September 2020 
 

A Note from the Research Development Team

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our team will be working remotely. We are available to provide assistance via email, phone, or Zoom conferencing. Please also refer to our FAS RAS website and the OSP website for information about submitting proposals and managing your awards.

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

News, Announcements, and Special Features

The FAS Research Development team has compiled the following resources for those seeking funding for COVID-19 Research:
 
  • For an aggregated list of COVID-19 research funding opportunities, visit the SPIN website while on a Harvard network and click on Search in the menu bar and then click on COVID-19/Coronavirus Funding Opportunities in the drop down menu. This list is updated daily and can be exported to Excel.
  • Harvard Link: Alternatively, you may add the key word COVID to your Harvard Link account to receive updated COVID-19 funding recommendations.
  • Other Funding Search Databases Available to Harvard Affiliates: All Harvard affiliates have access to the funding databases PIVOT, SPIN and FDO here.
  • ­Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Funding List: Johns Hopkins University has compiled and continues to maintain a list of funding opportunities available for COVID-19 research.
 
We also encourage you to visit the division of science and SEAS Coronavirus FAQs website.

Feature: COVID-19 Funding Opportunities Spotlight 
This section of the newsletter will highlight opportunities relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Feature: New Investigator Opportunity Spotlight
Quick links to early career opportunities in this month's newsletter.
Indicates an UPDATED or NEW opportunity added this month

News: DARPA to Host Young Faculty Award Proposers Day Webcast

DARPA's Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is sponsoring a 
Proposers Day webcast to provide information on the objectives of its 2021 Young Faculty Award (YFA) Program. The objective of the DARPA YFA 2021 program is to identify and engage rising stars in junior research positions, emphasizing those without prior DARPA funding, and expose them to DoD needs and DARPA's program development process. DARPA anticipates soliciting innovative research proposals in the areas of physical sciences, engineering, materials, mathematics, biology, computing, informatics, social science, robotics, neuroscience and manufacturing of interest to DARPA's Technology Offices. 

The Proposers Day will be held via prerecorded webcast on September 25, 2020 from 1:00-3:00 PM. Advance registration is required by September 18, 2020 at 4:00 PM or when capacity is reached, whichever comes first.

Funding Opportunities
Indicates an UPDATED or NEW opportunity added this month
Foundation Opportunities 
Internal Opportunities
Industry/Corporate Opportunities
U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)

Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Science Foundation: Directorate for Engineering (NSF: ENG)

Foundation Opportunities
Fdn_SimonsMathPS
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline (if invited): February 8, 2021
Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline (if invited): February 16, 2021
Award Amount: up to $2M per year for an initial period of 4 years (includes up to 20% per year for indirect costs). The foundation will allow the annual budget to vary from $2M as long as the total four-year budget is no more than $8M. The foundation expects to award one collaboration in 2021.
 
The aim of the Simons Collaborations in MPS program is to stimulate progress on fundamental scientific questions of major importance in mathematics, theoretical physics and theoretical computer science. A Simons Collaboration in MPS should address a mathematical or theoretical topic of fundamental scientific importance, where a significant, new development creates a novel area for exploration or provides a new direction for progress in an established field. The questions addressed by the collaboration may be concrete or conceptual, but there should be little doubt that answering them would constitute a major scientific milestone. The project should have clearly defined initial activities and goals by which progress and success can be measured. The support from the foundation should be seen as critical for the objectives of the project.
 
Each collaboration must be led by a collaboration director; the collaboration director must hold a tenured faculty, or equivalent, position at a U.S. or Canadian educational institution with a Ph.D. program in the director's department at the time of application. PIs and co-Investigators (co-Is) must hold a tenured or tenure-track faculty, or equivalent, position at an educational institution at the time of application. There are no restrictions on the department and/or discipline of the director or PIs/co-Is. PIs, co-Is and other collaboration participants may be from non-U.S. institutions. An active PI on a currently funded collaboration project cannot be part of an LOI or proposal. Additionally, active Math+X Investigators cannot be funded PIs in a collaboration.

Fdn_usibs
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: November 10, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: November 18, 2020
Award Amount: up to $250,000 for up to 4 years

The U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) promotes scientific relations between the U.S. and Israel by supporting collaborative research projects in a 
wide area of basic and applied scientific fieldsfor peaceful and non-profit purposes. The BSF Research Grants program funds both U.S. and Israeli scientists who wish to work together. Applications must be submitted together by at least one scientist from each country. In 2020, the following areas of research are eligible for submission:
  • Exact and Physical Sciences: Atmospheric, Ocean & Earth Sciences; Chemistry; Computer Sciences; Energy research; Environmental research; Materials research; Mathematical Sciences; and Physics
  • Social Sciences: Economics; Psychology; and Sociology
Fdn_CRI
Sponsor Letter of Intent Deadline (required): November 15, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline (if invited): March 8, 2021
Full Proposal Deadline (if invited): March 15, 2021
Award Amount: up to $100,000 per year for 2 years
Eligibility: Applicants must hold a faculty appointment as a tenure-track assistant professor (or higher rank) at the time of award activation.
 
The Cancer Research Institute Technology Impact Award provides seed funding to be used over 12-24 months to address the gap between technology development and clinical application of cancer immunotherapies. These grants aim to encourage collaboration between technology developers and clinical cancer immunologists and to generate the proof-of-principle of a novel platform technology in bioinformatics, ex vivo or in silico modeling systems, immunological or tumor profiling instrumentation, methods, reagents and assays, or other relevant technologies that can enable clinician scientists to generate deeper insights into the mechanisms of action of effective or ineffective cancer immunotherapies. Award winners will be selected based on the novelty, creativity, technical sophistication, and transformative potential of the technology to impact.
nasem
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: not required for grants awarded directly to individuals
Sponsor Deadline: December 10, 2020
Award Amount: $50,000
 
Through its program of Fellowships, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation's college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students. 

Postdoctoral fellowships will be awarded in a national competition administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) on behalf of the Ford Foundation. The awards will be made to individuals who, in the judgment of the review panels, have demonstrated superior academic achievement, are committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level, show promise of future achievement as scholars and teachers, and are well prepared to use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students. Awards will be made for study in research-based programs. Examples include the following major disciplines and related interdisciplinary fields: American studies, anthropology, archaeology, art and theater history, astronomy, chemistry, communications, computer science, cultural studies, earth sciences, economics, education, engineering, ethnic studies, ethnomusicology, geography, history, international relations, language, life sciences, linguistics, literature, mathematics, performance study, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, religious studies, sociology, urban planning, and women's studies. Also eligible are interdisciplinary ethnic studies programs, such as African American studies and Native American studies, and other interdisciplinary programs, such as area studies, peace studies, and social justice. 

Individuals who have completed all the requirements for a Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree, including successful defense of the dissertation, no earlier than December 10, 2013 and no later than December 10, 2020 are eligible to apply. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Each Fellow is expected to begin tenure on June 1 (for 12 months) or September 1 (for 9 or 12 months) of the year in which the award is received.
Fdn_franklin
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: Review by Harvard OSP not required
Nomination Deadline: December 31, 2020 
Prize Amount: $250,000
 
The Franklin lnstitute seeks nominations for the 2021 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science of individuals who have made significant contributions to the scientific understanding of decision-making. The interdisciplinary field of decision-making integrates theory and methods from economics, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and related areas to understand the mechanisms through which individuals and groups choose among competing possibilities and how these mechanisms guide behavior.
 
Nominations from any individual or organization will be accepted, including self-nominations. Nominations are encouraged in, but not limited to, the following subtopics and their intersections:
  • Psychological insights: mechanisms, development, context-dependence, individual differences, cultural variation, evolution
  • Modeling of individual or group choice behavior: valuation, social preferences, impulsivity, strategy, network models
  • Neurobiological mechanisms: human neuroscience, model organisms, behavioral neuroscience, genetic approaches, comparative approaches
  • Clinical approaches: pharmacology, psychiatric disorders, neuropsychological conditions
  • Development of interventions to improve individual and/or group decision-making outcomes
  • Broad applications: artificial intelligence, courts/law, education, finance, health/medicine, government/public policy, intelligence, labor, technology

Internal Opportunities
RadcliffeFellow
Deadline: October 1, 2020 for applications in science, engineering, and mathematics
Award Amount: Fellows receive a stipend of $78,000 plus an additional $5,000 to cover project expenses.
 
Radcliffe fellows are exceptional scientists, writers, scholars, public intellectuals, and artists whose work is making a difference in their professional fields and in the larger world. Coming from diverse disciplines and perspectives, they challenge each other's ideas and support each other's ambitions. The Radcliffe Fellowship Program awards 50 fellowships each academic year.
 
Applications in all academic disciplines, professions, and creative arts are encouraged, and there are a few areas of special interest:
  • Applications from scholars, artists, and practitioners proposing innovative work that confronts pressing social and policy issues and seeking to engage audiences beyond academia.
  • Proposals relevant to the Institute's focus areas, which include law, education, and justice; youth leadership and civic engagement; and legacies of slavery.
  • Reflecting Radcliffe's unique history, each year some projects focus on women, gender, and society or draw on the Schlesinger Library's rich collections.
Radcliffe Institute fellows are in residence for a period of nine months from September 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022. Fellows receive office or studio space and access to libraries and other resources at Harvard University. Applicants must have received their doctorate in the area of the proposed project at least two years prior to their appointment as a fellow (December 2019 for the 2021-22 fellowship year) and have published at least five articles in refereed journals. Applicants may apply as individuals or in a group of two to three people working on the same project. All group members must meet the eligibility requirements for their fields. 
Radcliffe_seminars
Deadline: October 13, 2020
Award Amount: up to $16,000 to support one- to two-day, by-invitation-only seminars
 
The Radcliffe Exploratory Seminar Program provides funding to scholars, practitioners, and artists for collaboration in an interdisciplinary exploration of early-stage ideas. The program encourages intellectual risk taking as participants gather in an intensive seminar setting to explore new fields of research and inquiry. Applications are currently being accepted for seminars to be held between July 2021 and June 2022. The program welcomes proposals that:
  • explore the viability of early-stage research ideas in any discipline or multiple disciplines
  • invite the perspectives of diverse participants and stakeholders to the discussion
  • integrate senior and junior scholars from institutions in the greater Boston area, across the United States, or around the world
  • demonstrate risk taking and creativity
Proposals that connect research to law, policy, pressing social issues, and/or seek to actively engage audiences beyond academia are of special interest. Reflecting Radcliffe's unique history, proposals that focus on women, gender, and society or draw on the Schlesinger Library's rich collections are also of special interest.

