Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention Phase II | 23 608

Opportunity Information: Apply for 23 608

The National Science Foundation (NSF) opportunity called Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) Phase II is a major center-scale funding program aimed at improving the worlds ability to anticipate, detect, and respond to emerging infectious disease threats before they become full-scale pandemics. NSF is framing the problem as both a scientific and national security challenge: new and re-emerging pathogens can disrupt human health, animal health, ecosystems, and economic stability, and current approaches often fall short because the work is too fragmented across disciplines and institutions. The program is designed to push beyond isolated projects by building sustained, coordinated, global-scale research efforts that integrate advances across biology, computation, engineering, mathematics, and the social sciences, and then translate that knowledge into practical tools and strategies.

At the heart of PIPP Phase II is the creation of a network of Centers, meaning large, interdisciplinary teams organized around ambitious research and development agendas. This Phase II Centers Program is described as the flagship effort that builds on earlier PIPP Phase I development grants, which helped teams refine ideas and partnerships. The Phase II goal is transformative capability: improving society's capacity to forecast the likelihood of pandemic-scale events, spot outbreaks earlier, and respond more efficiently when signals of emergence appear. In other words, the program is not only about understanding pathogens in the lab, but about building predictive intelligence that works across the full arc of a pandemic threat, from pre-emergence conditions through detection, mitigation, and response.

NSF is inviting Center proposals that primarily align with one of four multidisciplinary themes. Theme 1, Pre-emergence, focuses on predicting and detecting rare events in complex, dynamical systems, which reflects the reality that spillover and emergence can be low-probability but high-impact events influenced by changing ecological and biological conditions. Theme 2, Data, AI/ML and Design, targets computing, manufacturing, and technology innovation for pandemics, emphasizing data-driven methods, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and engineered systems that can speed up analysis, decision-making, and countermeasure development. Theme 3, The Host as the Universe, centers on identifying host-pathogen tipping points that determine whether an infection is controlled or spreads, highlighting critical transitions in immune response, pathogen adaptation, and within-host dynamics that can shape transmission and severity. Theme 4, Human Systems, addresses how human behavior, activities, and environments affect disease emergence, transmission, and the effectiveness of response or mitigation, recognizing that pandemics are shaped as much by social systems and incentives as by biology.

The program is explicitly cross-directorate at NSF, with joint collaboration among Biological Sciences (BIO), Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Engineering (ENG), Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE), and Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS). That structure signals what NSF expects from applicants: teams that genuinely bridge disciplines rather than placing them side-by-side. NSF also encourages involvement from additional research communities, including use-inspired research efforts, which implies interest in partnerships and pathways that move foundational advances into real-world practice, tools, or decision support systems.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary grant opportunity run by NSF under Funding Opportunity Number 23-608, categorized under science and technology research and development. The listed CFDA numbers are 47.041, 47.049, 47.070, 47.074, and 47.075, reflecting the multi-directorate nature of the program. The opportunity anticipated around 7 awards, with an award ceiling of up to $18,000,000, which reinforces that these are intended to be large, center-like investments rather than typical single-investigator grants. The original closing date was December 8, 2023, and the eligible applicants field points to additional eligibility details in the full solicitation text.

Overall, PIPP Phase II is positioned as an effort to build durable scientific infrastructure and coordinated expertise for pandemic prevention, combining foundational research with scalable technologies and socially grounded approaches. The underlying message is that preventing or limiting the next pandemic requires predictive capacity across biological emergence, data and computation, host-pathogen dynamics, and human systems, all working together through sustained, team-based center programs rather than short-term, disconnected projects.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention Phase II" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.049, 47.070, 47.074, 47.075.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 22, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 08, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $18,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 7 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 23 608

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