Sridhar Raghavachari: We'll just give people a few minutes as they trickle it, maybe a minute or so.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Hey? Um, good afternoon, Good morning, or depending on where you are. Please welcome to the Nsf. Webinar on the by foundry program, and this is a program to enable access to infrastructure and resources for advancing modern biology and biotechnology
Sridhar Raghavachari: uh present brought to you by the by, a foundry's team,
Sridhar Raghavachari: you can actually access the solicitation at this web link here, and a recording of this Webinar as well as the slides, will be posted at the program page. So that's a program page you can shortly, maybe within
Sridhar Raghavachari: within a week. Certainly the recording and the slides will be posted up on the program page. So for you to access later.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So
Sridhar Raghavachari: just by way of business today. Please submit your questions. You will not be able to access the chat function. So please submit all your questions through the Q. And A. Module, and we will attempt to answer the questions, live as much as possible some of those, maybe, if there are particular questions that can be answered
Sridhar Raghavachari: within the module, then we will do so. Otherwise we collect questions that are more or less common, and try and answer them. Live
Sridhar Raghavachari: once again. We encourage you to answer program white or ask program white questions essentially pertaining to the solicitation or the program itself, rather than specific questions about the project that you would like to propose,
Sridhar Raghavachari: and some of our program contacts for listed in the solicitation, and i'll show you later, are here to address your questions. But in case your question is not answered, Please feel free to email these questions or to pro ah the by foundries at Nsf. Dot com email.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Ah, if you have very specific topic-related questions, whether um pertaining to your specific idea or for your Bar findery, then you should address them to the relevant program contacts as well as me.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay. So as I mentioned, the Webinar materials will be posted uh shortly at the program page.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay, Um. So here are all the program contexts. They're also listed in the solicitation, so our affiliations that i'm Sri Lanka Cherry at the division of biological infrastructure in the biological Sciences Directory
Sridhar Raghavachari: I one of them
Sridhar Raghavachari: made program program directors running this solicitation. We have several people who will be able to address your questions, and their contacts are listed in the solicitation. So you should be able to direct any specific questions you may have about the particular topic that you would like to propose, or the five by found redesign, et cetera to them as well as me.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay. So just by way of context, there you may have been aware of been following that. There are several Federal government wide, and, in fact, even international
Sridhar Raghavachari: reports on ah biomanufacturing biotechnology. Ah, for instance, for a sustainable, safe, secure by economy or building ah broad outlining broad goals for us biotechnology, and as well as
Sridhar Raghavachari: uh private foundation reports about the Us. And Bio economy and various other activities over the last few years, and this biofoundry solicitation is partly in response to some of these
Sridhar Raghavachari: reports and sort of the general Zeitgeist, and we have a few specific.
Sridhar Raghavachari: I ah constraints on what we imagine. So this Webinar will sort of go over the solicitation and give you a program overview in the structure. Ah, the specific considerations that we would like you to take into account, as you put together your ah proposal and any specific questions that you may have.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Ah! Towards the end of this, So the plan is to go for about twenty-five thirty minutes with our presentation, and then we leave it open for questions, and we'll be here till four, thirty or earlier. If questions sort of peter up.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay. So biofoundries. This is a new Nsfi initiative, and our goal is to take the advances in biological sciences, and other disciplines, including chemical biology, biotechnology, bioengineering,
Sridhar Raghavachari: and essentially provide access to a lot of these modern infrastructure technology and capacity in a very broad-based way
Sridhar Raghavachari: right. And, as I mentioned it, this solicitation is designed to address the needs outlined in several reports, and it actually builds on several existing and Nsf. Investments and programs. Ah! Including the materials innovation platform, the Edge activity from biological sciences, The Neuron X recode, which is a partnership between ah engineering bio and the fuel
Sridhar Raghavachari: uh Nsf. Directorates the partnership with the Do a agile biofoundry, future manufacturing and cyber physical systems just to name a few. So our goal is to essentially develop a research ecosystem which combines innovation research
Sridhar Raghavachari: with facilities, education and outreach and technology development and really make it accessible for the broad community as well as continue to spot our foster new research and tech development. So again, the what is the biofoundry? Two
Sridhar Raghavachari: in our concept? In this solicitation biofoundries are integrated facilities that combine biological chemical biology and biology and engineering biology systems and tools, with automation, heights report measurement data, acquisition and analysis and ai-based machine learning-based approaches,
to essentially catalyze transformative discoveries in biological or engineered biological systems
Sridhar Raghavachari: to provide access to instrumentation, workflows, tunes, and processes to the community at large as well as enable feedback loops that facilitate progressive end to end
Sridhar Raghavachari: cycles of design, build, test, and learn right. So essentially the goal is to both accelerate bio design and understand biological systems. Better build a capacity for innovation Democrats access to tools and develop the next generation workforce.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Ah! Just to give you an orientation of what the milestones are for this program. Ah! The solicitation was released on the eighth of May of this year. The Webinar is today the letters of Internet. Which are mandatory are due on August first.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Ah, we'll come to that in a second the full proposal. So there are no intermediate steps between the letters of Internet which are not actionable. Remember, we are just collecting that information to help us plan and prepare for the full proposals. The full proposals are due on October second,
Sridhar Raghavachari: and following review, we anticipate that we will schedule reverse-site visits for a selected number of by a foundries that are rated ah highly and have a various programmatic interest, and we will schedule these reversalized site visits for early next year,
Sridhar Raghavachari: and our anticipated award dates are sometime in April of two thousand and twenty-four again. These are the last three are anticipated dates, but the only clear deadlines are the first of august for the letters of intent and the full proposal due date on October second.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay. Ah! As I mentioned, letters of intent are mandatory. They must be submitted prior to a full proposal, and these are the requirements. The title of the proposal should be preceded by the phrase by a foundry.
Sridhar Raghavachari: You will have so These are submitted through research. Go, and there are
Sridhar Raghavachari: fairly self-explanatory sections, but the only two caveats here are that there is a maximum of four senior personnel allowed, excluding the pi, and there are a maximum of five institutions excluding the lead institution.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Ah! We also require a project synopsis, which is about two hundred, two thousand five hundred characters, which essentially, roughly outlines the overall goal of the foundry. Briefly, the expertise of the project, P. I. And personnel, and
some reasonable amount of detail, so that we can start planning for the review process.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay. The next step is the full proposal,
Sridhar Raghavachari: and once again the title should essentially be the same word not essentially should be exactly the same as the letter of intent, and they should be submitted by the same leader organization.