Radcliffe is offering a series of virtual informational sessions, where you can meet with a Radcliffe faculty director and ask questions about the program. If you are interested in attending one of  the virtual informational sessions, please register

Lead applicant must be either a Harvard ladder (tenured or tenure-track) faculty member from any school or a former or current Radcliffe fellow; co-applicants may apply with lead applicants who meet eligibility requirements.
Award Amount: $5,000-$50,000
Eligible Applicants: FAS and SEAS assistant, associate and tenured faculty; Professors in Residence and Professors of the Practice are also eligible.
 
The Dean's Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship is a targeted program that provides funding in the following categories:
 
  1. Bridge funding, to allow faculty to continue work on previously funded research, scholarship, or creative activity that does not currently have external funding. Faculty who apply in this category should demonstrate that efforts have been made or will be made to obtain new external funding.
  2. Seed funding, to encourage faculty to launch exciting new scholarship or research directions that might not yet be ready to compete in traditional funding programs.
  3. Enabling subventions, to provide small funds to purchase (or upgrade) critical equipment. Applicants for such funds must have no existing startup funds on which they could draw for this purpose.
 
For all categories, applicants should clearly explain in non-specialist language the critical need, make a compelling case for large marginal gain, and justify the need for support from this fund rather than traditional sources. 
internal_ccsf
Deadline: October 16, 2020
Award Amount: Up to $150,000 payable over one or two years
Eligible Applicants: Applications are invited from individuals who hold a faculty appointment at a Harvard school and who have principal investigator rights at that school. Doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars may apply for an award provided they have an identified faculty mentor who will provide a letter of recommendation and will supervise their research.
The Harvard University Climate Change Solutions Fund supports research and policy initiatives intended to reduce the risks of climate change, hasten the transition from fossil fuel-based energy systems to those that rely on renewable energy sources, to develop methods for diminishing the impact of existing fossil fuel-based energy systems on the climate, to understand and prepare for the impacts of climate change, and to propel scientific, technological, legal, behavioral, policy and artistic innovations needed to accelerate progress toward cleaner energy, improved human health, and a greener world. 
 
Applications should propose research that will advance solutions to climate change and its impact. Solutions may include both preparedness and mitigation and strong consideration will be given to projects that demonstrate a clear pathway to application, as well as riskier proposals with the potential to be transformative over time. Proposals that demonstrate imaginative and promising collaboration among faculty and students across different parts of the University will receive special consideration, as will projects that propose using the university campus as a "living laboratory".
psea
Pre-Proposal Deadline: October 16, 2020 
Full Proposal Deadline (if invited): December 4, 2020 
Award Amount: $50,000-$100,000 
 
The Office of Technology Development (OTD) is now accepting pre-proposals for the Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE) Accelerator. The PSE Accelerator is designed to support Harvard's innovative physical science research by extending preliminary observations, establishing a solid proof of concept, scaling up a product or process, and generating (or enhancing) intellectual property positions. This program provides critical financial support, guidance, and resources to enable focused development of early-stage technologies with commercial potential. Proposals need to be directed towards one or more aspects of the applied sciences, physical sciences, computer software or engineering. 
 
In this RFP, the OTD is especially seeking projects with strong potential to launch a start-up company. Such projects, while faculty-led, will benefit from having a postdoc or final-year PhD student working on the project who is interested in being a founding member of the startup team. Consideration will also be given to projects with other development goals such as licensing the technology to an existing company, or securing follow-on funding from a corporate sponsor for continued research.  
 
A Zoom webinar will be held on Tuesday, September 22, at 1 PM to provide more information on the PSE Accelerator and to answer any questions. Register here
HDSI_special
Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: Up to $5,000
Target Applicants: Applications are invited from individuals who hold a faculty appointment at a Harvard school and who have principal investigator rights at that school.
 
The Faculty Special Projects Fund is intended to support one-time data science opportunities for which other funding is not readily available. Applicants may request funding of up to $5,000 to support research, community-building, outreach, and educational activities. Examples of projects that the Fund is intended to support include offsetting the cost of running workshops or seminars, data visualization or research dissemination, and video production. The HDSI welcomes applications from all fields of scholarship. 

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and funding will be awarded throughout the year until available funding is exhausted. The total annual budget is $50,000.

HSGRP
Internal_SolarGeo
Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: Varies by award type 

In addition to supporting post-doctoral and pre-doctoral fellows directly through its Fellowship program, SGRP invites faculty and researchers throughout Harvard to apply for grants supporting their own research. The following funding mechanisms are currently available:  

Residency Program: This program will accept a small number of researchers focused on solar geoengineering to spend between 1 and 3 weeks at Harvard University, working directly with researchers at SGRP and other members of the Harvard community. The main purpose of this program is to enable visitors to work in collaboration with Harvard researchers and each other on discrete research projects. SGRP will cover the cost of travel and accommodations as well as per diem for meals.

Harvard Faculty Research Grants: SGRP will provide direct support for research activities that cannot be fulfilled by students or fellows. That could involve multi-investigator collaborations, field or laboratory work in the sciences, or field or survey work in the social sciences.

Industry/Corporate Opportunities
Microsoft_AI
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: September 28, 2020
Sponsor Deadlines: October 5, 2020
Award Information: Azure compute credits worth $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000, plus additional resources including technical advice and support, online Azure training materials, and invitations to the AI for Earth Summit for networking and education opportunities.

AI for Earth grants provide access to Microsoft resources to support projects that change the way people and organizations monitor, model, and manage Earth's natural systems. Researchers who already have access to a labeled dataset and are ready to start using Azure AI tools and cloud computing, may apply for Azure compute credits through this grant. Microsoft's areas of focus for AI for Earth are agriculture, food, biodiversity, and/or climate change. Microsoft recommends that the main applicant has a demonstrated background in environmental science and/or technology (such as a PhD degree), and that at least one member of the team has strong enough technical skills to complete the project successfully.
Facebook_fellowship
Sponsor Deadline: October 1, 2020
Award Amount: Award includes paid tuition and fees, a $42,000 annual stipend to cover living and conference travel costs, a paid visit to Facebook headquarters for the annual Fellowship Summit, and various opportunities to engage with Facebook researchers.
 
The Facebook Fellowship is a global program designed to encourage and support promising doctoral students who are engaged in innovative and relevant research in areas related to computer science and engineering at an accredited university. The program is open to students in any year of their PhD study.
 
Fellowships are available in the following areas:
  • Applied Statistics
  • AR/VR Computer Graphics
  • AR/VR Photonics and Optics
  • AR/VR Privacy and Ethics
  • Blockchain and Cryptoeconomics
  • Computational Social Science
  • Computer Vision
  • Database Systems
  • Distributed Systems
  • Economics and Computation
  • Energy Efficient Video Compression
  • Instagram/Facebook App Well-being and Safety
  • Machine Learning
  • Natural Language Processing
  • Networking
  • Privacy and Data Use
  • Programming Languages
  • Security and Privacy
  • Social and Economic Policy
  • Spoken Language Processing and Audio Classification
  • Systems for Machine Learning
ara
Sponsor Deadline: October 11, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: October 2, 2020
Award Information: This program offers both funding and AWS Promotional Credits. The 2019 awards averaged $72,000 in funding and $15,000 in AWS Promotional Credits for each research project. Each grant is intended to support the work of one or two graduate or postdoctoral students for one year, under the supervision of a faculty member, plus some conference travel and equipment. Please discuss the overhead requirement with your grants administrator before preparing an application.
 
Amazon Research Awards (ARA) fund proposals in a variety of research areas relevant to Amazon such as robotics, machine learning, security, and more. Recipients are assigned an Amazon research contact who offers consultation and advice along with opportunities to participate in Amazon events and training sessions. ARA was founded in 2015 and merged with AWS Machine Learning Research Awards (MLRA) in 2020. ARA funds proposals up to four times a year. Proposals are reviewed for the quality of their scientific content, their creativity, and their potential to impact both the research community and society more generally.
 
This year, Amazon is soliciting applications in the following research areas that align with its mission to advance customer-obsessed science:
  • AI for Information Security
  • Alexa Fairness in AI
  • AWS AI
  • AWS Automated Reasoning
  • Robotics
NetApp
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Award amounts vary, however they usually cover a significant amount of the cost for a graduate student to work on the project for a year. FAS and SEAS applicants must request an indirect cost rate of 69% on sponsored research applications to industry.  
 
The NetApp Faculty Fellowship (NFF) program was established to encourage leading-edge research in storage and data management and to foster relationships between academic researchers and NetApp's technical community. The NFF program accepts research proposals from full-time faculty and post-graduate researchers employed by an accredited university that has a PhD program in the field of the proposal's principal investigators.
 
The NFF program is interested in proposals that describe an innovative project that a researcher desires to pursue over the next one to three years. The proposed research must have some alignment with NetApp core technology and business interests (storage and data management). A sponsor from NetApp will be assigned to communicate and in some cases may collaborate with the project's PI(s) and team. 
 
Topics of particular interest include:
  • Data security in next generation data centers
  • Data management and security in hybrid clouds
  • Data center and enterprise networking
  • Novel data systems, including NoSQL databases, big data systems, and data streaming systems
  • IoT and real time analytics
DOD_ARP
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (required): September 21, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals (if invited): November 20, 2020
Award Amount: Up to $110,000 for 12-16 months
 
Since 2003, the Acquisition Research Program (ARP) has connected civilian and military researchers from a variety of academic disciplines with needs in defense acquisition, public procurement policy, and management. ARP continues to seek research from these disciplinary perspectives: 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.
 
The following research areas are of special interest:
  • Adaptive Acquisition Framework (i.e., rewrite of DODI 5000.02)
  • Data Analysis, Visual Analytics, and Data Architecture
  • Modernizing Business Processes
  • Contracting at the Speed of Relevance
  • Acquisition Workforce
  • Streamline Acquisition Policy
 DOD_HEALR
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: September 22, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: September 29, 2020 (Deadline Updated)
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. Proposers may include an Option to participate in the Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative (EEI), which provides up to $250,000 to complete milestones, quarterly access to a senior commercialization advisor, and connection to key transition partners and investors. HEALR is divided into three sequential phases: Phase I (Base) for 24 months; Phase II (Option 1) for 18 months; and Phase III (Option 2) for 12 months.
 
DARPA's Biological Technologies Office (BTO) is soliciting proposals for its Harnessing Enzymatic Activity for Lifesaving Remedies (HEALR) program to develop new medical countermeasures against bacterial pathogens and their toxins by leveraging host degradation and deactivation pathways.
 
The HEALR program includes three technical areas (TAs) that will run concurrently for the duration of the program. Proposals that do not address all TAs will be deemed non-conforming and may not be considered for review.
 
