• Waste minimization
• Recycling
• Waste conversion to energy, biofuels, chemicals or other useful products. This includes, but is not limited to waste-to-energy, anaerobic digestion, composting, and other thermal or biological conversion technologies.
• Strategies to promote diversion to higher and better uses (e.g. organics diversion, market analysis, optimized material management, logistics, etc.)
• Landfilling

There are a number of topics that may require approval before a pre-proposal will be considered. See RFP for a list of topics requiring approval. Investigators must contact EREF at least 2 weeks in advance to discuss the topic prior to submitting a pre-proposal.  

Proposed research in excess of $300,000 or longer than 3 years should contain sufficient details that justify the need for the higher than average amount and longer project duration.

American Diabetes Association - Pathway to Stop Diabetes

Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: April 29, 2019 by 12 PM

FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: June 24, 2019

Sponsor Deadline: July 1, 2019

Award Amount: Varies by award, see below

 

The Pathway to Stop Diabetes Program will support creative scientists who are just starting their careers in diabetes research, or who are already established in another field but want to expand their focus to diabetes research. The program accepts nominations for exceptional investigators with medical and scientific backgrounds who propose innovative basic, clinical, translational, behavioral, epidemiological and health services research relevant to any type of diabetes, diabetes-related disease state or complication. The program solicits nominations for candidates in all disciplines as applied to diabetes including medicine, biology, chemistry, computing, physics, mathematics and engineering.

 

This is a limited submission opportunity and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research is facilitating the internal competition for potential applicants who hold a primary appointment at a school on the Cambridge campus.  Each DUNS defined campus of Harvard University (Chan, HMS & Cambridge) is limited to submitting one proposal from one of the three award categories. The nomination can be in  one of the three available Pathway award types:

 

• Initiator Award: This two-phased award is designed to support the transition of scientists from mentored training to independent research faculty. Eligible applicants must currently be in research training positions (post-doctoral fellow, research fellowship) and have no more than seven years of research training following terminal doctoral degree. Awards provide two distinct phases of research support: Phase 1 provides up to two years of support for mentored training at a maximum of $100,000 per year, Phase 2 provides up to five years of support for independent research at a maximum of $325,000 per year. Apply here for the Initiator Award.
• Accelerator Award: This award is designed to support exceptional, independent early-career researchers who have distinguished themselves as promising investigators and are in the beginning stages of establishing successful, sustainable diabetes research programs. Awards are available to early-career diabetes investigators proposing innovative and ambitious diabetes-related research programs. Applicants must hold faculty positions and have demonstrated independent productivity in diabetes research. Applicants may currently hold independent NIH funding but must not have applied for or received an R01/U01 renewal or a second R01/U01 award. Awards provide five years of research support at a maximum of $325,000 per year. Apply here for the Accelerator Award.
• Visionary Award: Awards are designed to support established, experienced investigators with strong records of outstanding productivity in fields outside of diabetes who are interested in applying their considerable skills and expertise to diabetes research. These awards are highly competitive and intended to support particularly innovative and transformational ideas that have the potential to have an exceptional impact in diabetes. Applicants must hold independent faculty positions and have demonstrated significant productivity in their current field of research. Applicants cannot have previously received national grant support (NIH, NIDDK, ADA, JDRF, etc.), as either a PI or Co-PI, in diabetes or diabetes-related research. Awards provide two distinct phases of research support: Phase 1 provides up to three years of support at a maximum of $325,000 per year, Phase 2 provides up to two years of support at a maximum of $325,000 per year. Apply here for the Visionary Award.

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.

1. Research Grants will be aligned with two priorities with at least one overlapping with an Incubation Award priority from the previous year. This year, the two priority areas are: Confronting Climate Change and Cultivating Well-being and Nutrition.
2. Research Platforms are adaptable and dynamic resources that can be accessed by multiple faculty to support projects in a variety of disciplines. The goal of these awards is to provide one-time support for the development of research platforms that can be funded in the future by external support mechanisms.
3. Public Health Pedagogy awards intend 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 educational programs or funded in the future by external support mechanisms.

