OARS funding Engineering

The 2012 Moving Forward for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) provides a framework for the National Park Service and Federal Aviation Administration to work together to develop incentives for Grand Canyon air tour operators using quiet technology aircraft without increasing noise at the park. Data gathered and analyzed under this project will aid planning for overflights management, as well as improve wilderness character in Grand Canyon National Park which will benefit the public both within and beyond the borders of the park.

AR is an immersive technology which combines virtual computer-generated information with the real environment in the real-time performance, enhancing the user's perception of reality and enriching the provided information content. Such information can assist project managers and engineers with the delivery and accuracy of their construction projects, safer and in a timely manner resulting in greater efficiency. With the capability of navigating through all phases of a construction project, managers would be able to catch any errors or mistakes before they present themselves or change and augment the design and construction details. They may also be able to use these tools for training or project outreach. Considering its benefits and success in the entertainment and video game industries, leveraging AR could be the next big development in construction management of highway infrastructure assets.

Objectives of the program are to: · Support unclassified basic scientific and engineering research that could be the foundation for future revolutionary new capabilities for DoD · Educate and train student and post-doctoral researchers for the defense workforce · Foster long-term relationships between university researchers and the DoD · Familiarize university researchers and their students with DoD's current and projected future challenges · Increase the number of talented technical experts that DoD can call upon.

This center is a joint project between the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Air Force Research Laboratory, Airman Systems Directorate (AFRL/RH; http://www.wpafb.af.mil/afrl/711hpw/rh.aspx). The center will extend the research capabilities of the Air Force Research Laboratory, and provide opportunities for a new generation of United States scientists and engineers to address the basic research needs of the Air Force.

The Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program in the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), announces its interest in receiving new or renewal grant applications for theoretical and computational research relevant to the U.S. magnetic fusion energy sciences program. Applications selected in response to this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will be funded in Fiscal Year 2018, subject to the appropriation of funds by the Congress. The specific areas of interest are: 1. Macroscopic Stability 2. Confinement and Transport 3. Boundary Physics 4. Plasma Heating & Non-inductive Current Drive, and 5. Energetic Particles

The DOE Traineeship in Accelerator Science and Engineering provides support to address critical, targeted workforce development in fields of study that are currently supported by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research awards. Up to two Cooperative Agreements may provide funding to universities or consortia of universities for up to two years of tuition, stipend, and travel support to students enrolled in specific accelerator science and engineering degree programs, and to provide a modest topic-specific curriculum development and program administration support. Award term is expected to be up to five years, with the possibility of renewal for a second term. This program does not support lines of Research and Development (R&D). Support for accelerator R&D is provided through the High Energy Physics (HEP) General Accelerator R&D and Accelerator Stewardship programs, through accelerator R&D programs elsewhere in DOE, and by other federal agencies. This program is to assist domestic institutions of higher education in enhancing their graduate-level educational efforts to ensure that a diverse and highly trained future population of scientists is available to conduct cutting-edge research in the basic sciences. By training the scientists of the future, this program will ensure the continued vitality of U.S. scientific endeavors that will create knowledge for the public benefit.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) seeks unclassified proposals from educational institutions in the United States for a University Center of Excellence (UCoE) in in Trusted Human-Machine Teaming. Proposals must not contain any proprietary information. This center is a joint project between the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Air Force Research Laboratory, Airman Systems Directorate (AFRL/RH), referred to collectively as "we, our, or us" in this announcement. The center will extend the research capabilities of the Air Force Research Laboratory, and provide opportunities for a new generation of United States scientists and engineers to address the basic research needs of the Air Force. We will consider proposals for up to five (5) years with a three-year (3) base period and a two-year (2) option period.

