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The Sensors and Sensing Systems (SSS) program will be conducting a proposal review pilot test of a modified proposal review process utilizing proposals submitted to the SSS program for the October 1, 2013, proposal submission deadline.  Submission of a proposal to this program for this deadline will imply your willingness to participate in the process.  The purpose of this pilot is to seek new approaches to proposal review that can lower the cost of the review process, improve the quality of reviews, and reduce the workload on the reviewer community, while not discouraging the submission of collaborative or highly innovative proposals. 

The goal of the National Robotics Initiative is to accelerate the development and use of robots in the United States that work beside, or cooperatively with, people. Innovative robotics research and applications emphasizing the realization of such co-robots acting in direct support of and in a symbiotic relationship with human partners is supported by multiple agencies of the federal government including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The purpose of this program is the development of this next generation of robotics, to advance the capability and usability of such systems and artifacts, and to encourage existing and new communities to focus on innovative application areas. It will address the entire life cycle from fundamental research and development to manufacturing and deployment. 

The United States-Israel Collaboration in Computer Science (USICCS) program is a joint program of NSF and the United States - Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF).  The program supports research projects that develop new knowledge in the areas of theory of computing; algorithm design and analysis; design, verification, and evaluation of software systems; and revolutionary computing models based on emerging scientific ideas.

Computational approaches play a central role in understanding and advancing sustainability.  CyberSEES supports research on all sustainability topics that depend on advances in computational areas including optimization, modeling, simulation, prediction, and inference; large-scale data management and analytics; advanced sensing techniques; human computer interaction and social computing; infrastructure design, control and management; and intelligent systems and decision-making. Additionally, the widespread, intensive use of computing technologies also introduces sustainability challenges and motivates new approaches across the lifecycle of technology design and use.

Hazards SEES seeks research projects that will productively cross the boundaries of the atmospheric and geospace, earth, and ocean sciences; computer and information science; cyberinfrastructure; engineering; mathematics and statistics; and social, economic, and behavioral sciences. Successful proposals will integrate across these multiple disciplines to promote research that advances new paradigms that contribute to creating a society resilient to hazards. Hazards SEES intends to transform hazards and disaster research by fostering the development of interdisciplinary research that allows for appropriately targeted data collection, integration, and management; modeling (including predictive models for real-time decision making); visualization and simulation; data analytics and data-driven discovery; real-time sensing; cross-cutting knowledge development; and synthesis of applicable models and theory. 

To continue to strengthen the innovation ecosystem, NSF is revising NSF 12-511 to promote two choices under the Partnerships for Innovation (PFI): Accelerating Innovation Research (AIR) subprogram.  The first choice, Technology Translation, encourages the translation of technologically-promising research discoveries made by prior and/or current NSF-funded investigators toward a path of commercialization; while the second choice, Research Alliance, promotes synergistic collaborations between an existing NSF-funded research alliance (including consortia such as Engineering Research Centers, Industry University Cooperative Research Centers, Science and Technology Centers, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers, Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, Centers for Chemical Innovation, and Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation grantees) and other public and private entities to motivate the translation and transfer of research discoveries into innovative technologies and commercial reality.  Both of these choices are designed to accelerate innovation that results in the creation of new wealth and the building of strong local, regional, and national economies.

The Hypersonic Sciences Branch (RQHF) of the Aerospace Systems Directorate (RQ) currently located at Wright Patterson AFB, OH is seeking research and development (R&D) support for its in-house R&D program. This effort will primarily focus on R&D of components and diagnostics for high-speed air breathing propulsion systems and their integration into air vehicles, weapons and launch systems. This program seeks to overcome the unique challenges associated with sustained combustion in supersonic flows by using numerical simulations and experimental testing to define the fundamental problems, design innovative components and integration strategies addressing the identified issues, and finally evaluate the effectiveness of new designs.

The mission of the CounterACT U01 program is to develop new and improved therapeutics for chemical threats. Chemical threats are toxic chemicals that could be used in a terrorist attack or accidentally released from industrial production, storage or shipping. They include traditional chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals, and pesticides.

The Concentrating Solar Power: Efficiently Leveraging Equilibrium Mechanisms for Engineering New Thermochemical Storage (CSP: ELEMENTS) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) that is being issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking applications that integrate Thermochemical Energy Storage (TCES) systems with a minimum of 6 hours of thermal storage to be used in ≥1 Megawatt-electric (≥1 MWe) scale CSP electricity generation that have promise to achieve a cost target of ≤$15 per kilowatt-hour-thermal (≤$15/kWhth) are the focus of this FOA. Successful projects will culminate in an on-sun demonstration of the thermochemical reactor along with reliable projections of the full scale performance of the integrated storage system through the utilization of validated performance models developed as part of the research and development effort.

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in any of the areas of research funded by the National Science Foundation. REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in research projects specifically designed for the REU program. This solicitation features two mechanisms for support of student research: (1) REU Sites are based on independent proposals to initiate and conduct projects that engage a number of students in research. REU Sites may be based in a single discipline or academic department or may offer interdisciplinary or multi-department research opportunities with a coherent intellectual theme. Proposals with an international dimension are welcome. (2) REU Supplements may be included as a component of proposals for new or renewal NSF grants or cooperative agreements or may be requested for ongoing NSF-funded research projects.