 

DARPA Science of Artificial Intelligence and Learning for Open-world Novelty (SAIL-ON) *

FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: May 3, 2019

Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: May 10, 2019

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. The SAIL-ON program will be executed in three phases: 18 months for Phase 1 (base) and 12 months each for Phases 2 and 3 (options).

 

The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals for new artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies and techniques that support: (1) the principled characterization and generation of novelty in open worlds; and (2) the creation of AI systems capable of operating appropriately and effectively in open worlds. The Science of Artificial Intelligence and Learning for Open-world Novelty (SAIL-ON) program will research and develop the underlying scientific principles and general engineering techniques and algorithms needed to create AI systems that act appropriately and effectively in novel situations that occur in open worlds, which is a key characteristic needed for potential military applications of AI. The focus is on novelty that arises from violations of implicit or explicit assumptions in an agent's model of the external world, including other agents, the environment, and their interactions.

 

SAIL-ON comprises three interacting Technical Areas (TAs) to be addressed in parallel:

• Technical Area 1 (TA1): Novelty Characterization and Generation
• Technical Area 2 (TA2): Open World Capabilities
• Technical Area 3 (TA3): Evaluation and Transition 

Proposals for TA1 and TA2 only are solicited by this BAA; TA3 will be conducted by a Government team comprised of FFRDC's and/or Government Laboratories and is not being solicited by this BAA. A proposal may address either TA1 or TA2; a proposer wishing to respond to both TA1 and TA2 must submit separate proposals for each TA.

 

DARPA anticipates multiple awards in each of TA1 and TA2, with fewer awards in TA1 than TA2.

DARPA Polyplexus Pilot Topic Opportunity Notice - Quantum Machine Learning (08) *

Sponsor Deadline for Abstracts (strongly encouraged): May 8, 2019

FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: June 7, 2019

Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: June 14, 2019

Award Amount: Up to $100,000 for 1 year.

 

The purpose of this Polyplexus Pilot Topic Opportunity Notice is to provide public notification of a research and development funding opportunity on the Polyplexus online platform. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) invites participation in Polyplexus, which is an online, professional, technical conversation between the research community and DARPA Program Managers that will lead to the opportunity to submit abstracts and full proposals for a research and development project. The shared task of this group is to rigorously explore the trends and possible applications of emerging science and technology in a specific technical area defined by a participating Program Manager. The technical area under consideration in this announcement is quantum machine learning. Further information on the topic can be found in the "Quantum Machine Learning (08)" incubator located on the polyplexus.com website.

 

The process, evaluation criteria, abstract submission instructions, and proposal submission instructions are described in the most recent amendment of BAA for Polyplexus Pilot 2 (HR001118S0058) .

 

At least one award is anticipated. In addition, the information gathered in the incubator may serve as the basis for a future program.

• TA1: AI Agent Architectures
• TA2: Cognitive Modeling of Individuals and Teams
• TA3: Environment and Evaluation

• Basic research foundations in quantum algorithms and in quantum computer science. It is expected that the proposed teams will be structured around these two main topics and will describe processes by which the results, capabilities and resources of the Quantum Algorithm Teams (QATs) and Quantum Computing Application Teams (QCATs) will be incorporated into a robust core basic research agenda.
• Mechanisms for taking on cross-cutting algorithmic and computer science challenges across quantum computing topics for DOE and SC relevant application-specific research.
• Tools and resources to facilitate the use of diverse hardware technologies and architectures.
• Mechanisms for providing a bridge between QIS and classical applied mathematics and computer science communities.
• Plans for engaging and interacting with (as appropriate) the DOE-supported QIS community.