The mission of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is to identify and pursue high-risk, high-payoff research initiatives across a broad spectrum of science and engineering disciplines and to transform these initiatives into disruptive technologies for U.S. national security. In support of this mission, the DSO Office-wide BAA invites proposers to submit innovative basic or applied research concepts that explore Physical and Natural Systems, Human-Machine and Social Systems, and/or Math and Computational Systems through the lens of one or more of the following technical domains: Complexity Engineering, Science of Design, Noosphere, Fundamental Limits, and New Foundations. Each of these domains is described below and includes a list of example research topics that highlight several (but not all) potential areas of interest. Proposals must investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances. DSO is explicitly not interested in approaches or technologies that primarily result in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

The High-Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) Program seeks qualified industry partners to participate in short-term, collaborative projects with the Department of Energy's (DOE's) national laboratories. Through support from the Advanced Manufacturing Office of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), selected industry partners will be granted access to High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities and experienced staff at DOE National Laboratories. The collaborations will address key challenges in U.S. manufacturing by apply modeling, simulation, and data analysis to the manufacturing of materials with the intent to improve energy efficiency, increase productivity, reduce cycle time, enable next-generation technologies, test control system algorithms, investigate intensified processes, lower energy cost, and accelerate innovation. Projects must demonstrate potential impact to energy efficiency in manufacturing and/or the development of new clean energy technologies with a potential for broad national impact. We solicit proposals in the following primary areas:

The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) program is sponsored by the Basic Research Office, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD (R&E)). VBFF supports innovative basic research within academia, as well as opportunities intended to develop the next generation of scientists and engineers for the defense workforce. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) manages the VBFF program for ASD (R&E). To accomplish this task, ONR is soliciting proposals for the VBFF program through this FOA. This FOA seeks distinguished researchers for the purpose of conducting innovative basic research in areas of interest to the DoD and fostering long-term relationships between the VBFF Fellows and the DoD. As defined by the DoD, basic research is "systematic study directed toward greater knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and of observable facts without specific applications towards processes or products in mind. It includes all scientific study and experimentation directed toward increasing fundamental knowledge and understanding in those fields of the physical, engineering, environmental, and life sciences related to long-term national security needs. It is farsighted high payoff research that provides the basis for technological progress." (http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/documents/fmr/Volume_02b.pdf ) The DoD's basic research program invests broadly in many scientific fields to ensure that it has early cognizance of new scientific knowledge. VBFF is oriented towards bold and ambitious "blue sky" research that may lead to extraordinary outcomes such as revolutionizing entire disciplines, creating entirely new fields, or disrupting accepted theories and perspectives.

The mission of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is to identify and pursue high-risk, high-payoff research initiatives across a broad spectrum of science and engineering disciplines and to transform these initiatives into disruptive technologies for U.S. national security. In support of this mission, the DSO Office-wide BAA invites proposers to submit innovative basic or applied research concepts that explore Physical and Natural Systems, Human-Machine and Social Systems, and/or Math and Computational Systems through the lens of one or more of the following technical domains: Complexity Engineering, Science of Design, Noosphere, Fundamental Limits, and New Foundations. Proposals must investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances. DSO is explicitly not interested in approaches or technologies that primarily result in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

The PRIL will consider value chain as a whole, directing research project to utilize outputs of concurrent or former research to investigate improvements of peanut production.

Innovative systems are platforms, weapons, integrated systems or critical systems components that often incorporate emerging advanced technologies and enable revolutionary improvements to the capability, efficiency and effectiveness of the military.

