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Mathematics, Computational, & Data Sciences

2027 RTX University Research Program - Ten Topic Areas

Apply to Internal Competition // Limit: 50 (five per topic area) // Tickets Available: 50

Limiting Language 
Please note that we are limiting each university to five total applications per RFI.

Program Description

Full sponsor guidelines are available at this box link (NetID login required). 

The RTX University Research Program provides funding for academic research that aligns with RTX strategic technology priorities and long-term development objectives and its three industry-leading businesses: Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon. These projects help to strengthen and extend our collaborative research relationships with our select university partners.  Please read all the information below regarding the process and the timeline for awards. 

The ten topics are as follows: 

  1. Sensing Systems
  2. Advanced Materials and Manufacturing
  3. Microelectronics
  4. Autonomy
  5. Advanced Propulsion
  6. Artificial Intelligence
  7. Digital Lifecycle
  8. Integrated Battlespace
  9. Intelligent Aviation
  10. Integrated Power and Thermal Systems

Who can apply?

We accept applications from Principal Investigators (PIs) who meet the eligibility criteria:

  • PI’s institution: PIs must belong to a university or educational institution.
  • PI’s position: PIs must be a full-time professor (adjunct professors and adjunct researchers are not eligible) or researcher and be eligible to supervise Ph.D. students at the PI’s institution.
  • Full professors, associate professors, and assistant professors are eligible to apply.
Funding Type
External Deadline
11/19/2026 (RFI); 2/4/2027 (RFP)
Internal Deadline
Internal Time
5:00PM
Sponsor
Solicitation Type

OJJDP FY 2026 Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program Support

Request Ticket // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

Limiting Language
Limit on Number of Applications: An applicant may submit only one application in response to this NOFO. If  a  project  will  be carried  out  by two  or more  entities (project  partners),  only one  entity may submit  the  application.  The  other entities (project  partners) must  be  proposed  as subrecipients rather than  co-applicants.  An  entity may be  proposed  as a  subrecipient  in  more  than  one  application.  For additional  information  regarding  subawards,  see  the  Application  Resource Guide. 

Purpose of Funding
The  Office  of  Justice  Programs (OJP)  is committed  to  advancing  work that  furthers the  U.S.  Department  of  Justice’s (DOJ)  mission  to  keep  our country safe  and  secure  and uphold  the  rule  of  law  and  protect  the  rights of  American  citizens.  OJP  provides federal  leadership,  funding,  and  other critical  resources to  directly support  law  enforcement,  combat  violent  crime,  protect  American  children,  provide  services to  American  crime  victims,  and  address public safety challenges,  including  human  trafficking  and  the  opioid  crisis.  

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the OJJDP FY 2026 Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program Support. This opportunity supports a national network of 61 multiagency, multijurisdictional task forces engaged in investigations, forensic examinations, and prosecutions related to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation. This is accomplished through the provision of services and support to OJJDP, the ICAC task forces, ICAC National Training providers, and other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies partnering with the ICAC Task Force program. Funds will support activities that enhance training access, expand prevention and outreach capabilities, advance the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, and improve collaboration among ICAC task forces.

Funding Type
External Deadline
11/2/2026 (SF-424 on Grants.gov); 11/9/2026 (Full Application on JustGrants)

NSF Ecosystem for Low-dimensional Electronics: Growth, Assembly, Nanoelectronics, and Translation (NSF ELEGANT)

Institutionally Coordinated // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 0

PI TBA

Limiting Language
This solicitation is open to two categories of offerors: (i) organizations proposing to serve as the Ecosystem Coordinator (see Section 5.3); and (ii) organizations proposing to serve as an Expert Performer Team within one or more of the five Translation Themes (see Section 5.2). An organization may submit a proposal as Ecosystem Coordinator or as an Expert Performer Team, but not both.
 

Overview

The NSF Ecosystem for Low-dimensional Electronics: Growth, Assembly, Nanoelectronics, and Translation (NSF ELEGANT) program will position the U.S. for success in translating advanced microelectronics technologies into next-generation capabilities for artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, advanced communications, and other key technology areas critical to national security and economic competitiveness.  

