OARS funding Engineering

The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), is currently requesting pre-proposals for the Desalination and Water Purification Research and Development Program (DWPR) for research and pilot scale projects aimed at increasing usable water supplies in the United States. The Water Desalination Act of 1996 laid the foundation for the DWPR program. This and the current Continuing Resolution are the authorizing legislation for this program. The purpose of the pre-proposal process is to give proposers the opportunity to receive feedback on their proposal ideas such that full proposal submission are better aligned to meet the desired outcomes of the DWPR program.

CCOM's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program is designed to create research experiences for undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing graduate work. SURF is aimed primarily at students who are working toward a degree in science, engineering, or math and are completing their junior year.

This Title III project shall create a viable domestic source capable of efficiently and cost effectively manufacturing a high yielding, reliable and reproducible tungsten - 3% rhenium wire meeting DoD and commercial Microwave Tube (MWT) Industry standards for use in vacuum tube electronics.

In 2013, a new NSF-funded petascale computing system, Blue Waters, was deployed at the University of Illinois.  The goal of this project and system is to open up new possibilities in science and engineering by providing computational capability that makes it possible for investigators to tackle much larger and more complex research challenges across a wide spectrum of domains.  The purpose of this solicitation is to invite research groups to submit requests for allocations of resources on the Blue Waters system. Proposers must show a compelling science or engineering challenge that will require petascale computing resources. Proposers must also be prepared to demonstrate that they have a science or engineering research problem that requires and can effectively exploit the petascale computing  capabilities offered by Blue Waters.  Proposals from or including junior researchers are encouraged, as one of the goals of this solicitation is to build a community capable of using petascale computing.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to encourage applications to the newly authorized Direct-to-Phase II SBIR grant mechanism.  Applications are invited from eligible United States small business concerns (SBCs) that have demonstrated the scientific and technical merit and feasibility of the prototype stage of developing a biomedical technology that has commercial potential, R&D that is characteristic of Phase-I (R43) SBIR projects.  The Direct-to-Phase II grant mechanism is intended to facilitate SBIR-type R&D, to expand R&D opportunities for applicant small business concerns (SBCs), and to enhance the pace of technology development and commercialization.   

The Broadening Participation in Engineering (BPE) Program is a Directorate-wide activity to support the development of a diverse and well-prepared workforce of engineering graduates, particularly those with advanced degrees. The BPE Program supports projects to engage and develop diverse teams that can offer unique perspectives and insights to challenges in engineering research and education.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages bioengineering applications that will accelerate the development and adoption of promising tools and technologies that can address important biomedical research problems. The objectives are to establish these tools and technologies as robust, well-characterized solutions that fulfill an unmet need and are capable of enhancing our understanding of life science processes or the practice of medicine. Awards will focus on supporting multidisciplinary teams that apply an integrative, quantitative bioengineering approach to developing these technologies and engage biomedical researchers or clinicians throughout the project. The goal of the program is to support projects that can realize meaningful solutions within 5-10 years.

The GEOMM program supports fundamental research on the mechanical and engineering properties of geologic materials including natural, mechanically stabilized, and biologically or chemically modified soil and rock.  The program also addresses hydraulic, biological, chemical and thermal processes that affect the behavior of geologic materials.  Research at the micro-scale on soil-structure interaction and liquefaction are included in the scope of this program.  Support is provided for theoretical studies, constitutive and numerical modeling, laboratory, centrifuge, and field testing.  Cross-disciplinary and international collaborations are encouraged.

The System Science (SYS) program funds fundamental research on engineered systems that will support the creation of a mathematically sound framework for systems engineering. The System Science program invites proposals that address fundamental systems issues including system performance prediction, uncertainty quantification in the systems context, theoretical foundations for aggregation in systems, decision-making in the systems context, and operation and maintenance in the systems context. 28 28

The Fluid Dynamics program supports fundamental research and education on mechanisms and phenomena governing fluid flow.  Proposed research should contribute to basic understanding; thus enabling the better design; predictability; efficiency; and control of systems that involve fluids.  Encouraged are proposals that address innovative uses of fluids in materials development; manufacturing; biotechnology; nanotechnology; clinical diagnostics and drug delivery; sensor development and integration; energy and the environment. While the research should focus on fundamentals, a clear connection to potential application should be outlined.

The Process and Reaction Engineering program supports fundamental and applied research on: Rates and mechanisms of important classes of catalyzed and uncatalyzed chemical reactions as they relate to the design, production, and application of catalysts, chemical processes, biochemical processes, and specialized materials Chemical and biochemical phenomena occurring at or near solid surfaces and interfaces Electrochemical and photochemical processes of engineering significance or with commercial potential Design and optimization of complex chemical and biochemical processes Dynamic modeling and control of process systems and individual process units Reactive processing of polymers, ceramics, and thin films Interactions between chemical reactions and transport processes in reactive systems, and the use of this information in the design of complex chemical and biochemical reactors  Recent emphasis on the development of sustainable energy technologies means that the support of projects on the processing aspects of chemical systems that further such technologies have high priority when funding decisions are made. Areas that focus on reactors of all types - fuel cells, batteries, microreactors, biochemical reactors, etc.; reactor design in general; and design and control of all systems associated with energy from renewable sources, have high priority for funding.

