Group items tagged

The objective of the DARPA Biological Control program is to build new capabilities for the control of biological systems across scales - from nanometers to centimeters, seconds to weeks, and biomolecules to populations of organisms - using embedded controllers made of biological parts to program system-level behavior. This program will apply and advance existing control theory to design and implement generalizable biological control strategies analogous to conventional control engineering, for example, for mechanical and electrical systems. The resulting advances in fundamental understanding and capabilities will create new opportunities for engineering biology. Specifically, the Biological Control program will demonstrate tools to rationally design and implement multiscale, closed-loop control of biological systems, through the development of biological controllers, testbeds to evaluate control of system-level behavior, and theory and models to predict and design effective control strategies. The resulting capabilities will be inherently generalizable to a variety of biological systems. Successful teams will integrate and apply these capabilities to demonstrate a practical proof-of-principle biological solution to a proposer-defined application relevant to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

The objective of the DARPA Biological Control program is to build new capabilities for the control of biological systems across scales - from nanometers to centimeters, seconds to weeks, and biomolecules to populations of organisms - using embedded controllers made of biological parts to program system-level behavior. This program will apply and advance existing control theory to design and implement generalizable biological control strategies analogous to conventional control engineering, for example, for mechanical and electrical systems. The resulting advances in fundamental understanding and capabilities will create new opportunities for engineering biology. Specifically, the Biological Control program will demonstrate tools to rationally design and implement multiscale, closed-loop control of biological systems, through the development of biological controllers, testbeds to evaluate control of system-level behavior, and theory and models to predict and design effective control strategies. The resulting capabilities will be inherently generalizable to a variety of biological systems. Successful teams will integrate and apply these capabilities to demonstrate a practical proof-of-principle biological solution to a proposer-defined application relevant to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

NSF's Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) initiated the National Network of Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs (BD Hubs) program in FY 2015 (NSF 15-562). Four Big Data Hubs (BD Hubs)—Midwest, Northeast, South, and West—were established, one in each of the four Census Regions of the United States[1]. The BD Hubs provide the ability to engage local or regional stakeholders, e.g., city, county, and state governments, local industry and non-profits, and regional academic institutions, in big data research, and permit a focus on regional issues. These collaborative activities and partnerships play a critical role in building and sustaining a successful national big data innovation ecosystem. This solicitation continues the operation of a national network of BD Hubs. It builds on demonstrated strengths of the program, which has grown to include a set of BD Spokes affiliated with the BD Hubs, and is responsive to the recent developments in data science. For instance, the recently released report on Data Science for Undergraduates: Opportunities and Options from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine exemplifies the urgency of multi-faceted education and training in data science. The BD Hubs will continue to nucleate regional collaborations and multi-sector projects, while fostering innovation in data science. The NSF BD Hubs program is aligned with NSF’s Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) Big Idea, one of NSF’s 10 Big Ideas for Future Investment. HDR is a visionary, national-scale activity to enable new modes of data-driven discovery, allowing fundamentally new questions to be asked and answered in science and engineering frontiers, generating new knowledge and understanding, and accelerating discovery and innovation.

The Science and Technology Centers (STC): Integrative Partnerships program supports exceptionally innovative, complex research and education projects that require large-scale, long-term awards. STCs focus on creating new scientific paradigms, establishing entirely new scientific disciplines and developing transformative technologies which have the potential for broad scientific or societal impact. STCs conduct world-class research through partnerships among institutions of higher education, national laboratories, industrial organizations, other public or private entities, and via international collaborations, as appropriate. They provide a means to undertake potentially groundbreaking investigations at the interfaces of disciplines and/or highly innovative approaches within disciplines. STCs may involve any area of science and engineering that NSF supports. STC investments support the NSF vision of creating and exploiting new concepts in science and engineering and providing global leadership in research and education.