ARPA-E Design Intelligence Fostering Formidable Energy Reduction and Enabling Novel Totally Impactful Advanced Technology Enhancements (DIFFERENTIATE)*

1. Enhance the creativity of the hypothesis generation (i.e. conceptual design) process by helping engineers develop new concepts and by enabling the consideration of a larger and more diverse set of design options during the hypothesis generation phase
2. Enhance the efficiency of the high-fidelity evaluation (i.e. detailed design) process by accelerating the high-fidelity analysis and optimization of the hypothesized solution, and
3. To ultimately reduce (ideally eliminate) design iteration by developing the capability to execute "inverse design" processes in which the product design is effectively expressed as an explicit function of the problem statement.

Traineeship in Accelerator Science & Engineering *

FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: May 23, 2019

Sponsor Deadline: May 31, 2019

Award Amount:  Up to $5M is available to provide funding to support tuition, stipend, and travel costs for students, and to provide modest support for curriculum development and program administration support. Award terms are expected to be up to five years, with awardees eligible to submit applications for a renewal and a second term.

This program will support innovative,   university-led proposals for graduate level training that leverage DOE assets, capabilities, and strategic partnerships, and address emerging needs in graduate training to enable preparedness for STEM careers beyond academia in areas critical to DOE mission-driven workforce needs . Individual Universities may apply or a consortium of Universities may apply. The enrollment requirement is   four to ten new students enrolled every year , with the DOE Traineeship providing    support for up to two years per student . Students must be enrolled in a qualified graduate program in:

• accelerator science, or
• physics, with specialization in accelerator science, or
• applied physics, with specialization in accelerator science, or
• engineering, with a specialization in accelerator engineering.

Awards resulting from this FOA must be for education and training, which may be conducted through research.

• A two-page research proposal. Subsequent pages for references and/or graphics may be included and do not count toward the page limit.
• A current CV
• A letter of support from the department chair or program director of the candidate's proposed host department/program at Harvard. The letter should describe the position details, the institutional resources to be committed, and the commitment of the host to the career development of the applicant

• Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) program;
• Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS): Core Programs: Information Integration and Informatics (III) program; and
• Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) program.

• Mutual benefit of the collaboration for all partners;
• True intellectual collaboration with the international partner(s);
• Benefits to be realized from the expertise and specialized skills, facilities, sites and/or resources of the international counterpart; and
• Active research engagement of U.S. students and early-career researchers.

1. Active NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot awards to maintain linkages to the NSF INCLUDES National Network by supporting DDLP efforts to collect data, communicate and participate in activities with the NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub and NSF INCLUDES Network. The amount of supplemental funding requested must: (1) be less than 20% of the original award amount; and (b) not exceed $15,000 in direct costs; and

2. Any active NSF awards outside of the NSF INCLUDES National Network to develop:
   • Opportunities among currently funded NSF projects, including NSF broadening participation projects and projects from the other Ten Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments or other major Foundation investments, with the goal to build a collaborative infrastructure for broadening participation in NSF-funded research activities;
   • Linkages between current activities including working with the NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub, Alliances, and Design and Development Launch Pilots to adopt common goals, shared measures, and mutually reinforcing activities;
   • New ideas to bring a community of NSF-funded projects into the NSF INCLUDES National Network.

Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program

*

1. NSF-supported research results: The PI or a co-PI must have had an NSF award that ended no more than seven (7) years prior to the full proposal deadline date or be a current NSF award recipient. The proposed technology development project must be derived from the research results and/or discoveries from this underlying NSF award.

2. NSF-supported customer discovery results through the NSF I-Corps Teams  Program: The PI or a co-PI must have been a member of an award under the NSF I-Corps Teams Program (https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/teams.jsp). The PI or co-PI must have fully completed the training provided under the I-Corps Team award within the past four (4) years. The customer discovery activities performed under the NSF-funded I-Corps award must be based on the technology that is proposed to be translated within the PFI proposal.

• S&CC Integrative Research Grants (SCC-IRGs) Tracks 1 and 2. Awards in this category will support fundamental integrative research that addresses technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities.

• S&CC Planning Grants (SCC-PGs). Awards in this category are for capacity building to prepare project teams to propose future well-developed SCC-IRG proposals.