Lemann Brazil Research Fund

Deadline: January 22, 2018

Award Amount: Up to $150,000 payable over one or two years

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.

 

Applications are invited from researchers across disciplines proposing research projects relating to Brazil. Proposals are sought for projects that address education management and administration; social science and its applications; public administration and policy; technological advances in education; and evidence-based research. Consideration will also be given to projects that propose collaboration between Harvard faculty and Brazilian academics in the life sciences, physical sciences and engineering, and basic and applied sciences.

 

Proposed projects must meet at least one of the following three criteria:

U.S. Department of Defense

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Nascent Light-Matter Interactions (NLM)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadline for Proposal Abstracts (strongly encouraged): December 18, 2017

Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: February 7, 2018

Award Amount: The level of funding for individual awards made under this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. The NLM program consists of three phases: Phase I (an 18-month base period), Phase II (a 12-month option), and Phase III (an 18-month option). Proposals should address all three phases.

 

The Defense Sciences Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals that advance our knowledge and understanding of light-matter interactions. In particular, DARPA seeks to develop new and systematic approaches to the design of engineered structures and materials that change how we manipulate electromagnetic waves and capitalize on nascent wave-matter interactions. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

Multiple awards are anticipated.

U.S. Department of Defense

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Hallmark Tools and Capabilities 2 (Hallmark-TC2)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadline for Abstracts (strongly encouraged): December 20, 2017

Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: February 21, 2018

Award Amount: The level of funding for individual awards made under this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. Hallmark is a two-phase program: Phase I is a 15-month effort and Phase II is 12 months.

 

The objective of the Tools and Capabilities 2 portion of the Hallmark program is to develop and validate additional technologies for enabling the full spectrum of military space enterprise command and control capabilities. These additional technologies will complement and augment the current set of tools and capabilities (solicited in DARPA-BAA-16-49) integrated into the Hallmark Space Enterprise Analysis Capability software testbed (solicited in DARPA-BAA-16-40). The full suite of integrated space tools and capabilities will continue to be validated in periodic, realistic, scenario-based evaluation events.

Multiple awards are anticipated. Up to a total of $3.4M is anticipated in funding for this program.

Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)

CENTER OF EXCELLENCE: Efficient and Robust Machine Learning (ERML)

OSP Deadline: December 20, 2017

Sponsor Deadline: January 4, 2018

Award Amount: $5,000,000 over 5 years

 

The purpose of this ERML University Center of Excellence (UCoE) is to establish the foundational principles of design, development, and employment as well as critical technologies to support machine learning (ML) methods and procedures. The Air Force's autonomy vision includes intelligent machines that utilize data, leverage learning techniques, and deliver content for a variety of operations. Machine learning methods must be employed with efficiency and robustness for effective results given data challenges such as variety, volume, velocity, veracity, and value. Leveraging ML methods and techniques should incorporate contextual considerations, operational environments, and hardware implementation. To achieve the USAF vision, ML techniques must consider transferability, usability, efficiency and robustness for mission success. Foundational science and technology is needed to understand machine learning employment challenges including efficiency (data and computational), robustness (practical and adversarial), as well as relevancy (situational and contextual).

 

A single Cooperative Agreement is anticipated under this announcement.

U.S. Department of Defense

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC)

Very Low Frequency (VLF)/Low Frequency (LF) Communications Technologies Research Broad Agency Announcement: Call 003 - Focus Area E - VLF Waveforms and Modes

OSP Deadline: December 21, 2017

Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (required): January 5, 2018

Award Amount: Current FY18 funding for this call is approximately $1M. The period of performance for awards resulting from this Call will be determined as viable solutions are evaluated and identified for further investigation.

 

The focus of this BAA is to solicit industry and academia assistance in assessing whether there have been advances in science and technology that could be potential solutions to urgent problems in VLF/LF Communications Technologies. The goal is to discover and evaluate potential advancements for their viability in addressing problems in the following major Focus Areas: A) VLF Receivers, B) VLF Antennas, C) VLF Propagation, D) Legacy Software Modification Initiatives, E) VLF Waveforms and Modes. The desired outcome is to determine if these advancements might lend themselves to potential solutions which would help address current performance requirements pertaining to new VLF receiver systems.

 

The specific research area of interest for this call is Focus Area E) VLF Waveforms and Modes. Areas of interest within this focus area includes, but is not limited to: capacity, feasibility, and other technological advancements in VLF/LF waveform/message propagation modeling and simulation and software architecture - to include expanded modernized advanced capabilities. Performance improvement objectives at this time include target range, time of receipt, interoperability, and cost reductions via platform commonality as well as other classified performance attributes. Proposed advancements should address their relevance as solutions to current performance requirements.

U.S. Department of Defense

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Agile Small-Satellite Experimental Telescope (ASSET)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadline for Proposal Abstracts (strongly encouraged): December 21, 2017

Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: February 2, 2018

Award Amount: The level of funding for individual awards made under this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. A total program duration of 24 months is anticipated.

 

DARPA is soliciting innovative proposals to develop infrared telescopes with size, weight, and low recurring cost suitable for use on small satellites, and which also have the capability for rapidly steering the telescope instantaneous field-of-view over a large angular field-of regard. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in the technology available for small-satellite remote sensing systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

Multiple awards are anticipated.

U.S. Department of Defense

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Protected Forward Communications (PFC)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadline for Proposal Abstracts (strongly encouraged): January 3, 2018

Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: February 14, 2018

Award Amount: A total of $26,000,000 for multiple efforts is anticipated to be awarded, divided between an estimated $14,000,000 for anticipated multiple 15-month base efforts, and an additional $12,000,000 for multiple (at least two desired) anticipated 15-month continuing options.

 

The Protected Forward Communications (PFC) Program will enable small unit tactical operations to persist in diverse electronic warfare (EW) conditions by developing an integrated communication system protecting local, airborne, and reach-back communications from exploitation and denial. DARPA is soliciting proposals for the system conceptual design, modeling and simulation (M&S) validation, and component brass-board demonstrations. The result of the PFC program is intended to be a qualified design with experiential support ready for full development and user trial (DUT) activity.

Multiple awards are anticipated.

