NSF Org:	IOS Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems
Recipient:	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO
Initial Amendment Date:	July 19, 2019
Latest Amendment Date:	August 3, 2023
Award Number:	1937992
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Anna Allen akallen@nsf.gov  (703)292-8011 IOS  Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems BIO  Directorate for Biological Sciences
Start Date:	August 1, 2019
End Date:	July 31, 2024 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$19,860.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$19,860.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2019 = $19,860.00
History of Investigator:	Deirdre Lyons (Principal Investigator) d1lyons@ucsd.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	University of California-San Diego Scripps Inst of Oceanography 8622 DISCOVERY WAY # 116 LA JOLLA CA  US  92093-1500 (858)534-1293
Sponsor Congressional District:	50
Primary Place of Performance:	UCSD - Scripps Inst. of Oceanography 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla CA  US  92093-0210
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	50
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	QJ8HMDK7MRM3
Parent UEI:	QJ8HMDK7MRM3
NSF Program(s):	Evolution of Develp Mechanism
Primary Program Source:	01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	7556
Program Element Code(s):	108000
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.074

ABSTRACT

Non-Technical Paragraph

The goal of this 4-day 'Spiralian White Paper Workshop' is to assemble a diverse and dedicated group of scientists studying animals that belong to the largest metazoan superclade, the Spiralia. This group includes familiar animals like earthworms, leeches, scallops, oysters, and octopus, as well as thousands of other less well known, but fascinating and beautiful species such as deep sea vent worms, giant clams, nudibranchs, and flatworms. Many of the animals in this group have important impacts on human health and industry; for example bivalve molluscs are important species in the global food supply chain; parasitic flatworms are common human disease vectors, and tube worms are persistent biofouling materials on ships and docks. On a more basic-research level these animals are excellent models for studying important aspects of life such as symbiosis, regeneration, and neurobiology. While many hundreds of labs work on these species, communication and coordination is hampered by the lack of infrastructure to support research and teaching efforts. This workshop aims to eliminate that bottle neck by gathering many of the leaders in the field to devise ways to increase communication, collaboration, and infrastructure within our community, and to increase the profile of our work outside the community. Attention will be paid to diversity and career stage when inviting meeting participants. The results of the meeting will be published as an a freely available open-access paper.

Technical Paragraph

The metazoan super-clade Spiralia contains more than 14 animal body-plans. Members include speciose groups like molluscs, annelids, platyhelminths, nemerteans, brachiopods and bryozoans, as well as many smaller, enigmatic phyla. Spiralians have been used as model organisms to study development, genome-editing, transgenesis, genomics, symbiosis, phylogenomics, phylogeography, morphology, biomineralization, neurogenesis, behavior, regeneration, Eco-Devo, and evolution. Yet, there has never been a meeting dedicated to the research in this group. The Spiralian White Paper Workshop is designed to bring the leaders in the field together to discuss the future direction of their research and to plan future initiatives for research, teaching, and outreach. This workshop will result in a more cohesive and organized core community of researchers working with Spiralians, able to collaborate and interact effectively. Meeting participants will be invited with particular attention to diversity and to career stage. A white paper will be written to outline the strengths and advantages of these organisms as models for research and teaching.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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