CMMT supports theoretical and computational materials research in the topical areas represented in DMR's Topical Materials Research Programs (these are also variously known as Individual Investigator Award (IIA) Programs, or Core Programs, or Disciplinary Programs), which include: Condensed Matter Physics (CMP), Biomaterials (BMAT), Ceramics (CER), Electronic and Photonic Materials (EPM), Metals and Metallic Nanostructures (MMN), Polymers (POL), and Solid State and Materials Chemistry (SSMC). The CMMT program supports fundamental research that advances conceptual understanding of hard and soft materials, and materials-related phenomena; the development of associated analytical, computational, and data-centric techniques; and predictive materials-specific theory, simulation, and modeling for materials research.Research may encompass the advance of new paradigms in materials research, including emerging data-centric approaches utilizing data-analytics or machine learning. Computational efforts span from the level of workstations to advanced and high-performance scientific computing. Emphasis is on approaches that begin at the smallest appropriate length scale, such as electronic, atomic, molecular, nano-, micro-, and mesoscale, required to yield fundamental insight into material properties, processes, and behavior, to predict new materials and states of matter, and to reveal new materials phenomena. Approaches that span multiple scales of length and time may be required to advance fundamental understanding of materials properties and phenomena, particularly for polymeric materials and soft matter.

The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, and potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The NRT program seeks proposals that explore ways for graduate students in research-based master's and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary research areas, through the use of a comprehensive traineeship model that is innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs. For FY2018, proposals are requested in any interdisciplinary research theme of national priority, with special emphasis on two high priority areas: (1) Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) and (2) Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS). HDR is expected to continue as a priority research area for FY2019 and FY2020 competitions, along with a new priority area to be announced in 2018. The NRT program addresses workforce development, emphasizing broad participation, and institutional capacity building needs in graduate education. Strategic collaborations with the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, national laboratories, field stations, teaching and learning centers, informal science centers, and academic partners are encouraged. NRT especially welcomes proposals that will pair well with the efforts of NSF INCLUDES to develop STEM talent from all sectors and groups in our society (https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsfincludes/index.jsp). Collaborations are encouraged between NRT proposals and existing NSF INCLUDES projects, provided the collaboration strengthens both projects.

The Quantum Idea Incubator for Transformational Advances in Quantum Systems (QII - TAQS) program is designed to support interdisciplinary teams that will explore highly innovative, original, and potentially transformative ideas for developing and applying quantum science, quantum computing, and quantum engineering. Proposals with the potential to deliver new concepts, new platforms, and/or new approaches that will accelerate the science, computing, and engineering of quantum technologies are encouraged. Breakthroughs in quantum sensing, quantum communications, quantum simulations, or quantum computing systems are anticipated. This Quantum Idea Incubator solicitation aims to support the process of translating such ideas into reality. This solicitation calls for proposals focused on interdisciplinary research that includes elements from the following thrust areas: (i) fundamental science such as, but not limited to, physics, chemistry, materials science, mathematics, biology, or geoscience, as well as foundational concepts and techniques in quantum information science and engineering; (ii) communication, computation, and modeling; and (iii) devices and engineered systems. Proposals must articulate how the project leverages and/or promotes advances in knowledge in the selected thrust areas.

The landscape of jobs and work is changing at unprecedented speed, enabled by advances in computer and engineering technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics, deeper understanding of societal and environmental change, advances in the learning sciences, pervasive, intelligent, and autonomous systems, and new conceptions of work and workplaces. This technological and scientific revolution presents a historical opportunity to the Nation and its people, in the creation of new industries and occupations, enhanced productivity and quality of work life, and the potential for more people to participate in the workforce, ultimately yielding sustained innovation and global leadership. But, as history teaches, such changes also come with risks. Some risks are immediate, such as jobs lost to automation or demand for skills not met by current educational pathways. Other equally important risks include new security threats, algorithmic biases, unanticipated legal consequences including privacy implications, dependence on technology and erosion of human knowledge and skills, inadequate workplace policies and practices, or undesirable impact on the built environment.

