Group items tagged

The Elementary Particle Theory program encompasses different theoretical tools for understanding the interaction of elementary particles at different energy scales. These include String Theory, Quantum Field Theory, Lattice Field Theory, Effective Field Theories, and Phenomenology based on the above theoretical tools. The program supports both formal string theory as well as string-theory-inspired model building.  However String Theory proposals which are primarily mathematical should consider applying to the Mathematical Physics program.

The Hydrologic Sciences Program focuses on the fluxes of water in the environment that constitute the water cycle as well as the mass and energy transport function of the water cycle in the environment.  The Program supports studying processes from rainfall to runoff to infiltration and streamflow; evaporation and transpiration; as well as the flow of water in soils and aquifers and the transport of suspended, dissolved and colloidal components.  Water is seen as the mode of coupling among various components of the environment and emphasis is placed on how the coupling is enabled by the water cycle and how it functions as a process.  The Hydrologic Sciences Program retains a strong focus on linking the fluxes of water and the components carried by water across the boundaries between various interacting components of the terrestrial system and the mechanisms by which these fluxes co-organize over a variety of timescales and/or alter the fundamentals of the interacting components.  The Program is also interested in how water interacts with the solid phase, the landscape and the ecosystem as well as how such interactions and couplings are altered by land use and climate change.  Studies may address aqueous geochemistry and solid phase interactions as well as physical, chemical, and biological processes as coupled to water transport. These studies commonly involve expertise from basic sciences and mathematics, and proposals may require joint review with related programs.  The Hydrologic Sciences Program will also consider some synthesis activities.

The U. S. Department of Energy's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DOE EPSCoR) hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for building EPSCoR-State/DOE-National Laboratory Partnerships. These partnerships are to advance fundamental energy oriented scientific and engineering research collaborations with the DOE Federally Funded Research and Development Centers

Program supports two main types of research: (i) innovations in general-purpose methodology related to optimization, stochastic modeling, and decision and game theory; and (ii) research grounded in relevant applications that require the development of novel and customized analytical and computational methodologies. Both types of proposals must be motivated by an application area of interest to the program. Application areas of interest include supply chains and logistics; risk management; healthcare; environment; energy production and distribution; mechanism design and incentives; production planning, maintenance, and quality control; and national security

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support continued innovation in photovoltaic cell and module technologies. It is anticipated that the Photovoltaic Research & Development (PVRD) funding opportunity will award $20,000,000 in Federal funding to support 30 to 35 research projects that will advance the limits of photovoltaic cell and module performance toward and beyond the $0.06/kWh 2020 SunShot goal. Successful applicants will demonstrate a convincing ability to improve the power conversion efficiency, fielded energy output, service lifetime, or manufacturability of commercial and emerging PV technologies. 

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are engineered systems that are built from, and depend upon, the seamless integration of computation and physical components. Advances in CPS will enable capability, adaptability, scalability, resiliency, safety, security, and usability that will expand the horizons of these critical systems. CPS technologies are transforming the way people interact with engineered systems, just as the Internet has transformed the way people interact with information. New, smart CPS drive innovation and competition in a range of application domains including agriculture, aeronautics, building design, civil infrastructure, energy, environmental quality, healthcare and personalized medicine, manufacturing, and transportation. Moreover, the integration of artificial intelligence with CPS creates new research opportunities with major societal implications. While tremendous progress has been made in advancing CPS technologies, the demand for innovation across application domains is driving the need to accelerate fundamental research to keep pace.

CIFAR invites exceptional early career researchers to join CIFAR's global network of 370 researchers from 18 countries who together are pursuing answers to some of the most complex challenges facing the world today. The CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program provides funding, skills training, mentorship, and opportunities to collaborate with outstanding colleagues from diverse disciplines to position scholars as leaders and agents of change within academia and beyond. CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars receive: * $100,000 CDN in unrestricted research support * A two-year membership to a CIFAR research program, with outstanding research leaders from across disciplines. Learn what it's like to be a CIFAR Fellow * Specialized leadership and communication skills training Applicants can be from anywhere in the world, must hold a PhD (or equivalent) and be within the first five years of a full-time academic appointment. Please note that postdoctoral fellows are not eligible to apply to the program. Scholars' research interests must be aligned with the themes of an eligible CIFAR research program.  In 2018, the eligible programs are: * Azrieli Program in Brain, Mind & Consciousness * Bio-Inspired Solar Energy * Gravity & the Extreme Universe * Humans & the Microbiome * Molecular Architecture of Life

