In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) unveiled a set of "Big Ideas," 10 bold, long-term research and process ideas that identified unique opportunities to position our Nation at the cutting edge of global science and engineering by bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergence research. One of those, Understanding the Rules of Life: Predicting Phenotype, is based on developing a predictive understanding of how key properties of living systems emerge from interactions of factors such as genomes, phenotypes, and dynamic environments.

As NSF considers ways to promote use-inspired research that reaches beyond curiosity-driven science, we seek multidisciplinary, community feedback on how researchers can use the emerging Rules of Life to address societal challenges by combining approaches from among all the scientific disciplines, including engineering; mathematics; physical sciences; computer science; geosciences; social, behavioral, and economic sciences; as well as the breadth of biological sciences.

To this end we announce a series of free Virtual Events centered on Using the Rules of Life to Address Societal Challenges. The goal is to bring together researchers with diverse perspectives -- including those from all scientific disciplines, with various levels of experience (from senior scientists to postdocs), from different types of institutions or organizations, and from historically underrepresented groups in STEM -- to share ideas about how Rules of Life approaches and data might be harnessed by multidisciplinary teams to tackle pressing societal challenges.

Outline of Events The events will include a Virtual Town Hall on March 15, 2022 from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM EST, at which NSF will get community feedback on which grand challenges are best-suited to being solved by this convergent approach, as well as innovative ideas on how and what kinds of multidisciplinary teams can solve them...

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