Open (posted) · Grant
Plant Biotic Interactions
U.S. National Science Foundation
Key facts
Copied from the official Grants.gov record. Last verified October 29, 2026.
- Program name
- Plant Biotic Interactions
- Issuing agency
- U.S. National Science Foundation
- Opportunity number
- 20-576
- Funding type
- Grant
- Funding purpose
- Science and Technology and other Research and Development
- Status
- Open (posted)
- Application deadline
- Closes October 5, 2076Agency note: Proposals accepted anytime
- Published award range
- Not published by the agency
- Estimated total program funding
- $18,500,000
- Expected number of awards
- 30
- Cost sharing or match required
- No
- Eligible applicants (official categories)
- Others (see Additional Information on Eligibility)
- Relevant to
- NonprofitsHow we determined this: Listed as 'Others'; the agency's eligibility text mentions nonprofits (flagged for review).
- Geographic restrictions
- None stated in structured data (federal opportunities are often nationwide). Check the eligibility details and full announcement for any limits.
- Assistance Listing (CFDA)
- 47.074
- Official source
- View on Grants.gov ↗ · Agency information link ↗
- Application URL
- www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/327047 ↗Apply through Grants.gov (Workspace) using the application package on the official listing, unless the full announcement names a different submission system.
- Source identifier
- Grants.gov opportunity ID 327047 · Funding opportunity number 20-576
- Posted
- May 14, 2020 · Source last updated October 5, 2026
- Last verified
- October 29, 2026 (against Grants.gov)
- Data completeness
- 92% of key fields published by the sourceNot published: published funding range.
- Record confidence
- loweligibility described only in free text (in review).
Eligibility details (from the agency)
*Who May Submit Proposals: Proposals may only be submitted by the following: -Non-profit, non-academic organizations: Independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies and similar organizations located in the U.S. that are directly associated with educational or research activities. -USDA/NIFA Eligible applicants include: (1) State agricultural experiment stations; (2) colleges and universities (including community colleges offering associate degrees or higher); (3) university research foundations; (4) other research institutions and organizations; (5) Federal agencies, (6) national laboratories; (7) private organizations or corporations; (8) individuals who are U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents; and (9) any group consisting of 2 or more entities identified in (1) through (8). Eligible institutions do not include foreign and international organizations. -Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs): Two- and four-year IHEs (including community colleges) accredited in, and having a campus located in the US, acting on behalf of their faculty members. Special Instructions for International Branch Campuses of US IHEs: If the proposal includes funding to be provided to an international branch campus of a US institution of higher education (including through use of sub-awards and consultant arrangements), the proposer must explain the benefit(s) to the project of performance at the international branch campus, and justify why the project activities cannot be performed at the US campus.
Description (from the official listing)
The Plant Biotic Interactions (PBI) program supports research on the processes that mediate beneficial and antagonistic interactions between plants and their viral, bacterial, oomycete, fungal, plant, and invertebrate symbionts, pathogens and pests. This joint NSF/NIFA program supports projects focused on current and emerging model and non-model systems, and agriculturally relevant plants. The program’s scope extends from fundamental mechanisms to translational efforts, with the latter seeking to put into agricultural practice insights gained from basic research on the mechanisms that govern plant biotic interactions. Projects must be strongly justified in terms of fundamental biological processes and/or relevance to agriculture and may be purely fundamental or applied or include aspects of both perspectives. All types of symbiosis are appropriate, including commensalism, mutualism, parasitism, and host-pathogen interactions. Research may focus on the biology of the plant host, its pathogens, pests or symbionts, interactions among these, or on the function of plant-associated microbiomes. The program welcomes proposals on the dynamics of initiation, transmission, maintenance and outcome of these complex associations, including studies of metabolic interactions, immune recognition and signaling, host-symbiont regulation, reciprocal responses among interacting species and mechanisms associated with self/non-self recognition such as those in pollen-pistil interactions. Explanatory frameworks should include molecular, genomic, metabolic, cellular, network and organismal…
Read the full description
The Plant Biotic Interactions (PBI) program supports research on the processes that mediate beneficial and antagonistic interactions between plants and their viral, bacterial, oomycete, fungal, plant, and invertebrate symbionts, pathogens and pests. This joint NSF/NIFA program supports projects focused on current and emerging model and non-model systems, and agriculturally relevant plants. The program’s scope extends from fundamental mechanisms to translational efforts, with the latter seeking to put into agricultural practice insights gained from basic research on the mechanisms that govern plant biotic interactions. Projects must be strongly justified in terms of fundamental biological processes and/or relevance to agriculture and may be purely fundamental or applied or include aspects of both perspectives. All types of symbiosis are appropriate, including commensalism, mutualism, parasitism, and host-pathogen interactions. Research may focus on the biology of the plant host, its pathogens, pests or symbionts, interactions among these, or on the function of plant-associated microbiomes. The program welcomes proposals on the dynamics of initiation, transmission, maintenance and outcome of these complex associations, including studies of metabolic interactions, immune recognition and signaling, host-symbiont regulation, reciprocal responses among interacting species and mechanisms associated with self/non-self recognition such as those in pollen-pistil interactions. Explanatory frameworks should include molecular, genomic, metabolic, cellular, network and organismal processes, with projects guided by hypothesis and/or discovery driven experimental approaches. Strictly ecological projects that do not address underlying mechanisms are not appropriate for this program. Quantitative modeling in concert with experimental work is encouraged. Overall, the program seeks to support research that will deepen our understanding of the fundamental processes that mediate interactions between plants and the organisms with which they intimately associate and advance the application of that knowledge to benefit agriculture.
Agency contact
NSF grants.gov support
grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov
grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov