The scope of projects should either broadly align with the mission and vision of the center or fill a specific need or gap in its research and services portfolio, which includes:

• Foundational tools for design and development of engineered biological systems
• Automated workflows for design, construction, characterization, and engineering of biological systems
• Foundational high-throughput and automated workflows for synthetic biology applications such as protein and metabolic engineering
• Discovery, characterization, and engineering of genetic parts and tools for new chassis organisms for synthetic biology
• AI/ML advances in synthetic biology, protein engineering, metabolic engineering, and laboratory automation
• Cloud biofoundry tools that integrate synthetic biology, AI/ML, and laboratory automation
• Development of autonomous experimentation and self-driving laboratories

The center welcomes and encourages proposals from a broad range of institutions and investigators, including early career researchers.

• User proposals must originate from researchers outside of UIUC
• Principal investigators (PIs) are limited to one proposal annually; renewals are allowed
• PIs must be based in the United States
• Awards are not made directly to individuals
• Proposals encouraged from early career investigators and diverse institutions

All proposals undergo peer review. The following criteria are used to evaluate submissions:

• Impact / Significance: potential to advance the field and generate meaningful outcomes
• Innovation / Intellectual Merit: novelty and scientific rigor of the proposed approach
• Alignment with mission & vision: relevance to center goals and research portfolio
• Technical Feasibility: practicality of execution within the proposed timeline and budget