OARS funding Engineering

The Division of Chemical, Bioengineering and Environmental Transport (CBET) in the Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) is partnering with The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) to solicit research projects in the general field of combustion and thermal transport processes that can utilize the International Space Station (ISS) National Lab to conduct research that will benefit life on Earth. U.S. entities including academic investigators, non-profit independent research labs and academic-commercial teams are eligible to apply.

The U.S. Embassy in Australia invites Australian organizations and individuals to submit proposals for funding of programs that increase mutual understanding between the U.S. and Australia and promote the bilateral relationship. Topic areas eligible for funding include: entrepreneurship and innovation; U.S. policies, society, culture and values; cultural diversity; academic integration and advancement; civic participation; countering violent extremism; global challenges such as climate change, clean energy, promotion of STEM, human rights, economic development, health, LGBTI issues, and marginalized populations. Most grants funded are in the $5,000 to $15,000 range, though proposals for higher amounts will be considered if the project is of particular value to advancing the U.S.-Australia relationship. Proposals that include cost sharing by the applicant or another relevant organization are encouraged.

The objective of this award is to provide non-salary funds for new and established investigators to research and develop new devices, design and test a significant improvement to an existing technology, develop a new diagnostic, develop a novel research method technology, and/or investigate the application of nanotechnology or methodologies such as computational biology to the field of gastroenterology.

The SD2 program aims to develop data-driven methods to accelerate scientific discovery and robust design in domains that lack complete models. Engineers regularly use high-fidelity simulations to create robust designs in complex domains such as aeronautics, automobiles, and integrated circuits. In contrast, robust design remains elusive in domains such as synthetic biology, neuro-computation, cyber, and polymer chemistry due to the lack of high-fidelity models. SD2 will develop tools to enable robust design despite the lack of complete scientific models.

Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE) is potentially interested in projects that integrate with the NASA field program intellectually and provide substantive advances in the basic scientific understandings of the "biological pump" or any associated biological, chemical, physical, or geological processes. NSF supported a workshop in February 2016 on the "Biology of the Biological Pump" at which basic research topics that could complement EXPORTS science were identified. OCE will consider additional aspects of the export system as well.

The mission of BTO is to leverage biology as a technology to solve intractable problems. BTO seeks to leverage advances in engineering and computer science to drive and reshape biotechnology for national security. To achieve this vision, BTO is interested in a range of emerging technical areas, including but not limited to human-machine interfaces, human performance, infectious disease, and synthetic biology. The overarching goal is to develop, demonstrate, and transition biologically-based technologies as part of the national security toolkit.

The High Priority (HP) Grant Program is a discretionary (i.e., competitive) program which provides financial assistance to: 1)advance the technological capability and promote HP Innovative Technology Deployment (HP-ITD) to include the deployment of intelligent transportation system (i.e., formerly CVISN) applications for commercial motor vehicle (CMV) operations, including CMVs, commercial drivers, and carrier-specific information systems/networks; to support/maintain CMV information systems/networks; to link Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) information systems with State CMV information systems; to improve the safety and productivity of CMVs and commercial drivers; to reduce costs associated with CMV operations and Federal and State CMV regulatory requirements; and/or 2)carry out HP-CMV Safety activities and projects that augment motor carrier safety activities and projects planned in accordance with the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) including projects related to Performance and Registration Information Systems Management (PRISM) and Safety Data Quality (SaDIP).

The Smart and Autonomous Systems (S&AS) program focuses on Intelligent Physical Systems (IPS) that are cognizant, taskable, reflective, ethical, and knowledge-rich. The S&AS program welcomes research on IPS that are aware of their capabilities and limitations, leading to long-term autonomy requiring minimal or no human operator intervention. Example IPS include, but are not limited to, robotic platforms and networked systems that combine computing, sensing, communication, and actuation. Cognizant IPS exhibit high-level awareness beyond primitive actions, in support of persistent and long-term autonomy. Taskable IPS can interpret high-level, possibly vague, instructions, translating them into concrete actions that are dependent on the particular context in which the IPS is operating. Reflective IPS can learn from their own experiences and those of other entities, such as other IPS or humans, and from instruction or observation; they may exhibit self-aware and self-optimizing capabilities. Ethical IPS should adhere to a system of societal and legal rules, taking those rules into account when making decisions. Knowledge-rich IPS employ a variety of representation and reasoning mechanisms, such as semantic, probabilistic and commonsense reasoning; are cognitively plausible; reason about uncertainty in decision making; and reason about the intentions of other entities in decision making.

EPA-ORD seeks applications from eligible entities to enter into a cooperative agreement with EPA that will provide training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students on-site at ORD's Ground Water and Ecosystems Research Division (GWERD) research facilities located in Ada, Oklahoma.  It is envisioned that the training program will increase both the effectiveness and number of future environmental scientists. The training received under the mentorship of EPA scientists will complement the trainees' academic coursework. The recipient will be responsible for ensuring that the training projects are supportive of the trainees' academic training.  Some appropriate fields of study for trainees include, but are not limited to, environmental science, water policy, chemistry, engineering, computer science, ecology, and physical and biological sciences.

The Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) program of the NSF Directorate for Engineering (ENG) serves a critical role in helping ENG focus on important emerging areas in a timely manner. This solicitation is a funding opportunity for interdisciplinary teams of researchers to embark on rapidly advancing frontiers of fundamental engineering research. For this solicitation, we will consider proposals that aim to investigate emerging frontiers in the following two research areas: -Advancing Communication Quantum Information Research in Engineering (ACQUIRE) -New Light, EM (Electronic) and Acoustic Wave Propagation: Breaking Reciprocity and Time-Reversal Symmetry (NewLAW)

The Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) and the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), announce their interest in receiving applications from multi-institutional interdisciplinary teams to establish scientific application partnerships under the SC-wide Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program in the area of integrated simulations for fusion energy sciences. The goal of this announcement is to select applications that can take advantage of today's multi-petascale DOE high-performance computing (DOE HPC) systems to accelerate scientific discovery in strategically important areas of magnetic fusion energy science and address high- priority issues identified in recent community studies. The specific areas of interest under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) are: 1. Plasma Disruptions in Tokamaks 2. Boundary Physics 3. Plasma-Materials Interactions 4. Whole Device Modeling

Goals of the Advanced Information Systems Technology program The goals of the Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) program are to identify, develop, and demonstrate advanced information system technologies that: ·Reduce the risk, cost, size, and development time for Earth science space-based, airborne, and ground-based information systems, ·Increase the accessibility and utility of science data, and ·Enable new observations and information products.

The purpose of this FOA is to support U.S. investigators in bilateral cooperative research activities as part of the U.S.-Japan Science and Technology Cooperation Program in High Energy Physics. This FOA solicits proposals with scopes of work in high energy physics (HEP) that involve substantial collaboration with Japanese investigators.

Through the Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI) Program, OAR's Office of Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ) is soliciting proposals to conduct research and development activities related to advancing the convective scale modeling and water prediction over the coming 1 to 2 years.

The Algorithms for Modern Power Systems (AMPS) program will support research projects to develop the next generation of mathematical and statistical algorithms for improvement of the security, reliability, and efficiency of the modern power grid. The program is a partnership between the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability (OE) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The grand challenge of broadening participation in STEM is to transform the STEM enterprise at all levels in order to fully engage the nation's talent for the ultimate improvement of the STEM enterprise. As a comprehensive national initiative, NSF INCLUDES aims to address the various complex equity and inclusion-related challenges and opportunities that characterize the nation's cultural and linguistic diversity, with a specific emphasis on the aforementioned groups. The goal is to achieve impact at the national level. Viewing inclusion as an asset and opportunity for social innovation, NSF is particularly interested in using approaches to scaling and growth, such as collective impact, networked improvement communities, and strategic partnerships. The objective is to develop networks that involve representative organizations and consortia from different sectors that are committed to a common agenda that comprehensively solves a specific STEM-inclusion problem. The long-term goal of NSF INCLUDES is to support innovative models, networks, partnerships, technical capabilities and research that will enable the U.S. science and engineering workforce to thrive by ensuring that traditionally underrepresented and underserved groups are represented in percentages comparable to their representation in the U.S. population.

The U.S. Mission to UNESCO (USUNESCO) announces the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for a new program to design and administer a three-year grants program aimed at identifying, developing, and expanding the most promising grassroots-led initiatives in Africa to help address the persistent gender gap in science, technology, engineering, arts/design, and math (STEAM) fields. The targeted African countries for the proposed grants program would be: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. This program aims to make progress toward eventually achieving gender parity in STEAM-related fields so that more African women and girls are empowered by the socioeconomic benefits derived from acquiring expertise in these fields and so that more women and girls contribute to innovation by creating, rather than just using, technology.

The overarching goal of this FOA is to support the development of capabilities that will allow increased deployment of solar power generation at optimal cost. Better solar forecasting will allow the reduction of balancing, dispatch, and unit commitment costs associated with errors in the prediction of solar power generation. These costs scale with solar penetration, therefore it is important to keep them in check with advancements in the forecasting science, implementations of forecasting models with rapid execution, and seamless integration of forecasting tools in the electric system operations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing research that will contribute to an improved ability to understand and anticipate the public health and environmental impacts and behavioral drivers of significant changes in energy production and consumption in the United States, particularly those changes associated with advancing toward the deep decarbonization necessary to achieve national and international climate change mitigation objectives and avoid the most significant health, environmental, and economic impacts of climate change. The proposed research is intended to contribute to the development of new insights and predictive tools related to the multimedia, life-cycle impacts of the decarbonization of electricity generation; the electrification of end uses; the adoption of low-carbon emitting, renewable fuels; and the adoption of energy efficiency measures. The proposed research is also intended to contribute to an improved understanding of the drivers of individual, firm (i.e. business), and community decisions that affect energy consumption patterns, including decisions about the adoption of new technologies and energy efficiency measures.

The goals of the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program are aligned with the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan (RDSP) and the National Privacy Research Strategy (NPRS) to protect and preserve the growing social and economic benefits of cyber systems while ensuring security and privacy. The RDSP identified six areas critical to successful cybersecurity R&D: (1) scientific foundations; (2) risk management; (3) human aspects; (4) transitioning successful research into practice; (5) workforce development; and (6) enhancing the research infrastructure. The NPRS, which complements the RDSP, identifies a framework for privacy research, anchored in characterizing privacy expectations, understanding privacy violations, engineering privacy-protecting systems, and recovering from privacy violations. In alignment with the objectives in both strategic plans, the SaTC program takes an interdisciplinary, comprehensive and holistic approach to cybersecurity research, development, and education, and encourages the transition of promising research ideas into practice.