To achieve program objectives, this Other Transaction Agreement Solutions Offering (OTASO) seeking an Eecosystems Ccoordinator and Expert Performer Teams in five translation themes:

Theme 1: Manufacturable Materials Platform.

Theme 2: Process Technology and Process Design Kit.

Theme 3: Device, Circuit and Full-Chip Demonstration.

Theme 4: Manufacturing Readiness and Transition.  

Theme 5: AI-Enabled Acceleration.

See OTASO and Additional Information attached to this posting for full details. Full sponsor guidelines are linked here. 

 

NSF X-Labs Initiative – AI for Physical Systems

Submit Letter of Intent // Limit: 2 (lead organization) // Limit: 2 

Limiting Language
An eligible organization can submit a maximum of two Written Proposals per Topic Announcement for Phase 0 as a lead organization. Senior/Key Personnel may be listed on a maximum of one Written Proposal per Topic Announcement.

Topic Description 
Decades of progress in AI algorithms, robotics, sensing, and embedded computing, combined with accelerating industry investment, have positioned the U.S. to redefine how intelligent systems interact with the physical world. While digital AI has advanced rapidly, the next frontier requires developing intelligent, adaptive, and scalable systems capable of perceiving, acting and learning directly within complex physical environments with adaptive human-robot interaction.

Achieving this vision demands innovations in foundational platform technologies to support situational adaptability, continuous learning, and right-sized simulation-to-reality systems. 

Imagine heterogeneous autonomous swarms in military and disaster triage environments capable of high-stakes collective decision making in collaboration with human counterparts and the situational adaptability to perform complex locomotion, sensing, and targeted delivery tasks. Or bio-inspired robotics that operate with adaptive sensing for reflexive sensor input control, neuromorphic cognitive efficiency, and self-healing materials and behaviors. These advances demand significant, continual, and cross-disciplinary ecosystems to save lives, and catalyze U.S. technological and economic innovation. 

NSF X-Labs teams will target early-stage platform technologies that enable breakthroughs to accelerate entirely new forms of AI integration in physical systems including advanced sensors, robotics, embodied systems, human-robot interfaces, or cyber-physical systems. Examples of relevant Missions include, but are not limited to: technologies to enable new forms of distributed learning and swarming; adaptive behavior in the absence of connectivity; novel algorithms for sensor integration into digital twin or cyber-physical simulations; new capabilities in edge AI for physical systems; new modalities for AI control of emerging robotics such as bio-inspired or biohybrid components; platforms to support the next generation of robotic manufacturing based on mass-customizability and intuitive learning; and breakthroughs in the development of training data that, together with other advances, prepare physical AI systems for real-world variability including interactions with human counterparts. The resultant innovative platform technologies should benefit a broad range of application domains critical to U.S. competitiveness and security, which may include healthcare, national defense, emergency response, advanced manufacturing, and scientific discovery. 

An NSF X-Labs Mission in this Topic must be transformative, accelerating breakthrough R&D in physical AI towards creating or reshaping new lines of research and technologies. Successful teams will develop platform technologies, overcome technical barriers facing AI for physical systems, demonstrate measurable impact on the U.S. science and technology landscape, and position their technologies for widespread use and investment. Teams proposing to this Topic must justify that their proposed Mission will develop a technology not presently supported by existing R&D investments by the U.S. public or private sector. 

Examples of challenges not considered in scope for this Topic include computational or software solutions without practical integration into a physical system, integration of current technologies without significant advancement of the state-of-the-art, development of technologies where the impact is narrow and not widely deployable, fundamental research without potential for application in platform technologies, incremental advancement of the state-of-the-art, or advancement of technologies that are already appropriately developed to the point of full-scale commercialization.

Funding Type
External Deadline
1/7/2027
Internal Deadline
Internal Time
5:00PM
Solicitation Type

Quantum High Performance Computing Validation and Verification Testbed

Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 0 

J. Roveda (Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering)

Limiting Language
Applicant institutions are limited to no more than 1 letter of intent or proposal as the lead institution.   

