Opportunities for Promoting Understanding through Synthesis | 19 584

Opportunity Information: Apply for 19 584

The National Science Foundation (NSF) grant opportunity titled Opportunities for Promoting Understanding through Synthesis (OPUS) supports investigators in the Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) who want to generate new scientific understanding by stepping back from ongoing or past work and producing a deeper, integrated synthesis. Rather than funding a typical project aimed primarily at collecting new data, OPUS is designed to help researchers connect ideas, results, and approaches in ways that reveal new insights about environmental biology systems and the questions that drive the field. The program is positioned as a way to strengthen scientific productivity and advance understanding through focused synthesis activities.

OPUS is organized into two tracks. The first is OPUS Mid-Career Synthesis, which is specifically aimed at mid-career scientists, defined here as investigators at the associate professor rank (or an equivalent level in other settings). This track emphasizes professional development through synthesis: it is meant to help mid-career researchers gain new capabilities that increase their long-term productivity, improve retention in the research workforce, and support a diverse community of scientists staying actively engaged in research over time. A key feature of this track is collaboration with a mentor. The mentoring relationship is framed as a practical mechanism for building new skills or perspectives that allow the investigator to synthesize their ongoing research program into a sharper or more comprehensive understanding of their study system and core research questions.

The second track is OPUS Core Research Synthesis. This option supports either an individual investigator or a group of investigators who want to revisit and synthesize a substantial body of prior work. The goal is to integrate findings across studies or years of effort to produce new understanding of the underlying system and the questions being studied. While it can serve later-career researchers who have accumulated an extensive research record, the announcement also notes that this track may be appropriate earlier in a career if the investigator is at a point where synthesis can produce a distinctive, integrated contribution that benefits the broader scientific community and helps shape the next stage of the investigator's research direction.

Across both tracks, OPUS is aligned with the scientific scope of NSF's Division of Environmental Biology and explicitly encourages proposals relevant to any of DEB's four clusters: Ecosystem Science, Evolutionary Processes, Population and Community Ecology, and Systematics and Biodiversity Science. In practice, this means proposals can cover a wide range of environmental biology topics, as long as the central purpose is synthesis that leads to expanded understanding and new insights, rather than simply extending prior work in a routine way.

From the opportunity details provided, the funding instrument is a discretionary grant from NSF, categorized under science and technology and other research and development, with CFDA number 47.074. The opportunity number is 19-584. The original posting date was May 31, 2019, with an original closing date of August 28, 2019, and NSF anticipated making about 15 awards. The listed award ceiling is shown as 0 in the source data, which typically indicates that the ceiling is not specified in that field rather than implying that no funds are available. Eligibility is marked as "Others," with the note that applicants should consult the specific eligibility clarification in the full announcement text.

Overall, OPUS is best understood as a mechanism for enabling researchers in environmental biology to consolidate, integrate, and reinterpret bodies of work to yield new conceptual or synthetic advances. It also serves a workforce goal in the mid-career track by explicitly supporting researcher development and retention, particularly to help maintain diversity among senior ranks in academia and related research settings.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Opportunities for Promoting Understanding through Synthesis" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.074.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 31, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 28, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 15 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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