In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) unveiled a set of "Big Ideas," 10 bold, long-term research and process ideas that identify areas for future investment at the frontiers of science and engineering (seehttps://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/big_ideas/index.jsp). The Big Ideas represent unique opportunities to position our Nation at the cutting edge of global science and engineering leadership by bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergence research. As such, when responding to this solicitation, even though proposals must be submitted to the Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering/Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CISE/CCF), once received, the proposals will be managed by a cross-disciplinary team of NSF Program Directors. NSF'sHarnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) Big Ideais a national-scale activity to enable new modes of data-driven discovery that will allow fundamental questions to be asked and answered at the frontiers of science and engineering. Through this NSF-wide activity, HDR will generate new knowledge and understanding, and accelerate discovery and innovation. The HDR vision is realized through an interrelated set of efforts in: Foundations of data science; Algorithms and systems for data science; Data-intensive science and engineering; Data cyberinfrastructure; and Education and workforce development.

The Science and Technology Centers (STC): Integrative Partnerships program supports exceptionally innovative, complex research and education projects that require large-scale, long-term awards. STCs focus on creating new scientific paradigms, establishing entirely new scientific disciplines and developing transformative technologies which have the potential for broad scientific or societal impact. STCs conduct world-class research through partnerships among institutions of higher education, national laboratories, industrial organizations, other public or private entities, and via international collaborations, as appropriate. They provide a means to undertake potentially groundbreaking investigations at the interfaces of disciplines and/or highly innovative approaches within disciplines. STCs may involve any area of science and engineering that NSF supports. STC investments support the NSF vision of creating and exploiting new concepts in science and engineering and providing global leadership in research and education.

The CZI Neurodegeneration Challenge Network has three goals: (1) to make fundamental advances toward understanding neurodegeneration; (2) to bring new ideas and talent to the field of neurodegeneration; and (3) to encourage a new type of interdisciplinary collaborative research involving scientists, clinicians and engineers. We invite applications to join the Neurodegeneration Challenge Network through two RFA mechanisms: CZI Ben Barres Early Career Acceleration Awards: five-year investigator grants for early career academic investigators, with an emphasis on those who are new to the field of neurodegeneration. We seek to empower investigators to pursue bold ideas and to take risks within a supportive and collaborative environment. Awardees will benefit from mentorship support, as well as professional development, training and network opportunities, and practical career guidance to help them navigate this early stage of their careers. It is with great pleasure that we name this Award in memory of Dr. Ben Barres. Through his research career and his life and humanity, Ben embodied both the spirit and the scientific aims of this Award and the Challenge Network approach. CZI Collaborative Science Awards: three-year grants for small group interdisciplinary collaborations. At least one member of the collaboration should be a physician with active clinical engagement in an area relevant to the proposal. These grants are aimed to support innovative, bold, high risk/high impact projects at the interface of basic and disease biology. The scope of these collaborations should focus on foundational science (as opposed to translation and clinical application), aligned with clinical context.

The Big Ideas represent unique opportunities to position our Nation at the cutting edge of global science and engineering leadership by bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergence research. As such, when responding to this solicitation, even though proposals must be submitted tothe Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) within the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE),once received, the proposals will be managed by a cross-disciplinary team of NSF Program Directors. NSF'sHarnessing the Data Revolution (HDR)Big Idea is a visionary, national-scale activity to enable new modes of data-driven discovery, allowing fundamentally new questions to be asked and answered in science and engineering frontiers, generating new knowledge and understanding, and accelerating discovery and innovation.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO) Advanced Building Construction with Energy-Efficient Technologies & Practices (ABC) FOA supports research and development of solutions that can be applied to many segments of the building sector, including existing and new buildings, residential and commercial, and across multiple climate zones. BTO is seeking applications aimed at developing deep energy retrofit and new construction technologies that holistically tackle a combination of envelope, heating, cooling, water heating, and ventilation issues, and hold appeal for both building owners and occupants. BTO is interested in three topic areas: Topic 1: Integrated Building Retrofits Topic 2: New Construction Technologies Topic 3: Advanced Technology Integration

The CRISP solicitation seeks to fund projects likely to produce new knowledge that can contribute to making ICI services more effective, efficient, dependable, adaptable, resilient, safe, and secure, taking into account the human systems in which they are embedded. Successful proposals are expected to study multiple infrastructures focusing on them as interdependent systems that deliver services, enabling a new interdisciplinary paradigm in infrastructure research. To meet the interdisciplinary criterion, proposals must broadly integrate across engineering, computer, information and computational science, and the social, behavioral and economic sciences.