U.S. Department of Defense

Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP)

OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadline for Pre-Proposals (required): January 4, 2018 for the Core Solicitation; March 6, 2018 for the SEED Solicitation

Award Amount: Varies by program area

 

SERDP is DoD's environmental science and technology program, planned and executed in partnership with DOE and EPA, with participation by numerous other federal and non-federal organizations. SERDP invests across a broad spectrum of basic and applied research, as well as advanced development. Under the FY19 solicitation, the Department of Defense (DoD) is interested in receiving pre-proposals for research focusing in the areas of Environmental Restoration, Munitions Response, Resource Conservation and Resiliency, and Weapons Systems and Platforms technologies. DoD SERDP intends to competitively fund research and development for environmental research that addresses the Statements of Need set forth in the Announcement. SERDP supports environmental research relevant to the management and mission of the DoD and supports efforts that lead to the development and application of innovative environmental technologies or methods that improve the environmental performance of DoD by improving outcomes, managing environmental risks, and/or reducing costs or time required to resolve environmental problems. In addition to the Core Solicitation, SERDP invites proposals for innovative research in the Munitions Response area through the SERDP Exploratory Development (SEED) program.

 

It is expected that multiple awards totaling approximately $12.0 million will be made dependent on the quality of proposals received and availability of funds.

U.S. Department of Defense

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Advanced Plant Technologies (APT)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadline for Proposal Abstracts (strongly encouraged): January 11, 2018

Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: February 21, 2018

Award Amount: The amount of resources made available under this BAA will

depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. The project period will be 48 months.

 

The goal of the APT program is to control and direct plant physiology to detect chemical, biological, radiological, and/or nuclear threats, as well as electromagnetic signals. Plant sensors developed under the program will sense specific stimuli and report these signals with a remotely recognized phenotype (e.g., modified reflectance, morphology, phenology, etc.). Modern plant biotechnology holds significant promise for addressing a range of Department of Defense (DoD) needs; plants are easily deployed, self-powering, and ubiquitous in the environment, and the combination of these native abilities with specifically engineered sense-and-report traits will produce sensors occupying new and unique operational spaces. The long-term success of engineered plant sensors requires the ability to ensure plant survivability for months or years in a natural environment subject to stresses not present in a laboratory environment. Meeting both the sensor and survivability technical goals of the APT program will require a combination of plant genomics emerging technologies, precision gene editing tools, and novel methods for engineering new sensing capabilities and physiological responses. Proposing teams should include experts in diverse fields including plant physiology, gene editing, biochemistry, modelling, phenotyping, remote sensing, and plant ecology.

Multiple awards are anticipated.

U.S. Department of Defense

Office of Naval Research (ONR)

Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV)

OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (required): January 19, 2018

Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: March 16, 2018

Award Amount: Awards under Research Area 1 will amount up to $250,000 for a six-month base period of performance, followed by two possible option periods each up to $500,000 for a six-month period of performance. Awards under Research Area 2 will amount up to $400,000 for a four-month base period of performance, followed by one of two possible follow-on options: up to $250,000 for a four-month period of performance for an advanced concept mockup development, or up to $10M/$15M for six months for full system technology demonstrator platform development, fabrication and test & demonstration support.

 

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is interested in receiving white papers, then proposals, addressing the research, development, and integration of revolutionary technologies to inform the realm of the possible related to a notional next generation armored reconnaissance platform called the Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV). It is desired that a future ARV will be capable of fighting for information in an increasingly complex and contested environment and able to counter threats with greater reach and lethality. This Science and Technology (S&T) effort is a Future Naval Capability (FNC) program that will run from FY18 to mid-FY21.

 

The S&T program has been segmented into two Research Areas (RAs) which are each structured with a base period plus two option periods. The first Research Area will result in the development of advanced components and subsystems across ten Technology Focus Areas (TFAs). The second Research Area will include the development of novel concepts based on thorough analysis that is inclusive of modeling and simulation and whole system trade studies, mock up fabrication of intriguing concepts, and fabrication of full scale advanced technology demonstrators (one that is designed around a notional base capability and another that is revolutionary and "at the edge"). The platforms will be used to demonstrate the state of the art and to assess the potential capability and performance of advanced technologies and future concepts all to demonstrate the realm of the possible to inform the requirements development process and to engage Industry and Academia early in the process. This program is primarily researching a base capability for a notional ARV and it is not the intent to research all possible capabilities that will be resident on the platform in the future.

 

The Office of Naval Research is anticipating multiple awards for each of the listed Research Areas (RAs) and Technical Focus Areas (TFAs).

U.S. Department of Defense

Department of the Army - USAMRAA

DoD Accelerating Innovation in Military Medicine Research Award
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadline for Pre-Applications (required): January 26, 2018

Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: February 9, 2018

Award Amount: Up to $350,000 in direct costs. The maximum period of performance is 18 months.

 

The Accelerating Innovation in Military Medicine (AIMM) Research Award is intended to support highly creative and conceptually innovative high-risk research with the potential to accelerate critical discoveries or major advancements that will significantly impact military health and medicine. AIMM initiative funding supports novel research concepts and other efforts that initiate or enhance potential game-changers that may not be supported by other funding mechanisms or core programs. Applications using synthetic or systems biology-based approaches are highly encouraged.

Projects proposed under the AIMM Research Award should be relevant to at least one Department of Defense (DoD) medical research program area (i.e., medical simulation and information sciences, military infectious diseases, military operational medicine, combat casualty care, radiation health effects, and clinical and rehabilitative medicine). However, broadly applicable research projects with the potential to benefit multiple DoD medical research program areas are encouraged.

 

Six awards are anticipated.

U.S. Department of Defense

Army Research Laboratory (ARL)

Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) Authoring Grand Challenge
OSP Deadline: January 24, 2018

Sponsor Deadline for White Papers: January 31, 2018

Award Amount: Each tutor will be funded at $60,000. The period of performance of will be finalized prior to the request of a formal proposal.

 

One of the challenges to making Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) practical for use by the masses is the amount of skill and time required to author/develop ITSs. To illustrate the usability of the GIFT authoring tools, ARL has developed an authoring grand challenge. The challenge is to use GIFT and its authoring tools to construct an ITS course which provides a minimum of one hour of adaptive instruction for an expert individual learner in any of the domains listed below. Novice and journeyman learners will generally take longer to reach proficiency in the same domain and content. Complete tutors must include all four quadrants of Merrill's (1983) Component Display Theory (rules, examples, recall, and practice).

