This monthly newsletter has been created to assist FAS researchers across all domains who are looking for funding opportunities related to "Big Data". In response to the need for new conceptual and computational approaches for big data processing and storage, as well as the need for educational opportunities in this area for up and coming researchers, sponsors like NSF, DOD, DOE, NIH and private foundations are offering a growing number of funding opportunities for Big Data research and training programs.

This newsletter will be sent electronically each month. To receive this and other funding opportunity newsletters, please sign up here.  All opportunities will be archived and recipients may unsubscribe at any time.
Funding Opportunities for Big Data
Social Science
 (Computer) Science and Engineering
Biomedical Science
Education and Training

*  Indicates a funding announcement that was updated or added to the newsletter this month.

News and Resources

Working jointly with the BD2K Centers-Coordination Center (BD2KCCC) and the NIH Office of Data Science, the BD2K Training Coordinating Center (TCC) is spearheading a new virtual lecture series on the data science underlying modern biomedical research. The seminar series consists of weekly webinar presentations on Friday afternoons from 12:00-1:00pm EST covering the basics of data management, representation, computation, statistical inference, data modeling, and other topics relevant to "big data" biomedicine. The seminar series provides essential training suitable for individuals at all levels of the biomedical community. All video presentations from the seminar series will be streamed for live viewing, recorded, and posted online for future viewing and reference. These videos will also be indexed as part of TCC's Educational Resource Discovery Index (ERuDIte), shared/mirrored with the BD2KCCC, and with other BD2K resources.

The BD2K-LINCS Data Coordination and Integration Center is part of the   Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K)  NIH initiative, and it is the data coordination center for the NIH Common Fund's   Library of Integrated Network-based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) program , which aims to characterize how a variety of human cells, tissues and the entire organism respond to perturbations by drugs and other molecular factors.  The purpose of LINCS DSR webinars is to serve as a  forum for engaging data scientists within and outside of LINCS consortium to work on problems related to LINCS data analysis and integration. Webinars take place on Tuesday afternoons at 3pm EST.

The Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology (DMICE) and Library are pleased to announce the release of open educational resources (OERs) in the area of Biomedical Big Data Science. Funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Program, OERs have been produced that can be downloaded, used, and repurposed for a variety of educational audiences by both learners and educators. Development of the OERs is an ongoing process, but they have reached the point where a critical mass of the content is being made available for use and to obtain feedback. The OERs are intended to be flexible and customizable and their use or repurpose is encouraged. They can be used as "out of the box" courses for students or as materials for educators to use in courses, training programs, and other learning activities. The goal is to create 32 module topics.  

On December 1, 2016, the NIH Office of the Associate Director for Data Science hosted the Open Data Science Symposium, a public symposium exploring how Open Data and Open Science are transforming biomedical research.  

With this DCL, NSF seeks input that provides a holistic view of the future needs for advanced cyberinfrastructure for advancing the Nation's research enterprise.  This whole-of-NSF activity recognizes that researchers in different disciplines may need different resources; may have differing priorities for access, interoperability, and continuity; and may require external expertise to address the most critical problems in their discipline. NSF therefore strongly encourages researchers in all fields of science, engineering and education to respond to this Request for Information.  NSF invites both individuals and groups of individuals to provide input on the specific scientific and engineering research challenges that require advanced cyberinfrastructure for their solutions, via the following submission website:  http://www.nsfci2030.org .  The deadline for providing feedback is April 5, 2017.

DREAM Challenges pose fundamental questions about systems biology and translational medicine. As the volume and complexity of data continues to increase, it is critical to develop new methods to use data to address fundamental questions to better understand and improve biological sciences and human health. DREAM challenges leverage the wisdom of the crowd to find new and better computational models and then make these methods available to all. Designed and run by a community of researchers from a variety of organizations, its challenges invite participants to propose solutions - fostering collaboration and building communities in the process. Expertise and institutional support are provided by Sage Bionetworks, along with the infrastructure to host challenges via their Synapse platform. Individuals and groups are encouraged collaborate openly so that the  "wisdom of the crowd" provides the greatest impact on science and human health.
 
Social Science
Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR)
Building Community and Capacity in Data Intensive Research in Education (BCC-EHR)
Sponsor Deadline: March 15, 2017
OSP Deadline: March 8, 201 7
Award Information: Normal limits for funding requests of BCC proposals are up to $500,000 with award durations up to 3 years. A total of $2,500,000 will be made available for up to 5 awards.

As part of NSF's Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21) activity, the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) seeks to enable research communities to develop visions, teams, and capabilities dedicated to creating new, large-scale, next-generation data resources and relevant analytic techniques to advance fundamental research for areas of research covered by EHR programs. Successful proposals will outline activities that will have significant impacts across multiple fields by enabling new types of data-intensive research. Investigators should think broadly and create a vision that extends intellectually across multiple disciplines and that includes - but is not necessarily limited to - areas of research funded by EHR. This will be the final BCC-EHR solicitation.  