The CRISP solicitation seeks to fund projects likely to produce new knowledge that can contribute to making ICI services more effective, efficient, dependable, adaptable, resilient, safe, and secure, taking into account the human systems in which they are embedded. Successful proposals are expected to study multiple infrastructures focusing on them as interdependent systems that deliver services, enabling a new interdisciplinary paradigm in infrastructure research. To meet the interdisciplinary criterion, proposals must broadly integrate across engineering, computer, information and computational science, and the social, behavioral and economic sciences.

The Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems (CCSS) Program is intended to spur visionary systems-oriented activities in collaborative, multidisciplinary, and integrative engineering research. CCSS supports systems research in hardware, signal processing techniques, and architectures to enable the next generation of cyber-physical systems (CPS) that leverage computation, communication, and algorithms integrated with physical domains. CCSS supports innovative research and integrated educational activities in micro- and nano- electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), communications and sensing systems, and cyber-physical systems. The goal is to design, develop, and implement new complex and hybrid systems at all scales, including nano and macro, that lead to innovative engineering principles and solutions for a variety of application domains including, but not limited to, healthcare, medicine, environmental and biological monitoring, communications, disaster mitigation, homeland security, intelligent transportation, manufacturing, energy, and smart buildings. CCSS also supports integration technologies at both intra- and inter- chip levels, new and advanced radio frequency (RF), millimeter wave and optical wireless and hybrid communications systems architectures, and sensing and imaging at terahertz (THz) frequencies.

The Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems (CCSS) Program is intended to spur visionary systems-oriented activities in collaborative, multidisciplinary, and integrative engineering research. CCSS supports systems research in hardware, signal processing techniques, and architectures to enable the next generation of cyber-physical systems (CPS) that leverage computation, communication, and algorithms integrated with physical domains. CCSS supports innovative research and integrated educational activities in micro- and nano- electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), communications and sensing systems, and cyber-physical systems. The goal is to design, develop, and implement new complex and hybrid systems at all scales, including nano and macro, that lead to innovative engineering principles and solutions for a variety of application domains including, but not limited to, healthcare, medicine, environmental and biological monitoring, communications, disaster mitigation, homeland security, intelligent transportation, manufacturing, energy, and smart buildings. CCSS also supports integration technologies at both intra- and inter- chip levels, new and advanced radio frequency (RF), millimeter wave and optical wireless and hybrid communications systems architectures, and sensing and imaging at terahertz (THz) frequencies.

Centennial Challenges is a program of prize competitions to stimulate innovation in technologies of interest and value to NASA and the nation. The 3DP Habitat Challenge is a prize competition designed to encourage development of new technologies, or application of existing technologies necessary to manufacture an off-world habitat using mission recycled materials and/or local indigenous materials. The goal of the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge is to foster the development of new technologies necessary to additively manufacture a habitat using local indigenous materials with, or without, recyclable materials.

Centennial Challenges is a program of prize competitions to stimulate innovation in technologies of interest and value to NASA and the nation. The 3DP Habitat Challenge is a prize competition designed to encourage development of new technologies, or application of existing technologies necessary to manufacture an off-world habitat using mission recycled materials and/or local indigenous materials. The goal of the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge is to foster the development of new technologies necessary to additively manufacture a habitat using local indigenous materials with, or without, recyclable materials.

Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0001616 The Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), on behalf of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE), is seeking applications under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), herein referred to as Announcement, to conduct research, development and demonstrations (RD&D). This RD&D, in the areas of low cost sensors and improved modeling using sensor data input, will lead to enhanced observability and controllability of power systems to support increased hosting capacity for distributed energy resources (DERs), including energy storage. Capturing the benefits commonly attributed to DERs and/or microgrids, as well as establishing new value propositions that could be enabled by these RD&D efforts is the focus of this FOA. New value propositions could include, but are not limited to, mitigating ancillary resource requirements and meeting the growing demand for reliable and resilient grid operations against outages under all-hazards conditions.

Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0001616 The Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), on behalf of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE), is seeking applications under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), herein referred to as Announcement, to conduct research, development and demonstrations (RD&D). This RD&D, in the areas of low cost sensors and improved modeling using sensor data input, will lead to enhanced observability and controllability of power systems to support increased hosting capacity for distributed energy resources (DERs), including energy storage. Capturing the benefits commonly attributed to DERs and/or microgrids, as well as establishing new value propositions that could be enabled by these RD&D efforts is the focus of this FOA. New value propositions could include, but are not limited to, mitigating ancillary resource requirements and meeting the growing demand for reliable and resilient grid operations against outages under all-hazards conditions.

Computer systems support a broad range of applications and technologies that seamlessly integrate with human users. While many key building blocks of computer systems are today commercial technologies, the challenge ahead is to envision new technologies, as well as to combine existing technologies, software, and sensing systems into the computer systems of the future that will span wearable computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), "Smart Cities," intelligent transportation systems, personalized healthcare, and beyond. Such computer systems will require new, innovative, and visionary approaches to hardware, wired and wireless communications, consideration of human-computer interactions, and new programming languages and compilers that are limited only by the imagination. They will need to be reliable in the presence of unreliable components, adaptive to changing environments, capable of supporting high-throughput applications and large-scale data storage and processing, and able to meet performance and energy objectives for applications ranging from very low-power embedded systems to large high-performance computing systems. Furthermore, computer systems of the future will need to provide mechanisms for ensuring security and privacy.

The STMD Small Spacecraft Technology program seek proposals from accredited U.S. universities to develop unique, disruptive, or transformational space technologies that have the potential to enable mission capabilities that are more rapid, more transformative, and more affordable than previously achievable. The overall objective of the Small Spacecraft Technology program is to facilitate development projects and demonstration missions that: enable new mission architectures for which small spacecraft are uniquely suited; expand the capability of small spacecraft to execute missions at new destinations and in challenging new environments; enable the augmentation of existing assets and future missions with supporting small spacecraft. The appendix exclusively seeks proposals that are responsive to one of three topics: (1) Instrument Technologies for Small Spacecraft. (2) Technologies That Enable Large Swarms of Small Spacecraft. (3) Technologies That Enable Deep Space Small Spacecraft Missions. Only accredited U.S. universities are eligible to submit proposals.

Purpose of Program: The purpose of the RERC program is to improve the effectiveness of services authorized under the Rehabilitation Act by conducting advanced engineering research on and development of innovative technologies that are designed to solve particular rehabilitation problems or to remove environmental barriers. RERCs also demonstrate and evaluate such technologies, facilitate service delivery system changes, stimulate the production and distribution of new technologies and equipment in the private sector, and provide training opportunities. The purpose of this particular RERC is to conduct research, development, and related activities toward innovative technological solutions, new knowledge, and new concepts that are intended to improve the lives of people aging with long-term disabilities.

The National Science Foundation's Directorates for Engineering (ENG), Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), and Geosciences (GEO) are coordinating efforts to identify new concepts and ideas on Spectrum and Wireless Innovation enabled by Future Technologies (SWIFT). A key aspect of this new solicitation is its focus on effective spectrum utilization and/or coexistence techniques, especially with passive uses, which have received less attention from researchers. Coexistence is when two or more applications use the same frequency band at the same time and/or at the same location, yet do not adversely affect one another. Coexistence is especially difficult when at least one of the spectrum users is passive, i.e., not transmitting any radio frequency (RF) energy. Examples of coexisting systems may include passive and active systems (e.g., radio astronomy and 5G wireless communication systems) or two active systems (e.g., weather radar and Wi-Fi). Breakthrough innovations are sought on both the wireless communication hardware and the algorithmic/protocol fronts through synergistic teamwork. The goal of these research projects may be the creation of new technology or significant enhancements to existing wireless infrastructure, with an aim to benefit society by improving spectrum utilization, beyond mere spectrum efficiency. The SWIFT program seeks to fund collaborative team research that transcends the traditional boundaries of individual disciplines.