Emphasis is placed on novel collaborations that bring together scientists preferably from different disciplines (e.g. from chemistry, physics, computer science, engineering) to focus on problems in the life sciences. The research teams must be international. The principal applicant must be from one of the eligible countries. However, other participating scientists and laboratories may be situated anywhere in the world.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled "Low Temperature Mineral Recovery Program." EERE's objective in this FOA is to promote the advancement of thermal energy processes capable of converting geothermal heat sources into power, in conjunction with the development or exploitation of technologies capable of capturing, concentrating, and/or purifying valuable materials contained within geothermal brines to economically extract resources that can provide additional revenue streams to geothermal operators. This targeted initiative of the GTO focuses on strategic mineral extraction as a path to optimize the value stream of low-to-moderate temperature resources.

The Particulate and Multiphase Processes program supports fundamental and applied research on phenomena governing particulate and multiphase processes, including flows of suspensions of particles, drops or bubbles, granular and granular-fluid flows, flow behavior of micro or nano-structured fluids, aerosol science and technology, and self- and directed-assembly processes involving particulates.  Innovative research is sought that contributes to improving the basic understanding, design, predictability, efficiency, and control of particulate and multiphase processes with particular emphasis on: novel manufacturing techniques, multiphase systems of relevance to energy harvesting, multiphase transport in biological systems or biotechnology, and environmental sustainability.  Collaborative and interdisciplinary proposals are encouraged; proposals that include a combination of experimental and theoretical approaches are more likely to receive funding than solely experimentally oriented work.  Highly reviewed projects generally demonstrate a strong scientific basis together with clear practical applications.

The Sensors and Sensing System (SSS) program funds fundamental research on sensors and sensing systems.  Such fundamental research includes the discovery and characterization of new sensing modalities, fundamental theories for aggregation and analysis of sensed data, fundamentally new approaches for data transmission, and approaches for addressing uncertain and/or partial sensor data.  Innovative research in nonlinear prediction, filtering and estimation in the context of sensing systems is also considered in this program. 28 28

The MME program supports fundamental research leading to improved manufacturing machines and equipment, and their application in manufacturing processes.  Key goals of the program are to advance the transition of manufacturing from skill-based to knowledge-based activities, and to advance technologies that will enable the manufacturing sector to reduce its environmental and societal impacts.  A focus is on the advancement of manufacturing machines and related systems engineering that will enable energy manufacturing on a large scale.  The program also supports research on additive manufacturing machines and processes encompassing feature scales from microns to meters (nanometer scale additive manufacturing is supported under the Nanomanufacturing program).

The GTE program supports fundamental research on geotechnical engineering aspects of civil infrastructure, such as site characterization, foundations, earth retaining systems, underground construction, excavations, tunneling, and drilling.  Also included in the program scope is research on geoenvironmental engineering; geotechnical engineering aspects of geothermal energy; life-cycle analysis of geostructures; geotechnical earthquake engineering that does not involve the use of George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) facilities; scour and erosion; and geohazards such as tsunamis, landslides, mudslides and debris flows.  The program does not support research related to natural resource exploration or recovery.  Emphasis is on issues of sustainability and resilience of civil infrastructure.  Cross-disciplinary and international collaborations are encouraged.

The Engineering and Systems Design (ESD) program supports research leading to design theory and to tools and methods that enable implementation of the principles of design theory in the practice of design across the full spectrum of engineered products and systems. The program focus is on gaining an understanding of the basic processes and phenomena underlying a holistic, life-cycle view of design where the total system life-cycle context recognizes the need for advanced understanding of the identification and definition of preferences, analysis of alternatives, effective accommodation of uncertainty in decision-making, and the relationship between data and knowledge in a digitally-supported process and environment. The program funds advances in basic design theory, tools, and software to implement design theory and new design methods that span multiple domains, such as design for the environment, for manufacturability, and for systems. 28 28

This program supports innovative research on the theories of dynamical systems, including new analytical and computational tools, as well as the novel application of dynamical systems to engineered systems.  The program is especially interested in transformative research in the area of complex systems, uncertain or stochastic nonlinear dynamical systems, model order reduction of nonlinear or infinite dimensional dynamical systems, discrete nonlinear dynamical systems, and modeling, simulation, analysis and design of multi-scale multi-physics dynamical systems. 

The MES program supports research on design, planning, and control of operations in manufacturing enterprises. Research is supported that is both grounded in an interesting and relevant application and requires the development of novel analytical and computational methodologies that may be of broader interest. Topics of interest include supply chain optimization and management; production planning and scheduling; monitoring and control of manufacturing processes; and maintenance and repair. Of particular interest are methods that incorporate increasingly rich enterprise process and product information and models, methods that address sustainability, and methods that incorporate characteristic uncertainty and risk.