The four winning Offerors will be expected to detail their design and authoring process in a technical report which will also be presented at the next GIFT Users Symposium.

National Research Council

Research Associateship Programs

OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadlines: February 1, 2018; May 1, 2018; August 1, 2018

Award Amount: Awards include stipends (ranging from $42,000-$80,000), health insurance, professional travel and relocation. Award durations vary by program.

 

The National Research Council (NRC) administers competitive graduate, postdoctoral and senior research awards on behalf of 26 U.S. federal research agencies and affiliated institutions with facilities at over 100 locations throughout the U.S. and abroad. Awardees have the opportunity to conduct independent research in an area compatible with the interests of the sponsoring laboratory; devote full-time effort to research and publication; access the excellent and often unique facilities of the federal research enterprise; and collaborate with leading scientists and engineers at the sponsoring laboratories. Disciplines include Chemistry; Earth, Atmospheric and Space Sciences; Engineering, Applied Science, and Mathematics; Life Sciences; and Physics.

 

Find research opportunities that match your interests by exploring this website: www.nationalacademies.org/rap . Contact prospective Research Adviser(s) and host lab(s) to discuss your interests and then you may apply online using the WebRAP electronic application system. Prospective applicants should carefully read the details and eligibility of the program to which they are applying. Some laboratories have citizenship restrictions (open only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents), and some laboratories have Research Opportunities that are not open to senior applicants (more than 5 years beyond the Ph.D.). In addition, applicants should note application deadlines, as not all laboratories participate in all reviews.

U.S. Department of Defense

Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)

Defense Enterprise Science Initiative (DESI)
OSP Deadline: February 21, 2018

Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: February 28, 2018

Award Amount: $750,000 per year for 2 years (the university partner must receive at least 50% of total funding requested)

 

The Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Enterprise Science Initiative (DESI) is a pilot program that supports use-inspired basic research performed by university-industry teams. DESI incentivizes use-inspired basic research projects, defined as a scientific study or experiment directed toward increasing fundamental knowledge and understanding in the context of end-use applications. Projects funded in the program bring together industry and university teams with the aim of discovering completely new solutions to challenging defense and national security problems, and using that knowledge to influence existing or new acquisition programs. DESI-funded projects also aim to accelerate the impact of basic research results on defense capabilities.

 

Industry's initial role in a DESI project is to provide a national security context for the defense challenge, and to collaborate with the university research team throughout the project. The university's role is to invent or discover knowledge that could be leveraged for completely new solutions to the defense challenge. As a follow-on to research conducted with DESI funding, the industry partner is expected to further develop the project's results into new capabilities that may be offered to DoD for future acquisition considerations.

 

The FY 2018 DESI BAA program seeks proposals addressing the recommended topics:

Approximately $6 million in total funding will be made available for this program to fund approximately four awards.

U.S. Department of Defense

Office of Naval Research (ONR)

FY18 Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Navy and Marine Corps Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM), Education and Workforce Program
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Window for White Papers (required): April 2-July 31, 2018

Sponsor Deadline for Invited Full Proposals: September 28, 2018

Award Amount: Up to $250,000 per year, with one-year option periods, for up to 3 years

 

The ONR seeks a broad range of applications for augmenting existing or developing innovative solutions that directly maintain, or cultivate a diverse, world-class STEM workforce in order to maintain the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps' technological superiority. The goal of any proposed effort must provide solutions that will establish and maintain pathways of diverse U.S. citizens who are interested in uniformed or civilian DoN (or Navy and Marine Corps) STEM workforce opportunities. As the capacity of the DoN Science and Technology (S&T) workforce is interconnected with the basic research enterprise and STEM education system, ONR recognizes the need to support efforts that can jointly improve STEM student outcomes and align educational efforts with Naval S&T current and future workforce needs. This announcement explicitly encourages projects that improve the capacity of education systems and communities to create impactful STEM educational experiences for students and workers. Submissions are encouraged to consider including active learning approaches and incorporating 21st century skill development. Projects must aim to increase student and worker engagement in STEM and enhance people with needed Naval STEM capabilities. ONR encourages applications to utilize current STEM educational research for informing project design and advancing our understanding of how and why people choose STEM careers and opportunities of naval relevance.

 

While this announcement is relevant for any stage of the STEM educational system, funding efforts will be targeted primarily toward projects addressing the below communities or any combination of these communities:

ONR intends to award approximately 25 awards for an estimated total value of $6,250,000, subject to the availability of funds.

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science , Biological and Environmental Research

Systems Biology of Bioenergy-Relevant Microbes to Enable Production of Next-Generation Biofuels and Bioproducts

Biological and Environmental Research (BER) of the Office of Science hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for research that supports the Genomic Science research program (http://genomicscience.energy.gov). In this FOA, applications are requested for:

The DOE-BER Genomic Science program supports basic research aimed at identifying the foundational principles that drive biological systems. These principles govern the translation of the genetic code into integrated networks of proteins, enzymes, regulatory elements, and metabolite pools that are the functional processes of organisms including microbes and multispecies communities relevant to DOE missions in energy and the environment. To address the DOE mission in sustainable Bioenergy development, the Genomic Science program brings omics-driven tools of modern systems biology to bear on the challenges associated with microbial production of advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts.

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research

This FOA will support new projects to collaborate with the E3SM project supported by the ESM activity or with the Science Focus Area (SFA) analysis activities under the RGMA activity. Projects working with E3SM v1 may use a hierarchy of models that emphasize the study of relevant processes within a multi-systems approach, in order to probe and understand the various interactions and feedbacks within and between individual systems; in this context, systems refer to, e.g., the atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial, biogeochemical, and/or cryospheric systems. Projects focusing on E3SM v2-v3 will contribute to the active development of E3SM by testing, identifying, understanding, and correcting particular model biases that significantly affect the coupled system.

• FY 2018 Research and Development for Next Generation Nuclear Physics Accelerator Facilities - January 19, 2018
• Notice of Intent to Issue FOA Entitled U.S. Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium
• Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement Entitled Solar Desalination 
• Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement Entitled Energy Efficiency R&D for Fluid-Power Systems in Off-Road Vehicles 
• Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement Entitled FY 2017 Vehicle Technologies Office Batteries and Electrification to Enable Extreme Fast Charging Funding Opportunity Announcement 

World Economic Forum: Young Scientists 2018

Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: January 8, 2018

Target Applicants: Extraordinary scientists under the age of 40

 

Each year, the World Economic Forum honors 50 extraordinary scientists under the age of 40 for their contributions to advancing the frontiers of science, engineering, and technology. These scientists are selected from all regions of the world and from a wide range of disciplines to join the Young Scientists community and benefit from a tailored program that exposes them to policy and science leaders, decision-makers, and entrepreneurs, and explores topics such as career development, mentoring, ethics, and science communication.

As part of this experience, Young Scientists are also invited to participate alongside business and political leaders in the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in China in June 2018 (exact date to be determined). The event gathers more than 2,000 industry leaders, chief executives of top-ranked multinationals, heads of state/government and ministers, as well as leaders from media, academia, and civil society to explore the influence of technological changes on global economic, political, societal, and environmental challenges. During the meeting, Young Scientists benefit from exposure to World Economic Forum activities, tailored programming, and the opportunity to meet with high-level policy leaders, entrepreneurs, and science editors in an informal and intimate setting.

Harvard University, as a single institution, may put forward six nominations, three women and three men under the age of 40, in consideration of this prestigious event. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is facilitating the internal process to select nominees. Applications for the internal nomination process may be submitted here.

Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF)

Grants Program

OSP Deadline: Not required for Letters of Intent

Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent: January 8, 2018

Award Amount: Previously awarded grants have ranged from $15,000 to $500,000+

 

EREF's research priorities align with its long-term strategic plan to address all areas of integrated solid waste management, with a strong focus towards research that increased sustainable solid waste management practices. Funded research projects must relate to sustainable solid waste management practices pertaining to the following topic areas:

Desirable aspects of the above topics, in addition to or as part of hypothesis driven applied research, also include: economic or cost/benefit analyses, feasibility studies for untested technologies or management strategies, life cycle analysis or inventory, and analyses of policies that relate to the above. There are a number of topics that may require approval before consideration. Investigators should visit EREF's website to determine if their research project may require pre-approval.

VentureWell BMEidea Competition

Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: January 15, 2018

OSP Deadline: March 27, 2018

Sponsor Deadline: April 4, 2018
Award Amount: $10,000 (first place), $5,000 (second place), and $2,500 (third place) as well as access to resources to be used for further development and commercialization of their products

Target Applicants: Graduate and undergraduate student teams that include at least one engineering student.

 

The BMEidea competition recognizes innovative biomedical engineering designs with high commercial potential and social impact. Strong submissions define a problem and demonstrate the development of a device, product, or technology designed to solve it. Examples include but are not limited to: surgical devices, home health care devices, diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventative applications, rehabilitative and assistive technologies, or other innovations that will have a substantial impact on clinical care and patient outcomes.

 

Submissions must come from teams of graduate and undergraduate students that include at least one engineering student. Each team must have a faculty advisor who will take primary responsibility for the project at the institution, and the internal application will require a letter of support from the faculty advisor co-signed by advisor's department/area chair. Teams are encouraged to incorporate members from diverse fields such as business, law, medicine, dentistry, nursing, physical therapy, life sciences, physical sciences, or other related disciplines. Projects should focus on a new health-related technology, be invented by students, and address a real clinical need. Inter-institutional collaborations are also encouraged, with a faculty advisor from each institution demonstrating support for the project.

 

Harvard University, as one institution, is limited to submitting three entries to this competition. In addition, there is a limit of one entry per department/area, defined by the department or area of the faculty adviser. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is facilitating the internal process for selecting the teams that may enter this competition. Applications for the internal selection process may be submitted here .

Association for Computing Machinery

Grace Murray Hopper Award

OSP Deadline: Not required for prizes awarded directly to individuals

Sponsor Deadline: January 15, 2018

Award Amount: $35,000

Target Nominees: Candidate must have been 35 years of age or less at the time the qualifying contribution was made.

 

The Grace Murray Hopper Award recognizes the outstanding young computer professional of the year, selected on the basis of a single recent major technical or service contribution. The award is presented each June at the ACM Awards Banquet and is accompanied by a prize of $35,000 plus travel expenses to the banquet.

 

Nominations will be evaluated for the significance, depth, and originality of the technical contribution or - in the case of a service contribution - the scope of the effort involved and its impact on the computing community and/or society as a whole. When the contribution results from a joint effort, the candidate's role should be clearly identified.

Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)

Letter of Intent Deadline: January 21, 2018

Sponsor Full Proposal Deadline: TBD Fall 2018

Award Amount: Not specified. CIFAR determines the necessary funding for the given team, based on the size of the team and the planned interactions. 

Target Applicants: The proponents of an LOI should include at least one researcher currently living and working in Canada (with or without Canadian citizenship).

 

CIFAR invites research leaders from around the world to identify important global research challenges that would benefit from CIFAR's approach to sustained research interactions that include diverse perspectives. Submissions must address global, complex questions and identify an interdisciplinary research approach. Proposals will be accepted from all areas of research.

 

CIFAR supports research in two ways: (1) Two to three times per year, CIFAR brings researchers from across the world together for face-to-face interactions and to maintain active collaboration. (2) CIFAR Fellows receive support on an individual basis, which is intended to enable researchers to have more time and space to work on the goals of the research program. This can be used quite flexibly - for teaching load adjustments, student stipends and postdoctoral fellow support, amongst other uses.

 

Stage I of the application process requires a Letter of Intent (LOI) from researchers who would be key members of the program. This submission should identify the core elements of the research idea and the range of possible research questions for consideration. CIFAR will shortlist LOIs based on the recommendations from the International Review Body and CIFAR's Research Council. Stage II of the process will support the development of full proposals. Each LOI team that passes Stage I will work with CIFAR to convene up to two small workshops over a four-month period to prepare a full proposal.

