Integrative Computational Tools for Systems Biology Research | DE FOA 0002878

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002878

The Integrative Computational Tools for Systems Biology Research funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0002878) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research (BER) grant solicitation focused on building and improving computational approaches that can make modern systems biology data genuinely useful for prediction and engineering. It sits within BERs Genomic Science Program (GSP), which funds fundamental research on plants, microbes, plant-microbe interactions, and environmental microbial communities that connect directly to DOEs energy and environmental missions, especially sustainable bioenergy. The basic motivation is that if researchers can better understand and model the metabolic and regulatory networks that drive how organisms function, they can more effectively design or re-engineer those organisms for improved resilience and sustainability, including advanced biofuels and bioproducts.

A central theme of the opportunity is that high-throughput, multi-omics methods now generate massive and complex datasets across genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and related measurements. These data often span multiple spatial and temporal scales, and they come from many different instruments and experimental setups. While this flood of data has expanded what scientists can observe, it has also created a bottleneck: integrating heterogeneous data layers, extracting relationships, and identifying causal variants or drivers of phenotype remain difficult. DOE is emphasizing that accurate, predictive systems biology modeling (and ultimately genome-scale engineering) depends on overcoming these computational and conceptual challenges, not merely collecting more data.

The FOA therefore seeks applications proposing innovative computational solutions that can integrate large, disparate data types from multiple sources and convert them into coordinated knowledge about biological system behavior. In practical terms, DOE is looking for new algorithms, scalable analytical methods, and interoperable software tools that support large-scale, multimodal, and multiscale data integration and analysis. The solicitation explicitly calls out the need to incorporate data enabled by emerging and complementary technologies such as molecular imaging, structural biology, and spectroscopy, alongside classic omics. It also stresses that strong computational simulation and hypothesis testing require methods that can incorporate multiple experimental or environmental conditions, plus the associated metadata, so results remain robust and interpretable across contexts.

In addition to entirely new tool development, the FOA encourages enhancements to existing software or approaches that are already widely used by the genomics community, particularly improvements that help interpret multimodal datasets relevant to environmental sciences. Across all approaches, the desired end state is practical, scalable solutions for omics analysis, data mining, and knowledge extraction from complex experimental and computed datasets, with an emphasis on interoperability and computational efficiency for systems-level investigations.

On eligibility, the opportunity is broadly open to domestic applicants, with one notable exclusion: nonprofit organizations described under IRS 501(c)(4) that engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995 are not eligible. Federally affiliated entities have additional restrictions. DOE/NNSA National Laboratories, non-DOE/NNSA Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), and other federal agencies cannot apply as the prime applicant, but they may participate as subrecipients under an eligible prime organization. If selected, funding intended for these federally affiliated subrecipients may be issued through DOE field-work mechanisms or interagency agreements, rather than flowing as a standard subaward under the prime recipients grant, and additional authorization steps are required as described in the FOA.

Key administrative details provided include that it is a discretionary grant program under the Office of Science, categorized under Science and Technology and other Research and Development (CFDA 81.049). The original application closing date was March 30, 2023, the award ceiling listed is $1,050,000, and the FOA was created on December 1, 2022.

• The Office of Science in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Integrative Computational Tools for Systems Biology Research" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.049.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-12-01.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-03-30. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,050,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

Apply for DE FOA 0002878

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