June 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. 
 
Questions?
Erin Hale: [email protected] | 617-496-5252 
Jennifer Corby:  [email protected] | 617-495-1590  
 
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News, Announcements, & Special Features
Feature: N ew Investigator Opportunity Spotlight
Quick links to early career opportunities in this month's newsletter.

News:  Removal of Deadlines for the Core Programs in NSF's Directorate for Engineering

In order to allow Principal Investigators (PIs) more flexibility and to better facilitate interdisciplinary research across engineering disciplines, ENG is removing deadlines for submission of unsolicited proposals to all core programs in CBET, CMMI, ECCS and EEC,  effective August 15, 2018. Read more here. 


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
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.  This award provides 8% in overhead costs, which falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy. Please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.
 
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.

FoundationAHA
American Heart Association/Allen Initiative in Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment
OSP Deadline: June 28, 2018
Sponsor Phase I Deadline: July 6, 2018
Award Amount: Applicants should propose a scope of research that could be completed at a minimum level of $15M or larger. Up to 10% may be used for institutional indirect costs. This amount falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy. Please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.
 
The purpose of this research initiative is to discover and fund highly-promising teams of investigators who will expand the frontiers of bioscience, pursuing creative, transformative ideas with the potential to move brain health and cognitive impairment science forward. It will fund large-scale integrated research that will identify novel, early, actionable, biological/mechanistic contributors to age-related cognitive impairment. The sponsors will grant a competitive basic science research award(s) of up to $43 million over eight years to one or more highly inspiring and innovative integrated team(s).
 
The following topics are of particular interest:
  • The neurovascular unit (NVU) in relation to cognitive function
  • Proteostasis in relation to cognitive function
  • Inflammation in vascular and neural systems in relation to aging / cognitive function
  • Role of astrocytes and microglia and their effects on cognitive function
  • DNA repair and epigenetic aging mechanisms in vascular and neural systems.
Applicants are expected to assemble an integrative team that will leverage diverse skills and perspectives to address a compelling selection or combination of the above or equally compelling relevant topics. Because early stage and causal mechanisms are of priority interest, studies focused exclusively on late-stage manifestations (such as the Alzheimer's Disease pathology of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles) or non-modifiable/non-actionable biomarkers, for example, will be less competitive. Likewise, with a focus on novel discoveries of basic scientific mechanisms at play, large scale randomized trials and population studies will only be competitive if appropriately linked to the mechanistic discoveries. Fellowships and training within the projects are welcome.


FoundationBIRD
Executive Summary Deadline: July 9, 2018
OSP Deadline: August 14, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: August 21, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $1M, but no more than 50% of the R&D costs associated with the joint project.  This award provides 5% in overhead costs, which falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy. Please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.
 
"BIRD Energy" is the implementation of a cooperation agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the Israel Ministry of Energy jointly with the Israel Innovation Authority, and the BIRD Foundation.
 
To be considered, a project proposal should include:

  • R&D cooperation between two companies or cooperation between a company and a university/research institution (one from the U.S. and one from Israel)
  • Innovation in all areas of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, such as Solar and Wind Power, Advanced Vehicle Technologies and Alternative Fuels, Smart Grid, Storage, Water-Energy Nexus, Advanced Manufacturing, etc.
  • Significant commercial potential; the project outcome should lead to commercialization


FoundationsSearle
Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: July 18, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: September 28, 2018
Award Amount: $300,000 per year for three years
Eligible Faculty: Applicants should have begun their appointment as an independent investigator at the assistant professor level on or after July 1, 2017. 
 
The Searle Scholars Program is a limited submission award program which makes grants to selected academic and research institutions to support the independent research of outstanding early-career scientists who have recently been appointed as assistant professors on a tenure-track appointment. Applicants for the 2019 competition are expected to be pursuing independent research careers in biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and related areas in chemistry, medicine, and the biological sciences. The Searle Scholars Program Scientific Advisory Board is primarily interested in the potential of applicants to make innovative and high-impact contributions to research over an extended period of time.


 
FoundationsTempleton
Core Funding Areas
Online Funding Inquiry Deadline: August 31, 2018
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline (if invited): January 31, 2019 (for requests more than $234,800; deadlines for full proposals less than $234,800 are individually determined) 
Award Amount: Individual grants vary in amount. Smallest active grant is about $35,000 and largest is $7.6 million.
 
The Templeton Foundation offers grants in support of research and public engagement in the following major funding areas:

  • The Science & the Big Questions Funding Area supports innovative efforts to address the deepest questions facing humankind. Why are we here? How can we flourish? What are the fundamental structures of reality? What can we know about the nature and purposes of the divine?
  • The Character Virtue Development Funding Area seeks to advance the science and practice of character, with a focus on moral, performance, civic, and intellectual virtues such as humility, gratitude, curiosity, diligence, and honesty.
  • The Individual Freedom & Free Markets Funding Area supports education, research, and grassroots efforts to promote individual freedom, free markets, free competition, and entrepreneurship. Grounded in the ideas of classical liberal political economy, we seek and develop projects that focus on individuals and their place in a free society. 
  • The Exceptional Cognitive Talent & Genius Funding Area supports programs that aim to recognize and nurture exceptional cognitive talent, especially for those at an early stage of life. This Funding Area also supports research concerning the nature of cognitive genius, including extraordinary creativity, curiosity, and imagination.
  • The Genetics Funding Area seeks to advance genetics research by supporting novel approaches and contrarian projects, especially research that is undervalued by traditional funding sources. In addition to basic and translational research, this Funding Area supports educational programs that increase public awareness concerning the ways in which genetics-related research and its applications can advance human flourishing at the individual, familial, and societal levels.
  • The Voluntary Family Planning Funding Area supports programs that provide such resources for parents and families worldwide.

FoundationsBanting
Deadline to Request Harvard Institutional Endorsement: September 5, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: September 19, 2018
Award Amount: $70,000 per year for 2 years
 
The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships, offered by the Government of Canada, provide two year fellowships to eligible postdoctoral students both nationally and internationally, who will positively contribute to the country's economic, social and research-based growth. Applications are accepted from all fields in the humanities, social sciences, health research, natural sciences and engineering.  
 
Candidates to be hosted by Harvard must fulfill all degree requirements for a PhD or equivalent between September 15, 2015 and September 30, 2019 and must be Canadian Citizens or permanent residents of Canada who have obtained/will obtain their PhD or equivalent from a Canadian university. The window of eligibility can be extended the applicant had their career interrupted for maternity leave or other reasons listed on the sponsor website. 
 
Applicants who will be hosted by Harvard University must include with their application a  Letter of Endorsement  signed by the Vice Provost for Research. Applicants requesting a Letter of Endorsement are asked to provide the Office of the Vice Provost for Research with a copy of their proposed  Supervisor's Statement  through the online portal at the link above by September 19, 2018.  


Industry/Corporate Opportunities

SemiconductorComputer
Computer-Aided Design and Test
Sponsor White Paper Deadline: July 11, 2018 by 3:00PM
OSP Deadline (if invited): September 4, 2018
Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline (if invited): September 11, 2018 by 3:00PM
 
Semiconductor Research Corporation Global Research Collaboration is soliciting white papers in the area of computer-aided design and test. This call, issued to universities worldwide, may be addressed by an individual investigator or a research team. The Corporation's research needs are outlined in the computer-aided design and test  research needs document  which mainly emphasizes system, logic, and physical design tools. Some additional work in test and verification will be considered, if aligned with needs described in the document. Researchers are encouraged to utilize industry standard tools as a basis or reference point, and to specify clearly not only how their research goes beyond the industry state of the art, but also how they would put their results into practice in an industrial setting alongside existing methodologies and tools. 


SemiconductorNano
Nanomanufacturing Materials and Processes
Sponsor White Paper Deadline: July 11, 2018 by 3:00PM
OSP Deadline (if invited): September 6, 2018
Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline (if invited): September 13, 2018 by 3:00PM
 
Semiconductor Research Corporation Global Research Collaboration is soliciting white papers in the research program of Nanomanufacturing Materials and Processes. The principal goals of this program are to advance fundamental knowledge and innovations in the nanomanufacturing of semiconductors. This call, issued to universities worldwide, may be addressed by an individual investigator or a research team. 

Research needs for this call generally fall into the following five categories:
  1. Patterning
  2. Frond-End Processes
  3. Back-End Processes
  4. Common areas
  5. ESH (Environment, Safety, and Health)
More details for each category can be found in two separate Research Needs documents: ( Categories 1 through 4 /  Category 5 [ESH]). 


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: 5 business days prior to submission; please note that OSP review and approval is required for any User Agreements between the sponsor and Harvard University. 
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
Dean's Fund for Scientific Advancement: Acceleration Award
Deadline: June 25, 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

DODNGABIG
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
Boosting Innovative GEOINT (BIG) Broad Agency Announcement Amendment 9: Addition of Topic Area 9 - Metadata Tampering Study
OSP Deadline: June 18, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (required):  June 25, 2018
Award Information:  The target award value for contracts is dependent on funding and the Research Objective, which is currently funded to $1M. Note that the desired objective is to award approximately 3 proposals with the available funding, however, the number of proposals selected for funding will be based on the value in relation to cost that each provides.  The performance period shall not exceed 12 months from date of contract award.
 
This Boosting Innovative GEOINT Broad Agency Announcement (BIG BAA) by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) solicits offers for the award of contracts for inventive, actionable ideas and proposals that will enhance GEOINT and welcomes all innovative ideas for path-breaking research and innovative techniques that may advance the GEOINT mission. NGA is seeking innovative approaches to problem solving and strongly encourages all types of US organizations--universities, small businesses, non-profits, large companies, etc.--to submit ideas in the form of white papers.
 
This Amendment calls for white papers regarding current and future methods for the detection of tampered metadata associated with NITF, JPEG/2000, and TIFF files. NGA is also interested in metadata tampering of various document files including, but not limited to: .docx, .pdf, and .csv. Applicants should highlight the novelty of their approach and describe any experiments they plan to perform (including datasets). NGA strongly prefers solutions that are targeted towards NITF/NSIF metadata including rational polynomial coefficient and time-space data.


DODOSDMinerva
Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)
Minerva Research Initiative
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (strongly encouraged): June 19, 2018
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: August 14, 2018 
Award Amount: $150,000-$1M per year for 3-5 years
 
The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is interested in receiving proposals for the  Minerva Research Initiative , a university-led defense social science program seeking fundamental understanding of the social and cultural forces shaping U.S. strategic interests globally. The Minerva Research Initiative emphasizes questions of strategic importance to U.S. national security policy. It seeks to increase the Department's intellectual capital in the social sciences and improve its ability to address future challenges and build bridges between the Department and the social science community. Minerva brings together universities and other research institutions around the world and supports multidisciplinary and cross-institutional projects addressing specific interest areas determined by the Department of Defense. The Minerva program aims to promote research in specific areas of social science and to promote a candid and constructive relationship between DoD and the social science academic community. Proposals will be considered both for single-investigator awards as well as larger teams.
 
The Minerva Research Initiative competition is for research related to the following eight topics:
  • Topic 1: Sociopolitical (In)Stability, Resilience, and Recovery
  • Topic 2: Economic Interdependence and Security
  • Topic 3: Alliances and Burden Sharing
  • Topic 4: Fundamental Dynamics of Scientific Discovery
  • Topic 5: Adversarial Information Campaigns
  • Topic 6: Automated Cyber Vulnerability Analysis
  • Topic 7: Power, Deterrence, Influence, and Escalation Management for Shaping Operations
10 to 12 awards are anticipated.


DARPASCORE
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence (SCORE)
Sponsor Deadline for Abstracts (strongly encouraged): June 20, 2018 for TA1 and TA2; November 1, 2018 for TA3
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: August 1, 2018 for TA1 and TA2; December 12, 2018 for TA3
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. SCORE is a 36-month program, comprising two phases with durations of 18 months each.
 
DARPA's Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is soliciting innovative research proposals for the development and deployment of automated tools to assign Confidence Scores (CSs) to different kinds of Social and Behavioral Science (SBS) research results and claims. CSs are quantitative measures that should enable
someone to understand the degree to which a particular claim or result is likely to be reproducible and/or replicable. These tools will assign explainable CSs with a reliability that is equal to, or better than, the best current human expert methods and will enable a consumer of SBS research to quickly calibrate the level of confidence in the Reproducibility and Replicability (R&R) of a given SBS result or claim.
 
To achieve its vision, the SCORE program will fund research in three Technical Areas (TAs), with an independent Test and Evaluation (T&E) team providing oversight. DARPA is soliciting proposals for TA1, TA2, or TA3 but is not soliciting proposals for participation on the T&E team. Each proposal should only address a single TA. The three TAs are:
  • TA1: Data
  • TA2: Experts
  • TA3: Algorithms
DARPA anticipates multiple awards under each Technical Area (TA).


DODAFRLSTAT
Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Airman Systems Directorate
Science and Technology for Autonomous Teammates (STAT) Call 003: Autonomy Collaboration Research Network (ACRNet)
OSP Deadline: June 21, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: June 28, 2018 
Award Amount:  The anticipated Federal Government funding for stand-up costs is $600,000. The award will be comprised of a stand-up period not to exceed 3 months followed by a period of performance of 57 months for activities associated with the consortium.
 
This announcement is to solicit proposals to initiate a collaborative research consortium to develop and demonstrate the autonomy technologies needed for DoD applications. The intent is that this consortium will be self-sustaining in that research projects will be initiated by government (DoD as well as other government agencies), private industry, and academia and through those projects the center administration costs will be covered. The consortium should be structured to allow government, industry and academia to come together with the goal of organizing the currently fragmented U.S. capabilities into a coherent ecosystem and better position the U.S. relative to global competition. This call seeks a proposal to stand-up the consortium, but does not seek proposals for projects.
 
The vision of AFRL is to accelerate autonomy research through the development, maturation, demonstration, and transition of technologies necessary to advance the state-of-the-art of autonomy for: Command & Control; Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (PED) of Intelligence; Intelligence, Surveillance, and Recognizance (ISR) Collection; Manned-Unmanned Combat Teams; and Manned-Unmanned Team of Teams, as well as other potential Air Force applications. Guided by technology challenge areas, the consortium activities will be expected to mature software components and incrementally demonstrate increasingly complex autonomous capabilities. Each project will advance the state of autonomy technologies. The technology demonstrations that result from this research will substantially improve the Air Force's capability to conduct missions in a variety of environments while minimizing the risks to Airmen. The overall impact of integration of autonomous systems into the mission space will enable the Air Force to operate inside of the enemy's decision loop.
 
The Air Force anticipates one award for this announcement. The Federal Government (including DoD) anticipates funding $195 million ($195M) for this consortium, distributed across five fiscal years. It is anticipated that other government agencies may provide additional funds, particularly for projects after award.
 
Please Note: Institutions may only submit a single proposal as the Consortium Administrator. If you are interested in submitting an application, please contact Erin Hale at 
[email protected] .


DODONRCommNet
Office of Naval Research (ONR)
Communications and Networking Discovery and Invention
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (required): June 22, 2018
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals (if invited): September 28, 2018 
Award Amount: $300,000-$500,000 per year for up to 3 years
 
The goal of the Communications and Networking Program within the Office of Naval Research is to support the Navy's Information Warfare vision by developing measurable advances in technology that can directly enable and enhance end-to-end connectivity and quality-of-service for mission-critical information exchange among widely dispersed naval, joint, and coalition forces. The vision is to provide high throughput robust communications and networking to ensure all warfighters - from the operational command to the tactical edge - have access to information, knowledge, and decision-making necessary to perform their assigned tasks.
 
White papers for potential FY19 Exploratory Development/Applied Research (Budget category 6.2) projects are sought under the following focus areas:
  1. Wide (instantaneous) bandwidth power amplifier technologies for phased array, with high drain efficiency and linearity for simultaneous multi-beam operation;
  2. Innovative options for communications (e.g., RF/magnetic, optical) across the air-water interface to submerged platforms or between two underwater platforms;
  3. Techniques for mobile troposcatter communications that reduces cost to acquisition by reusing shipboard SATCOM antenna and RF frontend with minimal modifications to hardware and its configuration;
  4. Novel approaches for low probability of detect/intercept communications against advanced electronic threats;
  5. Dynamic scheduling, routing and control mechanisms to efficiently and reliably deliver traffic with varying level of service requirements (e.g., latency, loss rate, priority); and
  6. Machine learning and other techniques/concepts for autonomous network management by translating Commander's Intent into network policies.
ONR is receptive to innovative ideas which are not within the above focus areas but nonetheless are important to the Navy/Marine Corps communications and networking.
 
ONR anticipates an annual budget of approximately $2,000,000 for this program.


DODCDMRPTRIAGE
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)
Trauma Resiliency Immersive Adaptive Gaming Environment (TRIAGE) Award
Sponsor Deadline for Pre-Proposals (required): June 25, 2018
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals (if invited): September 17, 2018 
Award Amount: Up to $1.3M. The maximum period of performance is 18 months.
 
The FY18 TRIAGE Award is seeking proposals/applications developing and evaluating an innovative protocol for virtual immersive gaming interoperable components that will increase medical care provider performance, adaptability, and agility in stress-inducing contexts related to Roles of Care 1-3:
  • Role 1 - Point of injury care.
  • Role 2 - Forward resuscitative care including advanced trauma/emergency medical treatment.
  • Role 3 - Theater hospitalization including robust care for resuscitation, surgery, and postoperative care.
These resulting TRIAGE proof-of-concept models should be developed for relevancy to medical simulation training across the continuum of care and address the needs and priorities of the military medical training community, with applicability to civilian groups as well.
 
The current announcement focuses on high-stress, immersive three-dimensional (3D) gaming interoperable components that increase participant performance, adaptability, and agility through repeated rehearsals of a medical scenario in which the participants can learn to adapt their behavior to: alter the course of the scenario; influence scenario outcomes; and reduce or control the level of stress presented to the participant. This award is not limited to research in a specific medical domain; all areas of medicine are encouraged to submit.
 
Two TRIAGE Awards are anticipated.


DODHRAPS
U.S. Department of the Army, Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium
Health Readiness and Performance System (HRAPS) Wearable Physiological Sensor Development
OSP Deadline: June 25, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers: July 2, 2018 
Award Amount:  $2.4M for up to 2 years.
 
The overarching goal of this program is to design and evaluate an optimized multifunctional wearable physiological sensor that can quantify thermal work strain, changes in electromyography (EMG) that indicate muscular injury, and neurocognitive changes that suggest compromised cognitive function and predict incipient illness. The project includes testing of the prototype device in the lab as well as in the field, design for manufacturing, manufacturing setup costs, and a first article run.
 
MTEC anticipates one award under this program.


DODDARPAUSRA
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Urban Reconnaissance through Supervised Autonomy (URSA)
OSP Deadline: June 26, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: July 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. The URSA program is a two-phase, 36-month development effort.  At this time, DARPA is soliciting full proposals for Phase 1 only.
 
The goal of the URSA program is to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of integrating unmanned systems, sensor technologies, and advanced autonomy algorithms to enable improved techniques for  rapidly discriminating hostile intent and filtering out threats in complex urban environments.
 
Phase 1 will include initial technology research and trade studies to develop an evolutionary demonstration architecture and demonstration approach. The Phase 1 program will be comprised of two performer tracks. Track A will be focused on system-level solutions and demonstrations. Track B will be used to fund compelling critical enabling capabilities such as component-level algorithms, behavioral analysis techniques, technologies or other unique research that could enhance multiple system level approaches. The objective of Track B is to enable participation by companies with niche expertise who can only offer partial solutions to URSA. Track B performer results will be due approximately 12 months after award to enable assessment and potential teaming with Track A performers for Phase 2. In Phase 2, one or more Track A performers will continue to enhance their system-level capabilities and migrate to an urban environment test site for field demonstrations.
 
DARPA envisions three to four Track A performers and multiple Track B performers. Up to $22.6M is the total amount anticipated to be awarded for Phase 1.


DODAFOSRCenterExcel
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
CENTER OF EXCELLENCE: Assured Autonomy in Contested Environments
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (encouraged): June 27, 2018
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: August 22, 2018 
Award Amount: Up to $6M. The maximum period of performance is 6 years.
 
