April 2018  
 
The FAS Research Development group publishes this monthly Funding Newsletter for SEAS faculty and researchers. The newsletter includes notable Federal, private, and internal Harvard funding opportunities. To provide feedback, please complete our two-question survey.  
 
Questions?
Erin Hale: [email protected] | 617-496-5252 
Jennifer Corby:  [email protected] | 617-495-1590  
 
  For more information on our support services, please visit our website .

Did you know?
 Harvard affiliates have access to Pivot , a funding opportunity database. 
 
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News, Announcements, & Special Features
 
Limited Submission Opportunities: Responses Needed by April 19th and April 23rd
Feature: N ew Investigator Opportunity Spotlight
Quick links to early career opportunities in this month's newsletter.

Funding Opportunities

Click on the links below to read a program synopsis

U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)
 
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 
 
Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA)
 
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Science Foundation: Directorate for Computer & Information Science and Engineering (NSF: CISE)

Foundation Opportunities

Gates
Grand Challenges Explorations
OSP Deadline: April 25, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: May 2, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $100,000 for Phase I; successful awardees have one opportunity to apply for a follow-on Phase II award of up to $1 million. This award does not cover overhead costs, which falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy. Please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.
 
Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) supports hundreds of early-stage projects that could lead to new vaccines, diagnostics, drugs, and other technologies targeting diseases that claim millions of lives every year, as well as improvements and innovations in agriculture development. Twice each year, GCE invites high-risk, high-reward proposals for various challenges from innovators in a wide range of disciplines. GCE is an extension of the foundation's commitment to the Grand Challenges in Global Health, which was launched in 2003 to accelerate the discovery of new technologies to improve global health. Currently open challenges include: 

Breakthrough
Sponsor Deadline: April 30, 2018
Review by Harvard OSP not required
Prize Amount: $3,000,000
 
The Breakthrough Prizes recognize major achievements in life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics, with special attention to recent developments.  
 
One Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics ($3 million) will recognize an individual(s) who has made profound contributions to human knowledge. It is open to all physicists - theoretical, mathematical and experimental - working on the deepest mysteries of the Universe. The prize can be shared among any number of scientists. Nominations are also being taken for the New Horizons Prize in Physics which awards $100,000 to junior researchers who have already produced important work in their fields.
 
Up to four Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences ($3 million each) will be awarded to individuals who have made transformative advances in understanding living systems and extending human life.
 
One  Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics  ($3 million) will be awarded to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of mathematics. In addition, addition, up to three $100,000 New Horizons in Mathematics Prizes will be presented to early career mathematicians who have already produced important work in their fields.
 
Nominations:
  • Anyone may nominate a candidate at the online nominations page during the open nominations period.
  • Self-nominations are not allowed.
  • A valid nomination will have basic biographical information on the nominee and nominator and at least one third-party letter of recommendation.
  • Candidate citations (up to 10) from a specified academic publishing database are required.
  • Nominations can be made online at https://breakthroughprize.org/Nominations.
While institutional review is not required, nominators are asked to provide the names of any nominees to Erin Hale at [email protected] .


Sponsor Pre-Proposal Deadline: May 1, 2018
OSP Full Proposal Deadline (if invited): July 13, 2018
Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline (if invited): July 20, 2018
Award Amount: $100,000 over three years
Eligible Applicants: Faculty members who started their first tenure-track appointment anytime in calendar year 2015 and whose primary appointment is in a department of astronomy, chemistry or physics. Accommodations are made for faculty in maternity or paternity leave or with medical conditions that prompted an extension in the tenure clock. 
 
The Cottrell Scholar Award develops outstanding teacher-scholars who are recognized by their scientific communities for the quality and innovation of their research programs and their academic leadership skills. The Cottrell Scholar Award provides entry into a national community of outstanding scholar-educators who produce significant research and educational outcomes. Proposals must contain a research plan, an educational plan and a clear statement on how the Cottrell Scholar Award will help applicants become truly outstanding teacher-scholars and future academic leaders. The ability of applicants to mount a strong and innovative research program and achieve excellence in education and their potential leadership skills are key criteria in the selection of the awards.
Research Grants
OSP Deadline: May 11, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: May 18, 2018
Award Amount: $10,000 to $45,000. Funds will not be granted for indirect costs. This falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy. Please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.
 
Each year the Foundation awards research grants for basic scientific research directed at early detection, improved treatment modalities, and technological advances that will ultimately improve outcomes for patients with brain aneurysms. Projects that are focused on translational research, clinical outcome research, early detection, imaging, and aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage and its associated complications are also awarded funding.
 
Funds may be used for startup projects or supplementary funding. Salaries, including graduate student or postdoctoral fellows, may be requested at the principal investigator's discretion. Grant awards will be presented at the Brain Aneurysm Foundation's Annual Research Grant Awards Dinner in Pittsburgh, PA on September 20, 2018. Grant awardees or an appropriate representative must be present to receive the award and present a poster of the research during the opening reception.
Immunotherapy for Primary Human Brain Tumors
OSP Deadline: Not required for pre-proposals
Sponsor Deadline for Pre-Proposals: May 11, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $250,000 per year for three years.
 
The Brain Tumor Funders' Collaborative (BTFC) works to identify potential therapies for patients with primary human brain tumors to ultimately increase overall patient survival, increase progression-free patient survival and improve the quality of life of patients affected by a primary brain tumor. BTFC sponsors research on the role of the neuro-immune system in the origin and progression of the immune responses in primary human brain tumors with the hope of developing immunotherapies for treatment of these tumors in patients. BTFC is interested in gaining a better understanding of immune mechanisms as they apply to human brain tumors of any grade in pediatric and adult populations. Characterization across more than one tumor type, therapeutic approach, and age group are of interest.
 
BTFC is considering supporting a small number of multi-disciplinary team-based projects that represent the fields of clinical oncology, tumor biology, neuro-immunology, computational modelling, and data science. Other areas of immunotherapy research may also be entertained, such as radiation-induced brain tumors in survivors of childhood cancers who received cranio-spinal radiation for their original cancer (leukemias or medulloblastoma).

BrainResearch
Scientific Innovations Award
Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: May 17, 2018 
Sponsor LOI Deadline (if nominated): June 22, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $150,000 for a two year grant period
Target Applicants: Applicants must be an Associate Professor or Full Professor working in the area of brain function in health and disease; have major NIH or other peer-reviewed funding in the past three years (2015 or later), though current support is preferred; and propose a new research project that is not funded by other sources.
 
The Brain Research Foundation's Scientific Innovations Award Program provides funding for innovative science in both basic and clinical neuroscience. This funding mechanism supports creative, exploratory, cutting edge research in well-established research laboratories under the direction of established investigators. Funding is to be directed at projects that may be too innovative and speculative for traditional funding sources but still have a high likelihood of producing important findings. This should be a unique project for senior investigators who are encouraged to stretch their imagination into areas that can substantially change an area of research.
 
Harvard University, as a single institution, is limited to submitting one Letter of Intent for this competition. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is facilitating an internal application process for eligible applicants. Applicants may apply for the internal application process here .

Research Grants
OSP Deadline: June 22, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: July 1, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $75,000 for one year or up to $150,000 for 2 years for Design and Development Grants.
 
The mission of the Paralyzed Veterans of America Research Foundation is to promote innovative research to find better treatments and cures for paralysis; support efforts to improve the quality of life of individuals with spinal cord dysfunction until treatments are found; and train post-doctoral fellow investigators and encourage them to specialize in the area of spinal cord research. The Foundation supports innovative research that improves the lives of those with spinal cord injury and disease, including Design and Development Grants for new or improved rehabilitative and assistive devices to improve function for individuals with spinal cord injury or disease.

Industry/Corporate Opportunities
Innovators in Science Award
Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: May 14, 2018
OSP Deadline: Not required for awards paid directly to individuals 
Sponsor Deadline (if nominated): June 25, 2018
Award Amount: $200,000
Target Applicants: Early Career Scientists must be engaged in active research for 10 years or less since gaining their doctorate degree or equivalent (as of June 25, 2018), currently hold a junior level Post-doctoral or Faculty position, and have a record of making impactful research contributions and showing exceptional promise for significant future achievement in the Award field; Early Career nominees who have taken a leave of absence during this 10-year period can qualify for an extension of the eligibility timeframe. Senior Scientists must be engaged in active research for 10 years or more since gaining their doctorate degree or equivalent (as of June 25, 2018), currently hold a senior level Faculty position, and have a record of making multiple, extensive, and impactful research contributions to advance the Award field. Individuals in receipt of current or prior research support from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, or its affiliates, are not eligible for nomination.
 
The Innovators in Science Award, administered by the New York Academy of Sciences and sponsored by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, recognizes a promising Early-Career Scientist's and an outstanding Senior Scientist's contributions to science in the therapeutic area of Regenerative Medicine, and is intended to support their commitment to innovative research. The winning scientists have distinguished themselves for the creativity and impact of their research.
 
Harvard University, as a single institution, is limited to putting forward one nominee who is an Early-Career Scientist and one nominee who is a Senior Scientist. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is facilitating the internal application and review process for applicants who hold a primary affiliation at school located on the Harvard campus. Applicants may apply for the internal application process here .
 
Questions about this opportunity may be directed to Erin Hale (617-496-5252, [email protected] ) or Susan Gomes (617-496-9448, [email protected] ).


Cisco 
Cisco Research Center Grants
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: Budgets depend on the institution and geography. Overhead is limited to 5%. This falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy. Please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.
Cisco Research Center (CRC) connects researchers and developers from Cisco, academia, governments, customers, and industry partners with the goal of facilitating collaboration and exploration of new and promising technologies. Cisco is primarily interested in exploring issues, topics, and problems that are relevant to its core business of improving the Internet. It is also deeply interested in adjacent technologies that leverage the power of the network to change the world around us.
 
CRC supports a broad range of research interests and award types in engineering and applied sciences. For a complete list of Requests for Proposals (RFPs), please scroll to the bottom of this link. Please note that CRC also welcomes research proposals that do not fit cleanly into any of the RFPs listed.
 IBM_World
IBM
World Community Grid
OSP Deadline: Not required 
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: Up to 150,000 years of computing power through World Community Grid; weather data from The Weather Company, an IBM Business; and cloud storage from IBM Cloud.
IBM invites scientists studying climate change or ways to mitigate or adapt to its impacts to apply for free crowdsourced supercomputing power, weather data and cloud storage to support their climate or environmental research projects. In return, awardees are asked to publicly release the research data from their collaboration with IBM, enabling the global community to benefit from and build upon those findings.
 
Grantees will receive free, 24/7 access to computing power though World Community Grid, an award-winning IBM Citizenship initiative that enables anyone with a computer or Android device to support scientific research by carrying out computational research tasks on their devices. This allows researchers to conduct large-scale investigations, often magnitudes larger than they would have otherwise been able to conduct. Grantees may also request access to weather data and cloud storage.

Internal Opportunities
SEAS Internal Deadline: April 23, 2018 by 11:59PM
Award Amount: $100,000 maximum for junior faculty; $10,000 maximum for doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows
 
The Arango Family Research Fund is a new internal funding opportunity that will provide critical funding to advance high-risk, high reward science conducted by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty at Harvard Medical School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Applications should propose research in the natural sciences, specifically for work that may be considered high-risk, high-reward. 

Funds will be awarded in two categories:
  1. Junior Faculty ($100K per award): Each of four schools (Harvard Medical School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences) is invited to submit up to two nominations in the Junior Faculty category to be considered in the University-wide competition. One award will be made in this category to support work over one to two years.
  2. Doctoral Students and Postdoctoral Fellows ($10K per award): Each of four schools (Harvard Medical School, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences) is invited to submit up to two nominations in the Doctoral Students and Postdoctoral Fellows category to be considered in the University-wide competition. For the purposes of this competition, the affiliation of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows is determined by the school in which their faculty adviser is appointed. One award per school, for a total of four awards, will be made in this category to support work over one year.
The Office of the Vice Provost for Research will administer the Fund on behalf of the President of Harvard University, and each of the four eligible schools will put forward nominees in each category to be considered in a University-wide competition. To be considered for the SEAS nomination, applicants with a primary SEAS affiliation should apply here by April 23, 2018.
Deadline: May 18, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $20,000
Eligible Applicants: The designated faculty leader(s) must hold primary Harvard faculty appointments at the rank of Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor or senior non-ladder faculty appointments including Senior Lecturer, Senior Preceptor, and Professor of Practice.
 