Dear Colleague Letter: Enabling New Collaborations Between Computer and Information Science & Engineering (CISE) and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Research Communities
Sponsor Deadline: April 1, 2017
OSP Deadline: March 24, 201 7
Award Information: Up to $300,000 for up to 2 years. Approximately 5 EAGERs will be awarded during each round.

With this DCL, NSF encourages the submission of EArly-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) proposals to the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program that foster novel interdisciplinary research carried out in new collaborations between one or more Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) researchers and  one or more Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) researchers. 

EAGER is a funding mechanism for supporting exploratory work in its early stages on untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas or approaches. Thus, proposals must talk about why they are appropriate for an EAGER (for instance, proposals that respond to this solicitation may be "high-risk, high-reward" through involving radically different approaches, applying new expertise, or engaging novel disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives).

Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) and  U.S. Department of Treasury
Dear Colleague Letter: OFR-NSF Partnership in Support of Research Collaborations in Finance Informatics
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Financial Research (OFR) of the Department of Treasury share an interest in advancing basic and applied research centered on Computational and Information Processing Approaches to and Infrastructure in support of, Financial Research and Analysis and Management (CIFRAM). NSF and OFR have established a collaboration (hereafter referred to as CIFRAM) to identify and fund a small number of exploratory but potentially transformative CIFRAM research proposals. The collaboration enables OFR to support a broad range of financial research related to OFR's mission, including research on potential threats to financial stability. It also assists OFR with the goal of promoting and encouraging collaboration between the government, the private sector, and academic institutions interested in furthering financial research and analysis. The collaboration enables the NSF to nurture fundamental CISE research on a variety of topics including algorithms, informatics, knowledge representation, and data analytics needed to advance the current state of the art in financial research and analysis. Proposals that involve collaborations between Computer Scientists, Mathematicians, Statisticians, and experts in Financial Risk Analysis and Management are especially welcome.

Principal Investigators (PIs) interested in seeking research support through the program should submit 2-page white papers to sspengle@nsf.gov and  OFR_Grants@ofr.treasury.gov (please use these addresses; the one listed in the DCL is out of date). If OFR and NSF agree that the research idea falls within the scope of CIFRAM, the PI will be invited to submit an EAGER proposal. 

(Computer) Science & Engineering
DOCNIST United States Department of Commerce (DOC)
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Measurement Science and Engineering (MSE) Research Grant Program for the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) 
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling 
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: $10,000-$500,000, with project periods of up to 5 years. In FY 2015, the ITL Grant Program funded 38 new awards totaling $6,980,364.
 
The ITL Grant Program provides financial assistance to support the conduct of research or a recipient's portion of collaborative research in the broad areas of Advanced Network Technologies, Big Data, Biometrics, Cloud Computing, Cyber-Physical Systems, Forensic Science, Information Access, Information Processing and Understanding, Cybersecurity, Health Information Technology, Human Factors and Usability, Applied and Computational Mathematics, Mathematical Foundations of Measurement Science for Information Systems, Metrology Infrastructure for Modeling and Simulation, Privacy Engineering, Software Testing, Statistics for Metrology and Statistical Methods in Forensic Science. See http://www.nist.gov/itl/ for more information about ITL. Proposals on product development and commercialization are not considered responsive to this funding opportunity. Financial support may be provided for conferences, workshops, or other technical research meetings that are relevant to the mission of ITL.

DODASFOR United States Department of Defense (DOD)
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
Broad Agency Announcement: Research Interests of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research - Information and Networks (RTA2) Research Grants - and Conference & Workshop Support
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAAs are active until superseded)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Award Information: Research proposals budgeting between $200,000 and $400,000 per year are encouraged. Most awards are 3 years in duration, and may not exceed 5 years. Conference and workshop grants up to $50,000 are also available. AFOSR commits the bulk of its funding by the fall of each year.

The Information and Networks Team within the Engineering and Information Science Branch is organized to support many U.S. Air Force priority areas including autonomy, space situational awareness, and cyber security. The research programs within this team lead the discovery and development of foundational issues in mathematical, information and network oriented sciences. They are organized along three themes: Information, Decision Making, and Networks.

The information theme addresses the critical challenges faced by the U.S. Air Force which lie at the intersection of the ability to collect, mathematically analyze, and disseminate large quantities of information in a time critical fashion with assurances of operation and security. Closely aligned with the mathematical analysis of information is the need for autonomous decision making. Research in this theme focuses on the discovery of mathematical laws, foundational scientific principles, and new, reliable and robust algorithms, which underlie intelligent, mixed human-machine decision-making to achieve accurate real-time projection of expertise and knowledge into and out of the battle space. Information analysis and decision making rarely occur in the context of a single source. The networks theme addresses critical issues involving how the organization and interaction among large collections of information providers and consumers contributes to an understanding of the dynamics of complex information systems.

In addition to research grants, AFOSR also provides partial support for conferences and workshops in areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research or educational findings, or to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new research and educational techniques in its areas of research interest. Proposals must be submitted at least 6 months prior to the conference or workshop start date to be considered.
 
Click here for more information about the research grant program and  here for guidance on how to apply for a conference or workshop grant.

