In forming its investment strategy for education and human resource development, NSF's aim is to ensure that all members of society have real opportunity to succeed in science and technology so that the Nation can draw upon the strength and creativity that the diversity in our society has to offer. The Foundation welcomes applications from all qualified science, mathematics, and engineering students and strongly encourages women, minorities, and persons with disabilities to compete fully in this program. For more information, please click here . The goals of this program are to support research on plant genomics, and to accelerate the acquisition and utilization of new knowledge and innovative approaches to elucidate fundamental biological processes in plants. During the past two years, a significant investment has been made for building the plant genome infrastructure in the U.S. To take advantage of new technologies, databases, research tools, and biological resources that are resulting from the earlier awards, this year's competition focuses on functional genomics, the identification of functions of a pathway or a cluster of genes at a genomic scale.
Emphasis is placed on plants of economic importance and plant processes of potential economic value.
For additional information, click here . This program seeks to improve the quality and expand the scope of research and research training in science and engineering, and to foster the integration of research and education by providing instrumentation for research-intensive learning environments. The MRI Program assists in the acquisition or development of major research instrumentation by U.S. institutions that is, in general, too costly for support through other NSF programs. The maintenance and technical support associated with these instruments are also supported. Proposals may be for a single instrument, a large system of instruments, or multiple instruments that share a common or specific research focus.