The Provost's Fund for Interfaculty Collaboration (PFIC) was developed to promote faculty collaboration across multiple Harvard Schools. This fund can be used to support a variety of projects, including but not limited to cross-School interdisciplinary course support, research working groups, and small-scale conferences. The Fund will occasionally prioritize particular forms of collaboration, and during the 2017-2018 academic year, funding priority will be given to proposals intended to advance cross-School teaching. 
 
To be eligible for support, the designated faculty leader(s) must hold primary Harvard faculty appointments at the rank of Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor or senior non-ladder faculty appointments including Senior Lecturer, Senior Preceptor, and Professor of Practice, and the project must engage faculty and/or students from at least two Harvard Schools. Priority will be given to applicants who have not previously received funding from the grant. Colleagues from outside Harvard may be included as well.
 
These one-year grants should be considered seed money rather than continuing support. Funding should be expended within a year of the award. Preference will be given to proposals that illustrate the potential cross-School impact of funding (e.g., cross-listed courses, sponsored research opportunities, resulting scholarly products) as well as to proposals that leverage other resources (e.g., cost-sharing with a Department, School, or outside funder).
Dean's Fund for Scientific Advancement: Acceleration Award
Deadline: June 18, 2018
Award Amount: $100,000 (direct costs) for a 12-month project period with an automatic 6-month no-cost extension to cultivate collaborative/transdisciplinary research, develop cross-cutting research platforms, and support pedagogical advancement.
Target Applicants: This award is open to Harvard Chan School faculty of any rank who have a primary appointment at the Harvard Chan School, but applications will require the substantial engagement of at least two Harvard Chan School Departments or Centers and must include collaboration from at least one other Harvard School.
 
The Dean's Fund for Scientific Advancement expands the School's internal research funding with the goal of creating a pipeline of support from awards that support the exploration of early ideas, to the development of strong interdisciplinary team science, through to supporting transformative research collaborations that advance the frontiers of science. Acceleration Awards are collaboration-focused planning grants supporting research, platforms, and education. Up to three awards will be distributed annually across three focal areas:
 
Research Grants: the two priority topic areas this year are Aging & Longevity and Emerging Health Threats. Those who receive Research Grants are eligible to apply for the Dean's Fund Transformation Award at the conclusion of the Acceleration Award funding period. 
 
Research Platforms : the two priority topics this year are Data Science and Implementation Science. Research Platforms, defined broadly, are adaptable and dynamic resources that can be accessed by multiple faculty to support projects in a variety of disciplines. The goal is to provide one-time support for the development of research platforms that can be funded in the future by external support mechanisms.
 
Public Health Pedagogy: the two priority topics this year are Service Learning and Team Teaching. This focal area intends to produce scalable innovations that will improve the quality of teaching and learning at the Harvard Chan School. Special consideration will be given to applications that have the potential to be scaled up School-wide to benefit teaching and learning at all levels. The goal is to provide one-time support for the development of pedagogical innovations that can be integrated into our educational programs or funded in the future by external support mechanisms.


U.S. Department of Defense
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Biostasis
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Abstracts (strongly encouraged): April 17, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: May 22, 2018
Award Amount:  The amount of resources made available under this BAA will
depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. The anticipated period of performance is 5 years.
 
DARPA seeks novel approaches to reversibly pause and/or slow the functions and preserve viability of living cells without reliance on cold temperature. This new technology aims to directly address needs within the Department of Defense to maintain and deliver biological therapeutics and extend the window of time for effective use of field forward therapeutics.
 
Proposals must address both of the following major tasks:
Task 1: Design, build and test reversible Biostasis intervention(s).
Task 2: Determine Safety, Efficacy, and Generalizability of Biostasis intervention(s).
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
SIGMA+ Sensors
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Abstracts (strongly encouraged): April 18, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: May 31, 2018
Award Amount: The level of funding for individual awards made under this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. DARPA is soliciting detailed proposals for the Phase 1 effort only, consisting of a 30-month base period.
 
The Defense Sciences Office at DARPA is soliciting innovative research proposals in the area of advanced chemical and biological detector technologies to support a networked system of sensors for the detection, interdiction, and deterrence of clandestine weapons of mass destruction (WMD). A future BAA, anticipated to be released in the first half of the 2019 Government Fiscal Year, will address the development of automated intelligence analytics and advanced adversary modeling, as well as further developments for the SIGMA network backbone that are expected to be required to perform full fusion of the data and methods.
 
The sensors thrust consists of two technical areas (TAs). TA1 encompasses environmental chemical sensing. TA2 involves biological sensors and is further divided into new detectors for environmental sensing of aerosolized biological threats (TA2.1), and new human-based sensors that may indicate illness before the onset of significant symptoms (TA2.2).
 
Multiple awards are anticipated.

DARPA_MSDC
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Disruption Opportunity Special Notice - Molecular Scaffold Design Collective (MSDC)
OSP Deadline: April 19, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: April 26, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $1M for an 18 month period of performance
 
DARPA's Defense Sciences Office (DSO) invites submissions of innovative basic or applied research concepts in the technical domain of molecular scaffold design. The Molecular Scaffold Design Collective (MSDC) will test a new model for materials design that pairs synthesis and formulation experts from different areas, reduces barriers to apply new ideas to a particular application space and explicitly considers formulation as part of molecular scaffold design. Performers from academia and industry will partner with Government energetics experts through an intensive collaboration in a series of in-person meetings and regular information exchanges to design, synthesize and deliver pre-energetic molecules and formulations. MSDC will explore molecular features and compositions that preserve valuable energetic properties of the designed molecules, while optimizing desired properties of the ultimate composite formulation. Academic and industry performers will synthesize the selected pre-energetic molecular scaffolds and/or compositional molecular scaffold mixtures for delivery to an identified Government site where the materials will be activated and tested. As data and insight is collected, performers will refine designs and deliver additional materials to the Government team.


DARPA_COMPASS
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Collection and Monitoring via Probes for Active Situational Scenarios (COMPASS)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Abstracts (strongly encouraged): April 20, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: June 4, 2018
Award Amount: The amount of resources made available under this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. The COMPASS program is planned as a two phase, 30-month effort.
 
DARPA is soliciting innovative proposals for the Collection and Monitoring via Planning for Active Situational Scenarios (COMPASS) program. COMPASS develops decision aids that drive probing actions designed to improve situational awareness and reduce the ambiguity of actors and objectives in gray zone environments. Gray zone warfare is characterized by "limited conflict, sitting between 'normal' competition between states and what is traditionally thought of as war". Gray zone actors use techniques such as misinformation, intimidation, pressure, and disruptions of services to destabilize nations and possibly produce advantageous conditions for military engagements. Proposed efforts should make advances in the computational areas of artificial intelligence, game theory, complex and non-linear systems, and human-machine decision making in complex situations under uncertainty and risk.
 
COMPASS is soliciting proposals in the following three technical areas (TAs):
  1. Technical Area 1: Decision aids that discover the intent of gray zone actors, including goals, objectives and desired strategies;
  2. Technical Area 2: Decision aids to estimate the adversary campaigns, including the actors, relationships, timings, and dependencies of the adversary tactics; and
  3. Technical Area 3: An architecture that integrates the decision aids and allows operators to assess the decision space, recommend probing actions, monitor progress, and suggest adjustments.
Multiple awards are anticipated for all TAs.
 

DARPA_Offset
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
OFFensive Swarm Enabled Tactics (OFFSET): Amendment 2 - Swarm Sprint 2
OSP Deadline: April 23, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: April 30, 2018
Award Amount: No individual award is anticipated to be above $450K (including all options proposed). The duration of each Swarm Sprint is generally expected to be 6 months, with an additional 3 month option period to facilitate integration activities.
 
The goal of OFFSET Swarm Sprints is to create focused breakthroughs in swarm technologies to be integrated into the OFFSET Swarm Systems Architecture. The specific topic of interest for this amendment is the development and integration of systems enablers for enhanced swarm autonomy including both hardware and software along with associated swarm tactics, swarm primitives, and swarm algorithms, in the thrust area of Swarm Autonomy.

DARPA intends to award up to 15 Swarm Sprinter awards in this second Core Swarm Sprint call. 
 
AFTAC_HPC
Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC)
New Initiatives for Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) Nuclear Treaty Monitoring Directorate (AFTAC/TT): Call for High-Performance Computing (HPC) Topic Area
OSP Deadline: April 23, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (required): April 30, 2018
Award Amount: $150,000-$5M for up to 5 years
 
The Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) provides the U.S Department of Defense's (DoD) time dominant scientific and technical information to the right person for decision advantage supporting international nuclear treaty compliance and strategic, operational, and tactical warfighters.
 
This call solicits white papers for the specific interest area of High-Performance Computing (HPC) originally listed under Topic AFTAC-002 (Air and Space) of the BAA. Additional HPC objectives include:
  • Exploration and research into existing capabilities within AFTAC as well as options for connectivity to existing HPC systems in the United States;
  • Research and review of modeling and simulation, existing capabilities within AFTAC, commercially available and existing and planned other Government HPC systems;
  • Development of optimized architecture implementing HPC systems to meet AFTAC needs; and
  • Enhanced modeling and simulation capabilities through the use of HPC.

DARPA_N3
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Next-Generation Non-Surgical Neurotechnology (N^3)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Abstracts (strongly encouraged): April 24, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: June 5, 2018
Award Amount: The amount of resources made available under this BAA will
depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. The N 3 program will provide up to 4 years of funding.
 
DARPA seeks proposals to design, build, demonstrate, and validate a nonsurgical bidirectional neural interface system to broaden the applicability of neural interfaces to the able-bodied warfighter. The final technology aims to enable neural recording and stimulation with sub-millimeter spatial resolution.
 
To reach high temporal and spatial resolution, N3 will focus on two approaches: noninvasive (Technical Area 1 -TA1) and "minutely" invasive (Technical Area 2 - TA2) neural interfaces. Final N3 deliverables will include a complete integrated bidirectional brain-machine interface system. Non-invasive approaches will include sensor (read) and stimulator (write) subcomponents integrated into a device (or devices) external to the body. Minutely invasive approaches will develop the nanotransducers for use inside the brain to facilitate read out and write in. Minutely invasive approaches will also develop the external subcomponents and integrated devices that interact with the internal nanotransducers.
 

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors (PALS)
OSP Deadline: April 23, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: April 30, 2018
Award Amount: The amount of resources made available under this BAA will
depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. The three program phases will have a total duration of 48 months. Phase 1 will be 18 months, Phase 2 will be 18 months, and Phase 3 will be 12 months.
 
DARPA seeks innovative proposals for new systems that employ natural or engineered marine organisms as sensor elements to amplify signals related to the presence, movement, and classification of manned or unmanned underwater vehicles (M/UUV). The Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors (PALS) program will leverage or develop living organisms as sensor transducers, and pair them with a detector and analysis suite to produce deployable sensor systems able to provide timely information on vehicle activity across a wide variety of maritime environments.
 
The program is comprised of two technical areas (TAs). Performer teams must propose to both TAs jointly in order to produce fully integrated systems:
  • Technical Area 1: Characterize Biological Signal
  • Technical Area 2: Interpret the Biological Signal
Multiple awards are anticipated.

Research Associateship Programs
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadlines: May 1, 2018; August 1, 2018
Award Amount: Awards include stipends (ranging from $42,000-$80,000), health insurance, professional travel and relocation. Award durations vary by program.
 
The National Research Council (NRC) administers competitive graduate, postdoctoral and senior research awards on behalf of 26 U.S. federal research agencies and affiliated institutions with facilities at over 100 locations throughout the U.S. and abroad. Awardees have the opportunity to conduct independent research in an area compatible with the interests of the sponsoring laboratory; devote full-time effort to research and publication; access the excellent and often unique facilities of the federal research enterprise; and collaborate with leading scientists and engineers at the sponsoring laboratories. Disciplines include Chemistry; Earth, Atmospheric and Space Sciences; Engineering, Applied Science, and Mathematics; Life Sciences; and Physics.
 
Find research opportunities that match your interests by exploring this website: www.nationalacademies.org/rap . Contact prospective Research Adviser(s) and host lab(s) to discuss your interests and then you may apply online using the WebRAP electronic application system. Prospective applicants should carefully read the details and eligibility of the program to which they are applying. Some laboratories have citizenship restrictions (open only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents), and some laboratories have Research Opportunities that are not open to senior applicants (more than 5 years beyond the Ph.D.). In addition, applicants should note application deadlines, as not all laboratories participate in all reviews.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Operational Fires (OpFires) Propulsion System
OSP Deadline: May 3, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Abstracts (Constituent Technologies only, no abstract for Propulsion System): May 10, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals (for Propulsion System): May 10, 2018
Award Amount:  The amount of resources made available under this BAA will
depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. The anticipated period of performance is 2 years.
 