Army Research Office (ARO)
Broad Agency Announcement for Basic and Applied Scientific Research for Fiscal Years 2012 through 2017 - Computing Science & Mathematical Science
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until March 31, 2017 or until superseded)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 


One of ARO's priority research areas is computing science, with a particular emphasis on visualization. Specific research areas of interest are, but not limited to, discrete mathematics, computational geometry, robust geometric computing, graph theory, geometric and solid modeling, interactive graphics, 3D visualization tools, verification & validation, and synthetic environments. Special emphasis is placed on making very large simulations and the visualization of massive data sets faster, more computationally efficient, and more interactive for the user while maintaining an appropriate level of fidelity and physical realism.

Another priority research area is mathematical science, with a particular emphasis on: Probability and Statistics (Statistical Theory and Techniques for Real Time Analysis of Data Stream, and Statistical Analysis of Very Large and Very Small Data Sets); Biomathematics (Multiscale Modeling/Inverse Problems); and Computational Mathematics.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Agile Teams (A-Teams) 
Sponsor Deadline: February 7, 2017
OSP Deadline: January 31, 2017
Award Information:  There will be four 12-month phases (a base phase with three options) in the A-Teams program. DARPA anticipates multiple awards. The level of funding for individual awards made under this BAA will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. The total anticipated amount of program funding is approximately $22M over 4 years.
 
The Defense Sciences Office at DARPA is soliciting innovative research proposals in the area of predictive frameworks and experimental testbeds for the design of agile, hybrid teams of multiple humans teamed with intelligent machines. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science or systems.
 
The A-Teams program will have three technical areas:
  • Technical Area 1 (TA1): Dynamic Team Structure Design
  • Technical Area 2 (TA2): Team Problem Solving
  • Technical Area 3 (TA3): Experimental Testbeds
It is expected that proposers will focus on a single TA, however, exceptional concepts integrating TA1 and TA2 (only) will be considered. Proposals for any other combination of TAs will not be accepted.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Information Innovation Office (I2O) Broad Agency Announcement  
Sponsor Deadline for Abstracts (strongly encouraged): June 30, 2017
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: August 25, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  A limited number of awards are anticipated. The level of funding for individual awards made available under this BAA has not been predetermined and will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds.
 
The Information Innovation Office (I2O) develops game-changing information science and technology to ensure information advantage for the U.S. and its allies. To accomplish this, I2O sponsors basic and applied research in three thrust areas: Cyber, Analytics and Symbiosis. I2O may also consider submissions outside these areas if the proposal involves the development of novel software-based capabilities having promise to provide decisive information advantage for the U.S. and its allies. I2O seeks unconventional approaches that are outside the mainstream, challenge accepted assumptions, and have the potential to radically change established practice. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of the art.

This BAA seeks revolutionary research ideas for topics not being addressed by ongoing I2O programs or other published solicitations. Potential proposers are highly encouraged to review the current I2O programs ( http://www.darpa.mil/about-us/offices/i2o) and solicitations ( http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities) to avoid proposing efforts that duplicate existing activities or that are responsive to other published I2O solicitations.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Synergystic Discovery and Design (SD2)
Sponsor Deadline: February 14, 2017
OSP Deadline: February 7, 2017
Award Information:  Multiple awards are anticipated. The level of funding for individual awards made under this solicitation has not been predetermined and will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds. Award duration will be 48 months.
   
The SD2 program aims to develop data-driven methods to accelerate scientific discovery and robust design in domains that lack complete models. Engineers regularly use high-fidelity simulations to create robust designs in complex domains such as aeronautics, automobiles, and integrated circuits. In contrast, robust design remains elusive in domains such as synthetic biology, neuro-computation, cyber, and polymer chemistry due to the lack of high-fidelity models. SD2 will develop tools to enable robust design despite the lack of complete scientific models. DARPA intends for SD2 to be a highly collaborative program in which all performers (both within and across TAs) will constructively interact with one another.
 
The program structure includes five technical areas (TAs) that must work collaboratively to achieve program goals:
  • TA1 (Data-Centric Scientific Discovery): Develop computational workflows and algorithms to automatically detect significant variations between expected versus observed outcomes (hereafter termed "experimental surprise"); extract patterns, outliers, and design constraints from experimental data at scale; and use patterns to refine models.
  • TA2 (Design in the Context of Uncertainty): Extend engineering and planning formalisms to enable automated refinement of intermediate designs.
  • TA3 (Hypothesis and Design Evaluation): Experimentally evaluate the designs and hypothesized system knowledge generated by TA1 and TA2 in a manner that tests for reproducibility and robustness.
  • TA4 (Data and Analysis Hub): Extend open source tools to virtualize access to computational resources, data, and results in a manner that links multiple labs and research communities.
  • TA5 (Challenge Problem Integrator): Work with domain experts throughout the program to establish quarterly challenge problems to drive development of automated, data-driven methods that accelerate complex system design at scale.
DODDTRA United States Department of Defense (DOD)
Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)
Fundamental Research to Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until September 2024 or until superseded)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Grants may range from small dollar value (e.g., $25K) up to $1M in total costs annually. Efforts may be proposed for up to 5 years 

DTRA safeguards America and its allies from weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and provides capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat and effects from chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high yield explosives.