This center is a joint project between the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate (AFRL/RV), Munitions Directorate (AFRL/RW), and Sensors Directorate (AFRL/RY). The center will extend the research capabilities of the Air Force Research Laboratory, and provide opportunities for a new generation of United States scientists and engineers to address the basic research needs of the United States Air Force (USAF). The UCoE researchers will coordinate research projects with AFRL/RV, RW, and RY researchers, share information and best practices, author joint studies and publications, and provide a greater number of learning opportunities and applications for students and the defense community overall. Frequent interactions, including joint conferences, workshops and other research exchange activities are expected.
 
This University Center of Excellence (UCoE) is to conduct fundamental research into concepts and approaches in mathematical and computational science towards the design, development and employment of autonomous systems, within the context of a contested (adversarial) environment. The broad primary objective of this UCoE is to make fundamental advances in several, coupled autonomy-related fields in order to increase functional flexibility, while being constrained by the multiple aspects of variable system capabilities and operation in contested environments. The particular challenges of interest that should be addressed by the proposed UCoE are:
  • Uncertain Adversarial Conditions
  • Computational Resources
  • Communication Resources
  • Limited Training Data
  • Integration
One grant award is anticipated.

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.

DODICORPS
Army Research Office (ARO) and the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Research Directorate/Basic Research Office)
Proof of Concept Commercialization Pilot Program Innovation Corps @ Department of Defense (I-Corps @ DoD) Fiscal Year 2018
OSP Deadline: June 28, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: July 6, 2018 
Award Amount: $40,000-$70,000 for 1 year
 
The Innovation Corps at the Department of Defense (I-Corps @ DoD) program is an opportunity for currently/recently DoD funded-Principal Investigators to learn how to commercialize their discoveries/innovations. Successful applicants will receive a grant to attend a program that provides extensive training in product commercialization from industry experts and 'serial entrepreneurs' who have helped train over 1,000 I-Corps™ Teams in how to bring their innovations to market. The I-Corps @ DoD program is a pilot program modeled after the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps™ program. 
 
The key component of the I-Corps @ DoD program is the I-Corps Team. The I-Corps Team is comprised of the Technical Lead, the Entrepreneurial Lead and the Mentor. The Technical Lead will typically be a faculty member, senior research scientist or postdoctoral scholar with deep and direct technical expertise in the actual core technology about which the I-Corps team is exploring commercial potential. Typically, the Technical Lead will also serve as the proposal Principal Investigator (PI). The Entrepreneurial Lead is typically a postdoctoral researcher, graduate student, or other student, who possesses relevant technical knowledge and a deep commitment to investigate the commercial landscape surrounding the innovation. The Mentor brings entrepreneurial experience and serves as the principal guide in determining the technology disposition. Technical Leads/PIs ideally locate their own mentor, but can also contact the I-Corps @ DoD Program Manager for assistance with locating a mentor. 
 
DoD intends to award roughly $1,000,000 under this Program Announcement, subject to the availability of funds. Up to 14 awards are anticipated for FY 18.


DODBARI
Army Research Office (ARO) and the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Research Directorate)
Fiscal Year 2018 Bilateral Academic Research Initiative (BARI) Pilot Program
OSP Deadline: June 28, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: July 6, 2018 
Award Amount:  Typical annual funding is expected to be in the range of approximately $1M each year.  The period of performance will be 3 years. The total funding from the US DoD available for the Grant awarded from this FOA is estimated to be $3M.
 
The BARI program supports basic research in science and engineering stemming from interactive collaborative efforts between US institutions of higher education and UK institutions of higher education  that is of potential interest to US Department of Defense (DoD) and UK Ministry of Defense (MOD). The program is focused on international collaborative research efforts where teams from the United States and the United Kingdom combine unique skillsets and approaches to provide rapid advances in scientific areas of mutual interest to the US DoD and UK MOD. In the inaugural year of this program, this area is artificial intelligence and collaborative decision making. 
 
Each proposal submitted under this FOA will be a joint US/UK proposal, with a US research team and a UK research team collaborating on a research solution. A single proposal will be submitted, by the US Research Team, for the two research teams. The single proposal must show that the proposed research is collaborative and interactive between the research teams and provide a distinct budget for the US Research Team and a distinct budget for the UK Research Team. The two principal investigators, one belonging to the US Research Team and one belonging to the UK Research Team, will work with the US and UK technical points of contact to insure the research stays collaborative as the research progress.
 
The U.S. DoD will award one grant to the lead institution of the US Research Team which will only fund research performed by the US Research Team. The UK will make a corresponding award to fund performance under the selected proposal by the UK Research Team.


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.


DODASSustain
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (A&S)
FY18 Acquisition Research Program
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (required): July 5, 2018
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals (if invited): September 5, 2018 
Award Amount: Up to $120,000 for 1 year
 
The Acquisition Research Program (ARP) conducts and supports research in academic disciplines that bear on public procurement policy and management. These include economics, finance, financial management, information systems, organization theory, operations management, human resources management, risk management, and marketing, as well as the traditional public procurement areas such as contracting, program/project management, logistics, test and evaluation and systems engineering management.
 
The ARP is interested in innovative proposals that will provide unclassified and non-proprietary findings suitable for publication in open scholarly literature. Studies of government processes, systems, or policies should also expand the body of knowledge and theory of processes, systems, or policies outside the Government.
 
Note: Proposals for workshops, conferences, and symposia, or for acquisition of technical, engineering, advisory and assistance, and other types of support services for the Government will not be considered.
 
The Government anticipates making multiple awards under this program.  


DODDARPAPrepare
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
PReemptive Expression of Protective Alleles and Response Elements (PREPARE)
Sponsor Deadline for Abstracts (strongly encouraged): July 12, 2018
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: August 27, 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. PREPARE is structured into a 4 year effort consisting of 2 phases for 2 years each.
 
The PREPARE program aims to develop programmable gene modulators for humans that can provide specific, effective, safe, and transient medical countermeasures and prophylaxes to combat biological,  chemical, and/or radiological threats to public health and national security. The four primary threats that PREPARE will address are: influenza viral infection; opioid overdose; organophosphate (OP) poisoning; and exposure to gamma radiation. It is anticipated that successful proposals will be comprised of multi-disciplinary teams, and that successful implementation will likely require academic and industrial collaborations.
 
In Phase I, proposers should concurrently develop and integrate component innovations spanning three Technical Areas (TAs):
  • TA1: Gene Target Identification
  • TA2: Programmable Gene Modulator Development
  • TA3: Clinical Formulations
Multiple awards are anticipated.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Polyplexus Pilot
OSP Deadline: July 13, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: 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 to participate in the Polyplexus Pilot has now passed. Only registered PIs may submit proposals for funding.
 
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.

DODAROIARPA
Army Research Office (ARO) and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)
SuperCables
OSP Deadline: July 17, 2018 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: July 24, 2018 
Award Amount:  Proposals are expected to request less than $1.5M over a 2 year period.
 