The three technical areas are:
  1. Technical Area 1 (TA1): Microbial Targeting. Develop and demonstrate innovative methods to screen and identify new threat-binding ligands against microbial targets.
  2. Technical Area 2 (TA2): Host Machinery Engagement. Develop and demonstrate new strategies to engage cellular processes to degrade or deactivate targets.
  3. Technical Area 3 (TA3): Platform Integration. Develop the tools to integrate threat and host binding ligands to rapidly construct, optimize, and deliver safe and effective countermeasures against new microbial threats.
Multiple awards are anticipated.
 
DOD_REPO
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: September 30, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: October 7, 2020
Award Amount: The total award value for the combined Phase 1 Base (up to $600,000 for 12 month Feasibility Study) and Phase 2 Option (up to $400,000 for 6 month Proof of Concept) is a maximum of $1,000,000 per proposal.
 
DARPA is issuing an Artificial Intelligence Exploration (AIE) Opportunity inviting submissions of innovative basic or applied research concepts in the technical domain of Artificial Intelligence Applications. The goal of AIE Reduction of Entropy for Probabilistic Organization (REPO) is to provide novel tools to analysts to enable the processing of large, unstructured and unorganized documentation datasets that contain electrical computer-aided design (ECAD) schematic files, mechanical CAD (MCAD) drawings, and flowchart/block diagram data. Successful REPO research tools to be developed by performers will: conduct initial flow chart analysis and link block diagram data to text documentation in a single cohesive structure; automate analysis of ECAD and MCAD to identify and export notable features in graphs and human-readable summary format for analysts; and generate a chord diagram showing relationships between dataset entities and permit an analyst to consider relative magnitudes in comparison to alternative arcs to understand previously undiscoverable connections. The effect of successful REPO research will reduce the technical and program risk of obsolescence management and re-engineering of legacy designs.
 
This AIE Opportunity is issued under the Program Announcement for AIE, DARPA-PA-20-02.
DOD_TSARA
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: October 19, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: October 26, 2020
Award Amount: The scope and quality of the proposals received will determine the level of funding for individual awards made under this solicitation, as well as the availability of funds. TSARA is a 24-month project with a 12-month base period and two six-month option periods of performance.
 
The goal of this study is to investigate novel synthetic aperture radar (SAR) automated target detection (ATD) algorithms that leverage complex SAR image exploitation to demonstrate improved and predictable performance levels without requiring significant increase in SAR resolution compared to manual exploitation for the same classes of targets and clutter. This effort seeks to: 1) develop and deliver prototype ATD algorithms for SAR systems that maximize detection performance in the presence of clutter; and 2) to validate performance prediction models using these algorithms with the goal of maximizing SAR collection capacity. This solicitation seeks to engage teams that bring to the table a strong SAR modeling background and automated SAR detection algorithms to support experimentation and analysis, as well as to develop a new class of predictive collection and exploitation strategies that significantly improve the impact of these systems.
 
The Principal Investigator must be a US citizen, and participation of foreign nationals is prohibited. The Government anticipates one award, but may make more than one award, or none.
 
DOD_SAVaNT
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: October 20, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: October 27, 2020
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. SAVaNT is a 48-month program broken into two phases: Phase 1 base period (24 months) and a Phase 2 option (24 months).
 
The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals that significantly advance the performance of atomic vapors for electric field sensing and imaging, magnetic field sensing, and quantum information science (QIS). The Science of Atomic Vapors for New Technologies (SAVaNT) program will advance the performance of the versatile atomic vapor platform with metrics informed by limitations of the current state of the art (SOA). The program has three Technical Areas (TAs) based on the application domains where atomic vapors are expected to have the biggest impact: Rydberg Electrometry (TA1), Vector Magnetometry (TA2), and Vapor Quantum Electrodynamics (vQED) (TA3). Proposers seeking awards for multiple TAs must submit stand-alone proposals for each. SAVaNT advances will lay the foundations for new technologies that address important DoD needs, including applications that require low size, weight and power (SWaP), high sensitivity electric and magnetic field measurements as well as application that require scalable room-temperature quantum memories and interfaces. The common scientific challenge across the program will be to improve atomic coherence in vapors. The associated technical challenges will depend on the specifics of the most dominant decoherence mechanisms in each approach.
 
DARPA anticipates multiple awards.
 
DOD_NEEC
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: October 23, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: October 30, 2020
Award Amount: Awards made from this BAA will be approximately $100,000-$150,000 total for the first year with two option years. If funded for three years, the totals would generally be $300,000-$450,000.
 
On behalf of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Warfare Centers, Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division (NSWC IHEODTD) is soliciting research of interest in support of the Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC). Work funded under this BAA may include basic research, applied research and some advanced technology development research.
 
The topics of interest include:
  • CO-02: Explore the current state of various quantum algorithms and methods of implementing said algorithms for use in data science, cryptography, and machine learning
  • DD-03: Software assurance and cybersecurity
  • DD-05 - Autonomous systems: Research on intelligent architectures that combine and exploit some or all of the following techniques: AI-ML, reinforcement learning, probabilistic or expert systems capabilities.
  • DD-06: Advanced electromagnetic systems: Research into the effectiveness of assistive visualization technologies as a method for communicating complex electromagnetic phenomena that drive ship design decisions. Seeking new ways to integrate multiple data types to form an improved picture of the electromagnetic battlespace.
  • DD-07 - System Safety: Investigate feasibility for and develop a prototype AI agent with basic capabilities to aid system safety engineers to comb through documents and extract design features that can be hazardous to personnel, equipment and the environment and mitigations that address those and other hazards.
  • PH-01: Advanced computer vision methods and algorithms to verify the completion and accuracy of complex maintenance tasks.
  • KP-01: Serious Gaming applications for training and performance support, inclusive of research into visual, auditory, and tactile, Augmented, Mixed, Extended, and Virtual Reality technologies.
DoD_RAP
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: Review not required for awards made directly to individuals
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals: November 1, 2020
Award Amount: Awards include stipends ranging from $45,000 to $80,000, health insurance, professional travel, and relocation. Awards are for up to 12 months (Summer Faculty awards are for 8-14 weeks), with the possibility of extension through a second or third year.
 
The NRC Research Associateship Programs (RAP) promote excellence in scientific and technological research conducted by the U.S. government through the administration of programs offering graduate, postdoctoral, and senior level research opportunities at sponsoring federal laboratories and affiliated institutions. In the NRC Research Associateship Programs, prospective applicants select a research project or projects from among a large group of Research Opportunities. Prior to completing an application, prospective applicants should contact the Research Adviser listed with the selected Research Opportunity(ies) to assure that funding will be available if the application is recommended by NRC Research Associateship Programs panels.
 
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.). When searching for Research Opportunities, applicants may limit their search to only those laboratories which match their eligibility criteria. In addition, applicants should note application deadlines, as not all laboratories participate in all reviews.
DOD_SFFP
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: review not required for awards made directly to individuals
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: November 30, 2020
Award Amount: Fellowships provide a weekly stipend, travel reimbursement and daily expense allowance. Fellowships last 8-12 weeks during the summer months.
 
The U.S. Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) Summer Faculty Fellowship Program (SFFP) offers hands-on exposure to Air Force research challenges through 8- to 12-week research residencies at participating Air Force research facilities for full-time science, mathematics, and engineering faculty at U.S. colleges and universities. The objectives of the U.S. Air Force Research Lab Summer Faculty Fellowship Program are to: stimulate professional relationships among AFRL SFFP participants and the scientists and engineers at Air Force research facilities; enhance the research interests and capabilities of faculty (both new and experienced researchers) in the U.S. academic community; elevate the awareness in the U.S. academic community of Air Force research needs and foster continued research at Fellows' institutions; Fellows with opportunities to perform high-quality and meaningful research at AFRL Directorates, Air Force Test Center, the United States Air Force Academy, or the Air Force Institute of Technology; and provide nationally accredited mentoring of academic researchers at technical directorates of the AFRL, Air Force Test Center, the United States Air Force Academy, and the Air Force Institute of Technology. Each of the participating Air Force research facilities and individual research advisors has specific areas of interest. SFFP applicants need to find an individual research advisor at one of the Air Force research facilities to discuss and eventually evaluate their formal research proposal. The collaboration between the Air Force research advisor and research fellow is critical to program success. Click here to see a list of the participating Air Force research facilities.
 
Applicants to this program must be U.S. citizens. Research Fellows are highly encouraged to bring a graduate student with them for the research period. Graduate students must also be U.S. citizens to be eligible to participate. Graduate student applications must be completed and submitted to the faculty advisor to be uploaded as a part of their application proposal.
DTRA_stri
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers: Rolling through March 2, 2025
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: Rolling through March 2, 2025
Award Amount: DTRA SI-STT estimates the total program budget divided among multiple awardees at approximately $1,950,000 per year. The preferred period of performance for studies is 6-9 months to maximize opportunities for operational relevance. Given the need for timely research, in most but not all cases, the period of performance shall not exceed 12 months from the effective date of award.
 
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Strategic Integration Directorate, Strategic Trends and Effects Department, Strategic Trends Division (SI-STT) is announcing to industry and academia the intent to solicit white papers and proposals for research studies, strategic dialogues, and tabletop exercises (TTXs) through this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). This strategy provides an acquisition tool to support SI-STT's Strategic Trends Research Initiative (STRI) with the flexibility to solicit white papers and proposals from the external expert community and make awards for expert-driven research efforts that meet present, emerging, and future needs.
 
Per priorities identified by the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS), SI-STT seeks proposals and white papers for research studies, strategic dialogues, and TTXs addressing the following five focus areas:
  • Identify the utility of deeper, more meaningful relationships with existing allies, partners, and establish new relationships with non-traditional partners as a mechanism to compete against key strategic competitors;
  • Understand the implications of key strategic competitors' emerging capabilities on the United States' ability to maintain operational advantage and project power;
  • Identify emerging WMD-related threats of concern for the future battlespace;
  • Consider the role and application of WMD risk reduction tools and approaches (e.g. arms control) in an era of Great Power competition; and/or
  • Explore the utility and applicability of applying a Counter Threat Network (CTN) approach to better characterize and address cross-domain threats posed by priority threat actors.
Within these five broad focus areas, DTRA SI-STT is specifically interested in credible, timely, operationally relevant and actionable research products (studies, strategic dialogues, and TTXs) that are aligned with seven thrust areas outlined below in Fiscal Year (FY) 2020:
  • Thrust Area 1: Competition with Revisionist Powers
  • Thrust Area 2: Emerging Threats
  • Thrust Area 3: Counter Threat Networks (CTN)
  • Thrust Area 4: Strategic Security and Risk Reduction
Track 1.5 and Track 2 Strategic Dialogues with:
  • Thrust Area 5: Allies, partners, and non-traditional partners
  • Thrust Area 6: Key strategic competitors
Tabletop Exercises (TTXs) that are focused on:
  • Thrust Area 7: Competition with Revisionist Powers (with a focus on WMD-related issues)
The funding will be provided for study projects, strategic dialogues (Track 1.5 and Track 2 meetings), and TTXs. Applicants are encouraged to propose projects in all categories, which are aligned with distinct thrust areas.