One of this BAA's Thrust Areas is Network Sciences: The fundamental science of network sciences includes advancing knowledge of complex disparate but interdependent networks critical to military operations where WMD-related robustness, resiliency, recovery of, and informational and operational utility is required. It includes response, resilience, and recovery of interdependent, multi-layered physical networks after exposure from electromagnetic pulse and other nuclear weapons effects, rapid discovery and analyzing low-observable WMD-related information from large, disparate WMD-related data sets from multiple types of networks, and to develop theories and representations for low observable WMD-related radical ideation from social networks. 

The evaluation of all submissions will be conducted in two phases. Phase I is for receipt and evaluation of pre-application white papers in direct response to a published topic or by invitation based on the assessment of the idea by the Technical POC. Phase II is for receipt and evaluation of invited proposal applications. Invitation to the Phase II, invited proposal submission, will be based on the evaluation results of the Phase I pre-application white paper.
 
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC)
Broad Agency Announcement - Geospatial Research Laboratory - Big Spatial Data
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until January 31, 2017 or until superseded)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
 
The GEOSPATIAL RESEARCH LABORATORY's (GRL) mission is to provide the Warfighter with a superior knowledge of the battlefield. GRL's Information Generation and Management Branch invites proposals related to big spatial data. The prevalence of new sensing technologies and extensive modalities of recording human generated content have caused a surge in the amount and growth of spatiotemporal data. The data can manifest under various forms: large repositories of static geographic data to fast arriving evolving datastreams. The objective of this research is to investigate new techniques to process, manage, and analyze this massive set of spatiotemporal data. However, the research is not limited to structured geographic data but can include unstructured sources that may contain highly ambiguous geospatial information. Of particular interest are research that advance the state of the art distributed processing/management of spatial data, generalizable methods for online spatial data mining, and summarization approaches of spatiotemporal data.

National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA)
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Academic Research Program
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (strongly encouraged): Rolling through August 31, 2017 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: Rolling through September 30, 2017 
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: NGA University Research Initiatives (NURI) awards are expected to have a 24-month base period with a value of up to $300,000, with up to three one-year options valued at up to $150,000 per option year. NGA New Investigator Program (NIP) award grants are expected to have a 24-month base period valued up to $200,000, with up to one-year option valued at $100,000.

NGA welcomes all innovative ideas for path-breaking research that may advance the GEOINT mission. The NGA mission is to provide timely, relevant, and accurate geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national security objectives. GEOINT is the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess, and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth. The NGA Academic Research Program (NARP) is focused on innovative, far-reaching basic and applied research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics having the potential to advance the GEOINT mission. The objective of the NARP is to support innovative, highpayoff research that provides the basis for revolutionary progress in areas of science and technology affecting the needs and mission of NGA. This research also supports the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG), which is the combination of technology, systems and organizations that gather, produce, distribute and consume geospatial data and information. This research is aimed at advancing GEOINT capabilities by improving analytical methods, enhancing and expanding systems capabilities, and leveraging resources for common NSG goals. NGA welcomes innovative research ideas in a number of areas, one of which is massive data.

NGA offers several award mechanisms, including NGA University Research Initiatives (NURI) awards and NGA New Investigator Program (NIP) Grants.

Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
NRL Broad Agency Announcement
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers : Rolling (current BAA is active until superseded)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the Navy's corporate laboratory. NRL conducts basic and applied research for the Navy in a variety of scientific and technical disciplines. The basic research program is driven by perceptions about future requirements of the Navy. NRL is organized into three research directorates and one center: Systems Directorate; Materials Science and Component Technology Directorate; Ocean and Atmospheric Science and Technology Directorate; and Naval Center for Space Technology.

NRL invites proposals which range from theoretical studies to proof-of-concept to include fabrication and delivery of a prototype. NRL is interested in receiving proposals for the research efforts described under this BAA, including the following which relate to Big Data: 
  • Information Management and Decision Architectures
  • Federated, Distributed Computing/Network Infrastructure 
  • Basic and Applied Research in High Temperature Plasmas
  • Airborne, Shipboard, and Overhead Data Acquisition and Analysis
DODONRUnited States Department of Defense (DOD)
Office of Naval Research (ONR)
Broad Agency Announcement for Navy and Marine Corps Science and Technology - Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active until September 30, 2017 or until superseded)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is interested in receiving proposals for Long-Range Science and Technology (S&T) Projects which offer potential for advancement and improvement of Navy and Marine Corps operations. ONR's Division of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance invests in areas of science and their applications such as data science, mathematical and computational science, computer and information sciences, quantum information sciences, cyber security, electronics, command and control and combat systems, communications, cyber operations, electronic warfare, sensing and surveillance, and precision timing and navigation. One of this Division's specific thrusts and focused research areas is: Mathematics, Computers and Information Sciences, which sponsors basic and applied research, and advanced technology development efforts in mathematics, computer and information sciences that address Navy and Department of Defense needs in computation, information processing, information operation, information assurance and cybersecurity, decision tools, and command and control with specific focus on enabling rapid, accurate decision making. Specific scientific and technical areas include: a) Applied and computational analysis; b) Command and control; c) Computational methods for decisionmaking; d) Cyber security and complex software systems; e) Machine learning, reasoning, and intelligence; f) Mathematical data science; g) Mathematical optimization and operations research; h) Quantum information sciences.

