BETHESDA, Md.--The Directorate for Biological Sciences of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it will begin offering approximately 20 annual postdoctoral research fellowships of $50,000 per year for two or three years in biological informatics, pending availability of funds.
The new program seeks to encourage research and training at the postdoctoral level at the intersection of biology and the informational, computational, mathematical, and statistical sciences, NSF said. The goal of the program is to provide training to young scientists in preparation for careers in biological informatics in which research and education will be integrated. "There is an increasing need for training in biological informatics at all occupational levels, and it is expected that the fellows trained through these fellowships will play an important role in training of the future workforce," NSF announced.
Biological questions appropriate for the technologies and approaches of informatics cover the full range of biology normally supported by the NSF including, but not limited to, structural, functional, and evolutionary genomics; genetics; cell biology; physiology; biochemistry; biophysics; development; neurobiology; ecology; evolution; and systematics.
Applications must address scientific questions in the field of biology and use computer-intensive statistical, modeling, database, or other informatics tools.