If 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. 
DOE_covid
 
DOE is soliciting ideas about how DOE and the National Labs might contribute resources to help address COVID-19 through science and technology efforts and collaborations. Through its user facilities, computational power, and enabling infrastructure, DOE has unique capabilities that the scientific community may leverage for the COVID-19 response and recovery. DOE does not provide medical and clinical work; instead, the Department's mission complements the efforts of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and other Federal partners by helping to understand the scientific phenomena contributing to COVID-19, from the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease, to models that can mimic its spread. DOE supports significant biologically focused facilities and resources, including the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC), Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL), and DOE Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase). These and other DOE resources may be used for many studies, such as:

  • Developing high-throughput multiplex technologies to characterize virus-host interactions, determine phage resistance mechanisms in nature, identify the degree of specificity for each bacterial resistance mechanism across diverse phage types, and understand the coevolution of hosts and their phages, which can ultimately be used to design better phage therapeutic treatments and tools for precision microbiome engineering;
  • Improved modeling for understanding natural viral populations and persistence in the environment, as well as predictive modeling for viral stability and evolution in changing environmental conditions;
  • Understanding virus-microbiome community composition, function, and evolution;
  • Synthetic biology of key target viral proteins to rapidly develop improved vaccines or therapeutics; and
  • Synthetic biology to construct viral genome variants and test viral stability, persistence, and resilience in the environment.
 
The Department encourages submission of scientific questions that underpin COVID-19 response and that the research community may answer using DOE user facilities, computational resources, and enabling infrastructure. Please send research questions that the scientific community may address with DOE resources by email to [email protected]. The Department is acting rapidly to leverage, and when appropriate provide prioritized access to, the full range of DOE user facilities and other facilities available at national laboratories to support the national and international effort to address COVID-19. 
DOE_ecosynbio
Concept Paper Deadline (required): October 26, 2020
SEAS/FAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to full proposal deadline
Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline: TBD
Award Amount: $250,000-$7M for a period of up to 36 months. Cost sharing may be required, see solicitation for more details.
 
This funding opportunity seeks submissions to establish new technologies to significantly improve the carbon efficiency of bioconversion platforms through the accommodation of external reducing equivalents. Proposed systems of interest include, but are not limited to:
  1. Carbon optimized fermentation strains that avoid CO2 evolution;
  2. Engineered mixotrophic consortia or systems that avoid CO2 evolution;
  3. Biomass or gas fermentation with internal CO2 utilization;
  4. Cell-free carbon optimized biocatalytic biomass conversion and/or CO2 utilization; and
  5. Cross-cutting or other proposed carbon optimized bioconversion schemes.
All systems will need to demonstrate the capacity to accommodate external reducing equivalents to optimize the carbon efficiency of the system as compared to traditional fermentation systems (i.e. the sum of the recoverable energy contents of the products is greater than the energy content of the biomass or primary carbon feedstock).
DOEother
Other DOE Opportunities

Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)
briar
Sponsor Deadline: TBD
 
IARPA is planning to release an open competition Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to solicit proposals for a new research and development (R&D) program called BRIAR (Biometric Recognition and Identification at Altitude and Range). The BAA is anticipated to be released in Q4 of FY20. The BRIAR Program aims to develop software algorithm-based systems capable of performing whole-body biometric identification at long-range and from elevated platforms. More information will be provided when the full solicitation is released.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
NASAUnsolicited
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling through September 30, 2020
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 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. Proposals should be submitted at least six months in advance of the desired starting date.
NASA_rops
Sponsor Deadline for Step-1 Proposals (required): October 1, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline for Step-2 Proposals (if invited): December 1, 2020
Award Information: Approximately $247,500 per year for five years, for a total maximum award up to approximately $1,237,500 for the entire project period
 
This Appendix solicits research proposals for fluid physics experiments to be conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) in flow boiling to support cryogenic propellant tank transfer research. Proposals are specifically solicited for an ISS flight experiment using the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE) with the new boiling module. All proposal concepts must fit within FBCE hardware capabilities as they are currently designed. Proposals must be responsive to the high priority research areas in cryogenic propellant storage, refueling and tank transfer identified in the 2011 Decadal Survey, "Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era." The relevant decadal identifiers are AP1 ("Reduced gravity multiphase flows, cryogenics and heat transfer database and modeling...") and TSES2, ("To support zero-boil off propellant storage and cryogenic fluid
management..."), which can be found in Table 13.1 of the Decadal Survey report.
 
Ground experiments and other theoretical work can be included in the proposal to support the flight experiment. Each proposer must include a numerical modeling expert on their proposal team. Proposers should include preflight numerical modeling and postflight model validation work in the proposal. Proposals should be written for activities from concept to flight and through postflight data analysis. For a typical 5-year project, years 1-3 are used for lab testing, defining experimental concept, identifying science requirements, and discussions with the project team, year 4 is used for launch and ISS testing, and year 5 for post flight data analysis and model validation. NASA intends to select two teams.
NASA_nstgro21
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: October 26, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: November 2, 2020
Award Information: The maximum amount of an NSTGRO grant will be $80,000 per year (this total includes a student stipend, faculty advisor allowance, visiting technologist experience allowance, and funding for health insurance and tuition and fees). These are multi-year awards. The NSTGRO grant does not provide university overhead.
 
NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) seeks to sponsor U.S. citizen, U.S. national and permanent resident graduate student research that has significant potential to contribute to NASA's goal of creating innovative new space technologies for our Nation's science, exploration, and economic future. This call for graduate student space technology research proposals solicits proposals on behalf of individuals pursuing or planning to pursue master's or doctoral (Ph.D.) degrees in relevant space technology disciplines at accredited U.S. universities. NASA Space Technology Graduate Researchers will perform research at their respective campuses and at NASA Centers. In addition to their faculty advisor, each recipient will be matched with a technically relevant and community-engaged NASA researcher who will serve as the research collaborator on the award. Through this collaboration, graduate students will be able to take advantage of broader and/or deeper space technology research opportunities directly related to their academic and career objectives, acquire a more detailed understanding of the potential end applications of their space technology efforts, and directly disseminate their research results within the NASA community. Awards resulting from this solicitation will be made in the form of grants to accredited U.S. universities with the faculty advisor as the Principal Investigator (PI). Awards resulting from this solicitation are planned to coincide with the start of the 2021 academic year and are subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
 
Only one proposal may be submitted on behalf of a student in response to this solicitation. The proposal must be submitted by an accredited U.S. university unless one of the following two conditions applies. If the individual seeking support (1) is currently an undergraduate and does not know which accredited U.S. university they will be attending in the fall of 2021 or (2) is currently not enrolled as either an undergraduate or graduate student and does not know which accredited U.S. university they will be attending in the fall of 2021, the NSTGRO Proposal Submission Office will submit the proposal on their behalf.
 
NASA made 63, 65, and 56 new grant awards as a result of the last three solicitation cycles (NSTGRO20, NSTRF19, and NSTRF18, respectively); the NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships (NSTRF) solicitation was the predecessor solicitation. NASA expects to make a similar number of new NSTGRO21 awards, pending the receipt of highly meritorious proposals. 

NASA_vsat
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: November 6, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: November 16, 2020
Award Information: The Base effort will be funded up to $700,000, and has an expected duration of up to 12 months. The Option period will be funded up to $7.5M for up to 24 months.
 
This Appendix is seeking proposals for the design and prototype fabrication of autonomously deployable and relocatable lunar surface solar arrays for future missions during the "Sustainment Period" of lunar South Pole exploration. The array technology developed from this Appendix shall allow for autonomous deployment, retraction, and mobility to new surface sites as future mission architectures and concepts of operation will likely require such flexibility. Given the nature of space operations and the fuel requirements associated with a lunar landing, Lunar VSAT efforts should be designed to minimize mass to the full extent possible.
 
Contracts resulting from this Appendix will include a Base period focused on design and analysis tasks to ensure basic feasibility of the proposed system, and an Option period that focuses on the build and test of a prototype of the proposed system concept. NASA anticipates selecting up to four offerors to create initial Lunar VSAT designs and conduct appropriate analyses (Base effort). NASA also anticipates that up to two Options will be exercised to awardees to build and test a prototype system.
NASAother
Other NASA Opportunities
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
NIH_covid
 
NIH has compiled Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Information for NIH Applicants and Recipients of NIH Funding at the link above. This includes guidance for proposal submission and award management, answers to frequently asked questions, and funding opportunities.
 
To get funding as quickly as possible to the research community, NIH is using Urgent and Emergency competing revisions and administrative supplements to existing grant awards. This approach allows NIH to leverage resident expertise, getting additional funding to those researchers who are already working with other organisms, models, or tools so that they can quickly shift focus to the novel coronavirus. These Urgent and Emergency competitive revision Funding Opportunity Announcements allow NIH to fund applications quickly, often in under three months, sometimes much quicker than that, because evaluation for scientific and technical merit is done by an internal review panel convened by staff of the NIH awarding institute or center rather than by its traditional peer review process. These opportunities require applications to be submitted in response to an Emergency or Urgent Notice of Special Interest (NOSI). In addition to the opportunities for revisions and supplements to existing awards, other notices of special interest seek full research project grant proposals to conduct research on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-2019 through an array of parent FOAs. NIH is maintaining a list of COVID-19 specific notices of special interest in the funding opportunities section at the link above. 
NIH_nibib
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days in advance of sponsor deadline
Sponsor Deadline: February 16, June 16, and October 16, annually
Award Amount: $400,000 in direct costs over 3 years
 
This Trailblazer Award is an opportunity for NIH-defined New and Early Stage Investigators (https://grants.nih.gov/policy/early-investigators/index.htm) to pursue research programs of high interest to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) that integrate engineering and the physical sciences with the life and/or biomedical sciences. A Trailblazer project may be exploratory, developmental, proof of concept, or high risk-high impact, and may be technology design-directed, discovery-driven, or hypothesis-driven. Importantly, applicants must propose research approaches for which there are minimal or no preliminary data. A distinct feature for this FOA is that no preliminary data are required, expected, or encouraged. However, if available, minimal preliminary data are allowed. Preliminary data are defined as material which the applicant has independently produced and not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal.
 