The U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) in partnership with the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) seeks research and development of technology and techniques for energy-efficient, high data rate transmission of digital signals between computing systems operating at room and cryogenic temperatures. The focus in the SuperCables program is research and demonstration of components to convert from low level electrical signals in circuits operating at a temperature of approximately 4 kelvins to conventional optical signals at room temperature and to move the information therein from one environment to the other. Pending results of this program, IARPA may support a follow-on program to develop the complete system for bidirectional data transmission between room temperature and 4 kelvins.
 
Multiple awards are anticipated.


Research Associateship Programs
OSP Deadline: July 25, 2018
Sponsor Deadlines: 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.

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.

DODNPSResearchPostgrad
Naval Postgraduate School (NPS)
Research Initiatives at the Naval Postgraduate School
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers and Full Proposals: Rolling through May 31, 2019 
Award Amount: The funded amount and period of performance of each proposal selected for award will vary depending on the research area and the technical approach to be pursued by the applicant selected.
 
The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is interested in receiving proposals for research initiatives that offer potential for advancement and improvement in the NPS core mission of graduate education and research. Readers should note that this is an announcement to declare NPS's solicitation in competitive funding of meritorious research initiatives across a spectrum of science and engineering, business, politics and public/foreign policy, operational and information sciences, and interdisciplinary disciplines that are in line with the NPS's graduate education and research mission.
 
Additional information on the Naval Postgraduate School's graduate education and research mission is available at:

DODCongress
U.S. Department of Defense
Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)
Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program
OSP Deadline: Varies by program 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposal: Varies by program 
Award Amount: Varies by program
 
The vision of the FY18 PRMRP is to improve the health and well-being of all military Service members, Veterans, and beneficiaries. The PRMRP challenges the scientific and clinical communities to address at least one of the FY18 PRMRP Topic Areas (see program solicitations for a full list of the Topic Areas) with original ideas that foster new directions along the entire spectrum of research and clinical care. The program seeks applications in laboratory, clinical, behavioral, epidemiologic, and other areas of research to advance knowledge in disease etiology, improve prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, and quality of life for those affected by a relevant disease or condition, and to develop and validate clinical care or public health guidelines. 
 
Applicants should select the FY18 PRMRP Program Announcement most appropriate to the stage of the proposed research. DoD offers several types of awards under this program, including a  Discovery Award ,  Investigator-Initiated Research Award ,  Technology/Therapeutic Development Award , and  Focused Program Award .
 
The FY18 appropriation for PRMRP is $330,000,000.

 
DODOther
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

DOENNSA
National Nuclear Security Administration
Integrated University Program: Enabling Technologies and Innovation & Monitoring, Technology and Verification
OSP Deadline: August 27, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: September 4, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $25,000,000 per award for up to five years
 
The mission of the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (DNN R&D) is to support U.S. national and nuclear security objectives in reducing global nuclear security threats through the innovation of unilateral and multi-lateral technical capabilities to detect, identify, and characterize: 1) foreign nuclear weapons programs, 2) illicit diversion of special nuclear materials, and 3) global nuclear detonations. The role of Institutions of Higher Education for nuclear security research and development is to innovate and develop some of the most challenging basic aspects of new technology and methods. Once these basic aspects have been proven at the IHE level, the DOE/NNSA National Laboratories and/or National Security Sites/Complexes can fulfill their unique role to perform mission-specific research and development that improves on capabilities until they are either adopted by operational enterprises or transitioned into private industry for commercialization. Transparently and effectively linking these IHE and DOE/NNSA National Laboratory and/or National Security Sites/Complexes roles represents the core of how DNN R&D proposes to meet its objectives.  
 
The intent of this Funding Opportunity Announcement is to award two separate five-year cooperative agreements to consortia of accredited IHEs to allow them to receive and administer funds for student and faculty research, fellowships, and scholarship funding awarded by DOE/NNSA, DNN R&D. Each cooperative agreement will be awarded to a consortium of IHEs which will include the participation of DOE/NNSA National Laboratories and/or National Security Sites/Complexes as a consortium-member(s). Individual consortium-member IHEs shall make specific contributions and shall receive specified portions of the funding.
 
The consortium may include student and research fellows and must have a long-term objective of building expertise in nuclear nonproliferation detection. Research results should be incorporated readily into IHE curricula. Students, faculty, and researchers must be able to work unencumbered while moving across what are now organizational and bureaucratic boundaries of the academic and governmental facilities engaged in the consortium, while properly protecting critical information and materials. The consortium should establish reciprocal arrangements between the lead IHE and other IHEs as well as relationships with appropriate DOE/NNSA National Laboratories and/or National Security Sites/Complexes.


DOE_Other
Other DOE Opportunities

IARPA

IARPAMist
Molecular Information Storage (MIST) Program 
OSP Deadline: July 9, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: July 16, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $750,000
 
The goal of the MIST program is to develop deployable storage technologies that can eventually scale into the exabyte regime and beyond with reduced physical footprint, power and cost requirements relative to conventional storage technologies. MIST seeks to accomplish this by using sequence controlled polymers as a data storage medium, and by building the necessary devices and information systems to interface with this medium. Technologies are sought to optimize the writing and reading of information to/from polymer media at scale, and to support random access of information from polymer media archives at scale.
 
The MIST program is anticipated to have a duration of four years composed of two phases, each of which will be 24 months in duration. The desired capabilities for both phases of the program are described by three Technical Areas (TAs):
 
TA1 (Storage):  Develop a table-top device capable of writing information to molecular media with a target throughput and resource utilization budget. Multiple, diverse approaches are anticipated, which may utilize DNA, polypeptides, synthetic polymers, or other sequence-controlled polymer media.
 
TA2 (Retrieval):  Develop a table-top device capable of randomly accessing information from molecular media with a target throughput and resource utilization budget. Multiple, diverse approaches are anticipated, which may utilize optical sequencing methods, nanopores, mass spectrometry, or other methods for sequencing polymers in a high-throughput manner.
 
TA3 (Operating System):  Develop an operating system for use with storage and retrieval devices that coordinates addressing, data compression, encoding, error-correction and decoding of files from molecular media in a manner that supports efficient random access at scale. Multiple, diverse approaches are anticipated, which may draw on established methods from the storage industry, or develop new methods to accommodate constraints imposed by polymer media. The end result of the program will be technologies that jointly support end-to-end storage and retrieval at the terabyte scale, and which present a clear and commercially viable path to future deployment at the exabyte scale. Collaborative efforts and teaming among potential performers is highly encouraged. It is anticipated that teams will be multidisciplinary and may include expertise in chemistry, synthetic biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, microfluidics, semiconductor engineering, computer science and information theory. IARPA anticipates that academic institutions and companies from around the world will participate in this program.


IARPA_other
Other IARPA Opportunities
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

NASASpaceTech2
Space Technology Research Grants Program, Space Technology Research Institutes Appendix
Sponsor Deadline for Notices of Intent (strongly encouraged): July 2, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Preliminary Proposals (required): July 30, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Invited Full Proposals: November 5, 2018 
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Amount: The planned award duration is 5 years; the maximum annual award  amount is $3M (total award amount may not exceed $15M). 
 