Sridhar Raghavachari: There is a maximum of thirty, seven page project description, and which should include the sections which must include the sections listed below right, and for anything else that's not listed here on the instructions of the solicitation, please follow the Nsf.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So we require the following, which is this part of the senior participant list: Essentially, all the senior participants and the qualifications for participating in this far degree
Sridhar Raghavachari: results from priorness of support for these keepers. For now,
Sridhar Raghavachari: then, the more of relevant details about the scientific part of the foundry which includes the vision goals and rationale,
Sridhar Raghavachari: The research program and I'll elaborate on these In the next few slides. The user facility operation plans, the technology development plans, the knowledge sharing plans of the management plan two,
Sridhar Raghavachari: and then in a separate section entitled Broader Impacts. Remember, the Ppvg now requires you to have a separate section for broader impacts that is actually specifically called out. You will include your education and training plan, the diversity strategic plan, and then plans for partnerships and translation.
Sridhar Raghavachari: And again, I've heard
Sridhar Raghavachari: you're required to include each of these headaches,
Sridhar Raghavachari: preferably in this order as listed in the solicitation.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay,
Sridhar Raghavachari: So the desired aspects of the bi-foundry are that it includes a user facility that provides technical capacity and infrastructure to the research community, or whichever the relevant community There is
Sridhar Raghavachari: Then there should be multidisciplinary research and technology development teams that synergistically conduct research and develop the next generation of instrumentation, experimental or computational methods workflow and automations in any aspect of biology or biotechnology domain supported by Nsf.
Sridhar Raghavachari: There are a few of Id areas that are ruled out, such as drug discovery or drug design, as well as
Sridhar Raghavachari: largely biomedical or human health aspects not biomedical as much as human health aspects which largely falls under the purview of the and
Sridhar Raghavachari: addition. The biofoundry should have plans again focused, not particularly broad-based, but focus tell you
Sridhar Raghavachari: plans for growing the next generation of talent in the relevant field the
Sridhar Raghavachari: as well as they need to serve as nexus points for academic industry, collaboration, and provide pathways to translation. So, as you would notice one of the partners, one of the participating or units within Nsf. Is the new Tip directory, and we are. We're looking for by foundries that have
Sridhar Raghavachari: credible plans for translating the discoveries into products.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay. So now, going back to the project, description and the scientific or the intellectual merit portion of it, or the science itself. So each biofoundry must address a fundamental or brand challenge in science and engineering of biological systems,
Sridhar Raghavachari: and in order to do so, they should have explicitly
Sridhar Raghavachari: describe in-house or externally user-initiated research programs for catalyzing, transformative discoveries or and or new innovations across the range of systems supported by Nsf.
Sridhar Raghavachari: These teams should be multidisciplinary groups of scientists engineers and educators, so that they are appropriate in a scope that's appropriate for a large-scale long-term research, agenda for advancement of modern biology and biotechnology so the foundry should really
Sridhar Raghavachari: have coherent research theme that is, multidisciplinary and appropriate in scope for what is being proposed
Sridhar Raghavachari: and the goal is to essentially go beyond single-user projects. So essentially the whole must be greater than some of the parts. In terms of what synergies do these research teams bring to that by being in one single
Sridhar Raghavachari: umbrella.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Ah! Again we leave the actual physical design of the biofoundry up to the proposers, so we're not mandating that they all be housed within a single university they can be distributed, or a centralized model depending on what the particular science demands.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Uh, and ultimately we would like for these uh the research program to show that they have will have a transformative impact of the biosciences, biotechnology and bioengineering.
Sridhar Raghavachari: A critical component of the bi foundry is user a component of is a large user-facing activities. So by that I mean that the Via foundry should provide resources, instrumentation technology to external users.
Sridhar Raghavachari: In this way they can increase the iphone, we should essentially increase access to cutting its tools, workflows, or infrastructure to a diverse array of institutions.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So, while, as you put together the plans and the proposal. You really should detail user access models and plans for user engagement and training. So it's like, say, how would the users access one?
Sridhar Raghavachari: The instrumentation and the tools of the workflows in the Biofodri or the reagents, for that matter? Or whatever the Wi-fi produces, how will the users, get access? To it. And how does a biofire be plan to broaden its user base? So
Sridhar Raghavachari: what are your recruitment plans? How you engage larger communities across the academic and other spectrums, such as R. One You institutions, non-arbon institutions, pois msi's really you have to cast a broad, wide net
Sridhar Raghavachari: In doing so, the proposals should detail effective strategies for coordination and management of these user-facing activities. And
Sridhar Raghavachari: we would like you to assess the met the community engagement in your specified metrics. Right? So how have? How has the biofound reuser access? Our engagement plan been successful? And what do you need for course? Correction, if necessary?
Sridhar Raghavachari: And how would you monitor your success, and that that's an important part of um Putting together your section on user-facing activities and once again I reiterate that by foundry proposals that do not describe an extensive plan for broadening the user access to these resources will not be responsive to this program.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Another component of these foundries is the synergistic sort of
Sridhar Raghavachari: the feedback loop between the in-house and external research and technology development. Because, as we all know, a lot of modern research, biological research and otherwise really progresses with the development of new tools that can facilitate asking new questions. And then the cycle continues:
Sridhar Raghavachari: So
Sridhar Raghavachari: we would like the biofound race to engage in sort of strategic development, deployment and refinement of the research tools
Sridhar Raghavachari: and emphasize how this virtual side virtual cycle is between technology, development and research activities will come about and what they are, and how these two will feed off each other
Sridhar Raghavachari: In doing so they have to be responsive to the community needs. So if the community, if certain community members come and tell,
Sridhar Raghavachari: come and have a prospect in mind which requires a development of specific tools, then you would have to have credible plans on how you would plan to work with the community, to modify, adapt, or advance your specific tools that you propose to address their needs.