A Trailblazer project may be exploratory, developmental, proof of concept or have high risk-high impact goals. Importantly, the proposed research for this FOA may be technology design-directed and may or may not be hypothesis-driven. In the context of this FOA, innovation encompasses approaches to address well-defined, unmet biomedical research needs through the development of new methods, ideas, or technologies; early steps along the path toward delivery of a new capability or method; and the integration of existing components in a previously unproven format. High-impact projects should transform our understanding or practice by applying an innovative approach to an important biomedical challenge. For projects supported by a Trailblazer Award, successful results should provide a solid foundation for further research under other funding mechanisms, such as the R01. Applicants will be considered ineligible for this funding opportunity if they have submitted an R01, R15 or any other R21 application, with NIBIB as the primary IC within the same review cycle.
NIH_R61
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: September 23, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: September 30, 2020
Award Amount: $500,000 maximum direct costs per year in the R61 phase and $1,000,000 maximum direct costs per year in the R33 phase. Applicants may request up to two years of support for the R61 phase, and up to two years of support for the R33 phase.
 
NIH is issuing this FOA in response to the declared public health emergency for 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). This emergency phased innovation funding opportunity announcement (FOA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides an expedited funding mechanism as part of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics radical (RADx-rad) Initiative.
 
This FOA will support innovative research to develop novel, new or unique and non-traditional approaches to 1) characterize the spectrum of SARS CoV-2 associated illness, including the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), and 2) identify and validate biomarkers and/or biosignatures for a prognostic algorithm to predict the longitudinal risk of disease severity after a child is exposed to and may be infected with SARS-CoV-2 to properly tailor his or her management and optimize health outcomes.
NIH_MIRA
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: September 25, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: October 2, 2020
Award Amount: Up to $250,000 direct costs per year for five years
 
The Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) is a grant to provide support for a program of research in an early stage investigator's laboratory that falls within the mission of NIGMS. For the purpose of this FOA, a program of research is a collection of projects in the investigator's lab that are relevant to the mission of NIGMS. The goal of MIRA is to increase the efficiency and efficacy of NIGMS funding. It is anticipated that this FOA will:

  • Enable investigators to apply earlier in their independent research careers, allowing them to secure grant funding that will launch and sustain successful research careers.
  • Enhance investigators' ability to move into research areas that are distinct from those of their postdoctoral mentors, which could lead to new scientific discoveries.
  • Increase the stability of funding for NIGMS-supported investigators, which could enhance their ability to take on ambitious scientific projects and approach problems more creatively.
  • Increase flexibility for investigators to follow important new research directions as opportunities arise, rather than being bound to specific aims proposed in advance of the studies.
  • More widely distribute funding among the nation's highly talented and promising investigators to increase overall scientific productivity and the chances for important breakthroughs.
  • Reduce the time spent by researchers writing and reviewing grant applications, allowing them to spend more time conducting research.
  • Enable investigators to devote more time and energy to mentoring trainees in a more stable research environment.
 
Eligibility to apply for this FOA is limited to NIH defined Early Stage Investigators. ESI eligibility is determined at the time the application is submitted. Applicants who receive R01, SC1, DP1, DP2, or any other type of disqualifying award prior to issuance of the ESI-MIRA, are ineligible to receive the award. The PD/PI is required to devote at least 51% of his/her total research effort to this award. Only single PD/PI applications are allowed. 
nih_TRA
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: September 23, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: September 30, 2020
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. Consistent with this focus, Transformative Research Award applications should propose research substantially different from current mainstream research. Applications are welcome in all topics relevant to the broad mission of NIH, including, but not limited to, topics in the behavioral, social, biomedical, applied, and formal sciences and topics that may involve basic, translational, or clinical research. Little or no preliminary data are expected. The Transformative Research application focuses on the importance of the problem, the novelty of the hypothesis and/or the proposed methodology, and the magnitude of the potential impact rather than on preliminary data or experimental details.
 
Towards the objective of funding the best possible science, NIH is piloting a process for initial peer review of applications received in response to this FOA in which the identity of the investigators and institutions are withheld until the last phase of review. Instructions for anonymizing components of the application must be carefully followed.
 
Non-COVID-19-related research proposals should apply to funding opportunity announcement RFA-RM-20-013. COVID-19-related research proposals should apply to funding opportunity announcement RFA-RM-20-020.
OtherNIHOpps
Other NIH Opportunities
National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation: Dear Colleague Letters
NSFDCL_efri
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: N/A
Sponsor Deadline: October 30, 2020
Award Amount: N/A
 
The purpose of this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) is to invite the research community to submit suggestions for Topic Ideas to be considered for the FY 2022 Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) Program Solicitation. Suggestions for EFRI Topic Ideas are currently solicited and vetted every two years. Selected Topic(s) become the focus of research supported by the EFRI Program. Solicitations are announced annually for research proposals that fall under the specified Topic area(s). This DCL is not a request for the submission of a single research proposal idea; rather, it is designed to solicit the submission of emerging topic areas of potentially transformative research and innovation. Candidate topic ideas, including a 500-word description, may be submitted here.
NSFDCL_rem
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: October 30, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: November 6, 2020
Award Amount: supplements of up to $110,000
 
This Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) seeks to inform the community about an opportunity to pursue supplements from the Research Experience and Mentoring (REM) Program to active Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) research awards and active Engineering Research Center (ERC) awards. Active EFRI and ERC awardees may apply for supplemental funding from the REM program via FastLane. REM funding will support costs associated with bringing Research Participants (RPs) into the research environment over the summer to participate in mentored activities and research aligned with the ERC- and EFRI-supported research goals. REM supplement recipients are encouraged to extend structured mentoring into the academic year.
NSFDCL_anr
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: November 20, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: December 1, 2020 (Registration/Dossier to ANR)
Award Amount: NSF funding decisions are subject to the availability of funds.
 
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) have signed an agreement on Research Cooperation. The agreement provides an overarching framework to encourage collaboration between US and French research communities and sets out the principles by which jointly supported activities might be developed. The agreement is a lead agency opportunity whereby collaborative proposals between US and French researchers are submitted to only the lead agency for review, and the partner agency agrees to accept the review. Based on the lead agency review of collaborative proposals, NSF and ANR will make joint funding decisions to support meritorious collaborative projects. The lead agency opportunity allows for reciprocal acceptance of merit review through unsolicited mechanisms with the goal to reduce some of the current barriers to working internationally.

This year, the program is seeking proposals which address the topic of Physics from Molecules to Cells. The emergence, evolution, dynamics and function of self-organized cellular systems stem from the interaction of biological components and the environment to yield robust, resilient and adaptive living systems. Through this DCL, NSF and ANR seek proposals that use multidisciplinary approaches that emphasize quantitative, predictive and theory driven science aimed at understanding. The program seeks proposals which integrate approaches from theoretical and experimental physics and biology to develop testable and quantitative understanding of biological questions. Projects providing innovative methodological or conceptual approaches to a biological question and with a strong theoretical physics component are strongly encouraged. Purely descriptive projects without predictive quantitative components are of low priority. Projects that leverage unique resources and capabilities of partners in the US and France will be given priority.
NSFDCL_sentinels
Sentinel Cells for Surveillance and Response to Emergent Infectious Diseases (Sentinels)
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: Budgets should be appropriate to the scope of the project.
 
With this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), NSF highlights the interest of existing programs in the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) and the Directorate for Engineering (ENG) in interdisciplinary research for the development of novel biological platforms that are capable of sensing and responding to emerging infectious agents. The mechanism of sensing should be adaptable and or evolvable such that the sentinel cells, or other appropriate biotechnology solutions, are robust to a range of emergent threats, and/or can easily be reprogrammed and deployed once a new threat is identified. The platform's response should be one or more of the following: alert the user, destroy the threat, protect the host, initiate an immune response or other strategies that would ensure mitigation of the threat. Sentinel cells and organisms that detect and respond to infectious agents with expanding footprints in a host population or expanding host ranges are of particular interest, as the early detection of these infectious agents might have value in preventing future pandemics. In addition, fundamental science and technology that would lead to the development of the envisioned sentinel cells and organisms are also of interest. Investigators are encouraged not to be limited in their approach, but to think broadly about innovations leveraging biology and engineering to advance adaptable detection of emerging biological threats. Proposals responsive to this DCL should be submitted to the program most closely related to the research:
 
 
The proposal title should be prefaced with "Sentinels:" Neither Division puts a limit on proposal budgets and expects budgets to be appropriate for the scope of the proposed project. The relevant programs in BIO/MCB and ENG/CBET all accept proposals without deadline. Proposals are reviewed as they are received.  Investigators interested in submitting a proposal are strongly encouraged to contact one of the Program Directors listed in the full Dear Colleague Letter.
NSFDCL_vrs
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: N/A
Sponsor Deadline: N/A
Award Amount: This award is a supplement to existing NSF awards. Supplements under this DCL will be supported based on proposal quality, availability of funds, and the discretion of the managing Program Director for the award for which the supplemental funding is requested.
 
Through this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), the National Science Foundation (NSF) is supporting alternate pathways to encourage veterans' engagement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) research and industry. NSF's commitment to broadening participation is embedded in its Strategic Plan and initiatives such as the Ten Big Ideas for Future NSF Investment which emphasize the need to pro-actively seek and effectively develop STEM talent from all sectors and groups in our society. NSF recognizes that veterans represent an underutilized workforce for U.S. STEM communities. Through this initiative, NSF hopes to provide additional support to some of the many veterans transitioning from active military service to civilian careers and exploring education options through the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

This Dear Colleague Letter continues the Veterans Research Supplement (VRS) program (NSF 14-124) to engage veterans in engineering research by providing supplements to active awards in the following Directorate for Engineering (ENG) Divisions/Offices:
 
 
The VRS affords veterans who are students, K-12 teachers, or community college faculty an opportunity to work with active ENG grantees to conduct basic and/or industrially relevant research to gain a deeper understanding of engineering. Veterans supported by VRS funding may participate in research activities with any active awardees or affiliated member companies supported by ENG programs. A request for a VRS may be submitted to one of the programs in the ENG Divisions listed above as a post-award supplement to an existing ENG award. Note: The grantee or PI may request VRS supplemental funds but cannot be the VRS participant.
DCL_iucrc
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: N/A
Sponsor Deadline: N/A
Award Amount: N/A
 
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) Program fosters long-term partnerships among academia, industry, and government in various technology sectors through multi-university, industry-focused research centers. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a great deal of uncertainty in the US economy, and across nearly all industry sectors. In recognition of the high level of industry engagement (within both existing and proposed future IUCRCs), the COVID-19 pandemic could present new challenges related to industry membership commitments at the current time and into the near future. Therefore, industry membership requirements could be more difficult to meet. Potential impacts may be in relation to confirming commitments related to both the retention of existing members and the recruitment of new members. To mitigate possible adverse effects of the COVID-19 hardship with respect to meeting Center/Site membership requirements, this Dear Colleague Letter offers guidance for IUCRCs with active NSF grants, applicable through December 31, 2020.
NSFDCL_future
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: February 3, 2021 (CS for All)
Sponsor Deadline: February 10, 2021 (CS for All)
Award Amount: varies by program
 
The purpose of this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) is to encourage proposals to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Computer Science for All (CSforAll: Research and RPPs) and Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) programs that specifically investigate promising educational approaches to motivate and prepare preK-12 learners for computationally-intensive industries of the future. The CSforAll program aims to provide all US preK-12 students with opportunities to participate in rigorous computer science and computational thinking education in their schools through funding both research and research-practitioner partnerships. The ITEST program is an applied research and development program designed to broaden participation in STEM and information and communication technology (ICT) careers and career pathways by providing preK-12 youth with technology-rich learning experiences in formal or informal settings. The ITEST program deadline has passed.
 