Simons Foundation

Collaboration Grants for Mathematicians

OSP Deadline: January 24, 2018

Sponsor Deadline: January 31, 2018

Award Amount: $8,400 per year for five years ($6,000 per year for collaboration, travel and research expenses; $1,000 per year in discretionary funds for the awardee's department; and $1,400 per year in indirect costs to the awardee's institution)

 

The goal of the program is to support the "mathematical marketplace" by substantially increasing collaborative contacts between mathematicians. The foundation will make a large number of collaboration grants to accomplished, active researchers in the United States who do not otherwise have access to funding that allows support for travel and visitors.

 

To be eligible to apply, an individual must hold a tenure-track or tenured position, or be a professor emeritus, within a mathematics department with a Ph.D. degree granting program. Collaboration grant awardees may not hold any other external PI or PI equivalent grants of over $3,000 per year that allow for support for travel or visitors during the award period.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)

Gulf Research Program Early-Career Research Fellowship

OSP Deadline: February 13, 2018

Sponsor Deadline: February 21, 2018

Award Amount: $76,000 over two years

Target Applicants: Early-career scientists who have received their final degree within the past 10 years (on or after September 1, 2008) and who hold fully independent positions as investigators. Applicants must be pre-tenure if in a tenure track position. A postdoc is not considered a fully independent position.

 

The Gulf Research Program's Early-Career Research Fellowship supports emerging scientific leaders as they take risks on research ideas not yet tested, pursue unique collaborations, and build a network of colleagues who share their interest in improving offshore energy system safety and the well-being of coastal communities and ecosystems. Because the early years of a researcher's career are a critical time, the relatively unrestricted funds and mentoring this fellowship provides help recipients navigate this period with independence, flexibility, and a built-in support network.

 

Applicants must come from an area of research including social and behavioral sciences, health sciences and medicine, engineering and physical sciences, earth and life sciences, and interdisciplinary scientific fields relevant to one or more initiatives of the Gulf Research Program. In addition, applicants must be involved in research relating to one or more initiatives of the Gulf Research Program.

 

All fellows will attend an orientation in Washington, D.C., in September 2018 and the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference in New Orleans in February 2019. Travel expenses for these events will be covered by the Gulf Research Program; they are in addition to the $76,000 fellowship award.

Wireless Innovation Project
OSP Deadline: February 26, 2018

Sponsor Deadline: March 5, 2018

Award Amount: Up to $300,000 over three years

 

The Wireless Innovation Project seeks to identify and fund the best innovations using wireless related technology to address critical social issues. Project proposals must demonstrate significant advancement in the field of wireless-related technology applied to social benefit use. The project must be at a stage of research where an advanced prototype or field/market test can occur during the award period.

 

Projects should involve an established multi-disciplinary team that demonstrates the expertise needed for a comprehensive solution to the targeted problem. For example, a team may consist of members from two or more of the following disciplines: engineering, design, business, international development, or other relevant disciplines. A team may also consist of university-based researchers and non-profit organizations working such areas as international development, health or environment.

Cisco

Secure and Private Internet of Things

OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling

Award Amount: Budgets depend on the institution and geography. Overhead is limited to 5%. This falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy. Please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.

 

Connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices provide many new opportunities and benefits for manufacturers and consumers. The ubiquitous nature of IoT connectivity enables new use cases in connected manufacturing, connected cars, connected spaces, smart cities and other market verticals. However, the security of IoT has not kept pace with the fast innovation and deployment of solutions creating significant safety and economic risks. The growing number of IoT devices, systems, and services increases the attack surface making the solutions more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Recent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against Internet service providers and commercial entities were carried out by a diverse network of botnets made up of compromised set-top devices and other consumer products. Therefore, assuring the security of each component within an IoT solution is crucial in keeping malicious actors from using it in an unauthorized manner. In addition, IoT devices enable massive data collection and analysis. The analysis of this data will allow previously unknown relationships between things to be discovered which causes a big concern for the privacy of individuals, businesses (including IP protection), groups, and governments. Since the analysis of data is essential for the value of IoT, strong consideration must be given to data privacy and data protection throughout its lifecycle.

Sponsor Deadline: Rolling 

Award Amount: Budgets depend on the institution and geography. Overhead is limited to 5%. This falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy. Please discuss with your grants administrator before preparing an application.

 

This RFP seeks research focused on two dramatic trends in Information Technology. First, the advances in computational capacity and technology leading to an eventual development of autonomous computer systems that take action based on a core set of logic that changes over time; evolving the systems' actions, based on learning, so that the action taken today may not have been the action taken yesterday. This will lead to computer systems that may be allowed to take autonomous, continuously evolving, actions derived from decisions established without human definition or intervention. Machines taking actions, and perhaps machines taking actions that cause other machines to take actions, require law practitioners, judges and policy makers to consider the impacts on the application of civil, criminal, and statutory law.  The second key trend is a dramatic increase in the ability to create, transmit, analyze and collect data through the Internet of Things (IoT). As this data is produced, transferred, collected, and analyzed it raises new issues about whether the quantity and quality of the data changes our historical application of the laws of security, privacy, and the relation between citizens, consumers, companies and government. These new robust data streams create new challenges in data ownership, control, and security. Additionally, in cloud environments where most big data applications are deployed, data is often distributed across multiple data centers, geographic locations, and sometimes owners of infrastructure who exert control over the compute and storage functions themselves. How does this effect the legal definition of expectation of privacy, control, sovereignty, fair use and intellectual property?

 

IBM

World Community Grid

Sponsor Deadline: Rolling

Award Amount: Up to 150,000 years of computing power through World Community Grid; weather data from The Weather Company, an IBM Business; and cloud storage from IBM Cloud

IBM invites scientists studying climate change or ways to mitigate or adapt to its impacts to apply for free crowdsourced supercomputing power, weather data and cloud storage to support their climate or environmental research projects. In return, awardees are asked to publicly release the research data from their collaboration with IBM, enabling the global community to benefit from and build upon those findings.

