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The lack of logistics systems capable of handling and delivering sufficiently high tonnage year-round volumes of high quality feedstocks to support the rapid escalation of cellulosic biofuels production has been identified as a significant barrier to the expansion of a sustainable domestic biofuels industry. In particular, biomass physical and chemical quality parameters have repeatedly been identified as significant challenges to the smooth operation and economic viability of biorefineries. This FOA will focus on developing and demonstrating strategies, equipment, and rapid analytical methods to manage feedstock quality within economic constraints throughout the feedstock supply chain. The main effort in Proposals must be directed toward full-scale demonstration of integrated feedstock supply chain systems that can deliver the volume of high quality, affordable, high impact feedstocks required by commercial biorefineries over a significant geographic area in the United States. DOE plans to support the increased production of high volumes of sustainably produced domestic biofuels from cellulosic feedstocks by seeking Proposals to design new systems or adapt existing systems to handle industrial scale volumes of cellulosic feedstocks from the harvest point to the throat of the biorefinery reactor.

The 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.

Recent advances in communications, computation, and sensing technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for the design of cyber-physical systems with increased responsiveness, interconnectivity and automation. To meet new challenges and societal needs, the Energy, Power, Control and Networks (EPCN) Program invests in systems and control methods for analysis and design of cyber-physical systems to ensure stability, performance, robustness, and security. Topics of interest include modeling, optimization, learning, and control of networked multi-agent systems, higher-level decision making, and dynamic resource allocation as well as risk management in the presence of uncertainty, sub-system failures and stochastic disturbances. EPCN also invests in adaptive dynamic programing, brain-like networked architectures performing real-time learning, and neuromorphic engineering. EPCN supports innovative proposals dealing with systems research in such areas as energy, transportation, and nanotechnology. EPCN places emphasis on electric power systems, including generation, transmission, storage, and integration of renewables; power electronics and drives; battery management systems; hybrid and electric vehicles; and understanding of the interplay of power systems with associated regulatory and economic structures and with consumer behavior. Also of interest are interdependencies of power and energy systems with other critical infrastructures. Topics of interest also include systems analysis and design for energy scavenging and alternate energy technologies such as solar, wind, and hydrokinetic. The program also supports innovative tools and test beds, as well as curriculum development integrating research and education. In addition to single investigator projects, EPCN encourages cross-disciplinary proposals that benefit from active collaboration of researchers with complementary skills.

Recent advances in communications, computation, and sensing technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for the design of cyber-physical systems with increased responsiveness, interconnectivity and automation. To meet new challenges and societal needs, the Energy, Power, Control and Networks (EPCN) Program invests in systems and control methods for analysis and design of cyber-physical systems to ensure stability, performance, robustness, and security. Topics of interest include modeling, optimization, learning, and control of networked multi-agent systems, higher-level decision making, and dynamic resource allocation as well as risk management in the presence of uncertainty, sub-system failures and stochastic disturbances. EPCN also invests in adaptive dynamic programing, brain-like networked architectures performing real-time learning, and neuromorphic engineering. EPCN supports innovative proposals dealing with systems research in such areas as energy, transportation, and nanotechnology. EPCN places emphasis on electric power systems, including generation, transmission, storage, and integration of renewables; power electronics and drives; battery management systems; hybrid and electric vehicles; and understanding of the interplay of power systems with associated regulatory and economic structures and with consumer behavior. Also of interest are interdependencies of power and energy systems with other critical infrastructures. Topics of interest also include systems analysis and design for energy scavenging and alternate energy technologies such as solar, wind, and hydrokinetic. The program also supports innovative tools and test beds, as well as curriculum development integrating research and education. In addition to single investigator projects, EPCN encourages cross-disciplinary proposals that benefit from active collaboration of researchers with complementary skills.

This BAA's primary objective is to attract outstanding researchers and scholars who will investigate topics of interest to the defense acquisition community. The program solicits innovative proposals for defense acquisition management and policy research to be conducted for approximately a 12-month period during the September 2013 through May 2015 timeframe. In this BAA, the phrase "defense acquisition management and policy research" refers to investigations in all disciplines, fields, and domains that (1) are involved in the acquisition of products and/or services for national defense, or (2) could potentially be brought to bear to improve defense acquisition. These include but are not limited to economics, finance, financial management, information systems, organization theory, operations management, human resources management, and marketing, as well as the "traditional" acquisition areas such as contracting, program/project management, logistics, and systems engineering management. The proposed research must provide through the dissemination of findings in a final Technical Report a public benefit beyond the potential to improve the efficiency, quality, innovation, and/or cost of DoD and DoN acquisition programs. Findings, for instance, should also be potentially applicable to improving private-sector competitiveness or effectiveness.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of the P3-People, Prosperity and the Planet Award Program, is seeking applications proposing to research, develop, and design solutions to real world challenges involving the overall sustainability of human society. The P3 competition highlights the use of scientific principles in creating innovative projects focused on sustainability. The P3 Award program was developed to foster progress toward sustainability by achieving the mutual goals of improved quality of life, economic prosperity and protection of the planet -- people, prosperity, and the planet - the three pillars of sustainability. The EPA offers the P3 competition in order to respond to the technical needs of the world while moving towards the goal of sustainability. Please see the P3 website for more details about this program.