With this Space Technology Research Institutes (STRI or research institute) Appendix, NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) complements the individual research grants and project opportunities offered in other STMD programs with the addition of larger, multi-disciplinary, university-led research efforts. The research institutes construct enables coordination of experts from a wide range of fields and organizations in a single distributed research structure. For research areas of overlapping interest, this approach could significantly increase partnerships between NASA, other government agencies, industry, and academia, enabling greater progress and benefit for all involved. The institute approach facilitates a more focused and coordinated set of research and development (R&D) efforts than typically arise from a series of separate solicitations and individual research grants. Because the research institute maintains its focus for several years, more effective and substantial research progress is envisioned for the selected high priority research areas. In addition, the research institutes have the potential to increase the cadre of STMD researchers by involving experts and/or organizations that do not typically work closely with NASA. The alternate perspectives and new approaches they bring could lead to exciting new solutions and advances.  The research institutes resulting from this Appendix will focus on one of the following topic areas:
  • Topic 1 - Revolutionary Propulsion for Rapid Deep Space Transit
  • Topic 2 - Smart Deep Space Habitats (SmartHabs)
Creative teaming arrangements (i.e., diverse, multidisciplinary, and multi-institutional teams) are sought. The lead university is encouraged to not only take advantage of existing partnerships but to establish new partnerships, keeping in mind that diversity of thinking and new approaches could lead to exciting new solutions and advances. Teaming among accredited U.S. universities is required, with a minimum of three participant universities (including the lead university), each receiving at least 15% of the overall research institute budget.
 
Up to two awards are anticipated under this Appendix, likely one for each topic area.
 
Please Note: A university may be the lead on at most one proposal submitted under each topic. However, a lead university can receive only one award through this Appendix. If you are interested in submitting an application, please contact Erin Hale at  [email protected].

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 Space Suit CO2 Sensor thrust area.

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)
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 (DP5)
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.
 
Please Note: 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 .

NIHNewInnovator
NIH Director's New Innovator Award (DP2)
OSP Deadline: August 31, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: September 10, 2018
Award Amount: Up to $1,500,000 over five years
 
The NIH Director's New Innovator Award supports exceptionally creative Early Stage Investigators who propose highly innovative research projects with the potential for unusually high impact. The award is designed specifically to support unusually creative investigators with highly innovative research ideas at an early stage of their career when they may lack the preliminary data required for an R01 grant application. The emphasis is on innovation and creativity; preliminary data are not required, but may be included. No detailed, annual budget is requested in the application. The review process emphasizes the individual's creativity, the innovativeness of the research approaches, and the potential of the project, if successful, to have a significant impact on an important biomedical or behavioral research problem. Applicants must meet the definition of an Early Stage Investigator (ESI) at the time of application. An ESI is a new investigator (defined as a PD/PI who has not competed successfully for a significant NIH independent research award) who is within 10 years of completing his/her terminal research degree or end of post-graduate clinical training. 


NIHPioneer
NIH Director's Pioneer Award (DP1)
OSP Deadline: September 7, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: September 14, 2018
Award Amount: $700,000/year for 5 years
 
The NIH Director's Pioneer Award supports individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose highly innovative approaches to addressing major challenges in the biomedical or behavioral sciences towards the goal of enhancing human health. Applications proposing research on any topic within the broad mission of NIH are welcome. Emphases are on the qualities of the investigator and the innovativeness and potential impact of the proposed research. Preliminary data and detailed experimental plans are not requested. 
 
To be considered pioneering, the proposed research must reflect substantially different ideas from those being pursued in the investigator's current research program or elsewhere. The Pioneer Award is not intended to expand a current research program into the area of the proposed project. While the research direction may rely on the applicant's prior work and expertise as its foundation, it cannot be an obvious extension or scale-up of a current research enterprise which may be competitive as a new or renewal R01 application. Rather, the proposed project must reflect a fundamental new insight into the potential solution of a problem, which may develop from exceptionally innovative approaches and/or radically unconventional hypotheses. 


NIHTransformative
NIH Director's Transformative Research Award
OSP Deadline: September 14, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: September 21, 2018
Award Amount: Application budgets are not limited but should reflect the needs of the proposed project.
 
The NIH Director's Transformative Research Award supports individual scientists or groups of scientists proposing groundbreaking, exceptionally innovative, original, and/or unconventional research with the potential to create new scientific paradigms, establish entirely new and improved clinical approaches, or develop transformative technologies. Applications from individuals with diverse backgrounds and in any topic relevant to the broad mission of NIH are welcome. Little or no preliminary data are expected. Projects must clearly demonstrate the potential to produce a major impact in a broad area of biomedical or behavioral research. 


OtherNIHOpps
 
National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation: Dear Colleague Letters

NSFDCRemoval
Removal of Deadlines for the Core Programs in the Directorate for Engineering
OSP Deadline: N/A
Sponsor Deadline: N/A
Award Amount: N/A

The Directorate for Engineering (ENG) is notifying members of the research communities about an important change to submission windows for unsolicited proposals to all core programs in the Divisions of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET), Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI), Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS), and Engineering Education and Centers (EEC). In order to allow Principal Investigators (PIs) more flexibility and to better facilitate interdisciplinary research across engineering disciplines, ENG is removing deadlines for submission of unsolicited proposals to all core programs in CBET, CMMI, ECCS and EEC, effective August 15, 2018. FAQs regarding this announcement can be found here. 

 
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: 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 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 must be submitted by October 15, 2018 to be considered for FY 2019 funding. 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. 

NSFDCUK
Special Guidelines for Submitting Collaborative Proposals under the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems, the Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation, and the Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems - the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ENG-EPSRC) Lead Agency Activity
Deadline for Statement of Interest: July 1, 2018
OSP Deadline: 5 days prior to submission of a full proposal
Award Amount: varies by program

The Directorate for Engineering (ENG), Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET), the Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI), and the Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) of the National Science Foundation and the Engineering, ICT and Manufacturing the Future Themes of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are pleased to announce the ENG-EPSRC Lead Agency Activity. The goal of this activity is to reduce some of the barriers that researchers currently encounter when working internationally. The ENG-EPSRC Lead Agency Activity will allow US and UK researchers to submit a single collaborative proposal that will undergo a single review process.

Proposals will be accepted for collaborative research in areas at the intersection of CBET, CMMI, and/or ECCS with the EPSRC Engineering, ICT and/or Manufacturing the Future Themes' programs. Proposers should review the CBET, CMMI, and ECCS Program Descriptions for research supported through these divisions and the EPSRC website for further information on what areas of research are eligible for support through this activity. Proposals are expected to adhere to typical proposal budgets and durations for the relevant CBET, CMMI, and ECCS programs and EPSRC Themes from which funding is sought.