The OpFires Propulsion System task will be a two-phased effort to design and develop innovative propulsion concepts and technologies enabling a novel ground-launched system for tactical weapons deployment. DARPA anticipates that successful performers for this program will have recent, relevant, and significant experience and expertise in propulsion system design and development to include booster performance analysis and missile integration. The use of a BAA allows a wide range of innovative ideas and concepts, and proposer(s) will have the flexibility to develop a tailored program plan that best advances OpFires in accordance with program objectives.
 
This BAA also requests abstracts for component or Constituent Technologies that may enable novel propulsion concepts. Upon evaluation of abstracts, and pending funding availability, proposals may be requested for Constituent Technologies to facilitate possible award at a later date.
 
Multiple awards are anticipated. Approximately $35M will be made available for Propulsion System Design and Development.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Epigenetic CHaracterization and Observation (ECHO)
OSP Deadline: April 26, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: May 3, 2018
Award Amount: The amount of resources made available under this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. ECHO will have a period of performance of 48 months (24-month Phase I base effort and 24-month Phase II option effort).
 
DARPA is soliciting innovative proposals to provide a field-forward system that evaluates an individual's epigenome, revealing their history of exposure to threats, including weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their molecular precursors. Success in this program will require groundbreaking approaches to characterize epigenetic signatures from militarily relevant exposure events, and new bioinformatics tools to perform forensic analysis and disease diagnostics with high sensitivity, specificity and temporal resolution. These novel signatures and associated analytics will integrate into a single, man-portable device that operates in an austere setting with an untrained user. Proposing teams should be multidisciplinary with expertise in WMD threat agents, chromatin biology, epigenetics, gene expression, bioinformatics, microfluidics, next-generation sequencing, forensics, circulating biomarker discovery, point-of-care diagnostic device development, and computational modeling.
 
The ECHO program will consist of two Technical Areas (TAs): TA1 will focus on epigenetic signature identification, and TA2 will focus on the integrated device. Proposing teams will be required to address both TAs.
 
Multiple awards are anticipated.
Office of Naval Research (ONR)
Special Program Announcement for 2018 Office of Naval Research Basic Research Opportunity: "Advancing Artificial Intelligence for the Naval Domain"
OSP Deadline: May 4, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: May 11, 2018
Award Amount:  Up to $500,000/year for 4 years
 
This announcement describes a research thrust entitled "Advancing Artificial Intelligence for the Naval Domain" to be launched under the Fiscal Year (FY) 18 Long Range Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Navy and Marine Corps Science and Technology .
 
ONR is specifically interested in the following Topic Areas:
  1. Integration of Domain Knowledge and Machine Learning
  2. Artificial Intelligence in support of Collaborative Complex Decision-Making
  3. Decentralized Perception and Planning in Dynamic Environments
Multiple awards are anticipated under each Topic Area.
U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA)
Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (PASCC)
OSP Deadline: May 31, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (required): June 7, 2018
Award Amount: Awards for studies will range from $50,000-$150,000 and awards for strategic dialogues will range from $125,000-$225,000. The anticipated period of performance is 12-24 months.
 
With this Fiscal Year 2019 call for papers, the U.S. Air Force's Institute for National Security Studies announces to academia, research institutions, and non-profit organizations it is soliciting white paper for studies and strategic dialogues that will help enable the DoD and the United States Government to ensure nuclear deterrence and to prepare for and combat WMD and improvised threats. The white papers should propose rigorous, innovative projects that:  
  1. Facilitate critical engagement between U.S. and foreign subject-matter experts (SMEs) on key WMD, counter-WMD (CWMD), or nuclear deterrence issues;
  2. Address current and emerging challenges facing the Combatant Commands (CCMDs) and DoD; or
  3. Expand knowledge or develop new concepts relevant to the national security missions and requirements of DoD and the Armed Services.
Award recipients must produce a written product outlining the purpose, methodology, and results of their study or dialogue, including U.S. national security risks, policy, strategy, and operational implications, and resulting recommendations.
 
Annual funding for PASCC is $3.5M.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Polyplexus Pilot
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Abstracts (strongly encouraged): June 1, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: July 20, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $100,000 for up to 1 year
 
The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) at DARPA is seeking participants for a pilot program designed to utilize modern connectivity to rapidly develop promising basic research pathways and then efficiently develop basic research proposals. Polyplexus is an online platform being developed under the DARPA Gamifying the Search for Strategic Surprise (GS3) program. The goal of the new Polyplexus platform is to fundamentally reshape the R&D process by reducing the time between concept emergence and worthy proposal submission. The Polyplexus platform aims to achieve this goal via efficiency gains that arise from collaborative activities focused on rigorous evidence collection and hypothesis generation, both of which are facilitated by online conversation. Faculty and postdoctoral researchers are eligible to participate. Graduate students and undergraduates who perform research under the supervision of faculty or postdoctoral researchers may also qualify if they are participating in original scientific or technical research. The registration deadline for Polyplexus Pilot is now separate from the registration for the Proposers Day for this program. The registration deadline for the Polyplexus Pilot has been extended to May 31, 2018.
 
As an inducement to participate on a platform that is not fully mature, DARPA is making research funding available for ideas and concepts of scientific merit that may emerge from the online conversation that occurs during the pilot. DARPA anticipates making any such funding awards in September 2018. Note that submission of abstracts and proposals is not required to participate in the Polyplexus Pilot. Researchers who desire to participate due to curiosity; the desire to learn, teach, or explore; or any other constructive reason are encouraged to do so.
 
DARPA anticipates four awards if worthy ideas emerge from this process.
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Pacific (SSC Pacific)
C4ISR, Information Operations and Information Technology System Research
OSP Deadline: May 7, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers: May 14, 2018
Award Amount: The amount of resources made available under this BAA will depend on the quality of the submissions received and the availability of funds.
 
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Pacific (SSC Pacific), is soliciting proposals for research in areas relating to the advancement of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities, enabling technologies for Information Operations and Cyber Operations, and Information Technology systems. Proposed research should investigate unique and innovative approaches for defining and developing next generation integratable C4ISR capabilities and command suites.
 
Technical topics of interest include:
  1. General C4ISR
  2. Command and Control
  3. Communications
  4. Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance
  5. Unmanned Vehicles
  6. Information Operations/Cyber Operations
  7. Ubiquitous Communications and Computing Environment
  8. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Research
  9. Advanced Power and Energy Production and Efficient Use
Multiple awards are anticipated.
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
Air Force Fiscal Year 2019 Young Investigator Research Program (YIP)
OSP Deadline: May 24, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: June 1, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $150,000 per year for 3 years. Exceptional proposals will be considered individually for higher funding levels and/or longer duration.
 
The Fiscal Year 2019 Air Force Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) intends to support early career scientists and engineers who have received Ph.D. or equivalent degrees by 1 April 2012 or later showing exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. The program objective is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering; enhance early career development of outstanding young investigators; and increase opportunities for the young investigator to recognize the Air Force mission and related challenges in science and engineering. YIP PIs must be a U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident.
 
AFOSR seeks unclassified proposals from qualified and responsible applicants in the research areas of interest identified in the most recent Broad Agency Announcement titled "Research Interests of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research." Proposals may be submitted for only one research portfolio area.
 
AFOSR anticipates approximately 36 awards under this competition.
U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI)
U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences Broad Agency Announcement for Basic Research (Fiscal Year 2018)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: June 15, 2018
Award Amount: No award floor or ceiling thresholds have been established for individual awards under this BAA. In recent years, the performance period of Standard Research Awards has typically been 2-3 years, with a median total award of $556,000. Budgets for Early Career proposals should be modest: approximately $110,000 for the initial year. No specific dollars have been reserved for total awards under this BAA.
 
The U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences is the Army's lead agency for the conduct of research, development, and analyses for the improvement of Army readiness and performance via research advances and applications of the behavioral and social sciences that address personnel, organization, training, and leader development issues. The basic research program supports research projects that are designed to expand fundamental knowledge and discover general principles in the behavioral and social sciences. ARI will accept Standard and Early Career proposals, and requests for Conference support, in response to this BAA. To be eligible for an Early Career award, the Principal Investigator must have received their Ph.D. within five years of the time of proposal submission, and not previously received funding from ARI as a Principal Investigator.
 
In addition to looking for proposals that provide for programmatic efforts to develop and evaluate psychological and behavioral theory, ARI strongly encourages applicants to propose novel, state-of-the-art, and multidisciplinary approaches that address difficult problems. A key consideration in the decision to support a research proposal is that its findings are likely to stimulate new, basic behavioral research which, in turn, will lead to improved performance of Army personnel and their units. Proposals may address both traditional behavioral issues as well as psychophysiological (to include neuroscience) and network science approaches to social phenomena, memory, cognition, and personality. While all proposals will be considered, ARI has identified the following five domains as particularly germane to its basic research needs: 1) Personnel Testing and Performance; 2) Leader Development; 3) Organizational Effectiveness; 4) Learning in Formal and Informal Environments; and 5) Culture.
Army Research Office (ARO), Office of Naval Research (ONR), and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
Fiscal Year 2019 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP)
OSP Deadline: June 28, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: July 6, 2018
Award Amount:  With few exceptions, a DURIP award provides between $50,000 and $1.5M for 1 year.
 
DURIP is designed to improve the capabilities of accredited U.S. institutions of higher education to conduct research and to educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense, by providing funds for the acquisition of research equipment or instrumentation. Proposals must address the impact of the equipment or instrumentation on the institution's ability to educate students through research in disciplines important to DoD missions. DoD's areas of research interest are listed in the ARO BAA, ONR BAA, and AFOSR BAA.
 
DURIP funds must be used for the acquisition of major equipment or instrumentation to augment current, or develop new, research capabilities. Proposals may request funding for more than one item if the requested items comprise a "system" that is used for a common research purpose. Requests for computing equipment for DoD-relevant research programs are appropriate and eligible for funding.
 
DoD intends to award approximately $47 million under this DURIP competition for fiscal year 2019.

Army Research Office (ARO), Office of Naval Research (ONR), and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
Fiscal Year 2019 Multidisciplinary Research Program of the University Research Initiative (MURI)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (encouraged): June 29, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: October 16, 2018
Award Amount:  Typical annual funding per grant is $1.25M-$1.5M for 5 years.
 
DOD's MURI program addresses high risk basic research that is of potential interest to DoD and attempts to understand or achieve something that has never been done before. The program is focused on multidisciplinary research efforts where more than one traditional discipline interacts to provide rapid advances in scientific areas of interest to the DoD. The MURI program was initiated over 25 years ago and it has regularly produced significant scientific breakthroughs with far reaching consequences to the fields of science, economic growth, and revolutionary new military technologies. Key to the program's success is the close management of the MURI projects by Service program officers and their active role in providing research guidance.
 
The FY 2019 MURI competition is for the following topics:
ONR
Topic 1: Fundamental Limits on Information Latency
Topic 2: Molecularly Programmable Graphene Architecture (MPGA)
Topic 3: Identifying invariances for improved modeling and prediction of oceanographic phenomena
Topic 4: Self-Assembly for High Performance Organic Electronics
Topic 5: Bio-inspired high-dimension control through models of cephalopod distributed information processing
Topic 6: Active Perception and Knowledge Exploitation in Navigation and Spatial Awareness
Topic 7: Advanced Analytical and Computational Modeling of Arctic Sea Ice
Topic 8: Topology & Advanced Dynamics of Coupled Human/Machine Systems
ARO
Topic 9: Clearing Your Head: The Glymphatic System and Restorative Effects of Sleep
Topic 10: Foundations of Emergent Computation and Self-Organized Adaptation
Topic 11: Multi-layer Network Modeling of Plant and Pollen Distribution across Space and Time
Topic 12: Near Field Radiative Heat Energy Transfer between Nanostructured Materials
Topic 13: Networked Interactions Governing Community Dynamics
Topic 14: Prediction and Control in Particulate Systems
Topic 15: Reactive and non-Reactive Scattering from Targeted Molecular Quantum States
Topic 16: Unified Decision Theory: From Bounded to Unbounded Rationality
AFOSR
Topic 17: THz Electronics Based on Antiferromagnets
Topic 18: Quantum Information Concepts from Tensor Networks and the Holographic Principle
Topic 19: 2D Heterostructures for Flexible, Lightweight Electronics and Optoelectronics
Topic 20: Feedback control and sparse neural signals
Topic 21: Dissipation Engineering in Open Quantum Systems
Topic 22: Group-IV Alloy Synthesis and Materials Properties
Topic 23: Neuromorphic Networks for Multifunctional Intelligent Systems
Topic 24: Microstructurally-aware Continuum Models for Energetic Materials
 
The total amount of funding for the five years available for grants resulting from this MURI FOA is estimated to be approximately $170M pending out-year appropriations.

