The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) program is seeking proposals for funding in FY2015, supporting research on principles and processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases.
This EEID call for papers is a continuation of the previous joint National Science Foundation/National Institutes of Health/United States Department of Agriculture (NSF/NIH/USDA) Ecology of Infectious Disease competition.
The central theme of submitted projects must be quantitative or computational understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics. The intent is discovery of principles of infectious disease transmission and testing mathematical or computational models that elucidate infectious disease systems.
Because of the complexity of studies on the ecology and evolutionary ecology of infectious diseases, multidisciplinary teams of domestic and international collaborators with expertise from diverse disciplines are likely to be most effective. Investigators are encouraged to develop collaborations with public health research communities where appropriate.
The potential benefits of an interdisciplinary research program in this area include:
- Development of disease transmission theory
- Improved understanding of how diseases (re)emerge
- Improved understanding of host population and ecosystem effects on disease transmission
- Increased capacity to forecast outbreaks
- Improved understanding of unintended health effects of development projects affecting terrestrial and freshwater systems
- Enhanced safety of food supplies
- Improved strategies to control or prevent infectious diseases and enhance biosecurity
Research may be on zoonotic, environmentally-borne, vector-borne, or enteric diseases of both terrestrial or freshwater systems and organisms, including diseases of animals and plants, at any scale from specific pathogens to inclusive environmental systems. Proposals for research on disease systems of public health concern to developing countries are strongly encouraged, as are disease systems of concern in agricultural systems.
NSF Intends to award 9 grants totaling $12M in FY 2015, pending the availability of funds. That amount includes approximately $3.7M from NSF for new standard or continuing awards, approximately $5M from NIH for new or continuing awards, and $3.3M from USDA for new awards. The expected funding from the BBSRC for the UK component of the US-UK Collaborative Projects will be a maximum of £500,000. The expected funding from the BSF for the Israeli component of the US-Israel Collaborative Projects will be a maximum of $300,000.
Further details are available under Solicitation Number: NSF 14-592. Proposals are due by November 19, 2014.