Sridhar Raghavachari: And as as always, new technology development is associated with a some amount of risk. So
Sridhar Raghavachari: we are asked for you to provide an assessment of this risk as well as whether it be for technology, development, instrument and acquisition, or even user Facility Commission.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Finally, we expect a
Sridhar Raghavachari: that
Sridhar Raghavachari: these biofoundries
Sridhar Raghavachari: have the potential to share
Sridhar Raghavachari: the and contribute towards the sharing of these tools, reagents, workflows, etc. And in doing so these biofoundries may become the nucleus of the development or de facto standards in specific areas. And so
Sridhar Raghavachari: the proposal should essentially describe what your plans are for knowledge sharing, and how they could contribute to the development of standards,
Sridhar Raghavachari: and in in all cases we ask to all the fire foundries to be mindful of the emerging fields of data science, including Ai and or machine learning as appropriate, and how those would be incorporated both in the research part as well as potentially, the user ah access part
Sridhar Raghavachari: it's
Sridhar Raghavachari: they should all be based on these data. Sharing knowledge. Sharing should be based on fair data principles as well as other Nsf policies. So again, this is distinct from the data management plan that all proposals to Nsf. Are required to submit these. So the platform and knowledge sharing is one hundred and fifty.
Sridhar Raghavachari: A larger sort of description of the priorities, the programs and mechanisms that the file foundry would initiate for knowledge, sharing and their effectiveness.
Sridhar Raghavachari: I'm going to.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Finally, we also require that the biofound is really
Sridhar Raghavachari: work towards brewing the next generation of talent through well-known educational training activities that interact with the research goals. So these could be workshops, summer schools, or otherwise, webinars, et cetera, so really, comprehensively describing how you plan to engage the community and train them in the use of these tools. And again, these could be from
Sridhar Raghavachari: faculty to undergraduate or otherwise across the spectrum again focused and well chosen activities should describe the outreach plans to increase your user base.
Sridhar Raghavachari: And really, the
Sridhar Raghavachari: emphasis should be on attracting a diverse community with a focus on broadening participation. Right So again, how would the Wi-fi? We engage groups that are traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering.
Sridhar Raghavachari: And again, bill towards the workforce development plan that is really greater than sort of individual bits that you're putting together really so focus on research and education and workforce development, and that is integrated
Sridhar Raghavachari: in a comprehensive way.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So
Sridhar Raghavachari: we also expect that the biofoundries accelerate translation of products and processes for societal benefit.
Sridhar Raghavachari: And there are many pathways, many ways to do this, so many strategies. These may include collaboration in an industry licensing of research by third parties or startups, or perhaps adoption of these technologies by public sector or nonprofits. So again, all proposals should
Sridhar Raghavachari: describe their overall strategy of intellectual property and the management. And what are the strategies that they would adopt for translation and innovation,
Sridhar Raghavachari: right? And in a way that is mindful to the stated goals of the users, and academic or non academic stakeholders, as well,
Sridhar Raghavachari: with careful consideration of the Ip Protection licensing entrepreneurship as well as open source practices and other plans for,
Sridhar Raghavachari: and, as I mentioned it,
Sridhar Raghavachari: no throughout we would urge all biofounderies to have effective plans for encouraging participation by diverse groups of users, and these should include users from diverse institutions. Either R. One non r. One Msi's. Hbc. Use
Sridhar Raghavachari: primarily undergraduate institutions and export jurisdictions
Sridhar Raghavachari: well as users that are traditionally underrepresented in stem.
Sridhar Raghavachari: In all these cases we require, we ask that you track you develop metrics to track the effectiveness of these diversity plans
Sridhar Raghavachari: right and also in the leadership model, we
Sridhar Raghavachari: should actually, and the leadership and management of the biofoundry itself should as pass these principles by making sure that the leadership and management is sufficiently diverse and broad
Sridhar Raghavachari: to essentially present all different viewpoints.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So that brings me to um the organization of these by boundaries. So again, as I've described. These are large, multifaceted, and complex projects, and so this cannot be just a single individual. The Api. Who's going to manage all of this, although you would have to
Sridhar Raghavachari: detail the qualifications of the leap, I to manage this kind of a project. But in addition,
Sridhar Raghavachari: we ask that each team or each by a foundry, have a managing director who is distinct from the P. I.
Sridhar Raghavachari: And the responsibilities of the managing director are to essentially overgo oversee the ongoing operations, reporting requirements and coordinating across various activities. Remember that the research, the user activities, the broadening participation partnerships, et cetera. So the managing director is expected to oversee these and coordinate among all of these different ah units.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Given the centrality of the user facility and access, we require that the management team also include a user facility coordinator
Sridhar Raghavachari: whose responsibilities include overseeing the use of faculty operations engaging with the user community and any other relevant aspects.
Sridhar Raghavachari: All biofoundries are expected to put together an external advisory board to. They're not necessarily a governing board, but really an important and useful resource that
Sridhar Raghavachari: help with the decisions that are being taken, and help with other matters that on the running of the foundry and strategic decisions that they make so.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Ah, we ask you to not name potential av members in the proposal, and wait until after the proposal is actually funded.
Additionally, there are several other aspects of the biofounder, and one can have
Sridhar Raghavachari: additional core stuff to coordinate activities, such as training or translational activities. But at the minimum we require the leadership team to have these three individuals, as well as
Sridhar Raghavachari: once again the leadership model should really empower the team members to contribute within a cluster of collaboration and inclusion. So
Sridhar Raghavachari: so so far, I've said what the biofundries would support um. The There are some aspects which of research that the by fundraise will not support any request for these include construction, renovation, or modernization of rooms of buildings or or research facilities,
Sridhar Raghavachari: no general purpose of supporting equipment, purchases,
Sridhar Raghavachari: or sustaining infrastructure, or building systems, such as H. Wax, etc. Or even general-purpose platforms.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: also we remember, we remind you that if your project would be eligible for support through core programs, that Nsf. Runs or Nsf Center programs, like, for instance, the science of technology centers or the materials, innovation partnerships, or other programs,
Sridhar Raghavachari: or even infrastructure programs that are funded by other parts of Nsf. Then those would not necessarily be supported by the Via funding program.
Sridhar Raghavachari: As I mentioned earlier research, that would be exclusively focused on drug testing or biological mechanisms of human diseases are not within the
Sridhar Raghavachari: this particular program, and would actually be returned without review.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay,
Sridhar Raghavachari: for the So let me come back to the awards. So we anticipate about two to four by foundries to be supported with this call at about fifteen million dollars to twenty four million dollars each, and so the upper end would be
Sridhar Raghavachari: the maximum limit of each. Biof already is twenty four million dollars.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Um, And this would support the acquisition development of instrumentation, technologies, cyber infrastructure staffing the technical stuff, such as, for instance, the user facility coordinator or a managing director and a limited number of students in post-doctoral researchers
Sridhar Raghavachari: the initial commitment will be for six years. So these twenty four, so roughly between
Sridhar Raghavachari: so initial commitment is for six years, beyond which continuation may be possible, depending on program evaluation performance, and of course, availability of funding
Sridhar Raghavachari: important reminder is that fifty percent of the funds after subtracting equipment costs should be devoted for user-facing activities.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So this is that's why I mentioned that this. There's the centrality of user-facing activities in this particular Call
Sridhar Raghavachari: a brief note on submission. And eligibility. Who may apply they are. This call is open to all institutions of higher education as well as non-profit non-academic organizations.