The Acquisition Research Program (ARP) conducts and supports research in academic disciplines that bear on public procurement policy and management. These include economics, finance, financial management, information systems, organization theory, operations management, human resources management, risk management, and marketing, as well as the traditional public procurement areas such as contracting, program/project management, logistics, test and evaluation and systems engineering management. The ARP is interested in innovative proposals that will provide unclassified and non-proprietary findings suitable for publication in open scholarly literature. Studies of government processes, systems, or policies should also expand the body of knowledge and theory of processes, systems, or policies outside the Government. Offerors bear prime responsibility for the design, management, direction and conduct of research. Researchers should exercise judgment and original thought toward attaining the goals within broad parameters of the research areas proposed and the resources provided. Offerors are encouraged to be creative in the selection of the technical and management processes and approaches and consider the greatest and broadest impact possible.

The Acquisition Research Program (ARP) conducts and supports research in academic disciplines that bear on public procurement policy and management. These include economics, finance, financial management, information systems, organization theory, operations management, human resources management, risk management, and marketing, as well as the traditional public procurement areas such as contracting, program/project management, logistics, test and evaluation and systems engineering management. The ARP is interested in innovative proposals that will provide unclassified and non-proprietary findings suitable for publication in open scholarly literature. Studies of government processes, systems, or policies should also expand the body of knowledge and theory of processes, systems, or policies outside the Government. Offerors bear prime responsibility for the design, management, direction and conduct of research. Researchers should exercise judgment and original thought toward attaining the goals within broad parameters of the research areas proposed and the resources provided. Offerors are encouraged to be creative in the selection of the technical and management processes and approaches and consider the greatest and broadest impact possible.

The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program aims to support advanced wireless research platforms conceived by the U.S. academic and industrial wireless research community. PAWR will enable experimental exploration of robust new wireless devices, communication techniques, networks, systems, and services that will revolutionize the nation's wireless ecosystem, thereby enhancing broadband connectivity, leveraging the emerging Internet of Things (IoT), and sustaining US leadership and economic competitiveness for decades to come.

United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) is seeking multiple non-federal partners ("Collaborators") from industry and/or academia to be considered for participation in Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) (described in 15 USC 3710a, quoted below). Under CRADAs, USTRANSCOM seeks to explore, research and initially develop the concept and business model for the Multi-Mission Logistics Vessel (MMLV), a ship-based delivery system to rapidly provide support to worldwide (U.S. and foreign nation) crisis response/disaster relief operations. The challenge is to understand the feasibility of the concept, considering user needs, economic factors, vessel characteristics and capabilities, appropriate command and control systems, ownership models, support and maintenance concepts, operations costs and user fee structures, and all other system aspects of a small fleet of MMLVs, geographically assigned to specific areas of operation.

The Environmental Sustainability program supports engineering research with the goal of promoting sustainable engineered systems that support human well-being and that are also compatible with sustaining natural (environmental) systems.  These systems provide ecological services vital for human survival.  The long-term viability of natural capital is critical for many areas of human endeavor.  Research in Environmental Sustainability typically considers long time horizons and may incorporate contributions from the social sciences and ethics. This program supports engineering research that seeks to balance society's need to provide ecological protection and maintain stable economic conditions.  There are four principal general research areas which are supported, but others can be proposed by contacting the program director by email at:  bhamilto@nsf.gov Industrial Ecology Green Engineering Ecological Engineering Earth Systems Engineering

The Engineering and Systems Design (ESD) program supports fundamental research leading to new engineering and systems design methods and practices for specific global contexts.  In particular, ESD seeks intellectual advances in which the theoretical foundations underlying design and systems engineering are operationalized into rigorous and pragmatic methods for a specific context.  In addition, the program funds the rigorous theoretical and empirical characterization of new or existing methods for design and systems engineering, identifying in which global contexts and under which assumptions these methods are effective and efficient.  Such a global context includes both a domain (such as energy systems, consumer products, cyber-physical systems) and an economic, socio-political, environmental and technological context.

The Systems Science (SYS) program supports fundamental research leading to a theoretical foundation for design and systems engineering.   In particular, the Systems Science program seeks intellectual advances in which underlying theories (such as probability theory, decision theory, game theory, organizational sociology, behavioral economics or cognitive psychology) are integrated and abstracted to develop explanatory models for design and systems engineering in a general, domain-independent fashion.  Ideally, the explanatory models, derived from the underlying theoretical foundations will lead to testable hypotheses.  Based on collected evidence supporting or falsifying the hypotheses, new insights are gained allowing the explanatory models to be refined or updated.