Description: The Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems (CCSS) Program supports innovative research in circuit and system hardware and signal processing techniques. CCSS also supports system and network architectures for communications and sensing to enable the next-generation cyber-physical systems (CPS) that leverage computation, communication, and sensing integrated with physical domains. CCSS invests in micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), physical, chemical, and biological sensing systems, neurotechnologies, and communication & sensing circuits and systems. The goal is to create new complex and hybrid systems ranging from nano- to macro-scale with innovative engineering principles and solutions for a variety of applications including but not limited to healthcare, medicine, environmental and biological monitoring, communications, disaster mitigation, homeland security, intelligent transportation, manufacturing, energy, and smart buildings. CCSS encourages research proposals based on emerging technologies and applications for communications and sensing such as high-speed communications of terabits per second and beyond, sensing and imaging covering microwave to terahertz frequencies, personalized health monitoring and assistance, secured wireless connectivity and sensing for the Internet of Things, and dynamic-data-enabled autonomous systems through real-time sensing and learning.

The major investments made to upgrade the MAST-U and NSTX-U facilities were strongly motivated by an important observation identified in both machines, which showed that energy confinement in spherical tokamaks may scale more favorable than for conventional aspect ratio tokamaks as collisionality is reduced. If the present empirical scalings hold, then STs may provide a much more compact design path to future fusion reactors than conventional tokamaks. At present, the interplay between collisionality, turbulent transport, wall conditioning (e.g., lithium coatings, boronization) and/or density control at low aspect ratio represents the forefront of ST research. The complementary capabilities of the MAST-U and LTX-β facilities allow for this interplay to be explored. Late in the three year period of these proposals FY 2018 - FY2020 the MAST-U facility is slated to utilize strong cryopumping capabilities in its world class advanced divertor to control plasma density and hence collisionality. Alternatively, the neutral beam heated and fueled LTX-β will control density using lithium wall coatings, which dramatically reduces the flux of cold neutral atoms that are recycled back into the plasma after their initial expulsion. In addition to plasma performance, the compact geometry of MAST-U and its future enhanced auxiliary heating power will result in exhaust power reaching plasma facing components that is in excess of that expected in ITER. This coupled with MAST-U's unprecedentedly flexible divertor geometry, makes it a world leading facility for the study of power exhaust and plasma material interactions.

The Office of Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation, under Defense Programs within the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), announce their interest in receiving grant applications for new or renewal awards for research in the Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program. The SSAA Program, established in 2002, was developed to support state-of-the-art research at U.S. academic institutions in areas of fundamental physical science and technology of relevance to the Stockpile Stewardship Program mission, with a focus on those areas not supported by other federal agencies. For purposes of this FOA, the research areas of interest are: properties of materials under extreme conditions and/or hydrodynamics (condensed matter physics and materials science, and fluid dynamics); low energy nuclear science; and radiochemistry.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Divisions of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS), Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB), and Materials Research (DMR) announces a follow-up solicitation on the Semiconductor Synthetic Biology for Information Storage and Retrieval Program (SemiSynBio-II).  Future ultra-low energy storage-based computing systems can be built on principles derived from organic systems that are at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering.  Next-generation information storage technologies can be envisioned that are driven by biological principles and use biomaterials in the fabrication of devices and systems that can store data for more than 100 years with storage capacity 1,000 times more than current storage technologies.  Such a research effort can have a significant impact on the future of information storage and retrieval technologies. This focused solicitation seeks high-risk/high-return interdisciplinary research on novel concepts and enabling technologies that will address the fundamental scientific issues and technological challenges associated with the underpinnings of synthetic biology integrated with semiconductor technology. This research will foster interactions among various disciplines including biology, physics, chemistry, materials science, computer science and engineering that will enable in heretofore unanticipated breakthroughs.

The following program description is offered to provide more in-depth information on scientific and technical areas of interest to the High Energy Physics (HEP) Long-Term Accelerator R&D Stewardship ("Accelerator Stewardship") program. Please note that this FOA is only for opportunities within the Accelerator R&D Stewardship mission: HEP routinely issues a separate FOA for research and development within its customarily-supported fields of study. This Accelerator Stewardship FOA is for R&D activities that may impact HEP-sponsored scientific inquiry, but which predominantly impact other non-HEP applications. The Accelerator Stewardship program's mission is to support fundamental accelerator science and technology development of relevance to many fields beyond HEP and to disseminate accelerator knowledge and training to the broad community of accelerator users and providers. Further information about the Accelerator Stewardship program may be found at https://science.osti.gov/hep/research/accelerator-stewardship/ . Many federal agencies have a vested interest in the success of accelerator R&D. Beyond SC, stakeholders include the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration, the DOE Environmental Management Program Office, the NIH National Cancer Institute, the NSF Division of Physics, the DOD Office of Naval Research, the DOD Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the DHS Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, the NASA Radiation Effects & Analysis Group, and the NIST Ionizing Radiation Physics Division, among others. A companion Program Announcement to DOE Laboratories (LAB 20-2262) will be posted on the SC Grants and Contracts website at https://www.science.osti.gov/grants.

