The Physical Anthropology Program supports basic research in areas related to human evolution and contemporary human biological variation. Research areas supported by the program include, but are not limited to, human genetic variation, human adaptation, human osteology and bone biology, human and nonhuman primate paleontology, functional anatomy, and primate socioecology. Grants supported in these areas are united by an underlying evolutionary framework, and often a consideration of adaptation as a central theoretical theme.
Many proposals also have a biocultural orientation.
The program frequently serves as a bridge within NSF between the social and behavioral sciences and the natural and physical sciences, and proposals are commonly jointly reviewed and funded with other programs.