ArmyNightVisionUnited States Department of Defense (DOD)
U.S. Army Research, Development & Engineering Command (RDECOM)
Broad Agency Announcement for Night Vision Technologies
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current BAA is active through FY19 - see below for program-specific deadlines)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: There is no "a priori judgment" regarding the number or size of individual awards or the allocation of total research and development funds across the technology solutions. The desired period of performance for awards is 2 years. 

This BAA solicits proposals against a broad range of night vision technologies which support the Warfighter and challenges of Asymmetric Warfare.

Under the Innovative Technologies Technical Area, proposals will be considered two times per year - March 30 and August 15. Proposals are sought from universities for basic and applied research in a wide variety of topic areas including, but not limited to, materials science, microelectronics, RF, chip-scale sensors, computing & processing, algorithms, optoelectronics, electrooptics and infrared, devices, photonics, imaging, big data, embedded systems, modeling & simulation and bioengineering.

DoDMACHLearningUnited States Department of Defense (DOD)
U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA)
Joint Program Committee-1 (JPC-1)/Medical Simulation and Information Sciences (MSIS) Research Program
Utilizing Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Medical Training Needs (MACH Learning) Award
Sponsor Deadline for Pre-Proposals (required): February 3, 2017
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals (if invited): May 12, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Up to $1,600,000 for up to 30 months. The JPC-1/MSIS expects to allot approximately $3.2 million to fund approximately 2 awards under this program. 

The mission of the JPC-1/MSIS is to explore the implications of models, technology and informatics for medical education/training, and for the provision, management, and support of healthcare services in the military. The JPC-1/MSIS plans, coordinates, and oversees a responsive world-class, tri-Service science and technology program focused on two areas of research: (1) improving military medical training through medical modeling, simulation, and educational training tools; and (2) improving the use and sharing of health-related data for better strategic planning, process development, and software applications. The JPC-1/MSIS Medical Modeling, Simulation and Training Steering Committee provided the strategy for which this Broad Agency Announcement/Funding Opportunity's topic was conceived.
 
The outcomes of research funded by this Broad Agency Announcement will be used to better understand optimal algorithms and models to predict advancement of individuals as they are acquiring skills but also to assist in analyzing skill decay and assist in refresher training through machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches. These proposed machine learning models with artificial intelligence approaches would have substantial public purpose applications as an adjunct, objective way to provide additional information to instructors and faculty to advance students (medical, nursing, emergency medical technicians, etc.), as well as residents and licensed professionals, to more appropriate courses as those students acquire skills or the professionals refresh their own skills.

FY 2017 Continuation of Solicitation for the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program - Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR)
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current solicitation is active until September 30, 2017 or until superseded)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award information: Awards in FY15 ranged from $2,000/year to $4,000,000/year. It is anticipated that approximately $400 million will be available for DOE Office of Science new, renewal, continuing, and supplemental grant and cooperative agreement awards under this and other, more targeted FOAs in FY 2017. Approximately 200-350 new awards will be funded. Awards are expected to be made for a project period of 6 months to 5 years as befitting the project, with the most common project period being 3 years in duration. 

The Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program's mission is to advance applied mathematics and computer science; deliver the most advanced computational scientific applications in partnership with disciplinary science; advance computing and networking capabilities; and develop future generations of computing hardware and software tools for science, in partnership with the research community, including U.S. industry. The strategy to accomplish this has two thrusts: developing and maintaining world-class computing and network facilities for science; and advancing research in applied mathematics, computer science and advanced networking.

The priority areas for ASCR include the following:
  1. Develop mathematical models, methods and algorithms to accurately describe and predict the behavior of complex systems involving processes that span vastly different time and/or length scales.
  2. Advance key areas of computer science that enable the design and development of extreme scale computing systems and their effective use in the path to scientific discoveries; and transform extreme scale data from experiments and simulations into scientific insight.
  3. Advance key areas of computational science and discovery that support the missions of the Office of Science through mutually beneficial partnerships.
  4. Develop and deliver forefront computational, networking and collaboration tools and facilities that enable scientists worldwide to work together to extend the frontiers of science.
Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing: Partnership in Nuclear Energy Research
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Inquiry (strongly encouraged): February 15, 2017
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: April 5, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award information: For individual institution awards, each award will range from $250,000-$800,000 per year. For an entire multi-institution collaboration, awards will range from $500,000-$1,600,000 per year. Award duration will be 5 years. Total funding of up to $7,500,000 is expected to be made available for awards under this FOA and its companion LAB announcement. 

