This solicitation calls for proposals that integrate the study of organismal mechanisms of response to climate change (ORCC) with eco-evolutionary approaches to better predict and mitigate the effects of a rapidly changing climate on earth's living systems. Specific areas of emphasis include but are not limited to integrating physiology and genomics into the next generation of species distribution models; understanding the mechanistic bases of plastic responses to climate change; functional genomics of organismal response to climate change; how biological interactions are affected by climate change; how biological interactions in turn affect organismal responses to climate change; and improving our ability to predict the limits of biological and global resilience as organisms face changing and novel climate conditions.

Proposals to the ORCC Solicitation are encouraged that build on NSF's investment in growing convergence research by developing integrative, cross-disciplinary approaches that examine the organismal mechanisms that underlie adaptive and maladaptive responses to environmental factors associated with climate change, how these responses affect fitness in changing and/or novel climates and the genetic and evolutionary processes (eco-evolutionary) through which these traits originate, persist, and are transmitted across generations. Further, this solicitation encourages creative approaches to use the results of these foundational research investigations to develop use-inspired ways to address societal challenges in anticipating and managing effects of climate change on organisms across spatial and temporal scales and biological hierarchies.