Society's overwhelming reliance on this complex cyberspace, however, has exposed its fragility and vulnerabilities that defy existing cyber-defense measures; corporations, agencies, national infrastructure and individuals continue to suffer cyber-attacks. Achieving a truly secure cyberspace requires addressing both challenging scientific and engineering problems involving many components of a system, and vulnerabilities that stem from human behaviors and choices. Examining the fundamentals of security and privacy as a multidisciplinary subject can lead to fundamentally new ways to design, build and operate cyber systems, protect existing infrastructure, and motivate and educate individuals about cybersecurity. The Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program welcomes proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, and draw on expertise in one or more of these areas: computing, communication and information sciences; engineering; economics; education; mathematics; statistics; and social and behavioral sciences. Proposals that advance the field of cybersecurity and privacy within a single discipline or interdisciplinary efforts that span multiple disciplines are both encouraged.
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to provide opportunities for eligible small business concerns (SBCs) to submit STTR grant applications to develop interactive digital media science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) resources that address student career choice and health and medicine topics for: (1) pre-kindergarten to grade 12 (P-12) students and pre- and in-service teachers ("Teachers") or (2) Informal science education (ISE), i.e., outside the classroom, audiences. Interactive digital media (IDM) are defined as products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user's actions by presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video, audio, and video games. There is a large body of evidence that IDM technology has the potential to support learning in a variety of contexts from primary and secondary schools, to universities, adult education and workplace training. IDM is widely used to train, educate, and encourage behavioral changes in a virtual world format where progressive learning, feedback on success and user control are combined into an interactive and engaging experience. It is anticipated that this STTR FOA will facilitate the translation of new or existing health and medicine-based, P-12 STEM curricula and museum exhibits into educational Interactive Digital Media STEM (IDM STEM) resources that will provide a hands-on, inquiry-based and learning-by-doing experience for students, teachers and the community.
The goal of the Environmental Engineering program is tosupport transformative research which applies scientific and engineering principles to avoid or minimize solid, liquid, and gaseous discharges, resulting from human activities on land, inlandand coastal waters, and air, while promoting resource and energy conservation and recovery. The program also fosters cutting-edge scientific research for identifying, evaluating, and monitoring the waste assimilative capacity of the natural environment and for removing or reducing contaminants from polluted air, water, and soils. Any proposal investigating sensors, materials or devices that does not integrate these products with an environmental engineering activity or area of research may be returned without review. Major areas of interest include: Enhancing the availability of high quality water supplies: Development of innovative biological, chemical and physical treatment processes to meet the growing demand for water; investigation of processes that remove and degrade contaminants, remediate contaminated soil and groundwater, and convert wastewaters into water suitable for reuse; investigation of environmental engineering aspects of urban watersheds, reservoirs, estuaries and storm water management; investigation of biogeochemical and transport processes driving water quality in the aquatic and subsurface environment.
The goal of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) is to support fundamental research that will accelerate the development and use of robots in the United States that work beside or cooperatively with people. The original NRI program focused on innovative robotics research that emphasized the realization of collaborative robots (co-robots) working in symbiotic relationships with human partners. The NRI-2.0 program significantly extends this theme to focus on issues of scalability: how teams of multiple robots and multiple humans can interact and collaborate effectively; how robots can be designed to facilitate achievement of a variety of tasks in a variety of environments, with minimal modification to the hardware and software; how robots can learn to perform more effectively and efficiently, using large pools of information from the cloud, other robots, and other people; and how the design of the robots' hardware and software can facilitate large-scale, reliable operation. In addition, the program supports innovative approaches to establish and infuse robotics into educational curricula, advance the robotics workforce through education pathways, and explore the social, behavioral, and economic 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. Well-justified international collaborations that add significant value to the proposed research and education activities will also be considered.
This program supports fundamental scientific research in ceramics (e.g., oxides, carbides, nitrides and borides), glass-ceramics, inorganic glasses, ceramic-based composites and inorganic carbon-based materials. Projects should be centered on experiments; inclusion of computational and theory components are encouraged. The objective of the program is to increase fundamental understanding and to develop predictive capabilities for relating synthesis, processing, and microstructure of these materials to their properties and ultimate performance in various environments and applications. Research to enhance or enable the discovery or creation of new ceramic materials is welcome. Development of new experimental techniques or novel approaches to carry out projects is encouraged. Topics supported include basic processes and mechanisms associated with nucleation and growth of thin films; bulk crystal growth; phase transformations and equilibria; morphology; surface modification; corrosion, interfaces and grain boundary structure; and defects. Additional Information Eligibility rules apply for submissions; please see the Program Description section of the CER solicitation for details. PIs are encouraged to include all anticipated broader impact activities in their initial proposals, rather than planning on supplemental requests. Most projects include: (1) the anticipated significance on science, engineering and/or technology including possible benefits to society, (2) plans for the dissemination, and (3) broadening participation of underrepresented groups and/or excellence in training, mentoring, and/or teaching. Many successful proposals include one additional broader impact activity.