This solicitation is part of the 2017 re-competition of the SciDAC Partnerships for jointly funded and managed collaborations between engineers or scientists sponsored by Nuclear Energy (NE) and applied mathematicians or computer scientists sponsored by ASCR. Partnerships enable scientists and engineers to conduct complex computations at a level of fidelity needed to simulate real-world conditions and accelerate advances in nuclear energy research. The project should leverage where possible, and without duplication, previous and ongoing work in modeling nuclear materials behavior in extreme environments and in applied mathematics/computer science at the participating institutions. Successful partnerships should be able to exploit the massive concurrency of the DOE HPC systems and not merely their high capacity.

IARPABAAIntelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)
IARPA-Wide Research BAA
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (current solicitation is active until May 2, 2017 or until superseded)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission 
Award Information: Budgets should be commensurate with the scope of the project. Periods of performance generally will not exceed 12 months.

IARPA invests in high-risk, high-payoff research that has the potential to provide our nation with an overwhelming intelligence advantage. IARPA is soliciting proposals for research on topics that are not addressed by emerging or ongoing IARPA programs or other published IARPA solicitations. This BAA primarily, but not solely, seeks proposals for early stage research (which IARPA refers to as "seedlings").

IARPA's areas of interest include: Analysis - Analysis focuses on maximizing insights from the massive, disparate, unreliable and dynamic data that are - or could be - available to analysts, in a timely manner. IARPA is pursuing new sources of information from existing and novel data, and developing innovative techniques that can be utilized in the processes of analysis. Analysis research efforts are diverse across technical disciplines but have the following common features: (a) they create technologies that can earn the trust of the analyst user by providing the reasoning for results; and (b) they address data uncertainty and provenance explicitly. Within the Analysis area, IARPA is particularly interested in: Rigorous mathematical or probabilistic research on state-of-the-art, or novel techniques for improving the understanding of machine learning that leads to significant progress in generalization and repeatability of learning algorithms in applications involving big data mining or high volume data streams.

NSFAMPS National Science Foundation (NSF)
Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS) and 
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
Algorithms for Modern Power Systems (AMPS)
Sponsor Deadline: February 13, 2017
OSP Deadline: February 6, 2017
Award Information : Anticipated funding level for this program in FY17 is $1,200,000 to support 4-10 awards.
 
The Algorithms for Modern Power Systems (AMPS) program will support research projects to develop the next generation of mathematical and statistical algorithms for improvement of the security, reliability, and efficiency of the modern power grid. The program is a partnership between the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability (OE) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

NSFATD National Science Foundation (NSF)
Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS) and
National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA)
Algorithms for Threat Detection (ATD)
Sponsor Deadline: February 21, 2017
OSP Deadline: February 13, 2017
Award Information : Anticipated funding level for this program in FY17 is $3,000,000 to support 10-20 awards.
 
The Algorithms for Threat Detection (ATD) program will support research projects to develop the next generation of mathematical and statistical algorithms for analysis of large spatio-temporal datasets with application to quantitative models of human dynamics. The objectives include improved representation of complicated group dynamics and the development of algorithms that can process data in near real-time to accurately identify unusual events and forecast future threats indicated by those events. 

NSFAitF National Science Foundation (NSF)
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
Algorithms in the Field (AitF)
Sponsor Submission Window: January 12-26, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information : U p to $800,000 per award with durations up to 4 years.
Approximately $9 million will be made available in FY 2017 to support 15 awards.
 
Algorithms in the Field encourages closer collaboration between two groups of researchers: (i) theoretical computer science researchers, who focus on the design and analysis of provably efficient and provably accurate algorithms for various computational models; and (ii) other computing and information researchers including a combination of systems and domain experts (very broadly construed - including but not limited to researchers in computer architecture, programming languages and systems, computer networks, cyber-physical systems, cyber-human systems, machine learning, artificial intelligence and its applications, database and data analytics, etc.) who focus on the particular design constraints of applications and/or computing devices. Each proposal must have at least one co-PI interested in theoretical computer science and one interested in any of the other areas typically supported by CISE. Proposals are expected to address the dissemination of both the algorithmic contributions and the resulting applications, tools, languages, compilers, libraries, architectures, systems, data, etc.

NSFCDSEEMSS National Science Foundation (NSF)
Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS)
Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences  (CDS&E-MSS)
Sponsor Submission Window: November 25-December 11, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information : Award size and duration will be commensurate with the scope of the proposed project
 
The CDS&E-MSS program accepts proposals that confront and embrace the host of mathematical and statistical challenges presented to the scientific and engineering communities by the ever-expanding role of computational modeling and simulation on the one hand, and the explosion in production of digital and observational data on the other. The goal of the program is to promote the creation and development of the next generation of mathematical and statistical theories and tools that will be essential for addressing such issues. To this end, the program will
support fundamental research in mathematics and statistics whose primary emphasis will be on meeting the aforementioned computational and data-related challenges. This program is part of the wider Computational and Data-enabled Science and Engineering (CDS&E) enterprise in NSF that seeks to address this emerging discipline.  The research supported by the CDS&E-MSS program will aim to advance  mathematics or statistics in a significant way and will address  computational or big-data challenges.  Proposals of interest to the  program will include a Principal Investigator or co-Principal  Investigator who is a researcher in the mathematical or statistical  sciences in an area supported by the Division of Mathematical Sciences.  The program encourages submission of proposals that include  multidisciplinary collaborations or the training of mathematicians and  statisticians in CDS&E.

