Group items tagged

1. Lithium-ion Battery Safety. Safety concerns continue to hamper full adoption of lithium-ion batteries for defense systems, despite significant research investments by the government and the private sector. This Defense initiative will advance promising lithium-ion battery safety technologies at university research laboratories into early laboratory prototypes and potentially minimum viable products for adoption by the defense and commercial sectors via early startups, small businesses and non-traditional defense contractors. Specific technical areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: improved electrolytes; stable high-energy anodes and cathodes; cell components and structures that enhance safety and reliability (e.g. use of electrode coatings and electrolyte additives); safety optimization through battery and battery module design and packaging; and battery management and state of health techniques that prevent and/or mitigate catastrophic failure. 2. Electrical Grid Reliability, Resiliency and Security. Both the defense and commercial sectors recognize the ever-growing criticality to enhance electrical grid reliability, resiliency and security through innovation at the component and system levels.

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.Developing an increased understanding of how biological systems function and translating that knowledge to enhance the production capabilities of microbes and plants forms the basis of DOE's mission in sustainable Bioenergy. To harness the biosynthetic processing power of the microbial world for advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts production, an expanded set of platform organisms with appropriate metabolic capabilities and stress tolerance characteristics with a suite of modification tools will need to be developed. To foster this development, the DOE-BER Genomic Science program supports research aimed at understanding the principles that govern the functional properties of bioenergy relevant organisms at the genomic scale.

Through this EPA program, college students can benefit people, promote prosperity and protect the planet by designing environmental solutions that move us towards a sustainable future. EPA considers projects that address challenges from a wide range of categories including water, energy, agriculture, built environment, and materials and chemicals. These can be challenges found in the developed or developing world. The P3 Award competition is a two-phase team contest. For the first phase, interdisciplinary student teams compete for $15,000 grants. Recipients use the money to research and develop their design projects during the academic year. The final projects include a Phase I project report and a Phase II proposal. In the spring, all teams submit their reports and proposals. Scores from the reports, proposals and the design presentations are combined into a final overall score for each P3 team. Based on these scores, a panel of expert judges recommend to EPA which teams should receive the EPA P3 Award and the opportunity for Phase II funding. Given to the best student designs, this is an award and opportunity for grant funding up to $75,000 to further the project design, implement it in the field, and move it to the marketplace.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Divisions of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS), Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB), and Materials Research (DMR) announces a follow-up solicitation on the Semiconductor Synthetic Biology for Information Storage and Retrieval Program (SemiSynBio-II). Future ultra-low energy storage-based computing systems can be built on principles derived from organic systems that are at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering. Next-generation information storage technologies can be envisioned that are driven by biological principles and use biomaterials in the fabrication of devices and systems that can store data for more than 100 years with storage capacity 1,000 times more than current storage technologies. Such a research effort can have a significant impact on the future of information storage and retrieval technologies. This focused solicitation seeks high-risk/high-return interdisciplinary research on novel concepts and enabling technologies that will address the fundamental scientific issues and technological challenges associated with the underpinnings of synthetic biology integrated with semiconductor technology. This research will foster interactions among various disciplines including biology, physics, chemistry, materials science, computer science and engineering that will enable in heretofore unanticipated breakthroughs.

The objectives of the DoD STTR Program include stimulating technological innovation, strengthening the role of small business in meeting DoD research and development needs, fostering and encouraging participation by minority and disadvantaged persons in technological innovation, and increasing the commercial application of DoD-supported research or research and development results. Focus areas: - 5G - AI and ML - Autonomy - Biotechnology - Cybersecurity - Direct Energy - Hypersonics - Microelectronics - Networked Command, Control & Communications - Nuclear - Quantum Science - Space - General Warfighting Requirements

The goal of the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program is to prepare graduate students for science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) careers critically important to the DOE Office of Science mission, by providing graduate thesis research opportunities at DOE laboratories.  The SCGSR program provides supplemental awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students to pursue part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE laboratory in areas that address scientific challenges central to the Office of Science mission. The research opportunity is expected to advance the graduate students' overall doctoral thesis while providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the DOE laboratories.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - as part of its People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Award Program - is seeking applications proposing to research, develop, and design solutions to real world challenges involving sustainability. The P3 competition highlights the use of scientific principles in creating innovative projects focused on sustainability. The P3 Award Program was developed to foster progress toward sustainability by achieving the mutual goals of improved quality of life, economic prosperity and protection of the planet-people, prosperity, and the planet-the three pillars of sustainability. The EPA offers the P3 competition in order to respond to the technical needs of the world while moving towards the goal of sustainability. Please see the People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Student Design Competition website for more details about this program.

The objective of this FOA is to solicit and competitively award applied research projects to develop advanced combustion systems that will make substantial progress toward enabling cost-competitive, coal-based power generation systems to remain in operation and to expand coal use while meeting the goal of achieving near-zero pollutant emissions.