This program seeks to prepare, nurture, and grow the national scientific research workforce for creating, utilizing, and supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) to enable and potentially transform fundamental science and engineering research and contribute to the Nation's overall economic competitiveness and security. The goals of this solicitation are to (i) ensure broad adoption of CI tools, methods, and resources by the research community in order to catalyze major research advances and to enhance researchers' abilities to lead the development of new CI; and (ii) integrate core literacy and discipline-appropriate advanced skills in advanced CI as well as computational and data-driven science and engineering into the Nation's educational curriculum/instructional material fabric spanning undergraduate and graduate courses for advancing fundamental research. Pilot and Implementation projects may target one or both of the solicitation goals, while Large-scale Project Conceptualization projects must address both goals. For the purpose of this solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the set of resources, tools, methods, and services for advanced computation, large-scale data handling and analytics, and networking and security for large-scale systems that collectively enable potentially transformative fundamental research.

The mission of DOE's Fossil Energy R&D Program is to ensure the nation can continue to rely on traditional resources for clean, secure and affordable energy while enhancing environmental protection. The Carbon Capture program focuses on developing technologies to control emissions from either post-combustion units (e.g., pulverized coal) or pre-combustion (e.g., Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, or IGCC). First Generation technologies (i.e. those that are currently being demonstrated or that are commercially available) exist, and Second Generation Technologies (i.e., those that include technology components currently in R&D and are expected to be ready for demonstration in the 2020-2025 timeframe) have shown potential for improvement towards an economic goal for cost of capture at less than $40/tonne, but are still cost prohibitive for broad deployment to the existing coal fleet. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, the Carbon Capture Program will solicit applications under this FOA to develop technologies in the area of pre-combustion carbon capture. Approaches that look at either hydrogen (H2) separation or carbon dioxide (CO2) separation will be accepted. The carbon capture technologies developed through this FOA will have direct application to coal gasification processes where coal derived synthesis gas or hydrogen are produced. Additionally, because gasification technology is often used to produce industrial chemicals, the technologies developed through this FOA will also be directly applicable to industrial gasifiers. Finally, as these technologies are successfully developed, they can represent an export opportunity to other countries that have a larger installed base of gasifiers than the U.S.

The Acquisition Research Program (ARP) (www.acquisitionresearch.net) conducts and supports research in academic disciplines that bear on public procurement policy and management. These include economics, finance, financial management, information systems, organization theory, operations management, human resources management, risk management, and marketing, as well as the traditional public procurement areas such as contracting, program/project management, logistics, test and evaluation and systems engineering management. The ARP is interested in innovative proposals that will provide unclassified and non-proprietary findings suitable for publication in open scholarly literature. Studies of government processes, systems, or policies should also expand the body of knowledge and theory of processes, systems, or policies outside the government. The following research areas are of special interest: Leading-edge techniques in data collection, management, visual analytics and decision-making; Robust risk modeling techniques; Performance metrics and methodologies; Collaboration and cross-functional teams; and, Model-Based Acquisition. Offerors bear prime responsibility for the design, management, direction and conduct of research. Researchers should exercise judgment and original thought toward attaining the goals within broad parameters of the research areas proposed and the resources provided. Offerors are encouraged to be creative in the selection of the technical and management processes and approaches and consider the greatest and broadest impact possible.

Our goal is to bend the Keeling Curve. To that end, our team is looking for projects with a proven track record of taking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. We've developed five categories, each one addressing a specific sector of climate innovation. We award $25,000 to two projects in each category annually. Capture & Utilization -- Projects in this category are advancing technological and nature-based strategies for capturing and/or utilizing heat-trapping gases from the air or oceans. Energy -- Projects in this category decarbonize energy, support zero-carbon energy innovations, and lead the way in improving the supply, distribution, and access of low or zero-emissions energy systems worldwide. Finance -- Projects in this category are making financial mechanisms and economics work for greenhouse gas reduction and/or reversal ventures. Social & Cultural Pathways -- Projects in this category are changing the way people consider, understand, and act concerning human impacts on planet Earth. They are trying to answer the question: what does it take, socially and culturally, to develop beyond fossil fuels? Transport & Mobility -- Projects that apply in this category are reimagining and reinventing all types of vehicles, fuels, and mobility options for both people and products. These projects will confront the carbon footprint of the vehicles themselves and the routes traveled.

The following programs have due dates that fall between October 1 - 25, 2013, and these dates are being revised due to the Federal  government shutdown. These revised dates apply whether the proposal is being submitted via the NSF FastLane System or  Grants.gov. Due to compressed proposal deadlines resulting from the shutdown, proposers are advised that they may experience a  delay when contacting IT Help Central with technical support questions. Frequently asked questions regarding these date changes  are available on the Resumption of Operations page on the NSF website at: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/postshutdown.jsp. 

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