NSFDCMPSDates
Proposal Due Date Changes for the Division of Mathematical Sciences (MPS)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission of a full proposal
Sponsor Deadline: varies by program
Award Amount: varies by program

The Division of Mathematical Sciences has changed the dates for submission of proposals to six of its programs. Principal Investigators may want to pay particular attention to those programs whose due dates are now earlier than in previous years:
These changes were made to improve internal efficiency and reduce turnaround time in award decisions. These date changes are effective immediately, so please be aware of these changes when preparing proposals to DMS.


NSFDCDREAMB
Discoveries to  Revolutionize Engineering and Architectural Materials for Buildings (DREAM-B)
OSP Deadline: November 26, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: December 3, 2018
Award Amount: up to $300,000

NSF invites proposals to the Engineering for Civil Infrastructure (ECI) program for EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) for high risk/high reward fundamental research to investigate wholly new materials and radical changes in the design of conventional materials, through the adaptation and integration of advanced technologies, to enable high performance buildings (structural systems, foundation systems, and building envelopes). Building material designs should be guided by a "closed loop" iterative engineering design process to achieve an optimum balance of building cost, function, performance and constructability that might be attainable within the next few decades. Investigators are urged to begin by imagining materials that can enable buildings to be adaptable to various levels of service and extreme loadings and environmental stresses while balancing occupant health and comfort and other beneficial attributes (such as energy and cost). Investigators should seize opportunities that leverage convergence of knowledge across engineering, computational, and materials science disciplines, especially those outside traditional civil engineering.   Interested PIs are required to contact one of the cognizant NSF Program Officers before submission of the EAGER proposal. 


NSTDCSTEMFuture
STEM Education for the Future
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline: March 1, 2019
Award Amount: varies

Through this DCL, NSF aims to support STEM educational research and development projects whose results can enable our country to better prepare its scientific and technical workforce for the future; use technological innovations effectively for education; advance the frontiers of science; and adapt to both new work environments and new education pathways needed to prepare students at all levels for those environments. This DCL encourages educational research and development proposals that are original, creative, and transformative, and that can help the nation educate the STEM workforce of the future, in contexts of: 
This DCL will support three categories of proposals:
  1. Proposals focused on educational transformation: These proposals will leverage technology, computation and/or big data to develop, implement, and analyze educational interventions designed to prepare a diverse workforce, researchers, and innovators of the future. Proposals that explore how students learn to integrate knowledge across disciplines to solve complex problems fall into this category. 
  2. Proposals focused on the science of teaching and learning: These proposals will leverage technology, computation and/or big data to develop, implement, and analyze new tools for assessing and evaluating convergent education strategies that aim to promote student learning at all levels
  3. Planning grants, Research Coordination Networks, Conference, and Workshop Proposals: These proposals will create communities of STEM educators to address convergent curriculum and pedagogical challenges across disciplinary boundaries brought about by the human-technology frontier, the data revolution, or both.
To determine whether a research topic is within the scope of this DCL, principal investigators are strongly encouraged to contact the director(s) of the participating program(s) to which they plan to submit their proposal.


NSFDCLD3SC
Data-Driven Discovery Science in Chemistry (D3SC)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling; EAGER, RAISE, and supplemental funding requests can be submitted at any time but are encouraged by April 15, 2019
Award Amount:  varies by program type

This Dear Colleague Letter invites research proposals that utilize modern data science in the context of chemical and chemical engineering research. 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 and data scientists, and that jointly engage theory, modeling, and experimentation 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 and 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 homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysts with improved activity and selectivity, as well as the discovery of new catalytic transformations;
  • 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;
  • 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 2018 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. NSF will accept LOIs and proposals for Foundations awards again in 2019 and 2020.
 

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

NSFCISESAS
Smart and Autonomous Systems (S&AS)
OSP Deadline: July 24, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: July 31, 2018
Award Amount:  Foundational projects are anticipated to range from $300,000 to $600,000 in total costs for up to three years. Integrative projects are anticipated to range from $500,000 to $1,000,000 in total costs for up to four years.

The Smart and Autonomous Systems (S&AS) program focuses on Intelligent Physical Systems (IPS) that are capable of robust, long-term autonomy requiring minimal or no human operator intervention in the face of uncertain, unanticipated, and dynamically changing situations. IPS are systems that combine perception, cognition, communication, and actuation to operate in the physical world. Examples include, but are not limited to, robotic platforms, self-driving vehicles, underwater exploration vehicles, and smart grids. Most current IPS operate in pre-programmed ways and in a limited variety of contexts. They are largely incapable of handling novel situations, or of even understanding when they are outside their areas of expertise. To achieve robust, long-term autonomy, however, future IPS need to be aware of their capabilities and limitations and to adapt their behaviors to compensate for limitations and/or changing conditions.

To foster such intelligent systems, the S&AS program supports research in four main aspects of IPS: cognizant, taskable, adaptive, and ethical.  Cognizant IPS exhibit high-level awareness of their own capabilities and limitations, anticipating potential failures and re-planning accordingly.  Taskable IPS can interpret high-level, possibly vague, instructions, planning out and executing concrete actions that are dependent on the particular context in which the system is operating.  Adaptive IPS can change their behaviors over time, learning from their own experiences and those of other entities, such as other IPS or humans, and from instruction or observation.  Ethical IPS should adhere to a system of societal and legal rules, taking those rules into account when making decisions. Each of these research areas requires the IPS to be knowledge-rich, employing a variety of representation and reasoning mechanisms, such as semantic, probabilistic, commonsense, and meta-reasoning.

Proposals may be submitted to either of the following two classes, which differ in scope and goals:
  • Foundational (FND) projects focus on research into algorithms and technologies that directly support a specific characteristic or component of IPS. While Foundational investigations are not required to utilize a physical testbed, they must engage in an evaluation designed to demonstrate direct relevance of the research to some IPS.
  • Integrative (INT) projects focus on integrating two or more components of IPS into increasingly smart and autonomous systems. Integrative projects should have longer-term vision, with objectives that could not be attained simply by a collection of smaller projects provided with similar resources. Integrative projects must include rigorous evaluation of physical systems, preferably in real-world settings. This evaluation should follow the scientific methodology, including statement of the formal hypotheses, controlled experiments, evaluation metrics, and statistical analyses of the results. Integrative projects are encouraged to have multiple PIs, preferably from different disciplines.
 
CISE_Initiative
Computer and Information Science and Engineering Research Initiation Initiative (CRII)
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 in the solicitation. 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)

NSFMPSCCI
NSF: MPS
Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) Phase I
OSP Deadline for Preliminary Proposals: August 7, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Preliminary Proposals: August 14, 2018
Award Amount: up to $1.8M over three years

The Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) Program supports research centers focused on major, long-term fundamental chemical research challenges. CCIs that address these challenges will produce transformative research, lead to innovation, and attract broad scientific and public interest. CCIs are agile structures that can respond rapidly to emerging opportunities through enhanced collaborations. CCIs integrate research, innovation, education, broadening participation, and informal science communication.

