This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications for developing and testing innovative theories and computational, mathematical, or engineering approaches to deepen our understanding of complex social behavior. This research will examine phenomena at multiple scales to address the emergence of collective behaviors that arise from individual elements or parts of a system working together. Emergence can also describe the functioning of a system within the context of its environment. Often properties we associate with a system itself are in actuality properties of the relationships and interactions between a system and its environment. This FOA will support research that explores the often complex and dynamic relationships among the parts of a system and between the system and its environment in order to understand the system as a whole.
To accomplish the goals of this initiative, we encourage applications that build trans disciplinary teams of scientists spanning a broad range of expertise. Minimally this team should include investigators with expertise in the behavioral or social sciences as well as in computational and systems modeling (computer science, mathematics, engineering, or other systems sciences). Applications should demonstrate bridge-building between disciplines, scales and levels.
For a detailed description of the project, requirements and guidelines, please refer to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-13-374.html