Office of Naval Research (ONR)
FY18 Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Navy and Marine Corps Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM), Education and Workforce Program
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Window for White Papers (required): April 2-July 31, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Invited Full Proposals: September 28, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $250,000 per year, with one-year option periods, for up to 3 years
 
The ONR seeks a broad range of applications for augmenting existing or developing innovative solutions that directly maintain, or cultivate a diverse, world-class STEM workforce in order to maintain the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps' technological superiority. The goal of any proposed effort must provide solutions that will establish and maintain pathways of diverse U.S. citizens who are interested in uniformed or civilian DoN (or Navy and Marine Corps) STEM workforce opportunities. As the capacity of the DoN Science and Technology (S&T) workforce is interconnected with the basic research enterprise and STEM education system, ONR recognizes the need to support efforts that can jointly improve STEM student outcomes and align educational efforts with Naval S&T current and future workforce needs. This announcement explicitly encourages projects that improve the capacity of education systems and communities to create impactful STEM educational experiences for students and workers. Submissions are encouraged to consider including active learning approaches and incorporating 21st century skill development. Projects must aim to increase student and worker engagement in STEM and enhance people with needed Naval STEM capabilities. ONR encourages applications to utilize current STEM educational research for informing project design and advancing our understanding of how and why people choose STEM careers and opportunities of naval relevance.
 
While this announcement is relevant for any stage of the STEM educational system, funding efforts will be targeted primarily toward projects addressing the below communities or any combination of these communities:
  • Secondary education communities;
  • Post-Secondary communities;
  • Informal science communities; and
  • Current naval STEM workforce communities.
ONR intends to award approximately 25 awards for an estimated total value of $6,250,000, subject to the availability of funds.
U.S. Army Communications, Electronics, Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC)
Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate (S&TCD) Broad Agency Announcement
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline: Varies by Topic Area
Award Amount: The award amount should be commensurate with the scope of the proposed work. It is anticipated that proposals submitted in response to this BAA will range from approximately 1 man-year of effort, for study/analysis type work with limited data and no hardware/software deliverables, up to 5 man-years of effort, for component developments, techniques, developments/demonstrations with breadboards/brassboards with significant data and substantial hardware/software deliverables.
 
The Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate (S&TCD) is part of the Communications, Electronic Research Development Engineering Command (CERDEC). There are six Program Divisions: Cyber Security and Information Assurance (CSIA), Satellite Communications Systems (SATCOM), Systems Engineering, Architecture, Modeling and Simulation (SEAMS), Radio Frequency Communications (RFC), Tactical Communications (TC), Operations (OPS). Each Division has a specific mission area of responsibility in support of the Army's need for the most modern strategic and tactical communication technologies.
 
This BAA lists the following topic areas of interest: 
  • Topic Number: S0801 - Antennas and Antenna Technologies for Tactical Communications
  • Topic Number: S0802 - Spectrum Management for Tactical and Strategic Military Communications
  • Topic Number: S0804 - Power Amplifier
  • Topic Number: S0805 - Advanced Technologies in Network Operations on the Battlefield
  • Topic Number: S0808 - Tactical Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO)
  • Topic Number: S0809 - Airborne Line of Sight (LOS) and Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) Range Extension and Reachback Communications On-the-Halt and On-the-Move
  • Topic Number: S0810 - Tactical Satellite Communications On-the-Move (SOTM) Research
  • Topic Number: S0811 - Advanced Satellite System Control Capabilities
  • Topic Number: S0812 - Advanced Technologies for Fixed and Transportable Satellite Earth Terminals
  • Topic Number: S0813 - Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) for the Tactical Army
  • Topic Number: S0814 - Systems Engineering, Architecture, Modeling & Simulation (SEAMS)
  • Topic Number: S0815 - Ubiquitous Wireless Mobile Communications Concepts and Technologies
  • Topic Number: S0816 - Reduced Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) Software Defined Radios (SDR's)
  • Topic Number: S0817 - Advanced Algorithms and Techniques for Ad Hoc Network Design
  • Topic Number: S0821 - Expert Systems/Knowledge Base Engineering
  • Topic Number: S0824 - Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Technologies for Tactical Communications and Electronic Warfare
  • Topic Number: S0825 - Radio Frequency Device Convergence
  • Topic Number: S0826 - Radio Frequency Compatibility and Interference Cancellation
  • Topic Number: S1701 - Software Defined Networking
  • Topic Number: S1702 - Advanced Information Sciences and Networks
 DoD_Other

Other DoD Opportunities:

I f you are interested in DoD funding opportunities, please note:
The  Defense Innovation Marketplace  is a centralized source for Department of Defense science and technology (S&T) planning, acquisition resources, funding, and financial information. 
 

U.S. Department of Energy
DOE_Quantum

U.S. Department of Energy
Materials and Chemical Sciences Research for Quantum Information Science Harvard Statement of Interest Deadline: April 19, 2018 by 12:00 noon
Sponsor Letter of Intent Deadline (if nominated): May 3, 2018
OSP Full Proposal Deadline: May 17, 2018
Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline: May 24, 2018
Award Amount: $150,000-$1,500,000 per year for up to 3 years  

The Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) announces its interest in receiving applications from a single investigator or small groups of investigators for support of experimental and theoretical efforts to advance materials and chemical sciences research for quantum information sciences (QIS). This funding opportunity supports fundamental research for public benefit in materials and chemical sciences to advance our understanding of quantum phenomena in systems that could be used for QIS, and the use of quantum computing in chemical and materials sciences research. Applications must focus on the Priority Research Opportunities for experimental and theoretical research identified in the BES Roundtable Reports, " Basic Energy Sciences Roundtable on Opportunities for Quantum Computing in Chemical and Materials Sciences" or "Basic Energy Sciences Roundtable on Opportunities for Basic Research for Next-Generation Quantum Systems." Applications must clearly articulate how the proposed research addresses the new scientific opportunities articulated in these Roundtable Reports.

Please note : Harvard, as a single institution, is limited to submitting two (2) Letters of Intent, and as a result, two (2) applications, as a Lead Organization. There are no limits to the number of applications Harvard may engage in as the non-lead. In order to be considered for one of Harvard's nominations, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research requests Statements of Interest from faculty interested in applying. Interested applicants are asked to submit the following to [email protected] by 12:00 noon on Thursday, April 19th:
  • Topical Area of Interest: "Quantum Computing in Chemical and Materials Science" or "Next-Generation Quantum Systems"
  • PI name
  • Names of collaborators, if any
  • Proposal title
Questions about this opportunity may be directed to Susan Gomes (617-496-9448, [email protected]) or Jen Corby (617-495-1590, [email protected]).

DOE_X-Ray
Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences
Research at the Frontiers of X-Ray Free Electron Laser Ultrafast Chemical and Materials Sciences
Harvard Statement of Interest Deadline: April 19, 2018 by 12:00 noon
Sponsor Letter of Intent Deadline (if nominated): April 30, 2018
OSP Full Proposal Deadline: May 14, 2018
Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline: May 21, 2018
Award Amount: $300,000-$1,500,000/year for up to 3 years  
 
The Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) announces its interest in receiving applications from small groups of investigators for support of experimental and theoretical efforts to advance ultrafast chemical and materials sciences that utilize x-ray free electron lasers.  This FOA supports fundamental research for public benefit in materials and chemical sciences enabled by new ultrafast x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) capabilities at LCLS-II and its prospective upgrades. Applications must focus on XFEL-based research and address the Priority Research Opportunities identified in the recent BES Roundtable Report, "Opportunities for Basic Research at the Frontiers of XFEL Ultrafast Science." Applications should clearly articulate how the research addresses the new scientific opportunities articulated in the Roundtable Report: (1) probing and controlling electron motion within a molecule; (2) discovering novel quantum phases through coherent light-matter coupling; and (3) capturing rare events and intermediate states in the transformation of matter.
  
Harvard, as a single institution, is limited to submitting two (2) Letters of Intent, and as a result, two (2) applications, as a Lead Organization. An institution may participate in any number of applications as a team member. In order to be considered for one of Harvard's nominations, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research requests Statements of Interest from faculty interested in applying. Interested applicants are asked to submit the following to [email protected] by 12:00 noon on April 19th:
  • PI name
  • Names of collaborators, if any
  • Proposal title
Questions about this opportunity may be directed to Susan Gomes (617-496-9448, [email protected] ) or Jen Corby (617-495-1590, [email protected]).
DOE_ComputationalChem

Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences
Computational Chemical Sciences Research
Harvard Statement of Interest Deadline: April 23, 2018 by 12:00 noon 
Sponsor Letter of Intent Deadline (if nominated): May 16, 2018
OSP Full Proposal Deadline: June 11, 2018
Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline: June 18, 2018
Award Amount: $150,000-$2,000,000 per year for up to 4 years

The Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) announces its interest in receiving applications from single principal investigators (PIs), small groups (2-3 PIs), and centers (integrated multidisciplinary teams typically from multiple institutions) in Computational Chemical Sciences (CCS). CCS will support efforts to develop validated, public access codes and databases, and research to develop new approaches to enhance the use of large data sets for deriving new fundamental knowledge from calculations and advanced characterization of chemical systems. CCS will continue to support the DOE Exascale Computing Initiative (ECI), which was announced in September 2013. The ECI aims to accelerate the research and development needed to overcome key exascale challenges and maximize benefits of high-performance computing. This FOA continues the BES commitment to ECI by developing open source codes that can take full advantage of today's petascale and future exascale leadership computing facilities.
 
Harvard, as a single institution, is limited to submitting one (1) Letter of Intent, and as a result, one (1) application, as a Lead Organization. An institution may participate in any number of applications as a team member. In order to be considered for Harvard's nomination, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research requests Statements of Interest from faculty interested in applying. Interested applicants are asked to submit the following to [email protected] by 12:00 noon on Monday, April 23rd:
  • PI name
  • Names of collaborators, if any
  • Proposal title
  • Grant type (Single PI grant, small group grant, or center grant)
Questions about this opportunity may be directed to Susan Gomes (617-496-9448, [email protected]) or Jen Corby (617-495-1590, [email protected]).
DOE_Solid

 U.S. Department of Energy
National Energy Technology Laboratory
Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Core Technology Research
OSP Deadline: April 23, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: April 30, 2018
Award Amount: $3,500,000 over 2 years for Area of Interest 1; $6,000,000 over 2 years for Area of Interest 2. Cost sharing is required and must be at least 20% of the total allowable costs for research and development projects and must come from non-federal sources.
 
This Funding Opportunity Announcement is soliciting applications to develop Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Technology in order to support fuel cells system manufacturers in addressing issues related to cost and reliability of fuel cells systems. Applications are sought in two areas of interest:
  • Area of Interest 1 - Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) Core Technology Research: Supports transformational technologies that are focused on early-stage laboratory-scale R&D. Successful projects will result in validation of concepts at a laboratory-scale. Collaboration with a fuel cell system manufacturer is encouraged.
  • Area of Interest 2 - Core Technology Research and Development (R&D) in Support of Near-Term SOFC Power Systems Prototype Tests: Seeks projects that address reliability issues facing 2nd Generation SOFC power systems in an operational environment. This AOI will require a team approach where the participation of at least one fuel cell system manufacturer as a prime or a sub-recipient in the team is required. Teams should be able to take the technology developed during the award to the point that it can be validated in an operational system. 

DOE_Prelim
U.S. Department of Energy
National Energy Technology Laboratory
Preliminary Design and Techno-Economic Analysis of MWe-Class Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Systems
OSP Deadline: April 30, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: May 7, 2018
Award Amount: $4,500,000; Cost sharing is required and must be at least 20% of the total allowable costs for research and development projects and must come from non-federal sources.

The mission of the DOE FE Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) program is to enable the efficient generation of low-cost electricity for (a) 2nd Generation natural gas-fueled SOFC DG systems and modular, coal-fueled systems and (b) Transformational coal or natural gas-fueled utility-scale systems with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). The program supports the overarching goals of the Clean Coal and Carbon Management Research Program (CCCMRP) through the collaboration between the R&D that addresses the technical and economic barriers to commercial viability and the development and deployment of SOFC power systems that validate those solutions.