The FY 2019 Phase I CCI competition is open to projects in all fields supported by the Division of Chemistry, and must have scientific focus and the potential for transformative impact in chemistry. NSF Chemistry particularly encourages fundamental chemistry projects related to one or more of NSF's  10 Big Ideas.


NSFMPSFRGMS
NSF: MPS
Focused Research Groups in the Mathematical Sciences (FRGMS)
OSP Deadline: September 5, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: September 12, 2018
Award Amount: $150,000 - $500,000 per year for up to 3 years

The purpose of the Focused Research Group activity is to support collaborative groups employing innovative methods to solve specific, major research challenges in the mathematical sciences. A major challenge is an outstanding problem of significant importance that requires the focused and synergistic efforts of a collaborative group to solve, and whose solution will have wide impacts in the mathematical sciences and potentially in other areas. Groups may include, in addition to statisticians and mathematicians, researchers from other science and engineering disciplines appropriate for the proposed research. Risky projects are welcome. Interdisciplinary projects are welcome. Projects should be timely, limited in duration to up to three years, and substantial in their scope and impact for the mathematical sciences. Funded projects that show substantial progress in their first two years may be recommended for a creativity extension for up to an additional two years.


NSFDMS
NSF: MPS
Joint DMS/NIGMS Initiative to Support Research at the Interface of the Biological and Mathematical Sciences
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline: September 1, 2018 - September 18, 2018
Award Amount: $100,000 - $400,000 per year for 3-5 years

This program is designed to support research in mathematics and statistics on questions in the biological and biomedical sciences. A direct relationship between a biological application and the mathematical and/or statistical work is expected. Research collaborations that include scientists from both the life sciences community and the mathematical and statistical sciences communities are encouraged. Both new and existing collaborations will be supported. Proposals from single investigators will need to make the case that the individual has expertise in both fields.

NSFMPSCHEDRP
Division of Chemistry: Disciplinary Research Programs
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission of a full proposal
Sponsor Deadline: September 1 - September 30, 2018 (CAT, CSDM-A, CSDM-B, CTMC, SYN); October 1 - October 31, 2018 (CMI, CLP, ECS, MSN)
Award Amount: $150,000 per year for three years (average)

CHE supports a large and vibrant research community engaged in fundamental discovery, invention, and innovation in the chemical sciences. The projects supported by CHE explore the frontiers of chemical science, develop the foundations for future technologies and industries that meet changing societal needs, and prepare the next generation of chemical researchers.

Some of the areas supported by CHE include:
  • designing, synthesizing and characterizing new molecules, surfaces, and nanostructures - especially those with a focus on sustainability;
  • increasing our fundamental understanding of molecules and their chemical transformations;
  • developing new tools for chemical discovery, including those in data discovery science where increasing volumes and varieties of data are harnessed to advance innovation;
  • determining structure-function relationships in biological systems and contributing to our understanding of the fundamental rules of life;
  • observing, manipulating, and controlling the behavior of matter and energy in nanometer dimensions such as the quantum regime;
  • understanding chemical processes in the environment;
  • enabling next-generation technologies in sensing, computing, modeling, and communications; and
  • solving complex chemical problems by the development of new theories, computations, and tools, including the synergistic combination of multiple types of instruments.
This solicitation applies to nine CHE Disciplinary Chemistry Research Programs: Chemical Catalysis (CAT); Chemical Measurement and Imaging (CMI); Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms-A (CSDM-A); Chemical Structure Dynamics and Mechanisms-B (CSDM-B); Chemical Synthesis (SYN); Chemical Theory, Models and Computational Methods (CTMC); Chemistry of Life Processes (CLP); Environmental Chemical Sciences (ECS); and Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry (MSN).

 
OtherNSFMPS 
Other NSF: MPS Opportunities 

National Science Foundation: Directorate for Engineering (NSF: ENG)
 
Leading Engineering for America's Prosperity, Health, and Infrastructure (LEAP HI)
OSP Deadline for Letters of Intent: July 9, 2018
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent: July 16, 2018
OSP Deadline for Full Proposals: 5 business days prior to submission of a full proposal
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: September 1 - 17, 2018 (submission window)
Award Amount: $1,000,000 - $2,000,000 over up to 5 years 

The LEAP HI program challenges the engineering research community to take a leadership role in addressing demanding, urgent, and consequential challenges for advancing America's prosperity, health and infrastructure. LEAP HI proposals confront engineering problems that are too complex to yield to the efforts of a single investigator - problems that require sustained and coordinated effort from interdisciplinary research teams, with goals that are not achievable through a series of smaller, short-term projects. LEAP HI projects perform fundamental research that may lead to disruptive technologies and methods, lay the foundation for new and strengthened industries, enable notable improvements in quality of life, or re-imagine and revitalize the built environment.
  • LEAP HI supports fundamental research projects involving collaborating investigators, of duration up to five years, with total budget between $1 million and $2 million.
  • LEAP HI proposals must articulate a fundamental research problem with compelling intellectual challenge and significant societal impact, particularly on economic competitiveness, quality of life, public health, or essential infrastructure. One or more CMMI core topics must lie at the heart of the proposal, and integration of disciplinary expertise not typically engaged in CMMI-funded projects is encouraged.
  • LEAP HI proposals must highlight engineering research in a leadership role.
  • LEAP HI proposals must demonstrate the need for a sustained research effort by an integrated, interdisciplinary team, and should include a research integration plan and timeline for research activities, with convincing mechanisms for frequent and effective communication.
NSF:ENG
Other NSF: ENG Opportunities
National Science Foundation: Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary

NSFCrosscuttingInnoGrad
Innovations in Graduate Education
Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: July 9, 2018
OSP Deadline (if nominated): September 20, 2018
Sponsor Deadline (if nominated): September 27, 2018
Award Amount: $300,000 - $500,000 total over up to 3 years

The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, and potentially transformative approaches to STEM graduate education training. The program seeks proposals that explore ways for graduate students in research-based master's and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. 

IGE focuses on projects aimed at piloting, testing, and validating innovative and potentially transformative approaches to graduate education. IGE projects are intended to generate the knowledge required for their customization, implementation, and broader adoption. The program supports testing of novel models or activities with high potential to enrich and extend the knowledge base on effective graduate education approaches.The program addresses both workforce development, emphasizing broad participation, and institutional capacity building needs in graduate education. Strategic collaborations with the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, national laboratories, field stations, teaching and learning centers, informal science centers, and academic partners are encouraged.
 
Please Note:  Harvard University, as a single institution, is limited to submitting two proposals to this opportunity. This includes serving as a lead organization on a non-collaborative proposal or as a lead organization, non-lead organization, or subawardee on a collaborative proposal. Organizations participating solely as evaluators on projects are excluded from this limitation. An individual may serve as Lead PI or Co-PI on only one proposal submitted to the IGE program per annual competition.

  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