Over the past few years, Project Open Data (https://project-open-data.cio.gov/) has sought to identify and share best practices, examples, and software code to assist federal agencies with opening up access to data. Moreover, there have been efforts to scale up "open data" across various application sectors, including health, energy, climate, education and learning, finance, public safety, and global development, unlocking valuable data and improving decision making by making data resources more open and accessible to innovators and the public. NSF has established a national network of Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs and Spokes (BD Hubs and Spokes), comprising members from academia, industry, and government, with the goal of igniting new public-private partnerships across the Nation in big data research and development as well as training and education. Facilitating access to data is one of the objectives of the BD Hubs and Spokes. Collectively, these initiatives constitute an important first step in supporting the growing and interdisciplinary data science research community, which requires access to real-world datasets, e.g., as training data that can further data science, including machine learning capabilities, and enhance knowledge and decision making in various application sectors.
The second major report of the President's Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), Accelerating U.S. Advanced Manufacturing, provides high-level recommendations for U.S. advanced manufacturing strategies, with emphasis on three manufacturing technology areas (MTAs):
Advanced sensing, controls and platforms for manufacturing;
Visualization, information, and digital manufacturing; and
Advanced materials manufacturing.
Detailed information on the recommendations for each MTA can be found in Annexes 1 through 10 of the AMP's report. Also of note are reports from the European Commission1 and industry2,3, which provide descriptions of advances in manufacturing, including leveraging of emerging information technologies.
Consistent with the AMP's report, the evolution of manufacturing technology has arguably been most importantly dependent on the application of increasingly powerful and low-cost computation in manufacturing enterprises. NSF researchers are, and have been, actively engaged in pursuing fundamental advances in design theory and translation; real-time sensing and perception; data capture, representation, and analytics; machine architectures and human interfaces; materials and process modeling; scheduling and control algorithms; fault detection, analysis, and correction; and coordination of decisions across distributed production facilities that have led to the globally-connected, low-cost, flexible and resilient supply chains, computer-integrated factories, and digital design systems of the modern world. There is a general consensus about the increasingly important role of powerful, low-cost computation in manufacturing.
This BAA employs the Sense-Assess-Augment paradigm to accelerate research and development of technologies capable of detecting/assessing human performance. This BAA focuses on identifying, developing, characterizing, and accelerating sensing technologies that can be utilized to assess the physiological, cognitive, and psychological states of human operators. It is also anticipated that these technologies will be implemented into fieldable systems. Research will have an emphasis on developing technologies capable of detecting & sensing physiological, biomarker, and behavioral metrics which are or can be correlated with human state/performance. An emphasis will also be placed upon the development, integration, miniaturization, initial operational test and evaluation, and verification and validation of human-centric multi-sensor suite designs. Research focusing on the manufacturing of nano-biomaterial sensors are of particular interest. Research may also focus on developing and implementing empirically-based models, frameworks, and novel evaluation capabilities, to identify assessment linkages to performance. Initial testing & evaluation and verification and validation of the developed technologies is vital to ensure appropriate and proper performance in laboratory and operational-type settings. Relevant USAF application domains include Air, Special Operations, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, Remotely Piloted Aircraft, and Cyber Operations, as well as training applications as afforded by Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) environments.
The Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program within the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) offers researchers from all disciplines of science and engineering funded by NSF the opportunity to perform translational research and technology development, catalyze partnerships and accelerate the transition of discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace for societal benefit.
PFI has five broad goals, as set forth by the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act of 2017 ("the Act", S.3084 - 114th Congress; Sec. 602. Translational Research Grants): (1) identifying and supporting NSF-sponsored research and technologies that have the potential for accelerated commercialization; (2) supporting prior or current NSF-sponsored investigators, institutions of higher education, and non-profit organizations that partner with an institution of higher education in undertaking proof-of-concept work, including the development of technology prototypes that are derived from NSF-sponsored research and have potential market value; (3) promoting sustainable partnerships between NSF-funded institutions, industry, and other organizations within academia and the private sector with the purpose of accelerating the transfer of technology; (4) developing multi-disciplinary innovation ecosystems which involve and are responsive to the specific needs of academia and industry; (5) providing professional development, mentoring, and advice in entrepreneurship, project management, and technology and business development to innovators.
