The Directorate for Biological Sciences (NSF/BIO)  has announced a new funding opportunity within the Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB) program for researchers who have or will soon complete their Ph.D. The revised PRFB solicitation now includes a new Competitive Area: Postdoctoral Research Fellowships Using Biological Collections.

The program seeks to build on the growth in availability of biological collections. This track seeks applicants who will use biological collection data in innovative ways to address grand challenges in biology. Of specific interest are research plans that extend outside biology to other sciences.

PRFB is hosted within the Division of Biological Infrastructure (BIO/DBI). The new solicitation can be found at: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?WT.z_pims_id=503622&ods_key=nsf15501.

To be eligible an applicant must not have served in any position that requires the doctoral degree, for more than 6 full time months. The full proposal deadline is January 8, 2015 and the first Tuesday in November, including 2015, thereafter.

Continuing from prior years, other Competitive Areas in the postdoctoral fellowship program are (1) broadening participation of under-represented groups in biology and (2) the National Plant Genome Initiative.