 

Grantees will receive free, 24/7 access to computing power though World Community Grid, an award-winning IBM Citizenship initiative that enables anyone with a computer or Android device to support scientific research by carrying out computational research tasks on their devices. This allows researchers to conduct large-scale investigations, often magnitudes larger than they would have otherwise been able to conduct. Grantees may also request access to weather data and cloud storage.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Human Exploration Research Opportunities (HERO) Appendix C: Topics in Biological, Physiological, and Behavioral Adaptations to Spaceflight: Integrated One Year Mission Project and Other Opportunities

OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadline for Step-1 Proposals (required): January 4, 2018

Sponsor Deadline for invited Step-2 Proposals: April 4, 2018

Award Amount: Varies by program (see below)

 

The first topic in the solicitation is for proposals in the area of Analyses of the Temporal Nature of Human Adaptation to Long-Duration Low-Earth Orbit Missions. Human Research Program (HRP) has a requirement for sufficient crewmember experience at one year in spaceflight to demonstrate the presence or absence of unacceptable deleterious physiological, psychological and medical effects of spaceflight on human health and performance beyond the experience base of six-month expeditions and to permit extrapolation to early interplanetary expeditions with durations of up to two to three years. Therefore, HRP is proposing an integrated One-Year Mission Project (i1YMP) on the International Space Station (ISS) consisting of five one-year missions (n=10 crewmember subjects), five standard-duration six-month missions (n=10) paralleling the yearlong expeditions, and five short-duration crew vehicle exchange expeditions (n=10) lasting up to two months to occur at the mid-point of each 1YM. A maximum of $1,400,000 ($200,000/year) for single-project proposals for seven years is available for this topic. A maximum of $1,575,000 ($225,000/year) for multi-project proposals for seven years is available for the first topic area.

 

Proposals are solicited by NASA in the additional areas of Biological, Physiological, and Behavioral Functions of Mice during Partial (0 - 1) G-Exposures Provided by Centrifugation on the International Space Station (up to $600,000 for 2 years); Novel Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome Hypotheses and Countermeasures (up to $900,000 for 3 years); Medical Countermeasures Targeting Multiple Tissues at Risk from Exposure to Space Radiation (up to $1.8M for 4 years); Individual and Team Problem-Solving Skills Training for Exploration Missions (up to $850,000 for 3 years); Sensory Stimulation for Cognitive and Behavioral Health (up to $850,000 for 3 years); and Human Capabilities Assessments for Autonomous Missions (HCAAM) Virtual NASA Specialized Center of Research (up to $1.2M for 4 years). Please note that the Centrifugation topic is being jointly solicited by HRP and NASA's Space Biology (SB) Program.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Cooperative Agreement Notice: Dual Use Technology Development at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) - 2018

OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadlines for Step-1 White Papers (required): May 2, 2018

Award Amount: MSFC resource contribution awards will range from $10,000 to $100,000, and must be matched or exceeded by Offeror contributions. Contributions can be cash, in-kind (non-cash) resources, or a combination of each. Project duration is up to 12 months.

 

NASA will award cooperative agreements for technology development partnerships with United States commercial businesses and/or colleges and universities with the goal of developing a technology to meet a specific NASA need at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), as well as those of the partner. This goal will be accomplished by selecting Offerors who will cooperatively share in the development cost of the technology that meets the specified NASA need.

 

MSFC has several technology development focus areas for this solicitation, including:

For more information on the technology programs and capabilities at MSFC, please see the following link: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/capabilities/index.html.

 

NASA anticipates funding up to 10 pending acceptable proposals.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Unsolicited Proposals

OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadline: Rolling through September 30, 2018

Award Amount: Proposed budget should be commensurate with the scope of the project.

 

NASA encourages the submission of unique and innovative proposals that will further the Agency's mission. While the vast majority of proposals are solicited, a small number of unsolicited proposals that cannot be submitted to those solicitations and yet are still relevant to NASA are reviewed and some are funded each year. Proposals should be submitted at least six months in advance of the desired starting date.

Before any effort is expended in preparing a proposal, potential proposers should:

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.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Dual Use Technology Development Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) 2018

OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

Sponsor Deadline for Notices of Intent (required): Rolling through September 30, 2018

Award Amount: The budget must be sufficient and reasonable to accomplish the project. The participating partner will contribute an equal value of resources to match the NASA funding for the project.

 

John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) is the primary NASA rocket propulsion testing center. SSC tests items ranging from multi-engine stages to individual components of rocket engines. Propulsion test customers include NASA, the Department of Defense and the commercial space launch industry. SSC manages a large federal city that is home to over forty federal, state, university and industry entities. SSC manages a restricted airspace that is available for development, testing and operation of unmanned aerial vehicles. SSC engineering laboratories design and test electronics, sensors, algorithms and mechanical components. This CAN supports identification and implementation of cost-sharing partnerships to develop technology to meet a specific NASA need at SSC. This notice seeks responses from potential partners interested in entering into a Cooperative Agreement with NASA for the joint development of technologies to meet SSC needs.

 

SSC technology interests include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES 2017)  - Rolling through June 1, 2018 

NSF: Dear Colleague Letter

NSF CISE is announcing its intention to (1) enhance the CISE research and education community's access to cloud computing resources in order to advance discovery and innovation in the field, and (2) encourage participation by all cloud providers in this effort. The benefits of a partnership with cloud providers include (1) access by the CISE research and education community to a range of useful resources and services - from scalable storage to real-time analytics to streaming data services to state-of-the-art compute nodes; and (2) the ability to experiment with real datasets where scale and performance are key considerations and the significant storage, compute, and networking resources offered by the cloud providers are key enabling factors. Organizations interested in learning more about this evolving public-private partnership are encouraged to contact Chaitan Baru at   [email protected] and Meghan Houghton at   [email protected]  by January 15, 2018.

Principles for the Design of Digital STEM Learning Environments 

OSP Deadline: January 12, 2018 

Sponsor Deadline: January 22, 2018 

Award Amount: Up to $100,000 for one year of support

The Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) within the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Engineering, announces creation of the Engineering for Civil Infrastructure (ECI) program. The ECI program represents a new and integrated vision for fundamental research to underpin transformative innovations for the built environment that are resilient, economical, and adaptable to enhance national prosperity and societal benefits. In support of this vision, the ECI program replaces the Engineering for Natural Hazard (ENH), Geotechnical Engineering and Materials (GEM), and Structural and Architectural Engineering and Materials (SAEM) programs. ECI will also support research in construction engineering that is compatible with this vision. The ENH and SAEM programs will no longer accept proposals. The GEM program will not accept proposals after 5:00 p.m. submitter's local time on December 29, 2017. Active awards in ENH, GEM and SAEM programs will be managed by the ECI Program Directors and will remain eligible for supplements and extensions.