In pursuing a long-term development of high performance LSC, the client seeks a partner that is capable of realizing highly efficient luminescence down-shifting, light-propagation technologies, and prototyping the LSC. Proposals from highly motivated organization are also welcomed that have not worked on a light downshifting at this particular wavelength but are experienced in other wavelengths. The client will provide its development capability, such as research funds, facility, and human resources, to the selected partner, in order to overcome the challenges toward developing LSC with a large collection area.

NineSigma, representing Toyota Industries Corporation, seeks a partner to develop a hydrogen storage system capable of operating at low pressure, for industrial trucks. We are particularly looking for a system that is capable of storing and releasing hydrogen at high speed and in a stable manner at a pressure of <1 MPa.

The Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) program is a broad-based research program with the goal of understanding the behavior of atmospheric regions from the middle atmosphere upward through the thermosphere and ionosphere into the exosphere in terms of coupling, energetics, chemistry, and dynamics on regional and global scales. These processes are related to the sources of perturbations that propagate upward from the lower atmosphere as well as to solar radiation and particle inputs from above. The activities within this program combine observations from ground based and space based platforms, theory and modeling.

Analytic investigations are studies that increase DTRA's knowledge or understanding of emerging WMD threats and how DTRA might anticipate and counter them. The WMD threat spectrum includes: nuclear, radiological, biological, chemical and high-yield explosive (HE) weapons (including improvised threats); their up-stream acquisition, RDT&E and production; their storage, deployment and final disposition; strategic and tactical delivery systems, command and control; and their weapon effects if used.

Field corn production makes incredible contributions to human nutrition as a primary source of feed for cattle, hogs, and poultry; to cleaner air and reduced greenhouse gases as the source of ethanol fuel; and to the economy.

This FOA seeks applications to facilitate offshore geologic storage of CO2 in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) by creating government-industry partnership(s) that are focused on assembling the knowledge base required for secure, long-term, large-scale CO2 storage, with or without enhanced hydrocarbon recovery. Successful partnership(s) will identify and address knowledge gaps, regulatory issues, infrastructure requirements, and technical challenges associated with offshore CO2 storage. It is anticipated that project(s) awarded under this FOA will incorporate the information obtained by several ongoing projects awarded under DE-FOA-0001246, "Offshore Storage Resource Assessment," and will build upon the practical knowledge and experience gained by the existing RCSPs and previous projects (mostly international collaborations) that are already storing CO2 in offshore geologic reservoirs.

This FOA seeks applications on research to develop techniques, tools, and methodologies that improve detection and assessment of CO2 stored in the target reservoir. Research products developed under this FOA are expected to include monitoring tools and techniques, as well as validation of models and modeling techniques. Successful technologies developed under this FOA will decrease the operator's financial burden associated with long-term monitoring by providing them the capability to assess the position of the CO2 plume in the target reservoir with greater certainty throughout the life cycle of the project (i.e., active- and post-injection).

The objectives of this research are to use simulated data from three or more national parks to econometrically estimate a production function where fuels and preparedness budgets are used to improve the value of the landscape. The landscape value is improved through fuel treatments aimed at hazardous fuel reductions and ecosystem improvement. It is also improved by preparedness through loss mitigation of fire affected values and by introducing fire in areas that promote ecosystem health. This research will, for the first time, quantify how the two programs (fuels and preparedness) interact to mutually improve the value of the landscape and associated natural and human resources. The second objective is to locate current programs on the econometrically derived value-added surface and to also identify how to manage increasing or declining budgets.

This FOA seeks applications for projects to design, construct, and operate large-scale pilots of transformational coal technologies aimed at enabling step change improvements in coal powered system performance, efficiency, and cost of electricity. The FOA will be carried out in three phases, with a down-select between phases. Phase I, Feasibility, will be aimed at supporting recipients' efforts to secure team commitments, including host sites and recipient cost share for Phase II, update the preliminary cost estimate and schedule for design, construction, and operation, and complete an environmental information volume. Projects selected for Phase II, Design, will complete a Front End Engineering Design study, secure construction-operation cost share funding, and complete the National Environmental Policy Act process. Finally, at least two projects will be selected for Phase III, Construction-Operation, which will support construction and operation of the large-scale pilot facilities. Any recipients proceeding to Phase III will be required to utilize domestic coal and/or domestic coal-derived fuels in the operation period. Applicants to Phase I who plan to primarily use other fuel sources during operations will be judged non-responsive. While only detailed Phase I applications are being solicited at this time, information relating to preliminary plans to carry out Phases II and III will be required to assess the potential viability of the overall project.

The objectives of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) are to continue the development of carbon capture technologies to either the engineering scale or to a commercial design.