Sridhar Raghavachari: This question has come up in the past is that Ffr. Dcs. Such as national labs may be included as some awardees on proposals, so they cannot be the lead institution.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: each organization can submit a single proposal,
Sridhar Raghavachari: and these should be
Sridhar Raghavachari: not as different collaborative proposals. All other institutions that are participating in that particular by a foundry will be some awardees.
Sridhar Raghavachari: The number of non-lead collaborating organizations that are low limits.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Ah! The number of senior personnel ah proposals per senior personnel is limited to one and senior personnel are defined as in the Ppvg. And that's not just a limited to pi or copi. So one person is one proposed.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay. So I see that there have been some questions. Oh, and I can
Sridhar Raghavachari: see if I can feel those or my colleagues here.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay. So
Sridhar Raghavachari: Higgins.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So there was a question that said, Can one change Pr. Copies and institutions listed at the Loi? Or are those partners locked in?
Sridhar Raghavachari: We understand that there may be some changes. The only thing that is mandatory is that the lead institution not change, and the title remained the same.
Sridhar Raghavachari: You have some reshuffling partners that should be allowed, but it might be best to contact the program director before submission.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay, there's another question about how this is different from the Mri or the Mid scale Ri programs other than being biofocused. The biggest distinction is, if you note
Sridhar Raghavachari: we are supporting user-facing activities which essentially means that we are supporting operating costs. The mid-scale programs are conspicuously and so, and to a lot, and mostly the Mri as well. Again, in addition to being much larger in scope here,
Sridhar Raghavachari: will not support ongoing operations.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So the Mri is essentially for equipment, Purchases mid-scale ri is for the implementation of a single dedicated piece of infrastructure or perhaps a tightly integrated infrastructure piece where it's Here we are much more broad
Sridhar Raghavachari: in terms of what we will support as well as ongoing use of operations.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Um, there's a question on now
Sridhar Raghavachari: defining external users, external means. Anybody who's external to your biofoundry.
Sridhar Raghavachari: That's the most simple definition.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So not just. Let's say, if it's a single campus, then it should be broader than the
Sridhar Raghavachari: campus users.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Anybody else want to jump in. Please feel free to do so.
Sridhar Raghavachari: It's:
Charles Ying: Yeah, I was typically so. If the you know the Bar Boundary is at the same University X and Y. With the facility, i'll say only at the University X, and and then anybody in the University acts would would not be external
Sridhar Raghavachari: right. And therefore we urge you to go ahead and uh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: demonstrate that there is a large user base. Again. Don't collect user letters because there's a number of the number of letters that you're allowed to put in as letters of collaboration is limited. So we don't we're not looking for a list of users, but credible demonstration that this is the biofoundry will find
Sridhar Raghavachari: a large audience in terms of being leaked
Sridhar Raghavachari: in terms of access.
Sridhar Raghavachari: There's a question on which, I guess is repeated in a way. Expand on what is it? Look what is nsf looking for? With respect to the goals of the research team. So we recognize that
Sridhar Raghavachari: just running a user facility is not
Sridhar Raghavachari: the most optimal thing we're looking for. So we are actually ensuring that we,
Sridhar Raghavachari: these, in addition to being to have cutting it access to cutting edge tools and instrumentation
Sridhar Raghavachari: development, actually proceeds by research questions that the particular foundry is addressing. So we're really looking for new. I mean
Sridhar Raghavachari: research questions that you plan to address and how you're planning to address, and how those research questions, then spur technology development within that specific area, and how those technologies are then made broadly available to the community at large one.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So in some sense, we're looking at
Sridhar Raghavachari: partnership between all of these three aspects in a very synergistic way. I hope that helps. But if not, then you can ask the question again if I miss something so
Sridhar Raghavachari: so you might so one another one possible model, if you, if you will, would be like the materials innovation platform, you
Sridhar Raghavachari: you can think of this as an Stc. With a user facility grafted onto it, if you will, If that helps you.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay, there's a question on the managing director
Sridhar Raghavachari: uh, whether it would be a side position or a totally new position? Or will it be someone else whose full-time job is being managing director,
Sridhar Raghavachari: given the large scope of this facility, these these boundaries we anticipate, or we expect that the managing director would be a fully staffed position, whose sole responsibility is to manage the biofoundry overall right. So this cannot be delegated to a Pi who will not otherwise be able to
Sridhar Raghavachari: support. I mean they don't research their other responsibilities within the university. So this is a dedicated full-time decision for managing the bi-found rate so
Sridhar Raghavachari: it's.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Charles. Do you want to take this by a foundries focused on manufacturing or Steve uh, or laurel Anybody can they
Sridhar Raghavachari: focus on manufacturing and they can. They propose discovery and development research?
Charles Ying: Yes, they they have proposed discovery and development research
Charles Ying: uh, into the manufacturing uh,
Charles Ying: a little has to say, because it was a manufacturing, actually has different meaning from a different community.
Steve Peretti: And I guess what I would add to that is, if there are important technological innovations that you know are applications of fundamental technologies. If you need to, you know, develop new biosensors if you need to develop new machine learning strategies to deal with,
Steve Peretti: you know, and aspects of the research question that you're looking at or the manufacturing questions that you're looking at. It's fair game, you know. We're we're looking to support
Steve Peretti: fundamental aspects of
Steve Peretti: you know, bio-related research you define the question you define, you know, is your question to scale up question. Is it a deep dive into some aspect of biology? What is it exactly? And then how does that foundry support and potentially advance that you know knowledge into that one?
Steve Peretti: Into that challenge,
Sridhar Raghavachari: right? And how those new developments are then made available to the community at large that they can access this.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay, the next question is, Can you be detailed about the restrictions of on equipment purchases and support. How would the team build a biofoundry without equipment purchases?