Topological Excitations in Electronics is a fundamental science program that seeks to challenge the limits in present electronic components by exploiting topological excitations. The program aims to demonstrate the utility of topological excitations in various applications including memory, logic, sensors, and quantum information processing. By the end of the program, the following goals should be achieved: 1. A determination of what materials or combination of materials that host topological excitations hold the most promise for specific applications. 2. A full characterization of the properties of said excitations (e.g., topology, size, stability, interactions, time-scales) and in particular, a validation of how topology enhances these properties. 3. A demonstration of nanometer scale (<10 nm) room temperature topological excitations for memory and/or logic, as well as efficient write and read protocols. 4. The development of topological qubits and a demonstration of topological operations between them.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is interested in receiving proposals for its Young Investigator Program (YIP). ONR's Young Investigator Program (YIP) seeks to identify and support academic scientists and engineers who are in their first or second full-time tenure-track or tenure-track-equivalent academic appointment, have begun their first appointment on or after 31 December 2012, and who show exceptional promise for doing creative research. The objectives of this program are to attract outstanding faculty members of Institutions of Higher Education (hereafter also called "universities") to the Department of the Navy's Science and Technology (S&T) research program, to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers. Proposals addressing research areas (as described in the ONR Science and Technology Department section of ONR's website at www.onr.navy.mil) which are of interest to ONR program officers will be considered. Contact information for each division (a subgroup of an S&T Department) is also listed within the S&T section of the website

The objective of the Effective Sensor Technology Evaluations and Enabling Methodologies (ESTEEM) Program is to conduct research into advanced assessment and evaluation methodologies. The ESTEEM Program will include the development and use of improved methodologies that provide for more effective and efficient analyses and evaluations of advanced sensor technologies. The ESTEEM Program will provide for collaborative research that leverages the Integrated Demonstrations and Applications Laboratory (IDAL) to better enable technology maturation and transition.

Demands for engineering plastics that replace metal parts are increasing in recent years in order to reduce the weight without reducing mechanical properties. NineSigma's client, a leading automotive parts manufacturer develops high-performance plastic composites, with a particular focus on glass and carbon fiber reinforced polyamide and polypropylene based composite materials. Shorter production times for high stressed components are key to realize the goal of minimizing metal usage.

Applications are sought for novel technologies that are targeted to scale down Integrated Gasification and Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant components in the REMS philosophy to achieve programmatic cost reduction goals and to enable opportunities for lifecycle greenhouse gas reductions by locating distributed generation/fuel production closer to its raw material source. The overall technical goal of this FOA is the development of REMS for combined heat and power, and the development of retrofit options to process clean syngas to other products such as liquid fuels and chemicals in lieu of power. In particular, the FOA has an objective to develop REMS process technologies that are cost effective relative to state-of-the-art commercial technology, due to low cost fabrication via advanced manufacturing. The FOA also has an objective to study the cost and performance of a REMS-based combined heat and power or polygeneration system implemented in remote areas subjected to traditionally high energy costs to understand the extent of program impact.

The NRA covers all aspects of basic and applied supporting research and technology in space and Earth sciences, including, but not limited to: theory, modeling, and analysis of SMD science data; aircraft, scientific balloon, sounding rocket, International Space Station, CubeSat and suborbital reusable launch vehicle investigations; development of experiment techniques suitable for future SMD space missions; development of concepts for future SMD space missions; development of advanced technologies relevant to SMD missions; development of techniques for and the laboratory analysis of both extraterrestrial samples returned by spacecraft, as well as terrestrial samples that support or otherwise help verify observations from SMD Earth system science missions; determination of atomic and composition parameters needed to analyze space data, as well as returned samples from the Earth or space; Earth surface observations and field campaigns that support SMD science missions; development of integrated Earth system models; development of systems for applying Earth science research data to societal needs; and development of applied information systems applicable to SMD objectives and data

NIST is soliciting applications from eligible institutions of higher education in the U.S. and its territories that offer two- or four- year degrees in academic science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, which include but are not limited to biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical sciences, physics, and statistics, to establish and manage a program to support collaborative research relationships among NIST staff, undergraduate and graduate students, individuals with bachelor's or master's degrees, post-doctoral fellows, and academic affiliates, and the PREP researchers' academic institutions. These collaborative relationships will include research opportunities at the relevant NIST campuses in Boulder, Colorado (CO) (PREP Boulder), or Gaithersburg, Maryland (MD), and/or Charleston, South Carolina (SC) (PREP Gaithersburg). Eligible applicants may apply to establish and manage a PREP Boulder program or a PREP Gaithersburg program or may apply to establish and manage programs for both.