NSF: Dear Colleague Letter

This letter serves as a call for proposals to address fundamental scientific questions related to Materials microstructure, properties and performance through the development of tools for the Quantitative Representation of Microstructures. NSF's and AFOSR's interest lies in innovative research projects which bring together members of the Materials Science and Engineering community with experts in computation and visualization, to address the challenges associated with accurate quantification and representation of the microstructures of Engineering Materials.

Proposals should address:

NSF: Dear Colleague Letter

On April 3, 2017, the National Science Foundation issued the  Dear Colleague Letter (DCL): Growing Convergence Research at NSF  to catalyze new research directions and advance scientific discovery and innovation across the  10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments. Consistent with this DCL, the Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) of the Engineering Directorate invites organizations to submit proposals relevant to the following four Big Ideas, as they intersect with core CMMI topics defined in  CMMI program descriptions:

Proposals may be submitted to  CMMI core programs  during the CMMI unsolicited proposal  submission windows.

 

The Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI), within the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Engineering, announces a realigned focus for the Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS) program. The re-aligned Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS) program focuses on fundamental and innovative research in the design, operation and management of civil infrastructure that contributes to creating smart, sustainable and resilient communities at local, national and international scales. This program emphasizes civil infrastructure as a system in which interactions between spatially and functionally distributed components and inter-system connections exist. This DCL highlights three important program changes:

NSF: Dear Colleague Letter 

Announcing Realignment of the Infrastructure Management and Extreme Events (IMEE) Program and Change in Program Name to Humans, Disasters and the Built Environment (HDBE) 

OSP Deadline: January 17, 2018 

Sponsor Deadline: January 24, 2018 

Award Amount: Unspecified

 

The Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI), within the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Engineering, announces a realignment of the Infrastructure Management and Extreme Events (IMEE) program. Consistent with realignment, the program name has changed to Humans, Disasters and the Built Environment (HDBE). IMEE will no longer accept proposals; active awards in IMEE will be managed by the HDBE Program Director and will remain eligible for supplements and extensions.

The HDBE program supports fundamental, multidisciplinary research on the interactions between humans and the built environment within and among communities exposed to natural, technological and other types of hazards and disasters. The program seeks proposals that enrich understanding and explore implications of these interactions, whether through theoretical, methodological or empirical advances, thereby contributing to society's capabilities to learn from, prepare for and respond to hazards and disasters.

NSF: Dear Colleague Letter

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Supplemental Funding

OSP Deadline: March 23, 2018

Sponsor Deadline: March 30, 2018

Award Amount: $8,000 per student

NSF CISE invites grantees with active CISE awards to submit requests for Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Supplemental funding, following the guidelines in the NSF REU program solicitation. A student must be a US citizen or permanent resident of the US. The duration for new requests is typically one year.

NSF: Dear Colleague Letter

NSF Accepting Proposals Related to Hurricane Irma

OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

 

Proposals may be submitted at any time.

NSF: CISE

Scalable Parallelism in the Extreme (SPX)

OSP Deadline: January 2, 2018

Sponsor Deadline: January 9, 2018

Award Amount: Up to $1,000,000 over two to four years

The Scalable Parallelism in the Extreme (SPX) program aims to support research addressing the challenges of increasing performance in this modern era of parallel computing. This will require a collaborative effort among researchers in multiple areas, from services and applications down to micro-architecture. SPX encompasses all five NSCI   Strategic Objectives , including supporting foundational research toward architecture and software approaches that drive performance improvements in the post-Moore's Law era; development and deployment of programmable, scalable, and reusable platforms in the national HPC and scientific cyberinfrastructure ecosystem; increased coherence of data analytic computing and modeling and simulation; and capable extreme-scale computing. Coordination with industrial efforts that pursue related goals are encouraged.

The NSF/Intel Partnership on Foundational Microarchitecture Research will support transformative microarchitecture research targeting improvements in instructions per cycle (IPC). This solicitation seeks microarchitecture technique innovations beyond simplistic, incremental scaling of existing microarchitectural structures. Specifically, FoMR seeks to advance research that has the following characteristics: (1) high IPC techniques ranging from microarchitecture to code generation; (2) "microarchitecture turbo" techniques that marshal chip resources and system memory bandwidth to accelerate sequential or single-threaded programs; and (3) techniques to support efficient compiler code generation. Advances in these areas promise to provide significant performance improvements to continue the cadence promised by Moore's Law.

NSF: CISE The Campus Cyberinfrastructure (CC*) program invests in coordinated campus-level networking improvements, innovation, integration, and engineering for science applications and distributed research projects. Learning and workforce development (LWD) in cyberinfrastructure is explicitly addressed in the program. Science-driven requirements are the primary motivation for any proposed activity.

CC awards will be supported in four program areas:

NSF: MPS 

Algorithms for Threat Detection (ATD) 

OSP Deadline: February 12, 2018 

Sponsor Deadline: February 20, 2018 

Award Amount: Anticipated funding amount is $3,000,000 annually. Estimated number of awards and funding amounts are subject to the availability of funds.

 

The Algorithms for Threat Detection (ATD) program will support research projects to develop the next generation of mathematical and statistical algorithms for analysis of large spatiotemporal datasets with application to quantitative models of human dynamics. The program is a partnership between the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). The ATD program will support research projects that aim to develop novel mathematical and statistical algorithms for analysis of large geospatial datasets. Means to quantify confidence levels are desired, as are insights into new spatiotemporal datasets and valuable means of assembling them. Models may range from those that address activities of individuals to those applicable to small groups or entire nations. These models may leverage mathematical research areas including, but not limited to, point processes, time series, dynamical systems, partial differential equations, and optimal control. Models that depend almost entirely on the spatial and temporal aspects of the data are of greatest interest. General applications of interest include threat detection, predictive analytics, human mobility, and human geography. DMS and NGA recognize the needs and opportunities for the mathematical sciences community to develop methodology for reducing threats from a variety of sources. This program seeks ambitious and creative research proposals from individual investigators and collaborative groups in the mathematical sciences community. Research collaborations among mathematical scientists and social, behavioral, and economic scientists are encouraged.