Sridhar Raghavachari: So the only restrictions are on general purpose equipment or general-purpose lab or refurbishing or renovations. There are no restrictions on specific equipment. In fact, there is, if you note that there are,
Sridhar Raghavachari: you have to detail what facilities are available, and what need to be purchased as well to set up the Wi-fi, so the restrictions are really on general purpose, not specific expenses. For this particular case. One
Sridhar Raghavachari: again limited number of my guesses. This means limited number. What is limited number. It pertains to graduate students and does it include tuition?
Sridhar Raghavachari: Well limited just means that this cannot be just a simply graduate student training program. Remember that the user facility is a very large aspect of this particular by
Sridhar Raghavachari: program. So
Sridhar Raghavachari: it has to be balanced with how much? What is the graduate student training program look like in terms of the research as well as the technology development aspects.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Charles Ying: so if I can add um Because the substantial
Charles Ying: of the budget needs to go to the user
Sridhar Raghavachari: Is there a citizenship requirement for being a copia Ipi or a senior personnel that is entirely defined by your institution.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So
Sridhar Raghavachari: you're eligible to submit according to your sponsored research office, then you can be eligible to be Api, or copy I on this.
Sridhar Raghavachari: How many copies and pi's are allowed we have can only have one pi and one person can be only on one proposal. The
Sridhar Raghavachari: ah Nsf. Forms mandate that there can be no more than four copies. There is no limit on the participating institutions. However, it is incumbent on you. If you particularly propose a very distributed model, it is incumbent on you to emphasize how the
Sridhar Raghavachari: those user facilities would then be accessible. And what is the benefit for or problems with situating these instruments in different locations. And how would that, then either
Sridhar Raghavachari: facilitate broad user access or prevent broad user access? And What's your strategy to mitigate that? So?
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: the next question is whether senior personnel are distinct from copies of the
Sridhar Raghavachari: So once again the copi are just the four individuals that can be listed on the cover sheet of the Nsf proposal.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Everybody else is senior personnel
Sridhar Raghavachari: What kind of equipment does the program support again other than general-purpose equipment. Anything that you make a reasonable case for being required for the particular user activities. Or The research question that you're proposing is eligible for support. Two
Sridhar Raghavachari: uh Steve, do you want to take the next one?
Sridhar Raghavachari: I'm. Assuming you mean the one about technology, development and biomaterials?
Steve Peretti: Oh,
Steve Peretti: you know, I guess this
Steve Peretti: this gets to the question of what's the focus of the research. If the focus of the research is understanding fundamental aspects of X Y. And z perfectly fine. I mean, that's one.
Steve Peretti: We We fund that all the time right. We fund Crispr casts. Crispr cast can be used by, you know, clinicians or by somebody else. We fund, you know, lots of one
Steve Peretti: lots of fundamental work that can be translated into the medical arena if you're talking about. Oh, I want to develop devices that are only going to be used in the medical arena. That's something different, like we don't necessarily support purely medically focused
Steve Peretti: work. So if that's all that, the use of this, you know, research and development activity is, then I would say, probably not.
Steve Peretti: Um. And so you know it.
Steve Peretti: Some of the users are clinicians. That's fine, but presumably this is also of
Steve Peretti: It's
Steve Peretti: more general wider um utility than simply clinicians.
Steve Peretti: Did I garble that in it, Anthony. Or what?
Steve Peretti: Okay,
Sridhar Raghavachari: collaborators outside can we include collaborators outside the Us.
Sridhar Raghavachari: In general,
Sridhar Raghavachari: Nsf. Does not support a international collaboration. I mean, we support in asking collaborations, but support direct support
Sridhar Raghavachari: collaborations or international individuals is not the norm. So you have to make an extremely solid case for why that particular technology, or particular
Sridhar Raghavachari: research
Sridhar Raghavachari: capability is not available within the Us. And again, how does that help the user-facing activities? Because certainly most users will be hard for us to actually access ah, instrumentation or et cetera, outside the us.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So
Sridhar Raghavachari: again, this has to be carefully justified, and in general somewhat rare, that we will support collaborative
Steve Peretti: and to follow on on that one. I mean, we're trying to establish infrastructure in the Us. For Us. Researchers.
Steve Peretti: There's a facility in Europe, for example that you would really need. Then why aren't you proposing to
Steve Peretti: to to bring that home and establish that here sort of like
Steve Peretti: part of the mission of this solicitation is to, you know, is to do that very thing
Sridhar Raghavachari: it's.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Can you expand on the research part of the proposal? If center type research is not allowed,
Sridhar Raghavachari: not sure. I understand this. But we what we are asking is that research is an integral part, and you can think of this as a smallish Sdc. For the research end of it,
Sridhar Raghavachari: anchored within a larger user facility. Right? I hope that helps. So again, the
Sridhar Raghavachari: research is an integral part of a biofoundry. You have to define what question, what a grand challenge question that the foundry is going to address, and what kind of tools would then be made available as it addresses those how those tools, technologies workflow, the knowledge, et cetera, would be then
Sridhar Raghavachari: available to the larger user community, and how they would be able to use or access that all those that infrastructure. So
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: okay, um.
Sridhar Raghavachari: I have a question on this evaluation points of a site visit. If a large-scale bio farming is not already outside. The
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: so because yeah,
Steve Peretti: no, I mean it.
Steve Peretti: I'm. Not sure we can answer that question at this point.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Yes,
Steve Peretti: um, we haven't we haven't seen, and we you know we've never done this before. Um!
Charles Ying: At what time does the question? Ask
Sridhar Raghavachari: the question? Was I could read it out. What are the evaluation points of the site? Visit? If a large-scale biofoundry is not already on site?
Charles Ying: Oh, I think
Charles Ying: the nature of the services will change quite a bit from year, one to year to two year, three, etc.
Charles Ying: It's a
Charles Ying: so, you know. I have been managing the materials innovation platform for seven years.
Charles Ying: Ah, so the expectation on the year one service. It's very, very different than you two. The first one, basically for example, are just to say what's the progress in terms of equipment
Charles Ying: facility set up. And then what have you starting?
Steve Peretti: Think about the setting the user program right? And then you have four, and all the facilities should be there.
Charles Ying: Um, But some way in the middle um, you know, Maybe the instrument will be there. The user program just started, and there's very small number of publication. That's fine. But if that's facing the for a year five and it will be all in trouble.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Right? Um. So the expectation is
Charles Ying: very greatly from one year to the other.
Sridhar Raghavachari: And if your question was actually ah pertaining to the evaluative site, visit. Ah! As part of the review, then those would be thankfully pressing. Ah! Questions that may have been raised during the review of your project. So that's more for Nsf. Program directors, or possibly external panelists to assess
Sridhar Raghavachari: right. So again, So we've given you a comprehensive answer for at all stages this point.