The objective of this FOA is to develop a conceptual design of a MWe-class SOFC power system for distributed generation application (DG) and a techno-economic analysis (TEA) in Phase I. Phase I will be 18 months in duration. In Phase II, up to three awards will be made through a competitive down-select to build and test nominally 1 MWe SOFC systems that meet the cost target of $6,000/kWe (exclusive of First-Time Engineering) and degradation target of 0.5 percent/1,000 hours. These systems will be field-tested for a minimum of 5,000 hours. Phase II awards are anticipated in FY 2020, subject to availability of funding. Only Phase I recipients are eligible for Phase II.

DOE_2018
U.S. Department of Energy 
Office of Science, Advanced Scientific Computing Research  
2018 Mathematical Multifaceted Integrated Capability Centers (MMICCs)
Sponsor Pre-Application Deadline (required): April 30, 2018
OSP Full Proposal Deadline: May 16, 2018
Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline: May 23, 2018
Award Amount: $300,000-$2,500,000 per year for 4 years

The Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research of the SC, U.S. Department of Energy, hereby invites applications for basic research that address fundamental challenges within DOE's mission areas of energy, environment and security, and from a perspective that requires new integrated efforts across multiple mathematical, statistical and computational disciplines. This solicitation is for new Mathematical Multifaceted Integrated Capability Centers (MMICCs) to enable greatly enhanced scientific discovery, design, optimization or decision-support capabilities for the increasingly complex systems, processes, and problems that arise in science and energy research. Proposed research tightly focused on the solution of a particular science or engineering problem are outside the scope of this solicitation.   These MMICCs will enable applied mathematics researchers to work together in large, collaborative teams to develop the mathematics needed to address significant scientific computing research challenges. The MMICCs allow researchers to take a broader view of the problem as a whole, and devise solution strategies that attack the problem in its entirety by building fundamental, multidisciplinary mathematical capabilities and tools cognizant of both existing and emerging computing paradigms. The MMICCs teams will have the flexibility and technical expertise to consider all aspects of the problem-solving process simultaneously - ranging from the mathematical formulation to the development, analysis, integration of appropriate models and methods, and demonstration of results and capabilities.
Developing Technologies for Advancement of Associated Geologic Storage in Basinal Geo-Laboratories
OSP Deadline: May 24, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: June 1, 2018
Award Amount: $2,500,000-$3,500,000 over 3-5 years. Cost sharing is required and must be at least 20% of the total allowable costs for research and development projects.
 
The U.S. Department of Energy, Carbon Storage Program, Storage Infrastructure Technology Area supports research to develop technologies focused on field laboratory studies, including regional characterization and field validation testing of technologies, to demonstrate that different storage complexes in various geologic settings, distributed over different geographic regions, both onshore and offshore, have the capability to safely and permanently store CO2. These field laboratory projects, along with other supporting research and development (R&D) projects, have yielded significant advancements in carbon storage technology. However, key gaps in experience and knowledge remain, which arise due to the diversity in geologic settings of potential storage complexes in different geographic regions of the country. Research supported by this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), which addresses these gaps, will be key in achieving value-added CO2 geologic storage.
 
This FOA focuses on R&D specific to various basins representing diverse geologic settings throughout the U.S. (e.g., Appalachian, Williston, Illinois, Michigan, Permian, Gulf Coast Region) where there are opportunities for associated storage. For the purposes of this FOA, "associated storage" refers to CO2 storage in conjunction with enhanced oil and/or enhanced gas recovery operations, and includes saline storage where a project in a storage complex involves stacked saline and oil/gas reservoirs.

DOE_Isotope

Office of Science, Nuclear Physics 
Research, Development and Training in Isotope Production
OSP Deadline: June 8, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: June 15, 2018
Award Amount: $100,000-$750,000 per year for 1-2 years
 
The DOE Isotope Program, managed by SC Nuclear Physics, hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for Research and Development on novel methods to produce or improve production radioactive or enriched stable isotopes needed for a wide variety of research and applications. This announcement is administered under the NP Isotope Development & Production for Research and Applications Sub-Program.
 
The proposed R&D should generate data relevant to isotope production or lead to new and innovative technologies, or improvements to existing technologies to foster enhanced production of isotopes. Successful proposals will clearly describe how the outcome of the proposed work would support and enhance the production of isotopes used for research and applications in medicine, homeland security, the physical sciences, biological and geological sciences, energy, industry, etc. Applications incorporating effective ways to train personnel with essential knowledge and skills related to the production, processing, purification, and distribution of enriched stable and radioactive isotopes are strongly encouraged.

DOE_Other
Other DOE Opportunities

IARPA
IARPA_other

IARPA Opportunities
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
2018 NASA iTech Cycle II Energy
OSP Deadline: Not required
Sponsor White Paper Deadline: April 29, 2018
 
NASA iTech and ARPA-E are collaborating on a unique iTech challenge, inviting the nation's top entrepreneurs and researchers to showcase their ideas for transformative energy concepts. The challenge seeks to identify innovative technologies that can improve energy generation, storage and distribution to the benefit of both space exploration and life on Earth. A few examples of technology sub-themes that NASA believes have the potential to improve future space power systems include, but are not limited to:
  • Fuel Cells and Regenerative Fuel Cells
  • High-energy Density Batteries and Supercapacitors
  • Solar Power Systems
  • Small Fission Power Systems
  • Innovative Power Management and Distribution (including smart grids and wireless power transfer)
  • X-Factor Energy: innovations so compelling NASA and ARPA-E should know about them
Inventors and entrepreneurs are invited to submit a five-page white paper on their concept on the NASA iTech website. A panel of subject matter experts from NASA and ARPA-E will review ideas submitted and select the top 10 finalists based on their relevance and potential impact. These finalists will be invited to present their technologies and engage with the panel, potential investors, and industry partners at the NASA iTech 2018 Energy Forum at Citi's global headquarters in New York City, June 11-14, 2018.
Human Exploration Research Opportunities (HERO) Appendix D: Topics in Human Health Countermeasures, Human Factors, and Behavioral Performance
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Step-1 Proposals (required): May 1, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Step-2 Proposals (if invited): July 30, 2018
Award Amount: Varies by topic area
 
NASA's Research Announcement for Human Exploration Research Opportunities (HERO) solicits applied research in support of NASA's Human Research Program (HRP). HRP investigates and mitigates the highest risks to astronaut health and performance in exploration missions. The goal of the HRP is to provide human health and performance countermeasures, knowledge, technologies, and tools to enable safe, reliable, and productive human space exploration.
 
HERO Appendix D solicits proposals in the areas of:
  • Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers for Physiological and Behavioral Effects of Spaceflight - an ISS Sample Sharing Opportunity;
  • Promoting Stress Tolerance, Adaptability, and Behavioral Health via Enhancing Exercise Protocols for Long-Duration Exploration Mission (LDEM) Crews; and
  • Sensory Stimulation for Cognitive and Behavioral Health.
Cooperative Agreement Notice: Dual Use Technology Development at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) - 2018
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Step-1 White Papers (required): May 2, 2018
Award Amount: MSFC resource contribution awards will range from $10,000 to $100,000, and must be matched or exceeded by Offeror contributions. Contributions can be cash, in-kind (non-cash) resources, or a combination of each. Project duration is up to 12 months.
 
NASA will award cooperative agreements for technology development partnerships with United States commercial businesses and/or colleges and universities with the goal of developing a technology to meet a specific NASA need at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), as well as those of the partner. This goal will be accomplished by selecting Offerors who will cooperatively share in the development cost of the technology that meets the specified NASA need.
 
MSFC has several technology development focus areas for this solicitation, including:
  • Innovative/Advanced Propulsion Systems
  • Advanced Manufacturing; Structures and Materials
  • Technologies Supporting Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS)
  • Technologies Supporting Spacecraft Systems
  • Technologies Enabling Science Research
  • Technologies Supporting Systems Engineering
For more information on the technology programs and capabilities at MSFC, please see the following link: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/capabilities/index.html.
 
NASA anticipates funding up to 10 pending acceptable proposals.
D.4 University Leadership Initiative (ULI)
OSP Deadline: May 9, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Step-A Proposals (required): May 16, 2018
Award Amount: $1M-$2M per year for 2-4 years
 
The University Leadership Initiative provides the opportunity for university teams to exercise technical and organizational leadership in proposing unique technical challenges, defining interdisciplinary solutions, establishing peer review mechanisms, and applying innovative teaming strategies to strengthen the research impact. By addressing the most complex challenges associated with Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's strategic thrusts, universities will accelerate progress toward achievement of high impact outcomes while leveraging their capability to bring together the best and brightest minds across many disciplines. In order to transition their research, Principal Investigators are expected to actively explore transition opportunities and pursue follow-on funding from stakeholders and industrial partners during the course of the award.
 
NASA's Transformative Aeronautics Concepts (TAC) Program seeks proposals in seven topic areas:
Topic 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations
Topic 2: Innovation in Commercial Supersonic Aircraft
Topic 3: Ultra-Efficient Commercial Vehicles
Topic 4: Transition to Alternative Propulsion and Energy
Topic 5: Real-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance
Topic 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation
Topic 7: Aviation Manufacturing
 
NASA anticipates investing in three awards, with at least two having a duration of three-years or less. To promote ULI portfolio balance, the TAC Program anticipates issuing one award in Topic 6, one award in Topic 7, and one other award in any of the seven topics (1-7).

NASA Flight Opportunities (FO) Appendix F1
OSP Deadline: June 1, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: June 8, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $275,000 for up to 2 years
 
The Flight Opportunities program within the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate strategically invests in the growth of the commercial spaceflight market while helping advance technologies that will enable future space missions for exploration and science. The Program achieves these self-reinforcing objectives by selecting promising technologies from industry, academia, and government to test on commercial suborbital launch vehicles, reduced gravity aircraft, and high-altitude balloon flights. Investment in tests that take technologies from the laboratory to a relevant flight environment facilitates technology maturation, validates feasibility and reduces technical risks. These investments enable infusion of key space technologies into multiple future space missions. By funding technology developers to purchase flights from the evolving entrepreneurial U.S. commercial space industry, the Program facilitates the availability and lower-cost access to these suborbital platforms for a broad range of technologists to test, demonstrate, and mature space-related technologies.
 
NASA anticipates making 12-15 awards.
Unsolicited Proposals
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling through September 30, 2018
Award Amount: Proposed budget should be commensurate with the scope of the project.
 
NASA encourages the submission of unique and innovative proposals that will further the Agency's mission. While the vast majority of proposals are solicited, a small number of unsolicited proposals that cannot be submitted to those solicitations and yet are still relevant to NASA are reviewed and some are funded each year. Proposals should be submitted at least six months in advance of the desired starting date.
Before any effort is expended in preparing a proposal, potential proposers should:
  1. Review the current versions of the NASA Strategic Plan and documents from the specific directorate, office, or program for which the proposal is intended to determine if the work planned is sufficiently relevant to current goals to warrant a formal submission.
  2. Potential proposers must review current opportunities (e.g., at https://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/solicitations.do?method=init&stack=push) to determine if any solicitation already exists to which the potential project could be proposed.
  3. Potential proposers should review current awards (e.g., by doing key word searches at Research.gov, or at the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) grant status page, and the NASA Life and Physical Sciences Task Book) to learn what, if any, related work is already funded by NASA. Such preparation reduces the risk of redundancy, improves implementation, and sometimes results in collaboration.
After those three things have been done, the proposer may contact an appropriate NASA person to determine whether NASA has any interest in the type of work being proposed and if any funding is currently available.
Dual Use Technology Development Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) 2018
OSP Deadline: Not required for Notices of Intent 
Sponsor Deadline for Notices of Intent (required): Rolling through September 30, 2018
Award Amount: The budget must be sufficient and reasonable to accomplish the project. The participating partner will contribute an equal value of resources to match the NASA funding for the project.
 
John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) is the primary NASA rocket propulsion testing center. SSC tests items ranging from multi-engine stages to individual components of rocket engines. Propulsion test customers include NASA, the Department of Defense and the commercial space launch industry. SSC manages a large federal city that is home to over forty federal, state, university and industry entities. SSC manages a restricted airspace that is available for development, testing and operation of unmanned aerial vehicles. SSC engineering laboratories design and test electronics, sensors, algorithms and mechanical components. This CAN supports identification and implementation of cost-sharing partnerships to develop technology to meet a specific NASA need at SSC. This notice seeks responses from potential partners interested in entering into a Cooperative Agreement with NASA for the joint development of technologies to meet SSC needs.
 