This DCL also encourages Conference proposals to convene stakeholders with a range of relevant expertise and experience. These conferences may respond to pressing questions that would advance knowledge or practice; identify leverage points for addressing core issues; or set an agenda for future research and practice. Proposers are encouraged to contact a program officer prior to submitting a Conference proposal, and to follow the preparation and content requirements specified in NSF's Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide Chapter II.E.7.

National Science Foundation: Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (NSF: CISE)
NSFCISE_crII
Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Research Initiation Initiative (CRII)
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: October 26, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: November 2, 2020
Award Amount: up to $175,000 for a period of 24 months
 
The NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) seeks to award grants intended to support research independence among early-career academicians who specifically lack access to adequate organizational or other resources. It is expected that funds obtained through this program 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 five years after completion of their PhD. Applicants for this program may not yet have received any other grants or contracts in the 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. Serving as co-PI, Senior Personnel, Postdoctoral Fellow, or other Fellow does not count against this eligibility rule.
 
Importantly, the CRII program seeks to provide essential resources to enable early-career PIs to launch their research careers. For the purposes of this program, CISE defines "essential resources" as sufficient funds for 48 months of graduate student support. Faculty at undergraduate and two-year institutions may use funds to support undergraduate students, and may optionally use the additional RUI designation (which requires inclusion of a RUI Impact Statement) -- see here for additional information. In addition, submissions from all institutions may use funds for PI salary, postdoctoral scholars, travel, and/or research equipment.

NSFcise_ngsdi
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: October 28, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: November 4, 2020
Award Amount: up to $3M over 3 years

The goal of this joint solicitation between NSF and VMware is to foster novel, transformative research in fundamental and systematic approaches that bring dramatic increases in the environmental sustainability of the Digital Infrastructure leading to practical methodologies and tools. The Digital Infrastructure is broadly defined as the totality of software, hardware, and the methods for managing them for the purpose of efficient computation. This research includes, but is not limited to, computer software and systems; management of distributed software, the Digital Infrastructure, and data center power sourcing; and resource allocation and scheduling. Critical to initiating such research is to set its objectives through the definition of novel metrics and benchmarks that capture the sustainability challenges of all components in the entire computation chain. The program also aims to support a research community committed to advancing research and education at the confluence of management technologies for software, hardware and power for Sustainable Digital Infrastructure, and to transition research findings into practice. A new generation of innovation would build on many recent advances such as passive and active measurements, statistical analysis and inference, learning for automated control and complex optimization, workload isolation and management, agile development, convergence of development and production environments, and architecture-optimized language translation.
NSFCISE_advcomp
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: November 24, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: December 3, 2020
Award Amount: up to $5M over up to five years

The intent of this solicitation is to request proposals from organizations willing to serve as service providers (SPs) within the NSF Innovative High-Performance Computing (HPC) program to provide advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) capabilities and/or services in production operations to support the full range of computational- and data-intensive research across all of science and engineering (S&E). The Advanced Computing Systems & Services program is intended to complement previous NSF investments in advanced computational infrastructure by provisioning resources, broadly defined to include systems and/or services, in two categories:
  • Category I, Capacity Systems: production of computational resources maximizing the capacity provided to support the broad range of computation and data analytics needs in S&E research; and
  • Category II, Innovative Prototypes/Testbeds: innovative forward-looking capabilities deploying novel technologies, architectures, usage modes, etc., and exploring new target applications, methods, and paradigms for S&E discoveries.
This solicitation welcomes only Category II proposals. Resources supported through awards from this solicitation will be incorporated into and allocated as part of NSF's Innovative HPC program. This program complements investments in leadership-class computing and funds a federation of nationally-available HPC resources that are technically diverse and intended to enable discoveries at a computational scale beyond the research of individual or regional institutions of higher education. NSF anticipates that at least 90% of the provisioned system or services will be available to the S&E community through an open peer-reviewed national allocation process and be supported by community and other support services [such as those currently supported through eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) 2.0 project-managed allocations recommended by the XSEDE Resource Allocation Committee (XRAC), and other activities intended to foster efficient coordination across resources], or an NSF-approved alternative that may emerge. If this is not feasible for the proposed system/services, proposers must clearly explain in detail why this is the case and how they intend to make the proposed system/services available to the national S&E community.

Please Note: This is a limited submission opportunity, and Harvard may submit only one proposal to this competition. Please contact Erin Hale at [email protected] if you are interested in applying.
NSFcise_ccri
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline for Letter of Intent: December 8, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Letter of Intent: December 15, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline for Full Proposal: January 21, 2021
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposal: January 28, 2021
Award Amount: $50,000 - $100,000 over 1 to 1.5 years (Planning); $1M-$2M over up to 3 years (Medium); $2M- $5M over up to 5 years (Grand)

The Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Community Research Infrastructure (CCRI) program drives discovery and learning in the core CISE disciplines of the three participating divisions [(Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), Computer and Network Systems (CNS), and Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS)] by funding the creation and enhancement of world-class research infrastructure. This research infrastructure will specifically support diverse communities of CISE researchers pursuing focused research agendas in computer and information science and engineering. This support involves developing the accompanying user services and engagement needed to attract, nurture, and grow a robust research community that is actively involved in determining directions for the infrastructure as well as management of the infrastructure. This should lead to infrastructure that can be sustained through community involvement and community leadership, and that will enable advances not possible with existing research infrastructure. Further, through the CCRI program, CISE seeks to ensure that researchers from a diverse range of institutions of higher education (IHEs), including minority-serving and predominantly undergraduate institutions, as well as researchers from non-profit, non-academic organizations, have access to such infrastructure. The CCRI program supports three classes of awards:
  • Planning Community Infrastructure (Planning) awards support planning efforts to engage research communities to develop new CISE community research infrastructures (Planning).
  • Medium Community Infrastructure (Medium) awards support the creation of new CISE community research infrastructure or the enhancement of existing CISE community research infrastructures with integrated tools, resources, user services, and research community outreach to enable innovative CISE research opportunities to advance the frontiers of the CISE core research areas. The Medium award class includes New (New) and Enhance/Sustain (ENS) awards.
  • Grand Community Infrastructure (Grand) awards support projects involving significant efforts to develop new CISE community research infrastructures or to enhance and sustain an existing CISE community research infrastructure to enable world-class CISE research opportunities for broad-based communities of CISE researchers that extend well beyond the awardee organization(s).
Each CCRI Medium or Grand award may include support for operation of the infrastructure, ensuring that the awardee organization(s) is (are) well positioned to provide a high quality of service to CISE community researchers expected to use the infrastructure to realize their research goals.
NSFCISE_other
Other NSF: CISE Opportunities

National Science Foundation: Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (NSF: MPS)
NSFMPS_hubs
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: January 8, 2021
Sponsor Deadline: January 15, 2021
Award Amount: $250,000 - $850,000 per year. The FRHTP will be funded for an initial duration of five years. Three awards are expected in FY 2021.
 
Focused Research Hubs in Theoretical Physics (FRHTP) are designed to enhance significant breakthroughs at an intellectual frontier of physics by providing resources beyond those available to individual investigators, so as to promote a collaborative approach to a focused topic while promoting the preparation of scientists at the beginning of their independent scientific careers. Although interdisciplinary aspects may be included, the bulk of the effort must fall within the purview of the Division of Physics. The successful hub will demonstrate: (1) the potential to advance science; (2) the enhancement of the development of early career scientists; (3) creative, substantive activities aimed at enhancing education, diversity, and public outreach; (4) potential for broader impacts, e.g., impacts on other field(s) and benefits to society; (5) a synergy or value-added rationale that justifies a group approach. The proposal must present a compelling case that the FRHTP can achieve its scientific goals within a five-year time frame. The FRHTP is intended to support postdoctoral researchers and enable collaborative interactions via support for travel, collaboration meetings and workshops. The FRHTP are not intended to provide additional support for senior personnel (individual PIs), graduate or undergraduate students. Proposals may only be submitted in the specific topics listed in this solicitation, which define particular areas in theoretical physics in which the Division of Physics sees a need for a focused research hub. Future versions of this solicitation will allow response on different theoretical physics topics. It is expected that one award will be funded in each hub topic. The specific hub topics for this solicitation are:
  1. The Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (TAMOP) focused research hub will support theoretical work to advance theoretical AMO physics and lead in motivating and explaining new experimental work in AMO and other areas of science within the purview of the Division of Physics.
  2. The Quantum Information Science (QIS) focused research hub will support theoretical work to explore quantum applications that will push the frontiers of quantum-based information, transmission, and manipulation within the purview of the Division of Physics. This activity will advance the goals of the "Quantum Leap", one of the NSF 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investment.
  3. The Theoretical Nuclear Physics (TNP) focused research hub will support theoretical work in the area of Models and Simulations for Nuclear Astrophysics relevant to research within the purview of the Division of Physics. This activity will advance the goals of the "Windows on the Universe", one of the NSF 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investment.
Any one individual may be the PI or co-PI for only one proposal. It is strongly recommended that prospective PIs contact the FRHTP Program Officer(s) to ascertain that the focus and budget of their proposed FRHTP are appropriate for this solicitation.
NSFMPS_chedrp
Division of Chemistry: Disciplinary Research Programs (CHE-DRP)
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline: varies by program; please see below
Award Amount:
Average award size varies among programs but averages $150,000 per year for three years ($450,000 total) for single PI awards.
 