Sridhar Raghavachari: It's
Sridhar Raghavachari: So there's a question on how it uh compares with. Do you? Founded by a funded by a foundry such as agile uh Anthony or Steve? You're probably much more knowledgeable on that one. So I feel
Sridhar Raghavachari: I want to address that.
Anthony Garza: I guess what I would say is again, This is um.
Anthony Garza: This is a combination of both. A.
Anthony Garza: I guess the science and technology center, as you were saying, and
Steve Peretti: and a user-facing facility. So this has some aspects in common with the Theoe Bio foundries. But we're also asking that you that there's a research component in this this facility, but a lot in common with the user facing
Anthony Garza: it's based part with the dop doe biofounders.
Steve Peretti: I would add to that the Angel Bio foundry.
Steve Peretti: The researchers are utilizing dummy facilities to expand their research capabilities.
Steve Peretti: We're asking you to develop a facility that can expand, not just your research capabilities, but
Steve Peretti: support the expansion of that capability through some user.
Steve Peretti: Um community. And so
Steve Peretti: it's not. It's not really the agile by a foundry solicitation, which is, There's a bunch of foundries out there.
Steve Peretti: You know. How can your
Steve Peretti: important research benefit from those. This is,
Steve Peretti: you've got a really interesting question. What kind of facility do you need to be able to make and support large steps in that area
Sridhar Raghavachari: a of
Sridhar Raghavachari: all right. I think I skipped a few as they went along. Is there an expectation that all partners will have equipment and user facilities, or can they be users?
Sridhar Raghavachari: Again, for instance, partners can essentially be
Sridhar Raghavachari: of the research part, or the technology development or other aspects, whereas the
Sridhar Raghavachari: we do again,
Sridhar Raghavachari: you have to make the case that the the full user facility that you're developing, if it's going to be distributed, which is what I take this to mean, Then how would you ensure that
Sridhar Raghavachari: external users will have access to these in a very seamless way? Right? So what are the drawbacks of having equipment distributed across very diverse geographical regions
Sridhar Raghavachari: as opposed to some being somewhat centralized. So again, it it depends on what model is. There could be some cases where it makes sense to have a distributed model. But that's up to you to make the case, for I hope that
Sridhar Raghavachari: that gets to the spirit of your question.
Sridhar Raghavachari: The next one is where the Cyber infrastructure is an accessible, acceptable use of funds.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: Vladimir, do you want to address that? Because there are no answers as to the fact that there's a lot of cyber infrastructure that has already invested in,
Sridhar Raghavachari: So the question is whether cyber infrastructure is an accessible acceptable use of funds.
Vladimir Pavlovic / IIS: Right? Yeah. I I I think that it is
Vladimir Pavlovic / IIS: no restriction on that
Sridhar Raghavachari: right, except that we do remind you that we don't want you to reinvent the wheel work with what tennis that is already developed or supported, and how any cyber infrastructure that you
Sridhar Raghavachari: you plan to develop as part of your biofoundry, Whether it is, it can already work or mesh with something that's already out there that is, in a set of supported or otherwise, or whether it complements it in in interesting ways that are important for the success of your biophone.
Sridhar Raghavachari: But, yes, cyber infrastructure would be an acceptable use.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: the next question is whether food and agriculture topics are excluded as a human health and disease, since well, that would
Sridhar Raghavachari: here, because if it's an area of research that is largely supported by Nif Ah, as part of the Usda. Then we would ask you to discuss it with them.
Sridhar Raghavachari: But there are many intermediate areas where, for instance, the Nsf Plan genome research program, as well as there are other collaborations, we do have a Usd. And Iff, for instance, that are within an insect for you.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So again, it depends. So these are kinds of questions that is best. If you drop us a one-page prospectors to the by-found reset in a subcommittee of email to to sort of see what you have. Let us know what you have in mind, and we can give you a more informed answer.
Steve Peretti: Let me just piggy back a little bit on that one yet. The second half of that question was, you know, like health and
Steve Peretti: um medicine, or whatever are excluded. But what I would say is,
Steve Peretti: it depends on what you're talking about. What we've said is therapeutic, you know direct therapeutic applications are excluded. But if you propose a facility, for example,
Steve Peretti: whose objective is, we want to learn how to
Steve Peretti: manufacture more efficiently, Mrna viruses,
Steve Peretti: I mean Mrna Vaccines,
Steve Peretti: you could probably make a case for that, because that's a
Steve Peretti: that's an enabling technology.
Steve Peretti: Um, you That
Steve Peretti: will be applicable across, You know, many different areas. It will probably involve the development of,
Steve Peretti: you know, and characterization of new strains, new organisms, new bio-processing units possibly
Steve Peretti: you know um, and so
Steve Peretti: it's not a you know
Steve Peretti: remember it's not a blanket. You can't do this. It's What's your objective, you know. If your objective is to make it is to make a therapy.
Steve Peretti: Have a therapeutic impact. No, but if it's an enabling technology, it's probably fair game, and you know, come and talk to us about it.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay. Um. Next question is whether there's a limit to the number of external partners. There are five in the Loi limit, but there's essentially no limit to the external partners. But again. You have to make the case for what exactly they are bringing in, how they are. Ah! Contributing to this whole by a foundry effort, they can't.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So again, within just the justification, you can propose whatever is needed. So again, you have to demonstrate the case that twenty five external partners are essentially what this biofoundry designed to Max. But if not,
Sridhar Raghavachari: then again, be reasonable with, in mindful of what your research needs
Sridhar Raghavachari: do, users have to be from nonprofit entities, or can they come from for-profit organizations and industries?
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: we would Again, there are no restrictions but depending on the Nsf. Support structure. We would, of course, support academic users. Um. But depending on how you carefully define your Ip issues with for-profit organizations or industry one.
Sridhar Raghavachari: The bifondry facilities are can be in techn technically open beyond that the
Sridhar Raghavachari: uh, considering space, with the cost of leasing facilities, be covered under the Grant,
Sridhar Raghavachari: the house,
Sridhar Raghavachari: Charles, do you have a comment on this if you're here Still,
Charles Ying: i'm here A:
Charles Ying: I don't have a specific comments.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Yeah, um,
Steve Peretti: you know that may be one. We need to get back on, because we haven't really discussed that question at all.
Charles Ying: Yeah, I heard the you know similar question. You know I the infrastructure.