SSC technology interests include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Propulsion system test technology
  • Autonomous & intelligent systems
  • Advanced sensors & instruments
  • Image & signal processing
  • Energy harvesting
  • Innovative components & materials
  • Big data processing & analysis
  • Systems engineering & optimization
  • Computational modeling & simulation
  • Decision support tools & systems

NASAJohnsonSpace
Johnson Space Center:  Research Opportunities for ISS Utilization
Exploration Technology Demonstration and National Lab Utilization Enhancements
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to sponsor deadline
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (recommended): Rolling through October 31, 2019 (see solicitation for schedule of review cycles)
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: Rolling through December 31, 2019 (see solicitation for schedule of review cycles)
Award Amount: Details below
 
This announcement is for the development of experiment hardware with enhanced capabilities; modification of existing hardware to enable increased efficiencies (crew time, power, etc.); development of tools that allow analyses of samples and specimens on orbit; enhanced ISS infrastructure capabilities (eg, communications or data processing); and specific technology demonstration projects. Submission of a white paper is recommended in advance of a full proposal.
 
Within the NASA International Space Station (ISS) Research Integration Office, the Technology and Science Research Office (TSRO) and Commercial Space Utilization Office (CSUO) act as "gateways" to the ISS. The Technology and Science Research Office serves as the gateway for NASA-funded technology demonstrations. The Commercial Space Utilization Office serves as the gateway for non-NASA government-funded investigations, as well as non-profit or commercially-funded investigations.
 
Proposed technology demonstrations submitted to TSRO should address at least one of the technology areas mentioned in the ISS Technology Demonstration Plans . In addition, NASA seeks technology demonstrations related to the following thrust areas: Space Suit CO2 Sensor and Experiment Housing for Space Biology Pathfinder Research on Orion EM-1 (please note that submissions for this second Thrust Area do not fit into a standard NRA Cycle).
 
NASA also seeks technological concepts via CSUO related to the National Lab Thrust Areas and to expand the onboard research and analytical capabilities. The general thrust areas are:
  • Innovative uses of the ISS or ISS hardware that leverage existing capabilities to stimulate both utilization of the ISS and economic development in the U.S.
  • Other improvements to existing ISS capabilities, including but not limited to infrastructure, in situ analytical tools, and communication/data transmittal, to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the technology demonstrations and science investigations performed on the ISS.
  • Unique partnering arrangements that leverage NASA's existing capabilities but increase the commercial participation in research and on board services. 
Funds are not currently available for awards under this NASA Research Announcement (NRA). The Government's ability to make award(s) is contingent upon the availability of appropriated funds from which payment can be made and the receipt of proposals that NASA determines acceptable for award under this NRA. Successful proposals will have launch and integration costs covered by NASA. 

OtherNASA
Other NASA Opportunities
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

NIH_Shared
National Institutes of Health
Shared Instrumentation Grant Program
OSP Deadline: May 24, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: May 31, 2018
Award Amount: $50,000-$600,000
Target Applicants: Groups of three or more PIs on active, distinct NIH research awards
 
The objective of the NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) Program is to make available to institutions expensive research instruments that can only be justified on a shared-use basis and that are needed for NIH-supported projects in basic, translational or clinical areas of biomedical and bio-behavioral research. The SIG Program provides funds to purchase or upgrade a single item of expensive, state-of-the-art, specialized, commercially available instrument or an integrated instrumentation system. An integrated instrumentation system is one in which the components, when used in conjunction with one another, perform a function that no single component could provide. The components must be dedicated to the system and not used independently.
 
While there is no restriction on the number of applications an institution can submit for these opportunities, there are restrictions on applications submitted for similar equipment from the same institution. In order to determine if there are any overlapping requests within Harvard, interested applicants should contact Erin Hale at [email protected] .
 NIH_HighEnd  
National Institutes of Health
High End Instrumentation Grant Program
OSP Deadline: May 24, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: May 31, 2018
Award Amount: $600,001-$2,000,000
Target Applicants: Groups of three or more PIs on active, distinct NIH research awards
 
The objective of the High End Instrumentation Program is to make available to institutions expensive research instruments that can only be justified on a shared-use basis and that are needed for NIH-supported projects in basic, translational or clinical areas of biomedical/behavioral research. The HEI Program provides funds to purchase or upgrade a single item of expensive, specialized, commercially available instrument or an integrated instrumentation system. An integrated instrumentation system is one in which the components, when used in conjunction with one another, perform a function that no single component could provide. The components must be dedicated to the system and not used independently.
 
While there is no restriction on the number of applications an institution can submit for these opportunities, there are restrictions on applications submitted for similar equipment from the same institution. In order to determine if there are any overlapping requests within Harvard, interested applicants should contact Erin Hale at [email protected].

NIH_SIFAR  
National Institutes of Health
Shared Instrumentation for Animal Research (SIFAR) Grant Program
OSP Deadline: May 24, 3018
Sponsor Deadline: May 31, 2018
Award Amount: $50,000-$750,000
 
The Shared Instrumentation for Animal Research (SIFAR) Grant Program encourages applications from groups of NIH-funded investigators to purchase or upgrade scientific instruments necessary to carry out animal experiments in all areas of biomedical research supported by the NIH. Applicants may request clusters of commercially available instruments configured as specialized integrated systems or as series of instruments to support a thematic well-defined area of research using animals or related materials. Priority will be given to uniquely configured systems to support innovative and potentially transformative investigations. This program supports requests for state-of-the art commercially available technologies needed for NIH-funded research using any vertebrate and invertebrate animal species. This program does not support requests for single instruments. 
 
While there is no restriction on the number of applications an institution can submit for these opportunities, there are restrictions on applications submitted for similar equipment from the same institution. In order to determine if there are any overlapping requests within Harvard, interested applicants should contact Erin Hale at [email protected] .
Cutting Edge Informatics Tools for Illuminating the Druggable Genome (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
OSP Deadline: June 29, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: July 9, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $300,000 per year for up to 2 years
 
The overarching goal of this FOA is to add informatics capabilities to the Common Fund program, Illuminating the Druggable Genome IDG;  https://commonfund.nih.gov/idg/ . The IDG consortium's purpose is to facilitate the unveiling of the functions of selected understudied proteins in the Druggable Genome using experimental and informatics approaches. Currently, this research consortium is composed of multiple Data and Resource Generation Centers, a Knowledge Management Center (KMC), and a Resource Dissemination and Outreach Center.
 
The purpose of this specific FOA is to solicit applications to build a set of Cutting Edge Informatics Tools that will augment the capability of the KMC as well as the broader IDG Consortium in the following ways: (1) by developing and deploying tools to enhance the community's ability to process, analyze, and visualize IDG data, (2) to prioritize new data resources and methods to be incorporated into Pharos https://pharos.nih.gov/idg/index  that will strengthen predictions about physiological and disease associations around the understudied proteins, and (3) by developing methods to prioritize understudied IDG families (non-olfactory GPCRs, protein kinases, and ion channels) for deeper study using experimental assays both within the IDG pipeline or by the larger community.

  NIH_Directors
NIH Director's Early Independence Award
Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: July 16, 2018 by 12:00PM
OSP Deadline (if nominated): September 20, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline (if nominated): September 27, 2018
Award Amount: $250,000/year for five years plus applicable F&A
Eligible Applicants: Date of terminal doctoral degree or completion of clinical residency of the PI must be between June 1, 2017 and September 30, 2019. At the application deadline, the PI must not have served as a post-doctoral fellow following a previous doctoral degree for more than twelve months and must not yet have research independence.
 
The NIH Director's Early Independence Award Program supports exceptional investigators who wish to pursue independent research directly after completion of their terminal doctoral/research degree or clinical residency, thereby forgoing the traditional post-doctoral training period and accelerating their entry into an independent research career. Though most newly graduated doctoral-level researchers would benefit from post-doctoral training, a small number of outstanding junior investigators would benefit instead by launching directly into an independent research career. For these select investigators, who have established a record of scientific innovation and research productivity and who have demonstrated unusual leadership, drive, and maturity, post-doctoral training would unnecessarily delay their entry into performing independent research. By the end of the award period, the Early Independence Award investigator is expected to be competitive for continued funding of his/her research program through other NIH funding activities and for a permanent research-oriented position.
 
This is a limited submission opportunity and only two applications may be submitted from candidates to be hosted by Harvard University in the University Area (Cambridge Campus) . Information on the internal selection process administered by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research can be found here .

OtherNIHOpps
 
National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation: Dear Colleague Letters
  DCL_Growing
NSF: Dear Colleague Letter
Growing Convergence Research 
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission of a full proposal 
Sponsor Deadline for Prospectus Submission: May 1, 2018 (to be considered for FY2018 funding); October 15, 2018 (to be considered for FY2019 funding)  
Award Amount: Up to $1M over up to 3 years

This Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) seeks to identify potential future research areas that go beyond NSF's Big Ideas , require a convergence approach, cross internal and/or external organizational and disciplinary boundaries, and advance the progress of science as articulated in NSF's mission. NSF encourages the submission of prospectuses to identify these new areas and specific projects within them. NSF may invite the teams submitting the most promising prospectuses to submit proposals to further explore their research strategies. Prospectuses must outline novel approaches and research strategies that are likely to result in a clear demonstration of the potential for transformative advances. The research areas and proposed projects must reflect the characteristics of convergence outlined  here .

Interested researchers who would like to compete for FY 2018 and FY 2019 funding must submit a prospectus describing a new area of research and an exploratory research project within it to the [email protected] mailbox. A prospectus may be submitted at any time to help NSF identify new areas of research that require convergence, but to be considered for FY 2018 support, the prospectus must be submitted by May 1, 2018, and for FY 2019 funding, by October 15, 2018. Researchers describing the most promising research ideas and exploratory projects will be invited to submit a proposal within 60 days after issuance of the invitation. 
EQuIP: Engineering Quantum Integrated Platforms for Quantum Communication
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission of full proposal
Sponsor Deadline for Research Concept Outline: May 15, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposal (if invited): July 6, 2018
Award Amount: $750,000 for 3 years (anticipated average)
 
This DCL seeks collaborative, multidisciplinary proposals that span quantum device and circuit technology and system-level concepts in the design, analysis, development, and demonstration of integrated quantum communication systems. The proposals must address in an integrative fashion two or more of the following research topics: (1) revolutionary quantum device approaches based on photonic and electronic principles for generating signals that encode quantum information (qubits); (2) novel media for quantum signal propagation, storage, and/or routing that achieve minimum signal disturbance and loss; (3) disruptive quantum receiver technologies that achieve high-fidelity detection of encoded qubits. Auxiliary systems for creating entanglement between the transmitter and receiver may be utilized, and information encoding that involves multiple qubits is also desirable. This DCL also encourages teams to collaborate with industry using the Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) proposal framework ( https://www.nsf.gov/eng/iip/goali.jsp  ) to pursue use-inspired research of strong industrial significance.
 
Principal Investigators (PIs) must follow the guidance for Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) proposals specified in the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG; see  Chapter II.E.3 ). Eligible PIs must contact by email at least two cognizant program officers (listed below) with a one-page, PDF-formatted research concept outline describing the project, and must obtain prior written authorization from those program officers before submitting their proposals. The research concept outline must include a title prefaced by RAISE-EQuIP, the list of PIs and their affiliations, and the primary investigator contact information. The team must consist of at least two principal investigators with complementary expertise in quantum device technology (EPMD) and quantum information processing techniques (CCSS), as typified by the EPMD and CCSS programs of the Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) Division, and the proposed research must address both aspects in an integrated and coherent fashion in the context of the proposed quantum communication system.
  DCL_Disrupting

 NSF: Dear Colleague Letter
Disrupting Operations of Illicit Supply Networks
OSP Deadline: May 8, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: May 15, 2018
Award Amount: EAGER proposals with budgets up to $300,000 or supplemental funding requests to existing awards up to 20% of the original award budget (but not exceeding $300,000) will be considered.
   
NSF invites proposals to the Operations Engineering program for EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) into operational methods to detect, disrupt and disable illicit supply networks. Supplemental funding requests to relevant existing NSF awards and responsive to this DCL are also invited. Projects must focus on fundamental research that advances the scientific understanding of the operations of illicit supply networks and methods for their disruption. In recognition of the high importance of broader impacts in NSF research, proposed work must be framed in the context of one or more distinct illicit trafficking environment(s) and must demonstrate domain knowledge of the chosen setting.
 
