Mathematical Biology

The Mathematical Biology Program supports research in areas of applied and computational mathematics with relevance to the biological sciences. Successful proposals are mathematically innovative and address challenging problems of interest to members of the biological community.
Projects may include development of mathematical concepts and tools traditionally seen in other disciplinary programs within the Division of Mathematical Sciences, e.g., topology, probability, statistics, and computation, etc. To receive appropriate and timely review, such proposals should be submitted directly to the relevant disciplinary program, but will be considered for co-review by the Mathematical Biology program which may be selected as a secondary program. Note that proposals that use established mathematical, statistical and computational tools to address problems in the biological sciences are typically not appropriate for consideration by the disciplinary programs within DMS. For further details on other disciplinary programs within the division, see the details of the program descriptions.
In general, if a proposal is appropriate for review by more than one disciplinary program within the Division of Mathematical Sciences, it is advisable to contact the program officers handling each program to determine when the proposal should be submitted and to facilitate the review process. Usually, it is most appropriate to submit in line with the earliest program deadline. If proposals are appropriate for co-review, but are not received in time to include them in the review process for all programs, then they may considered by only a subset of the programs or may be returned without review. In addition, the Mathematical Biology Program interacts with every division in the NSF Directorate of Biological Sciences, and its interests overlap those of the biology programs. Mathematical Biology regularly seeks joint reviews of proposals with programs in the Directorate of Biological Sciences. Investigators are encouraged to discuss their project with program officers in both areas to determine if it should be considered for co-review.