The Hydrologic Sciences Program supports basic research on the fluxes of water in the terrestrial environment that constitute the water cycle as well as the mass and energy transport function of the water cycle. The Program supports the study of processes including (but not limited to): rainfall, runoff, infiltration and streamflow; evaporation and transpiration; the flow of water in soils and aquifers; and the transport of suspended, dissolved, and colloidal components. The Program is interested in how water interacts with the landscape and the ecosystem as well as how the water cycle and its coupled processes are altered by land use and climate. Studies may address physical, chemical, and/or biological processes that are coupled directly to water transport. Observational, experimental, theoretical, modeling, synthesis and field approaches are supported. Projects submitted to Hydrologic Sciences commonly involve expertise from physical and ecosystem sciences, engineering and/or mathematics; and proposals may require joint review with related programs.

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.

Plasma Physics is a study of matter and physical systems whose intrinsic properties are governed by collective interactions of large ensembles of free charged particles. 99.9% of the visible Universe is thought to consist of plasmas. The underlying physics of the collective behavior in plasmas has applications to space physics and astrophysics, materials science, applied mathematics, fusion science, accelerator science, and many branches of engineering. The Plasma Physics program supports research that can be categorized by several broad, sometimes overlapping, sub-areas of the discipline, including: magnetized plasmas in the laboratory, space, and astrophysical environments; high energy density plasmas; low temperature plasmas; dusty, ultra-cold, and otherwise strongly coupled plasmas; non-neutral plasmas; and intense field-matter interaction in plasmas. The focus of the Plasma Physics program is to generate an understanding of the fundamental principles governing the physical behavior of a plasma via collective interactions of large ensembles of free charged particles, as well as to improve the basic understanding of the plasma state as needed for other areas of science and engineering.

Future ultra-low-energy computing, storage and signal-processing systems can be built on principles derived from organic systems that are at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and engineering. New information technologies can be envisioned that are based on biological principles and that use biomaterials in the fabrication of devices and components; it is anticipated that these information technologies could enable stored data to be retained for more than 100 years and storage capacity to be 1,000 times greater than current capabilities. These could also facilitate compact computers that will operate with substantially lower power than today's computers. Research in support of these goals can have a significant impact on advanced information processing and storage technologies. This focused solicitation seeks high-risk/high-return interdisciplinary research on novel concepts and enabling technologies that will address the scientific issues and technological challenges associated with the underpinnings of synthetic biology integrated with semiconductor technology. This research will foster interactions among various disciplines including biology, engineering, physics, chemistry, materials science, computer science, and information science that will enable heretofore-unanticipated breakthroughs as well as meet educational goals.

Quantum computing is a revolutionary approach to information processing based on the quantum physics of coherent superposition and entanglement.  Advantages of quantum computing include efficient algorithms for computationally difficult tasks, efficient use of resources such as memory and energy needed for computations, and new platforms for the simulation of quantum mechanical systems that are currently intractable using conventional computers.  Applications for quantum computing, such as integer number factoring, search and optimization algorithms, and quantum simulations, will accelerate discoveries in a broad range of disciplines including physics, engineering, and computer science.

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 National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Divisions of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS), Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB), and Materials Research (DMR) announces a follow-up solicitation on the Semiconductor Synthetic Biology for Information Storage and Retrieval Program (SemiSynBio-II). Future ultra-low energy storage-based computing systems can be built on principles derived from organic systems that are at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering. Next-generation information storage technologies can be envisioned that are driven by biological principles and use biomaterials in the fabrication of devices and systems that can store data for more than 100 years with storage capacity 1,000 times more than current storage technologies. Such a research effort can have a significant impact on the future of information storage and retrieval technologies. This focused solicitation seeks high-risk/high-return interdisciplinary research on novel concepts and enabling technologies that will address the fundamental scientific issues and technological challenges associated with the underpinnings of synthetic biology integrated with semiconductor technology. This research will foster interactions among various disciplines including biology, physics, chemistry, materials science, computer science and engineering that will enable in heretofore unanticipated breakthroughs.

The objectives of the DoD STTR Program include stimulating technological innovation, strengthening the role of small business in meeting DoD research and development needs, fostering and encouraging participation by minority and disadvantaged persons in technological innovation, and increasing the commercial application of DoD-supported research or research and development results. Focus areas: - 5G - AI and ML - Autonomy - Biotechnology - Cybersecurity - Direct Energy - Hypersonics - Microelectronics - Networked Command, Control & Communications - Nuclear - Quantum Science - Space - General Warfighting Requirements