U.S. Department of Treasury, Office of Financial Resources
Critical Techniques, Technologies and Methodologies for Advancing Foundations and Applications of Big Data Sciences and Engineering (BIGDATA)
Sponsor Submission Window: March 15-22, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information : Projects will typically receive NSF funding in the range of $200,000 to a maximum of $500,000 per year, for 3 to 4 years of support. The minimum award size will be $600,000 of total NSF/OFR funding. Any allocation of cloud credits/resources from AWS, Google or Microsoft will be in addition to the NSF/OFR funding. Up to $26,500,000 will be invested by NSF and the Office of Financial Research (OFR), in proposals submitted to this solicitation, subject to the availability of funds. Up to $9,000,000 will be invested by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft (up to $3,000,000 each) in the form of cloud credits/resources. Approximately 27-35 projects will be funded.
 
The BIGDATA program seeks novel approaches in computer science, statistics, computational science, and mathematics, along with innovative applications in domain science, including social and behavioral sciences, education, biology, the physical sciences, and engineering that lead towards the further development of the interdisciplinary field of data science.  The solicitation invites two categories of proposals:
  • Foundations (F): those developing or studying fundamental theories, techniques, methodologies, and technologies of broad applicability to big data problems, motivated by specific data challenges and requirements; and
  • Innovative Applications (IA): those engaged in translational activities that employ new big data techniques, methodologies, and technologies to address and solve problems in specific application domains. Projects in this category must be collaborative, involving researchers from domain disciplines and one or more methodological disciplines, e.g., computer science, statistics, mathematics, simulation and modeling, etc.
Proposals in both categories must include a clear description of the big data aspect(s) that have motivated the proposed approach(es), for example: the scalability of methods with increasing data volumes, rates, heterogeneity; or data quality and data bias; etc. Innovative Applications proposals must provide clear examples of the impacts of the big data techniques, technologies and/or methodologies on (a) specific domain application(s). Proposals in all areas of sciences and engineering covered by participating NSF directorates and partnering agencies [the Office of Financial Research (OFR)], are welcome. 

In FY 2017, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure are participating in the program to provide cloud credits/resources to projects that can justify the need for significant storage and computational resources. The objective is to encourage projects that focus on large-scale experimentation and scalability studies.

NSFCPS National Science Foundation (NSF)
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)
Sponsor Submission Window: February 20-March 6, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information : Small projects may be requested for a total of up to $500,000 for a period of up to 3 years. Medium projects may be requested for a total budget ranging from $500,001 to $1,000,000 for a period of up to 4 years. Frontier projects may be requested for a total of $1,000,001 to $7,000,000 for a period of 4 to 5 years.
 
The goal of the CPS program is to develop the core system science needed to engineer complex cyber-physical systems that people can use or interact with and depend upon. Some of these may require high-confidence or provable behaviors. The program aims to foster a research community committed to advancing research and education in CPS and to transitioning CPS science and technology into engineering practice. By abstracting from the particulars of specific systems and application domains, the CPS program seeks to reveal cross-cutting fundamental scientific and engineering principles that underpin the integration of cyber and physical elements across all application sectors. To expedite and accelerate the realization of cyber-physical systems in a wide range of applications, the CPS program also supports the development of methods, tools, and hardware and software components based upon these cross-cutting principles, along with validation of the principles via prototypes and testbeds. We have also seen a convergence of CPS technologies and research thrusts that underpin Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC) and the Internet of Things (IoT). These domains offer new and exciting challenges for foundational research and provide opportunities for maturation at multiple time horizons.

In 2017, NSF is working closely with multiple agencies of the federal government, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T); the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and through FHWA, the U.S. DOT Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office (JPO); the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD); several National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutes and centers [including the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)]; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA). Key goals are to identify basic CPS research directions that are common across multiple application domains, along with opportunities for accelerated transition to practice.

Three classes of research and education projects -- differing in scope and goals -- will be considered through this solicitation:
  • Small projects are well suited to emerging new and innovative ideas that will have high impact on the field of cyber-physical systems.
  • Medium projects are well suited to multi-disciplinary projects that accomplish clear goals requiring integrated perspectives spanning the disciplines.
  • Frontier projects must address clearly identified critical CPS challenges that cannot be achieved by a set of smaller projects.
NSFCESER National Science Foundation (NSF)
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
Cyberinfrastructure for Emerging Science and Engineering Research (CESER)
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information : Varies by award mechanism
 