There is no limitation to the number of proposals on which an institution appears as a subrecipient or for which the institution is not the lead in a multi-institution team using collaborative applications. 

Should DOE receive submissions in excess of the applicable limits, DOE reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to request additional or clarifying information to ascertain the institution’s intended submissions.  Otherwise, DOE will consider the latest received submissions to be the institution’s intended submissions. 

  • Letters of intent in excess of the limited number of submissions will be discouraged. 
  • Proposals in excess of the limited number of submissions will be declined without review. 

Executive Summary
The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) program in Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) hereby announces interest in receiving applications to develop a concerted quantum computing verification and validation capability.  This effort should consist of interdisciplinary multi-institutional teams addressing the challenge of characterizing performance of fault-tolerant quantum computers that will accelerate scientific discovery and enable new computational workflows.  Successful efforts are expected to develop and apply a complete set of necessary tools and expertise to perform performance verification of fault tolerant quantum computers.  They should address multiple qubit technologies and be designed with enough flexibility to accommodate the rapidly evolving needs of the DOE. 

Proposed efforts should develop new and adapt existing tools for characterizing the quantum computing stack: physical hardware; quantum gates; logical quantum architecture; quantum algorithm and applications, and classical control. These teams will pave the way for the deployment of a first-of-a-kind scientifically relevant fault-tolerant quantum computing capability for the Nation, advancing DOE's mission, and ensuring America’s security, economic and scientific competitiveness, and prosperity.  Teams are encouraged to leverage the extensive scientific software, hardware, algorithms, and data resources developed under the ASCR and SC quantum-computing-related solicitations and by U.S. industry and academia.  The resulting tools, applications, and workflows may be integrated into the Genesis Mission infrastructure platform and the American Science Cloud for broad adoption by research communities. 

Proposed efforts must focus on the developing, testing, and applying algorithms, benchmarks, and software tools for real-world quantum systems.  Teams must validate their tools by demonstrating successful performance verification of the state-of-the-art quantum hardware.  Quantum hardware research and development efforts are out of scope, unless they are essential for tools development and validation.  ASCR anticipates that teams will engage in multiple quantum hardware evaluations in parallel across several qubit technologies, and the size and composition of the teams should be appropriate to meet this requirement. 

Funding Type
External Deadline
9/30/2026 (LOI); 11/10/2026 (Full Proposal)

Lunar Enabling Infrastructure Accelerator (LEIA) -Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) NextSTEP-3 Appendix A

Limit: 5 (one per topic) // Tickets Available: 3

Topic Areas

  1. Vertical Solar Array - open
  2. In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Oxygen from Regolith Production System - open
  3. Radioisotope Stirling Generator System - open
  4. In Space Advanced Manufacturing - H.J. Kim (Civil Engineering)
  5. Innovative Nanomaterial Production - Q. Hao (Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering)

Limiting Language 
Each Topic constitutes a separate competitive opportunity under this solicitation authority. All eligible Offerors under this solicitation will be permitted to submit one proposal per Topic as the prime. Offerors submitting proposals under more than one topic shall submit a separate, complete proposal for each individual topic.

Overview
The purpose of this solicitation is to acquire technology maturation, risk reduction, and capability demonstration efforts in five technology areas that address lunar and cislunar infrastructure technology gaps. These efforts are intended to generate the knowledge foundation NASA needs to support informed technical and programmatic decisions. The scope of this solicitation is derived from NASA Space Technology’s Civil Space Shortfalls and focuses on near-term mission-relevant lunar and cislunar technology priorities. 