While proposals must be responsive to the  Operations Engineering program description , given the gravity, scope and complexity of illicit supply networks, submissions from transdisciplinary teams, including operations researchers, are strongly encouraged. Teams may include researchers from the geography and spatial sciences; law and criminal justice; data and computational science; economics; and/or public health communities. In that vein, the benefits and skill sets of the proposed teams, including how they will collaborate, should be articulated. Representative topics include (but are not limited to) modeling the operational and spatial dynamics of illicit networks; understanding market incentives and mechanisms of illicit networks, including their social, cultural, criminological and legal aspects; innovations in data science and engineering in online space that have the potential to detect and disrupt illicit operations.

DCL_graduate
Improving Graduate Student Preparedness for the Chemistry Workforce
OSP Deadline: May 8, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: May 15, 2018
Award Amount: Supplemental funding of up to $12,000 for a maximum of three months      

This Dear Colleague Letter describes opportunities for supplemental funding to enhance the training experience of graduate students supported by active CHE research grants who are considering careers outside of academe. This opportunity is open for M.S. and Ph.D. graduate students currently supported on NSF CHE individual investigator or small group research grants (Centers for Chemical Innovation are excluded from this supplemental funding opportunity). Graduate students must have completed at least one academic year as a full-time student and be in good academic standing within their Department.  


DCL_IBM
NSF: Dear Colleague Letter
Addition of IBM as a Cloud Resource Provider to the FY 2018 BIGDATA Solicitation
OSP Deadline for BIGDATA: 5 business days prior to submission of the full proposal
Sponsor Submission Window for BIGDATA: May 7 - May 14, 2018
Award Amount for BIGDATA: $200,000 to $500,000 per year for 3 to 4 years

Through this Dear Colleague Letter, NSF CISE wishes to notify the community that IBM has joined as one of the cloud resource providers for the fiscal year (FY) 2018 Critical Techniques, Technologies, and Methodologies for Advancing Foundations and Applications of Big Data Sciences and Engineering (BIGDATA) program solicitation (se e  https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504767 for more information about the program). Proposers may use the following IBM resources to develop the total cost of cloud resources along with an annual usage plan over the duration of the projects:
DCL_Advancing

NSF: Dear Colleague Letter
Advancing Long-term Reuse of Scientific Data 
OSP Deadline: May 16, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline: May 23, 2018 
Award Amount: Up to $50,000 for 1 or 2 years (Conferences); up to $300,000 for up to 2 years (EAGER)

The National Science Foundation's Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) announces its intention to support initial exploratory activities toward the creation of social and technical infrastructure solutions that further NSF's commitment to public access. These solutions are a means to accelerate the dissemination and use of fundamental research results in the form of data that will advance the frontiers of knowledge and help sustain the Nation's prosperity well into the future. Specifically, this DCL encourages two types of funding requests: (1) proposals for Conferences (i.e., community workshops and other events) that are designed to bring together stakeholders to explore opportunities to converge on innovative solutions to advancing public access; and (2) proposals for Early-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) for high-risk/high-reward innovative concepts and pilot projects that yield new fundamental research discoveries from existing NSF-funded data or that ultimately result in deployment of ambitious, sustainable socio-technical infrastructure resources and capabilities that enhance and accelerate new discoveries from existing NSF-funded data.  

DCL_Real-Time 
Real-Time Learning and Decision-Making in Engineered Systems (Real-D) 
OSP Deadline: May 24, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline: June 1, 2018 (for consideration in FY2018) 
Award Amount: up to $300,000 over up to 2 years

The Directorate for Engineering announces its interest in receiving EArly-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) proposals to support research in fundamental theory, algorithms, engineering principles, and applications for real-time learning and decision-making that may lead the way toward safe, reliable, and efficient data-enabled engineering systems. To encourage convergence research, proposals are expected to have PIs with complementary expertise and significant research background in: the domain of the specific engineering infrastructure systems under consideration; and in machine learning, optimization, systems modeling and control and/or data science. Examples of research topics include but are not limited to:
  1. Theory, methods, and implementation of distributed real-time learning and decision-making with substantial improvement compared to other distributed real-time learning algorithms and traditional centralized processing.
  2. Theory, development, and implementation of real-time learning of unlabeled data which could then be used together with a model-based approach, supervised learning algorithms, and/or anomaly detection methods.
  3. Innovations in theory and methods that can exploit availability of data -- historical and real-time - to achieve higher fidelity dynamic models of complex high-order interconnected systems and to formulate advanced control strategies for such systems. 
  4. Innovative approaches for combining model-based and model-free approaches including evaluation of data trustworthiness and fairness, and methods for model validation.
EAGER proposals must follow NSF's Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) Chapter II.E.2:  https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappg18_1/pappg_2.jsp#IIE2 ). This includes discussing the proposal with at least one of the program directors listed in the Dear Colleague Letter well before submission and establishing that the project satisfies the high-risk/high-return expectations for EAGERs.
Rules of Life (RoL): Forecasting and Emergence in Living Systems (FELS)
OSP Deadline: May 24, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: June 1, 2018 (Conference proposals)
Award Amount: Up to $100,000 for up to one year
 
NSF seeks to highlight the importance of research that forecasts the direction and dynamics of change in living systems. The robustness and reproducibility of processes associated with the emergence of complex properties in biological systems suggests the existence of underlying general principles ("rules") across the spectrum of biological phenomena. Identification and application of these fundamental rules would be of high value to both the scientific community and the Nation. This Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) describes an initial opportunity to identify areas where such rules may exist, to catalyze approaches toward their discovery, and to focus efforts on using these rules for prediction and design of useful biological systems. Open competitions supported by this DCL include Conferences. 

NSFDCD3SC
 
Successful D3SC proposals will emphasize new information that can be obtained from better utilization of data (including data from multiple laboratories, techniques, and/or chemical systems), and how this can lead to new research directions. Proposals that foster and strengthen interactions among chemists (especially experimental chemists) and data scientists to advance research goals are strongly encouraged. The most competitive proposals will provide detailed discussion of specific data-enabled approaches to be used, the significant chemical problem to be studied, new fundamental chemical knowledge to be gained, as well as the broader relevance of the proposed activities to other areas of chemical research. Proposal elements that consider error and uncertainty analysis, record and store appropriate metadata, and determine the robustness and reliability of data are encouraged. Examples of possible topics include (but are not limited to) using tools of data visualization, data mining, machine learning (including emerging approaches such as deep learning and active learning), or other data analysis approaches to: 
  • Accelerate the discovery of more efficient or selective catalysts; 
  • Advance the design of new chemical species and/or synthetic reactions, and forecast improved synthetic conditions; 
  • Map the mechanisms by which chemicals interact and transform, both covalently and noncovalently, and predict structure/property relations based on existing chemical datasets; 
  • Discover principles of multiscale organization underlying emergent chemical phenomena in macromolecular systems; 
  • Enable real-time feedback loops between chemical data collection and processing for rapid identification and correlation of key events during chemical measurements; 
  • Harness chemistry's rich, diverse but distributed datasets and identify novel ways of sharing and utilizing chemical data derived from multiple instruments, datatypes, and locations; and
  • Develop innovative approaches for integrating, correlating, and analyzing chemical simulation or measurement data to provide new chemical insights.
Stimulating Educational Neuroscientific Research through the Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NCS) Program
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission of a full proposal
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: Varies by award type
 
The   Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NCS) program 
supports projects that provide new empirical insights, expand theoretical understanding, facilitate development of computational and bioengineered systems, promote new educational approaches, and generate new hypotheses that connect physical, biological, and cognitive mechanisms. With this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), the National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to stimulate work in educational neuroscience in the NCS program through foundational grants, noting that advances in neural systems can have significant implications for research on education. While the application period for the foundational component of this award has passed, NSF continues to accept applications on a rolling basis for capacity-building proposals through conference proposals and Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) proposals.
 
DCL_NNA 
Stimulating Research Related to Navigating the New Arctic (NNA), One of NSF's 10 Big Ideas
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission of a full proposal
Sponsor Deadline: Varies; please see details below
Award Amount: Varies by award type; please see details below
 
This Dear Colleague Letter invites proposals in FY 2018 that will advance Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) research through convergent approaches to emerging scientific, engineering, societal, and education challenges, and builds upon the  NNA awards resulting from the FY 2017 DCL on Growing Convergence Research at NSF. A systems-based approach is strongly encouraged, including research that both contributes to, and leverages, large data sets from enhanced observational technology and networks. Knowledge co-production with local and indigenous communities, advancing public participation in research, and international partnerships are also strongly encouraged as possible means to achieve NNA objectives. This is not a special competition or a new program; proposals in response to this DCL must meet the requirements and deadlines of the program to which they are submitted. Organizations submitting proposals to programs and funding vehicles without deadlines are encouraged to submit proposals by May 1, 2018, to be considered for FY 2018 funding.
 

National Science Foundation: Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (NSF: CISE)

CISE_Exped
NSF: CISE
Expeditions in Computing
OSP Deadline for Preliminary Proposals: April 18, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Preliminary Proposals: April 25, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: January 16, 2019
Award Amount: Up to $2,000,000 per year for five years
 
The far-reaching impact and rate of innovation in the computer and information science and engineering fields has been remarkable, generating economic prosperity and enhancing the quality of life for people throughout the world. The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) has established the Expeditions in Computing (Expeditions) program to provide the CISE research and education community with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, fundamental research agendas that promise to define the future of computing and information. In planning Expeditions projects, investigators are encouraged to come together within or across departments or institutions to combine their creative talents in the identification of compelling, transformative research agendas that promise disruptive innovations in computer and information science and engineering for many years to come.

CISE_US-EU
US-EU Internet Core & Edge Technologies (ICE-T)
OSP Deadline: April 30, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: May 7, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $300,000 over 3 years (RCs); up to $100,000 over up to one year (RIs); up to $50,000 over up to 1 year with a fellowship duration of 2-6 months (RFs) 
 
NSF/CISE and the European Commission's (EC) Directorate General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) seek to enable US and European Union researchers to collaborate to address compelling research challenges in Next Generation Internet (NGI) and Advanced Wireless Networking (AWN). Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, software-defined infrastructures; network function virtualization; resource management in support of content delivery; open data architectures for shared, federated research infrastructures; advanced wireless technologies; and research software tools to support advanced wireless and smart city/community testbeds. This NSF solicitation is expected to align with the EC's Horizon 2020's Work Program for 2018-2020.

NSF's ICE-T program will support awards in three classes:
  • Research Collaboration (RC) awards support collaborative research partnerships, pairing investigators at US institutions with EC-funded ICT investigators at EU institutions (or EU investigators who are requesting funding separately from the EC), for periods of up to 3 years.
  • Research Collaboration Initiation (RI) awards support the establishment of entirely new collaborations, pairing investigators at US institutions with EC-funded investigators at EU institutions (or EU investigators who are requesting funding separately from the EC), to pursue preliminary research investigations for periods of up to 1 year.
  • Research Fellowships (RF) awards support graduate students at US institutions to travel to EU institutions to engage in in situ research collaborations with EC-funded investigators (or EU investigators who are requesting funding separately from the EC) for fellowship periods of 2-6 months, and an award duration of up to 1 year.

CISE_FMitF
NSF: CISE
Formal Methods in the Field (FMitF) 
OSP Deadline: May 1, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline: May 8, 2018 
Award Amount: Up to $1,000,000 for up to 4 years

The Formal Methods in the Field (FMitF) program aims to bring together researchers in formal methods with researchers in other areas of computer and information science and engineering to jointly develop rigorous and reproducible methodologies for designing and implementing correct-by-construction systems and applications with provable guarantees. FMitF encourages close collaboration between two groups of researchers. The first group consists of researchers in the area of formal methods, which is broadly defined as principled approaches based on mathematics and logic, including modeling, specification, design, program analysis, verification, synthesis, and programming language-based approaches. The second group consists of researchers in the "field," which is defined as a subset of areas within computer and information science and engineering that currently do not benefit from having established communities already developing and applying formal methods in their research. Each proposal must have at least one Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI with expertise in formal methods and at least one with expertise in one or more of these fields: computer networks, cyber-human systems, machine learning, and operating/distributed systems.