USAID/Cambodia seeks to make a five-year award focused on the goal of improving the quality of public and private health services in Cambodia in a sustainable manner through technical assistance to national and sub-national health systems. The activity will achieve this goal through four objectives: 1) improved policies, guidelines and standards for streamlined quality assurance; 2) increased efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery; 3) strengthened regulatory framework, implementation, and enforcement; and 4) strengthened pre-service public health training. Under these objectives, the award will support the Ministry of Health, Provincial Health Departments, Operational District Offices and Referral Hospital Management to improve the quality of health services through targeted technical assistance and limited introduction of new techniques, approaches, and technologies that improve quality of health services in both the public and private sector. The award will build upon existing, effective quality assurance systems and ensure that they incorporate a focus on USAID/Cambodia's technical priorities (maternal and child health, family planning, nutrition, tuberculosis, HIV and malaria). In addition, a major focus of the award will be ensuring quality of health services provided in the private sector. This will include, but is not limited to, strengthening licensing and regulation of service providers and monitoring of service quality in the private sector toward the development of an accreditation system for both public and private providers.
The NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research is a collaborative framework through which 14 NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices jointly support neuroscience-related research, with the aim of accelerating discoveries and reducing the burden of nervous system disorders. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will solicit research projects focused on the development of new technology and tools, or novel mechanistic studies, or a combination of mechanistic and technology development studies specific to central nervous system (CNS, which includes retina) small blood and lymphatic vessels in health and disease, across the life span. The program aims at facilitating the development of tools and technology to image, profile and map CNS small blood and lymphatic vessels. Additional goals are to elucidate the mechanisms underlying CNS small blood and lymphatic vessels structural and functional heterogeneity, differential susceptibility to injury, role in disease and repair processes, and their responses to therapies. Preclinical studies using in vitro and/or animal models specific to CNS small blood and lymphatic vessels alone or in combination with pilot human studies are appropriate for this FOA.
In Uganda, key and priority populations (KP/PP) have a higher prevalence of HIV and more difficulties accessing prevention and care services. This NOFO will improve the development, implementation, and monitoring of accessible, appropriate, and targeted HIV combination prevention for KP/PP in Uganda. This NOFO will result in an increased use of these services by KP/PP, which will result in these high risk sub-populations attaining the 90-90-90 goals and achieving epidemic control by 2020. The recipient will provide technical assistance (TA) to CDC comprehensive regional implementing partners (IPs) on developing, monitoring, and evaluating new ways to provide combination prevention to KP/PP; implementing and evaluating a nationwide training on gender and sexual identity; and cascading a KP training nationwide to health workers to reduce stigma and discrimination. Strategic information (SI) activities, including improving the collection of routine surveillance data, mapping KP/PP hotspots, and evaluating interventions will support the development and implementation of accessible, appropriate, targeted combination prevention for KP/PP. The recipient will support the Ugandan Ministry of Health (MOH) to improve surveillance of HIV in KP/PP (including population size estimates and bio-behavioral studies) and develop comprehensive guidelines for service provision to KP/PP.
The Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program within the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) offers researchers from all disciplines of science and engineering funded by NSF the opportunity to perform translational research and technology development, catalyze partnerships and accelerate the transition of discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace for societal benefit.
PFI has five broad goals, as set forth by the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act of 2017 ("the Act", S.3084 - 114th Congress; Sec. 602. Translational Research Grants): (1) identifying and supporting NSF-sponsored research and technologies that have the potential for accelerated commercialization; (2) supporting prior or current NSF-sponsored investigators, institutions of higher education, and non-profit organizations that partner with an institution of higher education in undertaking proof-of-concept work, including the development of technology prototypes that are derived from NSF-sponsored research and have potential market value; (3) promoting sustainable partnerships between NSF-funded institutions, industry, and other organizations within academia and the private sector with the purpose of accelerating the transfer of technology; (4) developing multi-disciplinary innovation ecosystems which involve and are responsive to the specific needs of academia and industry; (5) providing professional development, mentoring, and advice in entrepreneurship, project management, and technology and business development to innovators.
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.
Urban Air Mobility refers to the transport of passengers and goods through the air. Groundbreaking developments in autonomous flight, energy storage and electrical propulsion, and connected infrastructure have set the stage for what many are calling the biggest revolution in the skies since the jet engine was born.
Ohio has a storied history in aviation and aerospace, and today remains a vibrant hub for this critical industry. Join stakeholders spanning government, industry, and academia on Thursday February 27th, 2020 at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, to explore Ohio's opportunity and role in advancing Urban Air Mobility.
The day-long symposium will feature panels and speakers which address various elements of the complex Urban Air Mobility (UAM) ecosystem, including:
Defining UAM and its specific use cases
Vehicle design, enabling technologies, and certification
Operational challenges: airspace integration, cyber-security, and traffic management
Infrastructure: planning, zoning, and financing (with Public-Private Partnerships)
Leveraging Ohio's research, testing, manufacturing, and early use cases for UAM
There will be plenty of opportunities for networking throughout the event, such as our lunch and post-event reception. Guests are also encouraged to reach out to the event organizing entities to schedule follow up discussions and/or site visits to tour Ohio's capability centers such as university research labs and the Ohio UAS Center.
