The U.S. National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states and U.S. territories. NSF was established in 1950 by Congress to promote the progress of science, advance the national health, prosperity and welfare, and secure the national defense.
The Biological Oceanography Program is designed to support research in marine ecology broadly defined, encompassing relationships among aquatic organisms and their interactions within the oceans or Great Lakes. The grant promotes interdisciplinary projects and emphasizes the importance of understanding marine and Great Lakes ecosystems. This includes a wide range of environments from estuarine and coastal systems to the deep sea. Proposals are encouraged to address significant topics in marine ecology, potentially in collaboration with other programs within the Division of Ocean Sciences or the Directorate of Biology, depending on the focus on organismal physiology, cell biology, molecular genetics, population biology, systematics, or interdisciplinary ocean-focused studies.