Long Term Research in Environmental Biology | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Long Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB) program is a discretionary grant opportunity designed to support research that depends on long-running biological and environmental datasets. Run jointly through NSF's Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) and Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS), the program is meant to help scientists build and sustain extended time series that can reveal ecological and evolutionary processes that are difficult or impossible to detect in short-term studies. In practice, LTREB is aimed at questions in organismal and environmental biology where the most meaningful insights come from observing populations, communities, organisms, or ecosystems across many years, including shifts driven by climate variation, disturbance, species interactions, and evolutionary change.

A central requirement of LTREB is that investigators must already have a substantial foundation of data before applying. Specifically, applicants must have collected at least six years of prior data, and those existing observations must clearly motivate the new work being proposed. The program is not intended to launch brand-new projects from scratch; instead, it helps extend well-established research so that the next phase can address higher-level long-term questions with stronger statistical power and deeper historical context. This prior dataset is expected to be more than background information; it should demonstrate why the study system is valuable, show that methods are stable and feasible over time, and provide evidence that the next decade of work can produce important advances.

LTREB proposals must also lay out a cohesive 10-year conceptual framework. That means the application needs an integrated rationale for why a full decade of continued data collection and analysis is scientifically necessary, what hypotheses or questions will guide the work, and how the research plan fits into broader ecological or evolutionary theory. The program is structured around a decadal plan executed in two stages: an initial, full proposal covering the first five years, followed by a later abbreviated renewal request to support the second five years. Together, the original award and renewal are intended to function as a continuous 10-year research effort. The expectation is that the same long-term conceptual questions will guide both stages, rather than treating each five-year segment as an unrelated project.

Another key expectation is strong data-sharing and broader access to the information collected. LTREB-funded projects must explain how their datasets will be shared widely with both the scientific community and the interested public. This emphasis reflects the idea that long-term datasets become increasingly valuable when they are discoverable, well documented, and usable beyond the original research team, enabling synthesis work, comparative studies across systems, educational use, and more informed public understanding of environmental change.

From a topic and review perspective, LTREB proposals are co-reviewed across participating clusters in the two NSF divisions. Within DEB, the relevant clusters include Ecosystem Science, Population and Community Ecology, and Evolutionary Processes. Within IOS, participating clusters include Behavioral Systems and Physiological and Structural Systems. Proposals need to align with areas supported by these programs, since the review is shared across these disciplinary homes. Investigators who are unsure whether their project is a good fit are encouraged to contact the cognizant program director for guidance before submitting.

In terms of logistics and funding details from the archived opportunity record (NSF 10-558), the program anticipated about 20 awards with an estimated total funding level of $2,000,000 and an award ceiling of $450,000. The funding instrument is a grant, and the activity category is science and technology and other research and development. There is no cost sharing or matching requirement listed. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any type of entity), subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full announcement. The CFDA number associated with this opportunity is 47.074 (Biological Sciences). Historically, full proposal deadlines were listed as July 13, 2010 and annually thereafter, and January 13, 2011 and annually thereafter. The record also indicates the opportunity was later replaced by NSF 12-501 and archived on Oct 17, 2011, which matters mainly for applicants looking for the current active solicitation rather than the archived version.

Overall, LTREB is best understood as NSF support for scientifically mature research programs where long-term continuity is essential: investigators bring an established multi-year dataset, articulate a rigorous 10-year set of questions grounded in ecology, evolution, behavior, physiology, or ecosystem science, and commit to making the resulting long-term data broadly available so it can serve as a durable community resource as well as a vehicle for new discovery.

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