diff --git a/lib/FilterGroups/FilterGroups.js b/lib/FilterGroups/FilterGroups.js
index ef0bc067..ac3622e9 100644
--- a/lib/FilterGroups/FilterGroups.js
+++ b/lib/FilterGroups/FilterGroups.js
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
-import kebabCase from 'lodash/kebabCase';
+import {
+  kebabCase,
+  template,
+} from 'lodash';
 import React from 'react';
 import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
 import FilterControlGroup from '../FilterControlGroup';
@@ -117,6 +120,19 @@ export function filterState(filters) {
  * selected have no effect unless the `restrictWhenAllSelected`
  * setting is on.
  *
+ * config objects may have the following attributes:
+ *   * label: a FormattedMessage suitable for display (i.e. translatable)
+ *   * name: the key used to match a config-object to a filter value
+ *   * cql: the field to match against when constructing 'field="value"' queries
+ *     or range queries such as'field>="valueA" and field<="valueB"'
+ *   * template: an alternative to the cql attribute, the value is a lodash
+ *     template string that will have values interpolated into it. this allows
+ *     for the construction of arbitrarily complex CQL queries
+ *   * values: array of [cql, name, hidden] objects corresponding to a filter's potential
+ *     values where cql represents the key to use in a query and name represents
+ *     the value to use in display. [cql] will match a filter's value and thus
+ *     is the only attribute relevant here. Details on [hidden] are below.
+ *
  * config values with the attribute "hidden: true" are not exposed in the UI
  * (i.e. no checkbox is presented in the UI) but the filter value is always
  * applied. For example, suppose a filter group "species" existed and the
@@ -125,7 +141,7 @@ export function filterState(filters) {
  * values entry with the attribute `name: "human"` would also contain the
  * attribute `hidden: true`.
  *
- * @param config array list of objects with keys label, name, cql, values[]
+ * @param config array list of objects with keys label, name, cql|template, values[]
  * @param filters string comma-delimited list of active filters, e.g. foo.someValue,bar.otherValue
  *
  */
@@ -172,7 +188,6 @@ export function filters2cql(config, filters = '') {
     // with the same name. that *shouldn't* happen, but just in case it
     // does, only use the first one.
     const group = config.filter(g => g.name === groupName)[0];
-    const cqlIndex = group.cql;

     // values contains the selected filters
     const values = groups[groupName];
@@ -183,17 +198,21 @@ export function filters2cql(config, filters = '') {
         return (obj.length > 0) ? obj[0].cql : v;
       });

-      if (group.isRange) {
+      if (group.isRange && group.cql) {
         const { isIncludingStart = true, isIncludingEnd = true, rangeSeparator = ':' } = group;
         const [start, end] = mappedValues[0].split(rangeSeparator);
-        const startCondition = `${cqlIndex}>${isIncludingStart ? '=' : ''}"${start}"`;
-        const endCondition = `${cqlIndex}<${isIncludingEnd ? '=' : ''}"${end}"`;
-
+        const startCondition = `${group.cql}>${isIncludingStart ? '=' : ''}"${start}"`;
+        const endCondition = `${group.cql}<${isIncludingEnd ? '=' : ''}"${end}"`;
         conds.push(`(${startCondition} and ${endCondition})`);
-      } else {
+      } else if (group.template) {
         let joinedValues = mappedValues.map(v => `"${v}"`).join(' or ');
         if (values.length > 1) joinedValues = `(${joinedValues})`;
-        conds.push(`${cqlIndex}=${joinedValues}`);
+        const clause = template(group.template)({ value: joinedValues });
+        conds.push(`(${clause})`);
+      } else if (group.cql) {
+        let joinedValues = mappedValues.map(v => `"${v}"`).join(' or ');
+        if (values.length > 1) joinedValues = `(${joinedValues})`;
+        conds.push(`${group.cql}=${joinedValues}`);
       }
     }
   }