The goal of the Smart and Connected Health (SCH) Program is to accelerate the development and use of innovative approaches that would support the much needed transformation of healthcare from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive, proactive, evidence-based, person-centered and focused on well-being rather than disease. Approaches that partner technology-based solutions with biobehavioral health research are supported by multiple agencies of the federal government including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The purpose of this program is to develop next generation health care solutions and encourage existing and new research communities to focus on breakthrough ideas in a variety of areas of value to health, such as sensor technology, networking, information and machine learning technology, decision support systems, modeling of behavioral and cognitive processes, as well as system and process modeling.

The Call for Marie Curie Action Fellowships was launched a few weeks ago (http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/apply-now/open-calls/index_en.htm). It is a great, international, and competitive contest, which gives an unique opportunity for researchers to move in a new country and develop their own project in cooperation with a local host centre.

The lack of logistics systems capable of handling and delivering sufficiently high tonnage year-round volumes of high quality feedstocks to support the rapid escalation of cellulosic biofuels production has been identified as a significant barrier to the expansion of a sustainable domestic biofuels industry. In particular, biomass physical and chemical quality parameters have repeatedly been identified as significant challenges to the smooth operation and economic viability of biorefineries. This FOA will focus on developing and demonstrating strategies, equipment, and rapid analytical methods to manage feedstock quality within economic constraints throughout the feedstock supply chain. The main effort in Proposals must be directed toward full-scale demonstration of integrated feedstock supply chain systems that can deliver the volume of high quality, affordable, high impact feedstocks required by commercial biorefineries over a significant geographic area in the United States. DOE plans to support the increased production of high volumes of sustainably produced domestic biofuels from cellulosic feedstocks by seeking Proposals to design new systems or adapt existing systems to handle industrial scale volumes of cellulosic feedstocks from the harvest point to the throat of the biorefinery reactor.

This FOA, issued by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), encourages applications from institutions that propose to establish new or to enhance existing team-based design courses in undergraduate Biomedical Engineering departments or programs. This FOA targets undergraduate students at the senior level but may also include junior undergraduates and first-year graduate students. Courses that address innovative and/or ground-breaking development, multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary training and clincial immersion are especially encouraged.

The Combustion, Fire, and Plasma Systems program supports fundamental research and education relevant to these subjects.  Among the broader societal impacts of the program are cleaner global and local environments, enhanced public safety, improved energy and homeland security, useful new materials, and more efficient manufacturing. This program is not an applied program, but rather it endeavors to provide basic knowledge that is needed to develop useful combustion and plasma applications and for mitigating the effects of fire.  Broad-based tools - experimental, diagnostic, and computational - that can be applied to a variety of problems in combustion, fires, and plasma systems are the major products of this program. 

Sophisticated electronic microsystems can now be made at such low cost that they are increasingly pervasive throughout the battlefield and large numbers can be widely proliferated and used for applications such as distributed remote sensing and communications. However, it is nearly impossible to track and recover every device, resulting in unintended accumulation in the environment as well as subsequent unauthorized use. DARPA seeks innovative proposals to address this pervasive challenge by developing electronic systems capable of physically disappearing in a controlled, triggerable manner. The goal of the Vanishing Programmable Resources (VAPR) BAA is to develop and establish a basis set of materials, components, integration, and manufacturing capabilities to undergird this new class of electronics. See the full DARPA-BAA-13-23 document attached.

CISE's Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS) supports research and education projects that develop new knowledge in two core programs: -Computer Systems Research (CSR) program; -Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) program.

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA), in support of the NIH Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, aims to support early stage development of entirely new and novel noninvasive human brain imaging technologies and methods that will lead to transformative advances in our understanding of the human brain. The FOA solicits unusually bold and potentially transformative approaches and supports small scale, proof of concept development based on exceptionally innovative, original and/or unconventional concepts. 

CISE's Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF) supports research and education projects that develop new knowledge in three core programs: -The Algorithmic Foundations (AF) program; -The Communications and Information Foundations (CIF) program; -The Software and Hardware Foundations (SHF) program.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) supports Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant applications from small business concerns (SBCs) that will develop and/or validate devices or electronic systems that can: 1) monitor biologically- or behaviorally-based processes applicable to mind and body interventions or 2) be used to assist in optimizing the practice or increasing the efficacy of mind and body interventions.  The applications should: 1) lead to the development of new technologies, 2) adapt existing innovative technologies, devices and/or electronic systems, 3) repurpose existing devices and electronic systems, or 4) conduct testing of single or combined components of an integrated, long term, automated, wearable monitoring, stimulation device or electronic system in order to monitor or enhance the mechanistic processes or functional outcomes of mind and body interventions. For the purposes of this FOA, mind and body interventions are defined as non-pharmacological approaches that include mind/brain focused interventions (e.g., meditation, hypnosis), body-based approaches (e.g., acupuncture, massage, spinal manipulation/mobilization), or combined mind and body meditative movement approaches (e.g., yoga, tai-chi, qigong).