The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced two grants opportunities for research on biological natural collections.
The Biological Research Collections Program has $6 million available to fund 25 grants to support biological collection enhancement, computerization of specimen-related data, research to develop better methods for specimen curation and collection management, and activities such as symposia and workshops to investigate support and management of biological collections. Applications are due 24 July 2009. For more information, go to http://www.grants.gov and search for opportunity funding number 06-569.
The Systematic Biology and Biodiversity Inventories program is soliciting grant proposals for research in taxonomy and biodiversity. The Systematic Biology and Biodiversity Inventories Cluster seeks applications for research that synthesizes existing and new species-level taxonomic information in the context of providing revisionary treatments and predictive classifications for particular groups of organisms. The Systematic Biology Program supports the discovery and description of species, the organization of taxonomic information into hierarchical predictive classifications, and the analysis of evolutionary and biogeographic relationships among groups of species and across the tree of life. The Biodiversity Inventories Program supports expeditionary work to discover, describe, and document species diversity throughout the world, with emphasis on well-vouchered natural history collections. Applications are due 9 July 2009.  For more information, go to http://www.grants.gov and search for opportunity funding number PD-04-7374.