In light of a report issued by its National Science Board, the National Science Foundation has launched a number of initiatives aimed at helping the US remain a powerhouse in scientific research and technological innovation.  “This information clearly shows we must re-examine long-held assumptions about the global dominance of the American science and technology enterprise,” said NSF Director Subra Suresh.

Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI) and The NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) are two such efforts (among others) that will provide funding for international collaboration between scientists, engineers and educators and connect NSF-funded research with members of private industry to promote innovation.

For those who work in the field of nuclear medicine, the US Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research recently issued a FOA for Integrated Nuclear Medicine Research and Training Projects of Excellence. It expects that up to $10M will be available in FY2012 for multiple awards. The pre-application due date is February 23.

The FOA specifies that “Institutional settings with easy access to nuclear medicine imaging specialties such as positron emission tomography (PET) and SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) are required and should offer broad ranging research collaborations from research and development of radiotracers to translation for potential clinical use in humans.”