Computer Science for All (CSforAll: RPP)
OSP Deadline: May 2, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: May 9, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $2,000,000 for up to 4 years (Large Proposals); up to $1,000,000 for up to 3 years (Medium Proposals); up to $300,000 for up to 2 years (Small Proposals)
This program aims to provide all U.S. students the opportunity to participate in computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) education in their schools at the preK-12 levels. With this solicitation, the National Science Foundation (NSF) focuses on researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) that foster the research and development needed to bring CS and CT to all schools. Specifically, this solicitation aims to provide high school teachers with the preparation, professional development (PD) and ongoing support that they need to teach rigorous computer science courses; preK-8 teachers with the instructional materials and preparation they need to integrate CS and CT into their teaching; and schools and districts the resources needed to define and evaluate multi-grade pathways in CS and CT.


CISE_VMware 
NSF/VMware Partnership on Edge Computing Data Infrastructure (ECDI)
OSP Deadline: May 15, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: May 22, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $3,000,000 for 3 years

This solicitation seeks to advance the state of the art in end-to-end networked systems architecture that includes edge infrastructures. The central challenge is to design and develop data-centric edge architectures, programming paradigms, runtime environments, and data sharing frameworks that will enable compelling new applications and fully realize the opportunity of big data in tomorrow's mobile and IoT device environments. Researchers are expected to carefully consider the implications of edge computing's multi-stakeholder context, and the need for security and privacy as first order design and operational considerations.


 CISE_CICI 
NSF: CISE
Cybersecurity Innovation for Cybersecurity (CICI)
OSP Deadline: May 25, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: June 4, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $1,000,000 for up to 3 years (Secure Scientific Cyberinfrastructure and Research Data Protection); up to $5,000,000 for up to 3 years (Collaborative Security Response Center)
The objective of the Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure (CICI) program is to develop, deploy and integrate security solutions that benefit the scientific community by ensuring the integrity, resilience and reliability of the end-to-end scientific workflow. CICI seeks three categories of projects:
  1. Secure Scientific Cyberinfrastructure: These awards seek to secure the scientific workflow by encouraging novel and trustworthy architectural and design approaches, models and frameworks for the creation of a holistic, integrated security environment that spans the entire scientific CI ecosystem;
  2. Collaborative Security Response Center: This single award targets the development of a community resource to provide security monitoring, analysis, expertise, and the resources of a Research & Education (R&E) cyberinfrastructure staff, regardless of physical location or organization; and
  3. Research Data Protection: These awards provide solutions that both ensure the provenance of research data and reduce the complexity of protecting research data sets regardless of funding source.
 
 
CISE_Initiative
Computer and Information Science and Engineering Research Initiation Initiative
OSP Deadline: August 1, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: August 8, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $175,000 for up to 24 months 

With the goal of encouraging research independence immediately upon obtaining one's first academic position after receipt of the PhD, the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) will award grants to initiate the course of one's independent research. Understanding the critical role of establishing that independence early in one's career, it is expected that funds will be used to support untenured faculty or research scientists (or equivalent) in their first three years in a primary academic position after the PhD, but not more than a total of five years after completion of their PhD. One may not yet have received any other grants or contracts in the Principal Investigator (PI) role from any department, agency, or institution of the federal government, including from the CAREER program or any other program, post-PhD, regardless of the size of the grant or contract, with certain exceptions noted below. Serving as co-PI, Senior Personnel, Postdoctoral Fellow, or other Fellow does not count against this eligibility rule. Grants, contracts, or gifts from private companies or foundations; state, local, or tribal governments; or universities do not count against this eligibility rule. It is expected that these funds will allow the new CISE Research Initiation Initiative PI to support one or more graduate students for up to two years.
National Science Foundation: Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (NSF: MPS)

MPS_CBMS
NSF: MPS
NSF-CBMS Regional Research Conferences in the Mathematical Sciences
OSP Deadline: April 20, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: April 27, 2018
Award Amount: E ach anticipated 1-year award will total approximately $35,000 including direct and indirect costs.
 
The NSF-CBMS Regional Research Conferences in the Mathematical Sciences are a series of five-day conferences, each of which features a distinguished lecturer delivering ten lectures on a topic of important current research in one sharply focused area of the mathematical sciences. CBMS refers to the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences which publicizes the conferences and administers the resulting publications. Support is provided for about 30 participants at each conference. Proposals should address the unique characteristics of the NSF-CBMS conferences, outlined in the Program Description.
 MPS_RTG
NSF: MPS
Research Training Groups in the Mathematical Sciences (RTG)
OSP Deadline: May 29, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: June 5, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $500,000 per year for 3 to 5 years
 
The long-range goal of the Research Training Groups in the Mathematical Sciences (RTG) program is to strengthen the nation's scientific competitiveness by increasing the number of well-prepared U.S. citizens, nationals, and permanent residents who pursue careers in the mathematical sciences. The RTG program supports efforts to improve research training by involving undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral associates, and faculty members in structured research groups centered on a common research theme. Research groups supported by RTG must include vertically-integrated activities that span the entire spectrum of educational levels from undergraduates through postdoctoral associates.
 
OtherNSFMPS 
Other NSF: MPS Opportunities 

National Science Foundation: Directorate for Engineering (NSF: ENG)
 
ENG_ERC
NSF: ENG
Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers (ERC) 
OSP Deadline: May 30, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline: June 6, 2018 
Award Amount: Up to $100,000 over one year
 
The Engineering Research Centers program is placing greater emphasis on research that leads to societal impact, including convergent approaches, engaging stakeholder communities, and strengthening team formation, in response to the NASEM study recommendations. The ERC program intends to support planning activities leading to convergent research team formation and capacity-building within the engineering community. This planning grant pilot initiative is designed to foster and facilitate the engineering community's thinking about how to form convergent research collaborations. To participate in the upcoming ERC competition, one is not required to submit a planning grant proposal nor to receive a planning grant.
NSF:ENG
Other NSF: ENG Opportunities
National Science Foundation: Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary

CI_CyberPhys
Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) 
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission of a full proposal
Sponsor Deadline: April 27 - May 9, 2018 (submission window)
Award Amount: Up to $500,000 for up to 3 years (Small Projects); $500,001 to $1,000,000 for up to 3 years (Medium Projects); $1,000,001 to $7,000,000 for 4 to 5 years
 
The CPS program aims to develop the core research needed to engineer complex CPS. Core research areas of the program include control, data analytics, autonomy, design, information management, internet of things (IoT), mixed initiatives including human-in- or on-the-loop, networking, privacy, real-time systems, safety, security, and verification. By abstracting from the particulars of specific systems and application domains, the CPS program seeks to reveal cross-cutting, fundamental scientific and engineering principles that underpin the integration of cyber and physical elements across all application domains. The program additionally supports the development of methods, tools, and hardware and software components based upon these cross-cutting principles, along with validation of the principles via prototypes and testbeds. This program also fosters a research community that is committed to advancing education and outreach in CPS and accelerating the transition of CPS research into the real world. Please note: The Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) program solicitation has been revised for FY 2018, and prospective Principal Investigators are encouraged to read the solicitation carefully. 
 CI_Critical
Critical Techniques, Technologies and Methodologies for Advancing Foundations and Applications of Big Data Sciences and Engineering (BIGDATA) 
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission of a full proposal 
Sponsor Deadline: May 7 - May 14, 2018 (submission window) 
Award Amount: $200,000 to $500,000 per year for 3 to 4 years

The BIGDATA program seeks novel approaches in computer science, statistics, computational science, and mathematics leading towards the further development of the interdisciplinary field of data science. The program also seeks innovative applications in domain science, including social and behavioral sciences, education, physical sciences, and engineering, where data science and the availability of big data are creating new opportunities for research and insights not previously possible.
The solicitation invites two categories of proposals:
  • Foundations (BIGDATA: F): those developing or studying fundamental theories, techniques, methodologies, and technologies of broad applicability to big data problems, motivated by specific data challenges and requirements; and
  • Innovative Applications (BIGDATA: IA): those engaged in translational activities that employ new big data techniques, methodologies, and technologies to address and solve problems in specific application domains. Projects in this category must be collaborative, involving researchers from domain disciplines and one or more methodological disciplines, e.g., computer science, statistics, mathematics, simulation and modeling, etc.
Proposals are expected to be well motivated by specific big data problems in one or more science and engineering research domains. All proposals are expected to clearly articulate the big data aspect(s) that motivate the research. Innovative Applications proposals must provide clear examples of the impacts of the big data techniques, technologies and methodologies on applications in one or more domains.
 CI_Smart
Smart and Connected Health: Connecting Data, People and Systems 
OSP Deadline: May 15, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline: May 22, 2018 
Award Amount: Up to $300,000 per year for up to four years

The goal of the interagency Smart and Connected Health (SCH): Connecting Data, People and Systems program is to accelerate the development and integration of innovative computer and information science and engineering approaches to support the transformation of health and medicine. Approaches that partner technology-based solutions with biomedical and biobehavioral research are supported by multiple agencies of the federal government including the NSF and the NIH. The purpose of this program is to develop next-generation multidisciplinary science that encourages existing and new research communities to focus on breakthrough ideas in a variety of areas of value to health, such as networking, pervasive computing, advanced analytics, sensor integration, privacy and security, modeling of socio-behavioral and cognitive processes and system and process modeling. Effective solutions must satisfy a multitude of constraints arising from clinical/medical needs, barriers to change, heterogeneity of data, semantic mismatch and limitations of current cyberphysical systems and an aging population. Such solutions demand multidisciplinary teams ready to address issues ranging from fundamental science and engineering to medical and public health practice.
The SCH program:
  • Takes a coordinated approach that balances theory with evidenced-based analysis and systematic advances with revolutionary breakthroughs;
  • Seeks cross-disciplinary collaborative research that will lead to new fundamental insights; and
  • Encourages empirical validation of new concepts through research prototypes, ranging from specific components to entire systems.
 CI_TRIPODS
NSF: Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary
Partnerships between Science and Engineering Fields and the NSF TRIPODS Institutes (TRIPODS + X)
OSP Deadline: May 21, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: May 29, 2018
Award Amount: Proposers may request up to $600,000 total for Research Track awards; $200,000 total for Visioning Track awards; or $200,000 total for Education Track awards. For each track, the duration may be up to three years. Approximately 6-12 awards in each of three tracks are anticipated.

NSF's Directorates for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) and Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS) recently launched the Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science (TRIPODS) Phase I program with the goal of promoting long-term, interdisciplinary research and training activities that engage theoretical computer scientists, statisticians, and mathematicians in developing the theoretical foundations of data science.  Twelve TRIPODS Phase I Institutes were established in FY17. The Partnerships between Science and Engineering Fields and the NSF TRIPODS Institutes (TRIPODS + X) solicitation seeks to expand the scope of the TRIPODS program beyond the foundations community by engaging researchers across other NSF disciplines and the TRIPODS research teams in collaborative activities. TRIPODS + X projects will foster relationships between researchers in science & engineering domains and foundational data scientists by leveraging existing NSF investments in the TRIPODS organizations. Working in concert with a TRIPODS organization, a TRIPODS + X project would focus on data-driven research challenges motivated by applications in one or more science and engineering domains or other activities aimed at building robust data science communities. PIs are encouraged to submit proposals in response to three tracks: 1) Research Track: research activities motivated by applications in one or more science & engineering domains; 2) Visioning Track: workshops and conferences, innovation labs, and other community-building and direction-setting activities; and 3) Education Track: curriculum development and other education- and training-related activities.  

To be eligible, at least one PI or co-PI must represent a discipline other than mathematics, statistics, and theoretical computer science, and at least one PI or co-PI must be a PI, co-PI, or Senior Personnel of one of the 12 TRIPODS Phase I Institute projects initiated in FY 2017. Participation of PIs and co-PIs at institutions other than the TRIPODS awardee organizations is particularly encouraged and will receive priority consideration. Each TRIPODS Phase I organization may participate in at most five proposals. Each TRIPODS Phase I organization may participate in at most three proposals in any of the three tracks.

 
NSF_CAREER
NSF: Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary
Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline: July 18, 2018 (BIO, CISE, EHR); July 19, 2018 (ENG); July 20, 2018 (GEO, MPS, SBE)
Award Amount: Details below
 
The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from early-career faculty at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.
 
The CAREER award, including indirect costs, is expected to total a minimum of $400,000 for the 5-year duration, with the following exceptions: Awards for proposals to the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO), the Directorate for Engineering (ENG), or the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) are expected to total a minimum of $500,000 for the 5-year duration.
 
 
OtherNSFCross2 
Other NSF: Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary Opportunities

_________________________________________

For assistance, please contact:

Erin Hale
Senior Research Development Officer
[email protected] | 617-496-5252

Jennifer Corby
Research Development Officer
[email protected] | 617-495-1590


Research Development | Research Administration Services | research.fas.harvard.edu