrastructure. The program supports research and development on new
approaches to the management of biological knowledge that render the
collection, maintenance, dissemination, and query of the data and
information therein of greater utility to the scientific community.

Human Origins (HOMINID) Moving in New Directions (NSF 01-120), managed in
the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences. The competition supports
large scale, long term integrative research and infrastructure projects
directed towards the complex interrelationships that led to the development
of our species and that are responsible for the shared and variable
features characterizing human populations. One goal of the competition is
to develop a portfolio of awards that reflect the multiple approaches to
understanding human origins.

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NSF welcomes proposals from all qualified scientists, engineers and
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