Charles Ying: Ah, yeah. But we need to discuss.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Uh, yeah, please drop us a line uh, And we can discuss this over email.
Sridhar Raghavachari: I think Steve has addressed the next one in detail across multiple questions which is the human health aspects exclusion. Where is the line of what is the line? If the facility might conduct
Sridhar Raghavachari: that overlaps in this area? And again, as Steve pointed out. If it's an enabling technology that is applicable to human health aspects then yes, if it's directly therapeutic or disease-related, then it doesn't really fall within nih our nsf's purview
Sridhar Raghavachari: But once again we're sort of getting away from programmatic questions. So these are things that you can um
Sridhar Raghavachari: drop a line with the one-page prospectors about what you have in mind to get us
Sridhar Raghavachari: to get a better, more informed answer that we can give you.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: the next one is what the pi should be different from the managing director. Yes, we want the P. I. To be distinct from the managing director.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Shall we identify the managing director prior to submission.
Sridhar Raghavachari: If you already have an individual
Sridhar Raghavachari: capable of managing a facility like this, then by all means they can be a senior person on this. Ah, if not, then we understand that. Ah! Usually staffing takes time, and not all projects will have somebody at their disposal before the proposals even submitted.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So it's perfectly fine to say you can outline what qualifications you would look for, but you don't have to have them named or identified at the time of submission.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Um, okay. The next question is, the number of participating organizations are limited to five, but there's no limit to the number of sub words. Ah! What we meant was the letter of intent only allows you to name five additional institutions at the time of proposal submission. You probably might have a larger.
Sridhar Raghavachari: You can have a larger pool
Sridhar Raghavachari: supper, or these, depending on your specific design,
Sridhar Raghavachari: hope that addresses what you were looking at. But again, some of these are system imposed limitations. And again, we do not want to have
Sridhar Raghavachari: to navigate a fairly large loi burden on you.
Sridhar Raghavachari: The next one is with the proposal. It should be focused on a certain geographic area. Or can it be nationwide collaboration with leadership?
Sridhar Raghavachari: Once again, remember that you're one of the charges to the biofountry, and perhaps the central charge is to improve access,
Sridhar Raghavachari: technology, infrastructure, etc. To a large user community or as larger user community as seen as possible for that particular question, and
Sridhar Raghavachari: the extent that you would benefit. You can demonstrate that a distributed model of a biofoundry would, in fact, do that, then it is
Sridhar Raghavachari: acceptable, but it's incumbent on you to demonstrate whether you want to have a distributed nationwide
Sridhar Raghavachari: um by a foundry or something that is much more concentrated.
Sridhar Raghavachari: The next one is whether the understanding that the budgetary restraint that the total of of the total award half of what remains after equipment purchases must suppose you so much support user programs which include things like positions required positions, student support research projects. One:
Sridhar Raghavachari: Yes, that is the understanding that fifty percent of
Sridhar Raghavachari: the remaining funds after equipment purchases should go towards user-facing activities.
Steve Peretti: A about user-facing activities. If it's internal research that's not a user-facing activity is it
Sridhar Raghavachari: Yeah, no So this is external to the envelope that includes the biofoundry.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay. The next one is whether there are any limitations beyond not Pharma and not focused on the specific disease in terms of how the foundry product interacts with humans.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: ah, Steve, do you want to help me with this one?
Steve Peretti: So this looks like, you know, if I were imagining this is
Steve Peretti: cultured meats could be an example of this.
Steve Peretti: He's not alive.
Steve Peretti: You know. What I would argue is that There are probably a lot of very fundamental challenges in the creation of these
Steve Peretti: not alive foods that would have implications, for, you know, live tissue, um developments. And you know such, so I don't see why that would be restricted if you're if you're asking fundamental questions.
Steve Peretti: Ah!
Steve Peretti: That you know, have applicability
Steve Peretti: broadly, then I think it's fair game
Anthony Garza: mit Ctl and the the bypounders should focus on research. The Nsf. You know, typically supports. So if you're asking yourself if your topic will fit. I think you should, you know. Ask that first one hundred and fifty,
Anthony Garza: and if you have specific questions and you can send a one-page summary project summary to us, and we'll look at it
Sridhar Raghavachari: out.
Sridhar Raghavachari: The next one is, if letters of collaboration are not allowed from potential users, and collaborating scientists may only provide an official institutional letter. What proof should teams provide regarding the number of potential users? Yes,
Sridhar Raghavachari: as you stated, it should be described in the narrative, and it's up to you just like in the mid-scale research probe infrastructure programs to make the case that there is a reasonable user base for the community for this particular infrastructure or foundry, that
Sridhar Raghavachari: you can make the case using either existing workshop reports or Ah Academy surveys, etc. So again, it's up to you to make the case, but that should be done in the body of the proposal as well
Charles Ying: and certain review article. It could be another possibility.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Hey? How is it correct that an external user is simply external to an institution? Even if you,
Sridhar Raghavachari: from an institution within a distributed by a foundry,
Sridhar Raghavachari: by external we really mean institution for users that are not within all the institutions that are part of the bio.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Right? So we really all want you to have. And again,
Sridhar Raghavachari: this is supposed to be very broadly construed. So an external. User for instance, if your facility was making viruses, this came up, and if you're an external user are people whom you would distribute the viruses to, or people who show up to your institution and say you
Sridhar Raghavachari: can you develop a packaging in such a way that I can transact these heart to transact tissue cells, etc. So
Sridhar Raghavachari: so in that sense,
Sridhar Raghavachari: these are external users, we not within the institution or that compose the biof.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So again, we are really going for broad reach across the community, and that's sort of the goal of this particular program,
Steve Peretti: and to answer that one.
Steve Peretti: Not only might some a user come and say, Can you make this? They might come and say, I've got an idea for how to make this,
Steve Peretti: and I need access to this kind of facility in order to test out the strategy. I mean, you know there's somebody at a Hbcu or at a non r, one institution or something that's got great ideas and doesn't have the wherewithal they're part of the user community. Potentially.
Sridhar Raghavachari: It's
Sridhar Raghavachari: it's the program looking to have assessment requiring external evaluators.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Uh, all we've specified is that you develop metrics.
Sridhar Raghavachari: It's not mandatory, like Sdc Science technology center programs to have an externally evaluated. But if that
Sridhar Raghavachari: something that you can use to demonstrate the effectiveness of the biofound reactivities, then that's fair game. But again, you have to budget for it.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: the next one is for the program. Support activities like Bio prospecting
Sridhar Raghavachari: Steve Anthony.