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, catalysts, surfaces, and nanostructures - especially those with a focus on sustainability;
  • increasing our fundamental understanding of chemical species, their structures, and their chemical transformations, kinetics, and thermodynamics;
  • developing new tools and novel instrumentation for chemical discovery, including those in sensing, communication, and 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;
  • expanding chemical understanding through data sharing, mining, and repurposing; and expanding state-of-the-art data analytics tools in service of artificial intelligence and robotics for molecular and materials synthesis and characterization; 
  • solving complex chemical problems by the development of new theories, computations, models, and tools, including the synergistic combination of multiple types of instruments; and
  • contributing to industries of the future as applied to the chemical sciences: quantum information systems, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and 5G.
 
This solicitation includes the programs below with the following submission windows:
  • Chemical Catalysis (CAT); Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms-A (CSDM-A); Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms-B (CSDM-B); Chemical Theory, Models and Computational Methods (CTMC); and Chemical Synthesis (SYN): September 01, 2020 - September 30, 2020
  • Chemical Measurement and Imaging (CMI); Chemistry of Life Processes (CLP); Environmental Chemical Sciences (ECS); and Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry (MSN): October 01, 2020 - November 02, 2020
 NSFMPS_phy
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline: varies by program
Award Amount: varies/wide range

The Division of Physics (PHY) supports physics research and the preparation of future scientists in the nation's colleges and universities across a broad range of physics disciplines that span scales of space and time from the largest to the smallest and the oldest to the youngest. The Division is comprised of disciplinary programs covering experimental and theoretical research in the following major subfields of physics: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics; Elementary Particle Physics; Gravitational Physics; Integrative Activities in Physics; Nuclear Physics; Particle Astrophysics; Physics at the Information Frontier; Physics of Living Systems; Plasma Physics; and Quantum Information Science.

The Division of Physics strongly encourages single proposal submission for possible co-review rather than submission of multiple related proposals to several programs. PIs considering submitting more than one proposal to this solicitation, or who already have an active PHY award, are encouraged to first consult with the relevant program officer(s) before preparing a new proposal. This does not apply to awards from or submissions to the MRI, REU, and/or center programs, or in cases of renewal proposals.
NSF:MPS
Other NSF: MPS Opportunities
National Science Foundation: Directorate for Engineering (NSF: ENG)
NSFenf_PFI
Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline for Research Partnership Track: October 26, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: January 6, 2021
Sponsor Deadline: January 13, 2021
Award Amount: Up to $250,000 for 18-24 months for the Technology Translation Track; up to $550,000 for 36 months for the Research Partnership Track
 
The Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program within the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) offers researchers from all disciplines of science and engineering funded by NSF the opportunity to perform translational research and technology development, catalyze partnerships and accelerate the transition of discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace for societal benefit. This solicitation offers two broad tracks:
  • The Technology Translation (PFI-TT) track offers the opportunity to translate prior NSF-funded research results in any field of science or engineering into technological innovations with promising commercial potential and societal impact. Concurrently, students and postdoctoral researchers who participate in PFI-TT projects receive education and leadership training in innovation and entrepreneurship. Successful PFI-TT projects generate technology-driven commercialization outcomes that address societal needs.
  • The Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) track seeks to achieve the same goals as the PFI-TT track by supporting instead complex, multi-faceted technology development projects that are typically beyond the scope of a single researcher or institution and require a multi-organizational, interdisciplinary, synergistic collaboration. The PFI-RP track requires the creation and implementation of new multidisciplinary, multi-organization partnerships between academia, industry and other public and private entities to pursue new innovative technology development projects.
The intended outcomes of both PFI-TT and PFI-RP tracks are: a) the commercialization of new intellectual property derived from NSF-funded research outputs; b) the creation of new or broader collaborations with industry (including increased corporate sponsored research); c) the licensing of NSF-funded research outputs to third party corporations or to start-up companies funded by a PFI team; and d) the training of future innovation and entrepreneurship leaders.
 
Eligibility: All proposals submitted to the PFI program must meet a lineage requirement under one of the following two paths:
 
  1. NSF-supported research results: The PI or a co-PI must have had an NSF award that ended no more than seven (7) years prior to the full proposal deadline date or be a current NSF award recipient. The proposed technology development project must be derived from the research results and/or discoveries from this underlying NSF award.
OR
  1. NSF-supported customer discovery results through the NSF I-Corps Teams Program: The PI or a co-PI must have been a member of an award under the NSF I-Corps Teams Program. The PI or co-PI must have fully completed the training provided under the I-Corps Team award within the past four (4) years. The customer discovery activities performed under the NSF-funded I-Corps award must be based on the technology that is proposed to be translated within the PFI proposal.
 
Please Note: There is no limit to the number of applications to the Technology Translation Track but Harvard is limited to submitting only one application to the Research Partnerships Track. Potential applications must apply via the internal pre-proposal process in the link above.

NSFeng_UKRI

FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission of a full proposal
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling; a Research Concept Outline (RCO) must be submitted to [email protected] at least 60 days prior to the submission of a full proposal.
Award Amount: The overall funding for the program is established independently by each participating division. Budgets are not set aside separately but are, instead, parts of existing program budgets.

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 Opportunity. The goal of this opportunity is to reduce some of the barriers that researchers currently encounter when working internationally. The ENG-EPSRC Lead Agency Opportunity 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. Proposers choose either NSF or EPSRC to serve as the "lead" agency to review their proposal. The non-lead agency will honor the rigor of the review process and the decision of the lead agency. For research teams that would like EPSRC to act as lead agency, please see the instructions here. 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 NSF programs and EPSRC Themes from which funding is sought.

Please Note: A Research Concept Outline (RCO) must be submitted to [email protected] at least 60 days prior to the submission of a full proposal. A proposal that is submitted without a previously approved RCO will be returned without review (RWR).
NSF:ENG
Other NSF: ENG Opportunities
National Science Foundation: Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary
NSFCross_ret
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: September 23, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: September 30, 2020 (RET Site Proposals); 
requests for RET Supplements may be included in proposals for new or renewed ENG and CISE grants or on a rolling basis if related to ongoing ENG- and CISE-funded projects.
Award Amount:
The total anticipated annual funding for both Sites and Supplements is approximately $5,800,000 per year, subject to the availability of funds. It is anticipated that approximately 9 Site awards will be made per year. The maximum total request for a Site is $600,000 for a duration of up to three years. Supplements are limited to a maximum of $10,000 per teacher and/or community college faculty for a duration of one year, subject to the availability of funds.

NSF's Directorate for Engineering (ENG) and the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) have joined to support the Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering and Computer Science program. This program supports active long-term collaborative partnerships between K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, Computer and Information Science, and Mathematics (STEM) in-service and pre-service teachers, full-time community college faculty, university faculty and students, and industry partners to enhance the scientific disciplinary knowledge and capacity of the STEM teachers and/or community college faculty through participation in authentic summer research experiences with engineering and computer science faculty researchers. The research projects and experiences all revolve around a focused research area related to engineering and/or computer science that will provide a common cohort experience to the participating educators. The K-12 STEM teachers and/or full-time community college faculty also translate their research experiences and new scientific knowledge into their classroom activities and curricula. The university team will include faculty, graduate and undergraduate students as well as industrial advisors. As part of the long-term partnership arrangements, involvement of undergraduate/graduate students with the integration of the RET curricular materials into classroom activities is particularly encouraged.

Partnerships with inner city, rural, or other high-needs schools are especially encouraged. Proposals emphasizing broadening participation of underrepresented groups in Engineering and Computer Science, including women, persons with disabilities, veterans, African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, are also encouraged. These proposals could focus on participation of teachers who are themselves underrepresented, or teachers who serve large populations of underrepresented students. This announcement features two mechanisms for support of in-service and pre-service K-12 STEM teachers and full-time community college faculty: (1) RET supplements to ongoing ENG and CISE awards and (2) new RET Site awards. RET supplements may be included outside this solicitation in proposals for new or renewed ENG and CISE grants or as supplements to ongoing ENG- and CISE-funded projects. RET in Engineering and Computer Science Sites, through this solicitation, are based on independent proposals from engineering and/or computer and/or information science departments, schools or colleges to initiate and conduct research participation projects for K-12 STEM teachers and/or full-time community college faculty.
NSFCross_NRT
Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: September 23, 2020
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (required): December 6, 2020
Award Amount: up to $3,000,000 for up to 5 years
 
The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, and potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The NRT 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. The program is dedicated to the effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary research areas through the use of a comprehensive traineeship model that is innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs. Proposals are requested in any interdisciplinary or convergent research theme of national priority, with special emphasis on one of six high priority areas (NSF Research Big Ideas):  
 
  • Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR)
  • The Future of Work at the Human Technology Frontier (HTF)
  • Navigating the New Arctic (NNA)
  • Windows on the Universe: The Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (WOU)
  • The Quantum Leap: Leading the Next Quantum Revolution (QL)
  • Understanding the Rules of Life: Predicting Phenotype (URoL)
 
Please Note: This is a limited submission opportunity, and Harvard is limited to participating in no more than two proposals in consideration for this opportunity. Participation includes serving as the lead organization, non-lead organization, or subawardee on any proposal. To be considered for a Harvard nomination, please submit an internal pre-proposal via the link above.
NSFCross_MRI
FAS/SEAS Pre-Proposal Deadline: September 29, 2020
Award Amount: Up to $4,000,000. Cost sharing of 30% of the total project costs is required.
 
The Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program serves to increase access to multi-user scientific and engineering instrumentation for research and research training in our nation's institutions of higher education and not-for-profit scientific/engineering research organizations. An MRI award supports the acquisition or development of a multi-user research instrument that is, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs. MRI provides support to acquire critical research instrumentation without which advances in fundamental science and engineering research may not otherwise occur. MRI also provides support to develop next-generation research instruments that open new opportunities to advance the frontiers in science and engineering research. Additionally, an MRI award is expected to enhance research training of students who will become the next generation of instrument users, designers and builders. This is a limited submission opportunity and Harvard may submit up to three proposals in the "tracks" as defined below, with no more than two submissions in Track 1 and no more than one submission in Track 2. 

  • Track 1: Proposals requesting funds from NSF greater than or equal to $100,000 and less than $1,000,000. Proposals that request funds from NSF less than $100,000 may also be accepted for the disciplines of mathematics or social, behavioral and economic sciences.
  • Track 2: Proposals requesting funds from NSF greater than or equal to $1,000,000 up to and including $4,000,000.
 
