Long Term Ecological Research | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) opportunity supports long-running, site based ecological research designed to answer questions that cannot be adequately addressed through short term studies. Established in 1980, the LTER program is built around the idea that many of the most important ecological processes and ecosystem changes only become clear when observations, experiments, and measurements are sustained for many years or even decades. Projects funded through LTER are expected to produce enduring scientific value by maintaining field sites, building long term datasets, running large scale experiments, and creating research infrastructure that can be used by the broader scientific community.

A defining feature of LTER is that research is anchored at specific, designated sites selected to represent major ecosystem types and natural biomes. Rather than funding isolated projects that move from place to place, NSF funds ongoing work at these locations so investigators can track ecological dynamics over long time horizons. The program also emphasizes consistent, long term data collection organized around five core research areas (as referenced in the solicitation), which helps ensure that data are comparable through time and across the network. In addition to the site based work, LTER projects are expected to participate in integrative research that links multiple sites, enabling cross site comparisons and coordinated studies that can address regional to continental scale ecological questions.

Scientifically, LTER proposals are expected to test important ecological and ecosystem theories, with examples including ecosystem stability, biodiversity, community structure, and energy flow. The program is not only about monitoring; it is also about using long term observations and experiments to evaluate hypotheses, identify drivers of change, and improve ecological understanding in ways that short datasets often cannot. A major requirement is that data generated at LTER sites be made broadly accessible, reflecting NSF's view that long term data have value well beyond any single research team or location. This expectation supports reuse of datasets, meta analyses, and synthesis studies, and it encourages transparency and broader impacts by allowing other researchers to build on LTER investments.

By the time of this funding notice, the LTER network had expanded to 26 active sites spanning major biotic regions of the continental United States and Alaska, marine environments, and Antarctica. The program's scope is explicitly interdisciplinary, encompassing population and community ecology, ecosystem science, evolutionary biology, phylogenetic systematics, and extending into social and economic sciences, urban ecology, oceanography, mathematics, computer science, and science education. This breadth reflects the reality that understanding ecosystems often requires integrating biological, physical, computational, and human dimensions, especially when studying long term change and human influenced systems. The network structure is a key strength because it allows researchers to ask large scale questions that require coordinated sampling and shared approaches across multiple ecosystems.

In terms of award details, this is a discretionary grant opportunity categorized under science and technology and other research and development. NSF anticipated making about 11 awards, with an estimated total funding amount of $11,000,000 and an award floor of $980,000. There is no cost sharing or matching requirement listed. The opportunity is associated with multiple NSF CFDA program areas, including Geosciences (47.050), Biological Sciences (47.074), Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (47.075), and Polar Programs (47.078), underscoring its cross directorate relevance.

Eligibility for this particular solicitation is notably restricted. While NSF generally lists eligible organizations as U.S. universities and colleges, U.S. nonprofit non academic organizations, and for profit organizations, the solicitation specifies that the LTER program was accepting only renewal proposals at that time. That means only organizations holding active LTER awards could apply, and only principal investigators associated with active LTER awards were eligible to serve as PI. For collaboration, NSF required that collaborative proposals be submitted as a single proposal (per the NSF Grant Proposal Guide guidance); separately submitted collaborative proposals would be returned without review.

Key dates in the notice include a posted and created date of December 23, 2011, with a full proposal deadline of March 21, 2012, and an archive date of March 25, 2012. The funding opportunity is identified as NSF Publication 12-524 (Funding Opportunity Number 12-524). For access or technical issues related to the announcement, the notice directs applicants to NSF Grants.gov support at grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov.

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