Steve Peretti: It's it's a it's a
Steve Peretti: no go.
Anthony Garza: Well, I would say Yes, but I think a little more specific information. It's certainly possible, but I need more information to be able to give you a reasonable answer
Sridhar Raghavachari: uh same thing for the next one organ on the chip technology.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Again, we can't comment on these specific topic areas without seeing what you have in mind, and whether they satisfy all the other parts of it. So again, please drop us a line with a one-page summary.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh, what you're thinking about?
Sridhar Raghavachari: I think we answered this one about external evaluators depends.
Sridhar Raghavachari: How do you define a biofoundry? Does having one robotic liquid handler make it a biofoundry. How do you define a minimal biofoundry. You
Sridhar Raghavachari: we'll with five robotic handlers record handlers in five different buildings constitute a by a foundry. The
Steve Peretti: maybe maybe not
Steve Peretti: make me make the case, How is it enhancing the capability to do research in a really positive way, and to address
Steve Peretti: um important fundamental questions,
Sridhar Raghavachari: right? And how is Yeah, the new technology development cycles that virtuous cycle between in-house research, external research as well as technology development. I mean all of that are integral to the By a
Sridhar Raghavachari: this is a follow up on a previous question how much is existing Infrastructure and automation needed to be successful in the application. We really can't answer at this stage. So we really have to see some proposals,
Sridhar Raghavachari: but that's much farther down the line, and
Sridhar Raghavachari: the next one is
Sridhar Raghavachari: elaborating on the user-friendly aspect. My guess is user-facing aspect. Is it a web-based tool? Is it a biotechnology-based novel tool is it establishing a transgenic crop on the field?
Sridhar Raghavachari: I would say all of the above,
Sridhar Raghavachari: depending on the specific area of what you're trying to do. How you are.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh,
Sridhar Raghavachari: both broadening access and
Sridhar Raghavachari: engaging in in transformative research.
Steve Peretti: The other thing I would say about user-friendly If you're assuming you're going to have a user base how do they access the facility if they have to drive themselves from six hundred miles away, one hundred,
Steve Peretti: and set up camp for two weeks.
Steve Peretti: How are you going to facilitate that, You know? If if that's part of what you know, what you consider your your user community, You
Steve Peretti: it's
Steve Peretti: which kind of loops back to the question about automation and what your facility look like, How can people interface with it in a way that they can actually use it? And not just well we built it. But nobody could come
Steve Peretti: except us.
Charles Ying: Yeah. Another aspect is, you know how open the information uh for the for the instrument in the facility
Charles Ying: you have to call somebody to find out detail, or there's enough information on a website. For example, there's available. So people can look at it and see. Okay, what instrument you have and what
Charles Ying: without. You know, some example, the results, and maybe even publications you
Charles Ying: A a few years after the bounce of the five hundred.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Um. Okay. So it looks like this
Sridhar Raghavachari: since he's saying, i'm trying to understand the gist of it. Will it be like a core service facility with its own research program?
Sridhar Raghavachari: Partly, it is a core facility with its own research program and a tech development program, right? So I guess one parallel I can draw here would be, for instance, a genre of our research campus. They're driven. They have two,
Sridhar Raghavachari: and they've chosen a high-end imaging as one of their original thrusts. So they have in-house research programs that actually push
Sridhar Raghavachari: look, I mean it' be a reasonable focus for the neurosciences which they did, as well as providing resources to the community as well, which was both sort of resources they could give away in terms of fly lines, but they also had resources that the community could come make use of like advanced instrumentation like the light sheet microscopes.
Sridhar Raghavachari: So again,
Sridhar Raghavachari: the research and the technology development sort of fed off each other and advanced each other, whereas and then the products of these were then made available to the large community at large. So that would be one model, if you will.
Sridhar Raghavachari: But again, it depends on the question you're asking, and what is the best fit and what's the best way you can organize your research and technologies to the particular call. So
Sridhar Raghavachari: would Nsf. Be a real amenable to helping me partner with the university. That would be most appropriate
Sridhar Raghavachari: It's
Sridhar Raghavachari: Again,
Sridhar Raghavachari: this will be a question that
Sridhar Raghavachari: we can. We can't really match make.
Sridhar Raghavachari: But this would require you to just give us a call, and we can send out. Send us an email, and we can work with that
Sridhar Raghavachari: he is biofriending a manufacturing theme,
Sridhar Raghavachari: Steve.
Steve Peretti: I think that Cmi and advanced manufacturing, have funded various aspects of bioprinting including bio-inc development and so on I know that there's a lot of it involved in, You know the development of one hundred and fifty
Steve Peretti: organized tissues and seeing things of that nature, I can imagine it's part of cultured meat development So we fund it. It's fair game. What are you doing with it?
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay, Um
Sridhar Raghavachari: User-facing would include staffing for core facilities.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Oh, yes,
Sridhar Raghavachari: that's what the user facility coordinator and any other stuff that you would that would be needed for the facility.
Sridhar Raghavachari: There are questions about whether it cover synthetic biology. Again, we can't really talk about this specifically. So it would be best if you could send us an email with them.
Sridhar Raghavachari: One paid summary of you
Sridhar Raghavachari: a proposed idea, and we can discuss that.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Um.
Sridhar Raghavachari: The next question is, are equipment and user facilities intended for scale up or research.
Sridhar Raghavachari: I would say, either depending on what the question is and what the equipment is.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Will user fee rates be different for academic than industry users
Steve Peretti: not not our issue.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Yes, that is a design that that's up to you. Convince the reviewers of your sustainable use of more user model and ensuring broad access.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Be
Sridhar Raghavachari: How do you define continuation dependent on program evaluation, performance and availability of funding? Would Nsf be providing the same level of funding for another six years?
Sridhar Raghavachari: Again, availability of funding is a big caveat in all of this, so which is simply supersedes most of the things.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay, I think we have
Sridhar Raghavachari: at rest
Sridhar Raghavachari: pretty much all the questions.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay. We'll hang around here for a couple of more minutes if you have any other questions.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Otherwise, thanks for joining. And
Sridhar Raghavachari: uh, please drop us a line at biofoundries at Nsf. Go for any specific questions you may have.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Okay, I'll like a seven breed
Sridhar Raghavachari: dropping out. So
Sridhar Raghavachari: give them a couple of more minutes in case there are questions.
Sridhar Raghavachari: Am I on the close, The Webinar room.