Completed

No Applicants  // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

NIFA requests applications for the Alfalfa Seed and Alfalfa Forage Systems program. Areas of potential research include increasing yield and quality; improving harvest and storage systems; developing methods to estimate forage yield and quality to support marketing and reduce producer risks; exploring new and novel uses for alfalfa; improving production and quality of alfalfa seed; and documenting the contribution of alfalfa production systems to climate-smart agriculture, including the sequestration of carbon. This is an integrated research and extension program.

No applicants //  Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

The RHSE program seeks to foster quality of life in rural communities by providing the essential knowledge necessary for successful programs of rural development, improving coordination among Federal agencies, other levels of government, and institutions and private organizations in rural areas, and developing and disseminating information about rural conditions.In FY 2024, NIFA is soliciting applications for RHSE in the area of Individual and Family Health Education.

 Limit: 1 //  A. Ganchorre (Assistant Dean, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Students Affairs) 

The purpose of the Higher Education Multicultural Scholars Program (MSP) is to provide scholarships to support recruiting, engaging, retaining, mentoring, and training committed multicultural scholars, resulting in either baccalaureate degrees within the food and agricultural science disciplines. The goals and objectives of the scholarships are to encourage outstanding students from groups that are historically underrepresented and underserved to pursue and complete baccalaureate degrees in food and agricultural sciences, that would lead to a diverse and highly skilled work force. This may include the teaching and preservation of traditional ecological knowledge.

Underrepresented/underserved groups are those whose representation among food and agricultural professionals is disproportionately less than their proportion in the general population as indicated in standard statistical references, or as documented on a case-by-case basis by national survey data (e.g., the U.S. Department of Education's Digest of Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Agricultural Education Information Systems, etc.).

The need for this program is supported by the USDA 2020-2025 Employment Opportunities in Food, Agriculture, Renewable Natural Resources, and the Environment. The report indicates shortages of graduates in the food and agricultural disciplines, and a corresponding need to fill an estimated 57,400 annual openings for individuals with baccalaureate or higher degrees in food, renewable energy, and environmental specialties between 2020 and 2025.

Through scholarships, MSP aims to increase the participation of any group historically underrepresented in USDA mission areas and prepare them for the professional and scientific workforce in the food and agricultural sciences.

USDA/NIFA is soliciting applications for student education that will:

1. Prepare graduates to meet the demand for highly qualified personnel entering the workforce related to the food and agricultural sciences;

2. Support more undergraduates in transitioning to graduate education in USDA mission sciences;

3. Contribute to the reduction of the disparity among underrepresented and underserved populations entering graduate schools to better reflect the demographics of the U.S. and enable higher education to remain globally competitive;

4. Promote student success within food and agricultural disciplines at the undergraduate level; and

5. Focus on social support structure, and professional mentoring to ensure entry into food and agricultural science areas and completion of graduate education or high level of competitiveness for the workforce.

No Applicants  // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

The intent of this solicitation is to request proposals from organizations who are willing to serve as resource providers within the NSF Advanced Computing Systems and Services (ACSS) program. Resource providers would (1) provide advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) resources in production operations to support the full range of computational- and data-intensive research across all of science and engineering (S&E), and (2) ensure democratized and equitable access to the proposed resources. The current solicitation is intended to complement previous NSF investments in advanced computational infrastructure by provisioning resources, broadly defined in this solicitation to include systems and/or services.

• Category I, Capacity Resources: production computational resources maximizing the capacity provided to support the broad range of computation and data analytics needs in S&E research.

 Limit: 5* // Tickets Available: 4

Q. Hoa ( Aerospace-Mechanical Engineering) -  Topic 2. Smart Manufacturing Platforms for Battery Production.

The goals of this FOA are to advance manufacturing platform technologies in the following specific areas: 1) Platforms for next generation battery manufacturing - focusing on manufacturability and scalability of critical battery components and system architectures 2) Smart manufacturing platforms for battery production - developing innovative ways to revolutionize battery prouction. *An entity may submit only one Concept Paper for each topic area/sub-topic area.
 

Topics include:

1. Platforms for Next Generation Battery Manufacturing

     1.1 Processes and Machines for Sodium-ion Batteries

     1.2 Processes and Design for Manufacturability of Flow Batteries

     1.3 Scalable Manufacturing of Nanolayered Films for Energy Storage

2. Smart Manufacturing Platforms for Battery Production

No Applicants  //  Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

Up to one (1) QSTD Pilot proposal may be submitted per Lead Organization.

NSF support for use-inspired and translational research in Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE), combined with its existing strength in support of the underlying foundational research, is anticipated to accelerate development of a market for quantum technologies.The NQVL aims to develop and utilize use-inspired and application-oriented quantum technologies. In the process, NQVL researchers will explore quantum frontiers, foster QISE workforce education and training, engage in outreach activities at all levels, and promote broadening participation, diversity, equity, and inclusion in QISE, thereby lowering barriers at all entry points of the research enterprise. 

It is required that prospective PIs contact the NQVL Program Officer as soon as possible, but not later than two weeks before submitting a proposal in response to this solicitation, to ascertain that the focus and budget of their proposal is appropriate for this solicitation.

No applicants  //  Limit: 5* // Tickets Available: 5 

*An entity may submit only one Concept Paper and one Full Application for each topic area of this FOA.