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: (1) identifying and supporting Foundation-sponsored research and technologies that have the potential for accelerated commercialization; (2) supporting prior or current Foundation-sponsored researchers, institutions of higher education, and non-profit organizations that partner with an institution of higher education to undertake proof-of-concept work, including the development of technology prototypes that are derived from NSF-funded research and have potential market value; (3) promoting sustainable partnerships between Foundation-funded institutions, industry, and other organizations within academia and the private sector with the purpose of accelerating the transfer of technology; (4) developing multi-disciplinary innovation ecosystems which involve and are responsive to the specific needs of academia and industry; (5) catalyzing professional development activities, mentoring, and best practices in entrepreneurship and technology translation for faculty, students and researchers; and (6) expanding the participation of women and individuals from underrepresented groups in innovation, technology translation, and entrepreneurship. T
CAREER:The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF encourages submission of CAREER proposals from early-career faculty at all CAREER-eligible organizations and especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.
PECASE: Each year NSF selects nominees for the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from among the most meritorious recent CAREER awardees. Selection for this award is based on two important criteria: 1) innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology that is relevant to the mission of NSF, and 2) community service demonstrated through scientific leadership, education, or community outreach. These awards foster innovative developments in science and technology, increase awareness of careers in science and engineering, give recognition to the scientific missions of the participating agencies, enhance connections between fundamental research and national goals, and highlight the importance of science and technology for the Nation's future. Individuals cannot apply for PECASE. These awards are initiated by the participating federal agencies. At NSF, up to twenty nominees for this award are selected each year from among the PECASE-eligible CAREER awardees most likely to become the leaders of academic research and education in the twenty-first century. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy makes the final selection and announcement of the awardees.
VentureWell, with the support from the Whitaker International Program, is implementing a new grants program, BME-IDEA International: Developing Global Connections for US-based BME Design Faculty and Students. The BME-IDEA International grants program will support collaborative project opportunities for US-based BME design students and faculty across the BME-IDEA global network and will connect faculty members of the consortium to share resources, best practices, ideas, curriculum, knowledge, challenges, and opportunities around innovation in BME design.
The two goals of the BME-IDEA International grants program are to:
1) Build strong partnerships between US-based and global BME design and innovation programs, including exchanges of faculty, students, resources, and best practices.
2) Foster the development of US-trained leaders in BME design and innovation who understand the challenges of teaching and practice in this field around the world, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) in Africa and Latin America.
Faculty Grants:
Grants of up to $4,000 will be awarded to US-based faculty for global project explorations and/or experiences to enhance their professional development and knowledge base within the field of biomedical design and innovation.
Student Grants:
Grants of up to $9,000 will be awarded to student teams for the development and implementation of BME projects focused on innovation, design, and entrepreneurship.
The NSF ADVANCE program provides grants to enhance the systemic factors that support equity and inclusion and to mitigate the systemic factors that create inequities in the academic profession and workplaces. Systemic (or organizational) inequities may exist in areas such as policy and practice as well as in organizational culture and climate. For example, practices in academic departments that result in the inequitable allocation of service or teaching assignments may impede research productivity, delay advancement, and create a culture of differential treatment and rewards. Similarly, policies and procedures that do not mitigate implicit bias in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions could lead to women and racial and ethnic minorities being evaluated less favorably, perpetuating historical under-participation in STEM academic careers and contributing to an academic climate that is not inclusive.
All NSF ADVANCE proposals are expected to use intersectional approaches in the design of systemic change strategies in recognition that gender, race and ethnicity do not exist in isolation from each other and from other categories of social identity. The solicitation includes four funding tracks: Institutional Transformation (IT), Adaptation, Partnership, and Catalyst, in support of the NSF ADVANCE program goal to broaden the implementation of systemic strategies that promote equity for STEM faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession.
The Research on Education and Learning (REAL) program represents the substantive foci of three previous EHR programs: Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering (REESE), Research in Disabilities Education (RDE), and Research on Gender in Science and Engineering (GSE). What is distinctive about the new REAL program is the emphasis placed on the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to (a) understand, (b) build theory to explain, and (c) suggest interventions (and innovations) to address persistent challenges in STEM interest, education, learning, and participation. The program supports advances in research on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning and education by fostering efforts to explore all aspects of education research from foundational knowledge to improvements in STEM learning and learning contexts, both formal and informal, from childhood through adulthood, for all groups, and from the earliest developmental stages of life through participation in the workforce, resulting in increased public understanding of science and engineering. The REAL program will fund research on, human learning in STEM; learning in STEM learning environments, and broadening participation research.