To be considered for one the three Harvard nominations, potential applicants from FAS and SEAS must first submit a pre-proposal online using the link above no later than September 29, 2020.
NSFCross_waterman
Nomination Deadline: October 21, 2020
Award Amount: $1,000,000 over 5 years
 
The Alan T. Waterman Award honors an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or engineering supported by the National Science Foundation. The awardee receives a grant of $1 million over five years for scientific research or advanced study in any field of science, plus a medal and other recognition. Eligibility criteria include:
  1. Candidates must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and must be 40 years old or younger, or not more than ten years beyond the receipt of the Ph.D. degree by December 31, 2020.
  2. Candidates should have demonstrated exceptional individual achievements in scientific or engineering research of sufficient quality to place them in front of their peers. Criteria include originality, innovation, and significant impact on the field.
  3. Renominations may be submitted via an updated nomination form, or may be resubmitted the year following their original submission from the Alan T. Waterman homepage using the existing nomination and references.
  4. Candidates identified for final review by the selection Committee, and who remain eligible under the selection criteria above, will automatically be in considered in the next year's review cycle.
Institutions may nominate an unlimited number of individuals and there are no restrictions on who may nominate. 
NSFCross_CSSI
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: October 21, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: October 28, 2020
Award Amount: Elements awards shall not exceed a total of $600,000 and 3 years duration (up to $200,000 per year). Framework Implementations awards shall range from $200,000 to $1M per year and shall be 3 to 5 years in duration.
 
The Cyberinfrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovation (CSSI) umbrella program seeks to enable funding opportunities that are flexible and responsive to the evolving and emerging needs in cyberinfrastructure (CI). This program continues the CSSI program by removing the distinction between software and data elements/framework implementations, and instead emphasizing integrated CI services, quantitative metrics with targets for delivery and usage of these services, and community creation. The CSSI umbrella program anticipates two classes of awards:
 
  • Elements: These awards target small groups that will create and deploy robust services for which there is a demonstrated need, and that will advance one or more significant areas of science and engineering.
  • Framework Implementations: These awards target larger, interdisciplinary teams organized around the development and application of services aimed at solving common research problems faced by NSF researchers in one or more areas of science and engineering, and resulting in a sustainable community framework providing CI services to a diverse community or communities.
 
Prospective Principal Investigators (PIs) should be aware that this is a multi-directorate activity and that they are encouraged to submit proposals with broad, interdisciplinary interests. Further, not all divisions are participating at the same level and division-specific priorities differ. Prospective PIs should also refer to the directorate/division-specific descriptions contained in Section II of this solicitation. Finally, it is strongly recommended that prospective PIs contact program officer(s) from the list of Cognizant Program Officers in the division(s) that typically support the scientists and engineers who would make use of the proposed work, to gain insight into the priorities for the relevant areas of science and engineering to which their proposals should be responsive. As part of contacting Cognizant Program Officers, prospective PIs are also encouraged to ascertain that the focus and budget of their proposed work are appropriate for this solicitation.

NSFCross_IGE
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: October 28, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: November 4, 2020
Award Amount:
IGE Awards are expected to be up to three (3) years in duration with a total budget between $300,000 and $500,000. For the Hub award, $500,000 will be awarded in year one; remaining funds will be disbursed in years 2-5. The maximum award amount is $1,000,000 for five 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.
 
As a special emphasis under this solicitation, IGE seeks proposals that will result in a single cooperative agreement for the development and implementation of an IGE Innovation Acceleration Hub. The Hub will facilitate IGE awardee communications about research activities and outcomes and provide a platform for external stakeholder engagement. Only Hub proposals submitted to the November 2020 deadline will be considered for funding.
 
Please Note: This is a limited submission opportunity (LSO) and Harvard may submit only two proposals to this opportunity. Please contact Erin Hale at [email protected] if you are interested in applying.
NSFCross_IRES
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: November 2, 2020 (Track II); November 4, 2020 (Track I)
Sponsor Deadline: November 9, 2020 (Track II); November 12, 2020 (Track I)
Award Amount: up to $300,000 per award (Track I); on average, ASI institutes are awarded $150,000 (Track II)
 
The International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program supports international research and research-related activities for U.S. science and engineering students. The IRES program contributes to development of a diverse, globally engaged workforce with world-class skills. IRES focuses on active research participation by undergraduate and/or graduate students in high quality international research, education and professional development experiences in NSF-funded research areas. The overarching, long-term goal of the IRES program is to enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering research and education and to strengthen economic competitiveness through training the next generation of research leaders. Track I focuses on the development of world-class research skills in international cohort experiences. Track II is dedicated to targeted, intensive learning and training opportunities that leverage international knowledge at the frontiers of research. Student participants supported by IRES funds must be citizens, nationals, or permanent residents of the United States.
  1. IRES - Track I: IRES Sites (IS) projects engage a group of undergraduate and/or graduate students in active high-quality collaborative research, in principle at an international site with mentorship from researchers at a host lab. IRES Sites must be organized around a coherent intellectual theme that may involve a single discipline or multiple disciplines funded by NSF.
  2. IRES - Track II: Advanced Studies Institutes (ASI) are intensive short courses with related activities that engage advanced graduate students in active learning and research at the frontiers of knowledge. ASIs typically range in length from ten to twenty-one days and, in principle, must be held outside the United States. ASIs must have a compelling rationale for their international location and should involve distinguished active researchers in the target field from the U.S. and abroad. ASIs should enable students to develop skills and broaden professional networks, leveraging international participation and complementary resources (expertise, facilities, data, field site, etc.) for mutual benefit.
For all IRES proposals, PIs are strongly encouraged to outline virtual, hybrid or other alternative approaches to strengthen and maintain international collaboration in the event travel is not undertaken, and/or in addition to travel. It is expected that these approaches will extend collaboration beyond the actual international trip and strengthen IRES proposals overall.

NSFCross_HDR
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: November 4, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: November 12, 2020
Award Amount: up to $2M over up to 5 years


In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) unveiled a set of "Big Ideas," ten bold, long-term research and process ideas that identify areas for future investment at the frontiers of science and engineering (see 
here). The Big Ideas represent unique opportunities to position our Nation at the cutting edge of global science and engineering by bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergence research. When responding to this solicitation, even though proposals must be submitted through the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, CISE/OAC, once received, the proposals will be managed by a cross-disciplinary team of NSF Program Directors.
 
NSF's Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) Big Idea is a national-scale activity to enable new modes of data-driven discovery that will allow fundamental questions to be asked and answered at the frontiers of science and engineering. In 2019, the HDR Big Idea launched three parallel efforts in pursuit of these aims: Institutes for Data-Intensive Research in Science and Engineering (I-DIRSE), HDR: Transdisciplinary Research In Principles Of Data Science Phase I (HDR TRIPODS Phase I), and Data Science Corps (DSC). To engage participants across these efforts and amplify their impacts, this program solicits proposals for a nationwide HDR Coordination Hub, called HDR Central. The overarching purpose of HDR Central will be to increase the impact of the HDR Big Idea by supporting coordination and communication among all HDR projects, and by sharing HDR efforts and outcomes with the public.
 
Please Note: This is a limited submission opportunity, and Harvard may submit only one proposal to this competition. Please contact Erin Hale at [email protected] if you are interested in applying.
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Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: November 30, 2020
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline (if nominated): February 12, 2021
Sponsor Deadline (if nominated): February 22, 2021
Award Amount: $600,000 maximum for 5-year awards; $400,000 maximum for 3-year awards
 
The Ethical and Responsible Research (ER2) program funds research projects that identify (1) factors that are effective in the formation of ethical STEM researchers and (2) approaches to developing those factors in all STEM fields that NSF supports.
  • Standard Research Grants and Institutional Transformation Research Grants will use basic research to produce knowledge about what constitutes or promotes responsible or irresponsible conduct of research, and how to best instill this knowledge into researchers and educators at all career stages. Proposals can be collaborative.
  • Conference Proposals support thematic conferences designed to bring together researchers and students to foster new ER2 research, synthesize results across previously funded ER2 projects, and develop new ethical standards for STEM research. ER2 conference support is typically around $30,000 in direct costs.
  • Project Incubation Proposals provide funds for STEM researchers and administrators from multiple organizations to collaborate to develop and submit a full ER2 Standard Grant. Proposers must span at least two organizations. Those who intend to submit a proposal must consult with a cognizant NSF Program Officer before submitting to ascertain the suitability of the envisioned activity. Project Incubation proposals provide only one year of support, typically around $60,000 in direct costs.
The ER2 program will not consider proposals focused on ethics for medical students or in medical education. Proposals that address medical informatics, biomedical engineering, systems engineering and social scientific studies in health and medicine will be considered.
 
Please Note: Harvard University, as a single institution, is limited to submitting one proposal as the lead organization. To be considered for the Harvard nomination, potential applicants must submit an internal pre-proposal via the link above.
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Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS): Innovative Approaches to Science and Engineering Research on Brain Function*
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: December 3, 2020
Sponsor Deadline: December 10, 2020
Award Amount: $100,000 to $250,000 per year in combined direct costs over 3-5 years (on average)

Computational neuroscience provides a theoretical foundation and a rich set of technical approaches for understanding the principles and dynamics of the nervous system. Building on the theory, methods, and findings of computer science, neuroscience, biology, the mathematical and physical sciences, the social and behavioral sciences, engineering, and other fields, computational neuroscience employs a broad spectrum of approaches to study structure, function, organization, and computation across all levels of the nervous system. Advances in computational neuroscience are being accelerated by new methods for integrating and analyzing complex data; conceptual frameworks deriving from many different theoretical sources; and new modalities for data collection, simulation, modeling, and experimental manipulation. Furthering these advances, collaboration plays a pivotal role. Collaborative research enables close interaction between theory, modeling, simulation and analysis, and experimental neuroscience. This provides a framework for interpretation of data, quantitative hypotheses for empirical testing, and grounding of theories and models in an empirical and evaluation context. International collaborations bring together diverse research perspectives, expand the range of research partnerships, and develop a community of globally engaged scientists and engineers. Sharing of data, software, and other resources provides a powerful modality for larger-scale interaction and collaborative discovery.

Through the CRCNS program, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Department of Energy (DOE); the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF); the French National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, ANR); the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF); Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT); and Spain's State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación, AEI) and National Institute of Health Carlos III (Instituto de Salud Carlos III, ISCIII) support collaborative activities that will advance the understanding of nervous system structure and function, mechanisms underlying nervous system disorders, and computational strategies used by the nervous system. Domestic and international projects will be considered. Two classes of proposals will be considered in response to this solicitation:
  • Research Proposals describing collaborative research projects, and
  • Data Sharing Proposals to enable sharing of data and other resources.
OtherCross
Other NSF: Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary Opportunities
 

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. You are receiving this newsletter because you are subscribed to our mailing list. All Harvard University faculty and administrators may subscribe here, and you may unsubscribe at any time. Visit our email archive to see our past newsletters.  

In addition, you may access the Science Division Funding Spotlight hereHarvard affiliates also have access to Pivot, a funding opportunity database. You can also receive personalized suggestions on research funding opportunities via Harvard Link from the Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning. 

For more information on our support services, please visit our website
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