The National Science Foundation has awarded $19 million to researchers at UC San Diego and the University of Vermont to build a National Biological Observatory. The project is designed to create coast-to-coast infrastructure supporting large-scale life sciences investigations.
According to the announcement, the new infrastructure will help researchers address fundamental questions across the life sciences. The funding is shared between the two institutions, with UC San Diego leading the effort alongside the University of Vermont.
Details on the specific hardware, networking, or data systems involved were not provided in the source. The announcement frames the observatory primarily as a distributed research infrastructure effort rather than a single facility.