NSF: ENG
Partnerships for Innovation (PFI)
OSP Deadline: January 25, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: February 1, 2018

Award Amount: Up to $200,000 for 18 months (PFI-TT); up to $750,000 for 36 months (PFI-RP)

The NSF Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program within the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) offers researchers the opportunity to transform new knowledge into societal benefits through translational research and technology development efforts which catalyze partnerships to accelerate innovations that address significant societal needs. PFI has six broad goals:

This solicitation offers two broad tracks for proposals in pursuit of the six aforementioned goals. The Technology Translation (PFI-TT) track offers an NSF-funded researcher the opportunity to advance his or her prior NSF-funded research results towards developing technological innovations with promising commercial potential and societal impact.  The  Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) track  provides an opportunity to support technology development activities through a multi-organization collaboration. See https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2018/nsf18511/nsf18511.htm#elig for detailed information on eligibility.

 

 

 

Other NSF: ENG Opportunities

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. Domestic and international projects will be considered.

NSF: Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary

Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM)

Harvard Pre-Proposal Deadline: January 8, 2018

Award Amount: Up to $600,000 for 5-year awards and up to $400,000 for 3-year awards

 

Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM) funds research projects that identify factors that are efficacious in the formation of ethical STEM researchers in all the fields of science and engineering that NSF supports. CCE STEM solicits proposals for research that explore the following: What constitutes ethical STEM research and practice, and which cultural and institutional contexts promote ethical STEM research and practice and why? Do certain labs have a "culture of academic integrity"? What practices contribute to the establishment and maintenance of ethical cultures and how can these practices be transferred, extended to, and integrated into other research and learning settings?

 

Successful proposals typically have a comparative dimension, either between or within institutional settings that differ along these or other factors. Projects will use basic research to produce knowledge about what constitutes responsible or irresponsible, just or unjust scientific practices and sociotechnical systems, and how to best instill students with this knowledge.

 

Harvard University, as one institution, is limited to nominating one proposal to this opportunity. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is facilitating an internal application process for interested applicants. Internal applications may be submitted here.

NSF: Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary

Spectrum Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, and Security (SpecEES): Enabling Spectrum for All

OSP Deadline: January 10, 2018

Sponsor Deadline: January 18, 2018

Award Amount: Up to $750,000 over up to 3 years

The National Science Foundation's Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) are coordinating efforts to identify bold new concepts to significantly improve the efficiency of radio spectrum utilization while addressing new challenges in energy efficiency and security, thus enabling spectrum access for all users and devices, and allowing traditionally underserved Americans to benefit from wireless-enabled goods and services. The SpecEES program solicitation seeks to fund innovative collaborative research that transcends the traditional boundaries of existing programs.

NSF: Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary
The goal of the NSF Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) program solicitation is to accelerate the creation of the scientific and engineering foundations that will enable smart and connected communities to bring about new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, and overall quality of life. This goal will be achieved through integrative research projects that pair advances in technological and social dimensions with meaningful community engagement. A proposal for an S&CC Integrative Research Grant must include the following:

NSF: Crosscutting and Interdisciplinary 

Training-based Workforce Development for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (CyberTraining) 

OSP Deadline: February 7, 2018
Sponsor Deadline: February 14, 2018
Award Amount: $300,000 - $500,000 over up to 3 years

 

The overarching goals of this program are to (i) prepare, nurture, and grow the national scientific research workforce for creating, utilizing, and supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) that enables potentially transformative fundamental science and engineering research and contributes to the Nation's overall economic competitiveness and security; (ii) ensure broad adoption of CI tools, methods, and resources by the fundamental science and engineering research community to enable new modes of discovery; and (iii) integrate core literacy and discipline-appropriate advanced skills in advanced CI as well as computational and data science and engineering into the Nation's educational curriculum/instructional material fabric spanning undergraduate and graduate courses. For the purpose of this solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the set of resources, tools, and services for advanced computation, data handling, networking, and security that collectively enable potentially transformative fundamental research.

This solicitation calls for developing innovative, scalable training and education programs to address the emerging needs and unresolved bottlenecks in scientific and engineering research workforce development, from the postsecondary level to active researchers. The resultant training and education programs, spanning targeted, multidisciplinary communities, will lead to transformative changes in the state of workforce preparedness for advanced CI-enabled research in the short and long terms. As part of this investment, this solicitation seeks to broaden CI access and adoption by (i) increasing or deepening accessibility of methods and resources of advanced CI and of computational and data science and engineering by a wide range of scientific disciplines and institutions with lower levels of CI adoption to date; and (ii) harnessing the capabilities of larger segments of diverse underrepresented groups. Proposals from, and in partnership with, the aforementioned communities are especially encouraged.

The focus of the NRI-2.0 program is on ubiquity, which in this context means seamless integration of co-robots to assist humans in every aspect of life. The program supports four main research thrusts that are envisioned to advance the goal of ubiquitous co-robots: scalability, customizability, lowering barriers to entry, and societal impact. Topics addressing scalability include how robots can collaborate effectively with multiple humans or other robots; how robots can perceive, plan, act, and learn in uncertain, real-world environments, especially in a distributed fashion; and how to facilitate large-scale, safe, robust and reliable operation of robots in complex environments. Customizability includes how to enable co-robots to adapt to specific tasks, environments, or people, with minimal modification to hardware and software; how robots can personalize their interactions with people; and how robots can communicate naturally with humans, both verbally and non-verbally. Topics in lowering barriers to entry include development of open-source co-robot hardware and software, as well as widely-accessible testbeds. Topics in societal impact include fundamental research to establish and infuse robotics into educational curricula, advance the robotics workforce through education pathways, and explore the social, economic, ethical, and legal implications of our future with ubiquitous collaborative robots. Collaboration between academic, industry, non-profit, and other organizations is encouraged to establish better linkages between fundamental science and engineering and technology development, deployment, and use.