Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received a $375,523 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Biological Infrastructure under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), awarded September 15, 2026, with completion targeted for August 31, 2029. This collaborative research initiative will develop Biodiversity on Demand (BOND), a pilot web platform designed to discover, compare, and integrate fragmented biodiversity databases across spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales. The platform will address a critical gap in the scientific community's ability to efficiently access and synthesize biodiversity data—including information on species geographic distributions, functional traits, phylogenetic relationships, phenology, and biotic interactions—currently scattered across numerous isolated repositories. BOND is expected to significantly enhance the research community's capacity to leverage rapidly growing biodiversity datasets to develop a more comprehensive understanding of Earth's biodiversity.

The project delivers both technological infrastructure and workforce development products. The primary deliverable is the BOND platform itself, which will enable enhanced database discovery, comparison, and integration capabilities to help the scientific community identify data gaps and assess existing biodiversity information assets more effectively. This capability is intended to support critical national priorities including understanding and managing biodiversity loss, which directly affects human health, food security, and economic stability. Additionally, the project incorporates a training component supporting undergraduate students through research experience opportunities, thereby promoting the development of the next generation of scientists in biodiversity informatics and data integration fields.