The Government is seeking innovative solutions in the following five technology areas (hereafter referred to as “Topics”): 

  • Topic 1: Vertical Solar Array 
  • Topic 2: In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Oxygen from Regolith Production System 
  • Topic 3: Radioisotope Stirling Generator System 
  • Topic 4: In Space Advanced Manufacturing 
  • Topic 5: Innovative Nanomaterials Production 

Each Topic constitutes a separate competitive opportunity under this solicitation authority. All eligible Offerors under this solicitation will be permitted to submit one proposal per Topic as the prime. Offerors submitting proposals under more than one topic shall submit a separate, complete proposal for each individual topic. 

These Topics are focused on technology and manufacturing maturation, as well as ground-based demonstration activities, to advance capabilities toward Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 5–6 and reduce technical, programmatic, integration and operational risk associated with future mission applications. 

Through this acquisition, industry partners will be expected to design, develop and demonstrate prototype systems and generate validated performance data, analytical models, and operational insights through testing and demonstration activities. These efforts should provide evidence necessary to assess system performance and reduce technical, programmatic, integration and operational risks.

NASA anticipates active collaboration with selected Offerors through ongoing Government insight and oversight activities to evaluate technical progress and support achievement of program objectives. Offerors are expected to apply independent scientific and engineering judgment in selecting approaches that best satisfy the objectives and outcomes identified for the Topic(s) to which they are proposing. 

Topic-specific attachments provide additional technical objectives, desired performance outcomes, scope considerations, and reference requirements (see Section 11 Attachments). Offerors are strongly encouraged to review the applicable attachment(s) in their entirety prior to preparing and submitting proposals.

Advisory Support for Establishing a National Cybersecurity Operations Center (SOC)

Request Ticket // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1

Limiting Language
Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization. If more than one proposal is submitted from an organization, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible for funding.

Executive Summary
The Bureau of Emerging Threats (ET) leads the Department of State in anticipating and responding to national security challenges arising from adversary use of new technologies across cyberspace, outer space, critical infrastructure and undersea domains, quantum technologies, and artificial intelligence (AI). ET focuses on protecting U.S. national security in these areas of strategic and technological competition using diplomatic tools and interagency capabilities as part of coordinated foreign policy responses.

Within ET, the Office of Critical Infrastructure Security (ET/CI) is responsible for addressing novel threats and disruptions to critical infrastructure that threaten lives, economic stability, and national power. ET/CI addresses threat vectors targeting major critical infrastructure sectors, including energy systems, communications networks, transportation and logistics, financial systems, healthcare, and water, and works to coordinate “upgrade and secure” efforts with allies and partners, counter attacks against data centers, and protect against cloud security vulnerabilities.

In the Western Hemisphere, adversaries have exploited weak cyber defenses in government networks and critical infrastructure to gain intelligence advantages, potential coercive leverage over sovereign decision-making, and latent access pathways that may extend to U.S. interests. Argentina, under the Milei administration, has signaled that it seeks close alignment with the United States on strategic and economic issues, including a deliberate transition away from untrusted foreign digital infrastructure suppliers in favor of trusted, market-oriented partners.

Persistent and sophisticated cyber threats—including advanced persistent threats (APTs), targeted ransomware, and espionage campaigns—continue to target Argentine ministries and critical infrastructure. Without a mature national-level Security Operations Center (SOC) with clear authorities, mission, charter, and well-trained staff, a country’s ability to detect, analyze, and respond to such threats in a coordinated manner remains limited.

Promoting Technology for the Common Good and Countering Authoritarian Influence

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

Limiting Language
Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization. If more than one proposal is submitted from an organization, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible for funding. Applicants may be included as a subgrantee on other proposals.

Executive Summary
This proposal will support cooperation between the State Department and an implementing partner that will bring together stakeholders from governments, academia, civil society, industry, and faith-based organizations to engage in academic research, events, and other activities that: advance a human-centered approach to emerging technology which respects the inherent dignity and unalienable natural rights of all individuals, develop intellectual understandings of the dignity of the human person and unalienable rights, and counter authoritarian influences that undermine fundamental freedoms. While advancing a pro-innovation, industry-led, multistakeholder approach to the development of technology, including AI, the program will foster cooperation between the implementing partners and other stakeholders to ensure technology promotes human flourishing and the common good. The program will also identify and counter malign authoritarian influences that threaten fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion or belief, and human dignity, with a particular focus on how authoritarian institutions attempt to influence or hamper faith-based institutions. Program implementers may include academic institutions, civil society groups, industry, and religious organizations working in close collaboration to produce research, promote best practices, conduct public education campaigns, engage in advocacy, and otherwise promote technology development grounded in natural law, human dignity, and the common good.