The goal of this FOA is to engage industry in the prototyping and validation of technologies and processes proven at the bench scale to accelerate commercial readiness and adoption. Successful projects will: 

• Validate the materials and manufacturing technologies that reduce demand or extend the lifetime of critical materials;
• Enable informed decisions, optimize processes, and build confidence in technology scale up through life-cycle assessment (LCA) and technoeconomic analysis (TEA);
• Address the urgency to meet critical material demand with secure and sustainable critical material manufacturing technologies.

The topics listed in this FOA address specific manufacturing challenges facing critical material supply chains in the U.S.: 

• Topic 1 – Use of Magnets with Reduced Critical Materials Content
• Topic 1a – Critical Material Lean/Free Magnets for Clean Energy Technologies
• Topic 1b – Motors and Drivetrains using Critical Material Lean/Free Magnets
• Topic 2 – Improved Unit Operations of Processing and Manufacturing of Critical Materials
• Topic 3 – Critical Material Recovery from Scrap and Post-Consumer Products
• Topic 4 – Reduced Critical Material Demand for Clean Energy Technologies

No Applicants //  Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

Only one proposal will be considered by ECA from each applicant organization.

The IDEAS grant competition annually awards approximately 20 grants of up to $35,000 each to accredited U.S. colleges and universities physically based in the United States or its territories. The grants support institutions with a broad range of capacity to create, expand, and/or diversify their study abroad programs, including institutions that currently have limited or no experience administering study abroad programs as well as those with established programs.

Program Goals

• Create or expand U.S. colleges and universities’ capacity to administer study abroad programs that are primarily for U.S. undergraduate students and align with U.S. foreign policy goals;
• Increase the number of U.S. undergraduate students studying or interning abroad for academic credit, with an emphasis on diversifying both the students and institutions taking part in study abroad and the destinations to which they travel; and
• Collect, develop, and share best practices for increasing and diversifying study abroad opportunities for U.S. students with the broader U.S. higher education community through trainings and other capacity-building initiatives. 

The IDEAS grant competition is open to U.S. accredited U.S. colleges and universities physically based in the United States or its territories with a broad range of capacity to administer study abroad programs, including institutions that currently have limited or no experience administering study abroad programs as well as those with established programs. Minority-serving institutions are encouraged to apply.

No Applicants //  Limit: 2 // Tickets Available: 2 

Applicant institutions are limited to no more than two pre-applications and two applications as the lead institution.

The DOE SC program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER), through its Bioimaging Research effort, hereby announces its interest in receiving innovative applications to advance fundamental research or use-inspired technologies of new bioimaging or sensing approaches. Fundamental research to enhance spatial and temporal resolution, measurement speed, long-term sample stability, selectivity, sensitivity, or chemical specificity of bioimaging technologies are desirable. Proposed research should demonstrate a comparative advantage over state-of-the-art techniques or identify biological characteristics that cannot currently be measured. Quantumenabled technologies are allowed but not required in this FOA. Applications can be submitted under one of two subtopics: 1) Novel research concepts proceeding through technical validation that are not required to evaluate new biological hypotheses; 2) Innovative experimental prototype research proceeding through hypothesis-driven biological experimentation; proposals submitted under this subtopic are encouraged to coordinate with biological collaborators if domain expertise is not in-house. All applications are expected to describe how, if realized, they would advance biological knowledge of plant and microbial systems relevant to bioeconomy or environmental research in fields of study supported by BER.

Limit: 2* // Tickets Available: 0

• Science & Engineering Track - P. Carini (Environmental Sciences)
• Medical Research Track - M. Cai (Chemistry & Biochemistry)

Please note the internal deadline has been extended to May 8, 2024. 

*UA may submit one concept paper in Physical Sciences and Engineering and one concept paper in Medical Sciences in this cycle.
The selected projects must participate in the concept counseling session with the W.M. Keck Foundation between July 1 and August 15 to determine if they can proceed to the Phase I submission.

The W.M. Keck Foundation Research Program uses a three-step process for this opportunity. The first step is a Concept paper. The Undergraduate Education program is currently not accepting concept papers. The next steps are by the foundation’s invitation. UArizona review criteria reflect previous interactions with the W.M. Keck Foundation. Proposals should focus on basic, fundamental science with broad applications. Grants range from $1 million to $5 million and are typically $2 million or less.

The proposed work should show a significant leap forward rather than an extension of existing work.  

To be considered by Keck, applicants must have a statement from a federal program officer expressing that the project is not a good fit due to risk (rather than technical or theoretical fit) or a decline from a federal program where the summary statement or individual reviews highlight the incredible novelty, but the high-risk nature that makes it difficult to fund at the federal level.

 

The Science and Engineering Research Program seeks to benefit humanity by supporting high-risk/high-impact projects that are distinctive and novel in their approach to intractable problems, push the edge of their field, or question the prevailing paradigm. Past grants have been awarded to support pioneering science and engineering research and the development of promising new technologies, instrumentation, or methodologies. 

The Medical Research Program seeks to advance the frontiers of medicine to benefit humanity by supporting high-risk/high-impact projects that are distinctive and novel in their approach to intractable problems, push the edge of their field, or question the prevailing paradigm. Past grants have supported pioneering biological research, basic research, and the development of promising new technologies. The Keck Foundation does NOT fund work that is clinical, applied, or translational; treatment trials; or research for the sole purpose of drug development. 

Both senior and early career investigators are encouraged to apply. Team approaches, including interdisciplinary teams, are encouraged.