NSF 26-513: U.S. National Science Foundation State and Regional Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Hubs: Expanding Access to Compute for Scientific Discovery (AI Infrastructure Hubs)

Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 0

D. Ebert (Office of Research and Partnership)

Limiting Language
Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: 1

The PI institution may submit only one proposal for each competition (deadline) specified in the solicitation.

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: 1

An individual may participate in at most one State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs proposal as PI, co-PI, or Senior/Key Personnel for each deadline. If an individual exceeds this limit, only the first proposal received will be accepted, and the remainder will be returned without review. This rule does not apply to advisory roles.

Program Overview
The NSF State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs program aims to expand access to the compute required for AI-enabled scientific discovery and to transform the research, education, and training opportunities offered by institutions of higher education. AI Infrastructure Hubs will connect researchers to new compute infrastructure that leverages contributions from state governments, research institutions, industry, and philanthropy, accelerating AI-enabled discovery across science and engineering and developing a skilled technical workforce for AI use in the scientific enterprise.

The program responds to a core tenet of Science: A New Golden Age to renew America's research and development (R&D) for changes in today's scientific enterprise, including the role of AI in laying the foundation for a new era of scientific discovery and the growing role of industry and philanthropy in funding R&D. In response, the Administration's FY28 R&D Priorities Memorandum called for investing in AI for science as a national mission and expanding the scale of, and flexible access to, advanced compute and data infrastructure that researchers now require for frontier scientific discovery.

Each AI Infrastructure Hub will be organized as a flexible state or regional consortium of state and local governments, research institutions, philanthropies, and the private sector. Consortia will be responsible for all funding for new or expanded computing, data, and AI resources, whether on-premises or cloud-based. NSF will fund each Hub's consortium coordination, AI infrastructure workforce development, and faculty training and coursework development in leveraging AI for science.

Funding Type
External Deadline
11/4/2026
Internal Deadline
Internal Time
5:00PM
Solicitation Type

Global Cybercrime and Cryptocurrency Assessment and Intelligence Gathering

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

Limiting Language 
Applicants must address only one strategic goal per application but may address one or more objectives within that goal. Applicants may submit only one application per goal. Submitting multiple applications for the same goal will result in all applications for that goal being deemed ineligible for technical review. Organizations may form a consortium and submit a combined proposal; however, one organization should be designated as the lead applicant and other organization(s) listed as sub-recipient partner(s).

Goal Areas

  • Goal 1: Disrupt and deter cybercrime harming American communities and businesses by strengthening threat understanding and investigative and cross-border coordination capabilities
  • Goal 2: To disrupt and deter cryptocurrency-enabled criminal networks by strengthening the enforcement, investigative, and prosecutorial capacity of criminal justice institutions to combat the criminal misuse of virtual assets.


Overview
The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs of the U.S. Department of State announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications addressing cybercrime and cyber-enabled crimes. Projects should focus on combating cyber intrusions, online fraud, online-facilitated drug trafficking, digital piracy, and the criminal misuse of cryptocurrency and virtual assets. These crimes represent a rapidly evolving, cross-border threat that directly undermines U.S. national and economic security and harms an estimated one in four American households according to a 2018 Gallup survey. Criminals increasingly exploit the pseudonymous and borderless nature of virtual assets to launder proceeds, evade law enforcement, and victimize Americans at scale across all of these typologies. These trends have produced large- scale financial losses and growing harm to Americans, prompting President Trump's March 2026 Executive Order to strengthen efforts against cybercrime targeting U.S. families, businesses, and critical infrastructure.

Funding Type
External Deadline
8/31/2026