The overall goal of the Cyberinfrastructure for Emerging Science and Engineering Research (CESER) program is to foster the development of innovative cyberinfrastructure (CI) technologies and new means of leveraging existing CI resources to catalyze emerging areas of potentially transformative science and engineering research, including NSF priority areas, national strategic initiatives, and international collaborative research.  A key programmatic objective of CESER is to support early-stage efforts by collaborative teams of domain scientists and cyberinfrastructure developers/implementers to identify and address cyberinfrastructure needs in new research areas through the development and deployment of pilot, experimental, and innovative hardware or software systems or other unique cyberinfrastructure activities that enable new pathways to discovery.  Another program objective is to encourage holistic, systematic, and multidisciplinary CI approaches to address new opportunities to enable science and engineering research. Projects that integrate multiple cyberinfrastructure disciplines - such as computing, data infrastructure, software, workflow systems, and networking - to address an emerging scientific challenge are particularly welcomed. CESER will also support projects that aim to expand the spectrum of research disciplines that, and users who, engage and contribute to a dynamic and enduring national research cyberinfrastructure ecosystem.

Eligible projects and unique activities should address a clearly identified and described scientific rationale, explain and support the potential for transformative impacts on science or engineering research, research training, education or broader impacts, and provide a convincing explanation of why the project is not suitable for other NSF programs or solicitations.

CESER variously employs existing NSF funding mechanisms to accomplish the program's goals such as support for EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER), Conferences (workshops), Research Coordination Networks (RCNs), and targeted solicitations. Before developing a proposal intended for this program, investigators are strongly encouraged to discuss their ideas with the cognizant program officer associated with the CESER program to ensure that CESER is the appropriate venue for the proposal. 

NSFCyberlearningNational Science Foundation (NSF)
Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies (Cyberlearning)
Sponsor Deadline: February 10, 2017
OSP Deadline: February 3, 2017
Award Information:  Each EXP Project will be funded for a duration of 2-3 years and up to a total funding amount of $550,000. With appropriate justification, some EXP projects may be funded for up to $750,000. Proposers should receive permission from a program officer before submitting a budget larger than $550,000. $6,000,000 is anticipated to support approximately 12 awards.
 
The purpose of the Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies program is to integrate opportunities offered by emerging technologies with advances in what is known about how people learn to advance three interconnected thrusts:
  • Cyber innovation: Developing next-generation cyberlearning approaches through high-risk, high-reward advances in computer and information science and engineering;
  • Learning innovation: Inventing and improving next-generation genres (types) of learning technologies, identifying new means of using technology for fostering and assessing learning, and proposing new ways of integrating learning technologies with each other and into learning environments to foster and assess learning; and
  • Advancing understanding of how people learn in technology-rich learning environments: Enhancing understanding of how people learn and how to better foster and assess learning, especially in technology-rich learning environments that offer new opportunities for learning and through data collection and computational modeling of learners and groups of learners that can be done only in such environments.
Projects that help answer certain questions are encouraged, including:  What new technology and socio-technical models are needed so that the big data generated by scientists and engineers can be made available and accessible to learners at all levels in ways that will engage them and help them learn? Under what conditions do these approaches work and why?

NSF solicits Cyberlearning research in the Exploration (EXP) category. The purpose of an EXP project is to try out new ideas, especially risky ones, and explore issues associated with fostering or assessing learning in the context of the proposed innovation.

NSFCICINational Science Foundation (NSF)
Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure (CICI)
Sponsor Deadline: March 1, 2017
OSP Deadline: February 22, 2017
Award Information:  Resilient Security Architecture for Research Cyberinfrastructure awards will be supported at up to $1,000,000 total per award for up to 3 years. Cybersecurity Enhancement awards will be supported at up to $1,000,000 total per award for up to 2 years.  Total funding for 7-9 awards under the CICI program is $8,500,000, subject to the availability of funds. 
 
Advancements in data-driven scientific research depend on trustworthy and reliable cyberinfrastructure. Researchers rely on a variety of networked technologies and software tools to achieve their scientific goals. These may include local or remote instruments, wireless sensors, software programs, operating systems, database servers, high-performance computing, large-scale storage, and other critical infrastructure connected by high-speed networking. This complex, distributed, interconnected global cyberinfrastructure ecosystem presents unique cybersecurity challenges. NSF-funded scientific instruments, sensors and equipment are specialized, highly-visible assets that present attractive targets for both unintentional errors and malicious activity; untrustworthy software or a loss of integrity of the data collected by a scientific instrument may mean corrupt, skewed or incomplete results. Furthermore, often data-driven research, e.g., in the medical field or in the social sciences, requires access to private information, and exposure of such data may cause financial, reputational and/or other damage. Therefore, an increasing area of focus for NSF is the development and deployment of hardware and software technologies and techniques to protect research cyberinfrastructure across every stage of the scientific workflow. CICI comprises two Program Areas: 1. Resilient Security Architecture for Research Cyberinfrastructure and 2. Cybersecurity Enhancement. Funded activities under CICI should identify opportunities for student engagement as well as cybersecurity education and training.  Please note that organizations are limited to 2 CICI proposals. If you are interested in applying, please contact Erin Cromack in FAS Research Development at cromack@fas.harvard.edu.

NSFDCLD3SCNational Science Foundation (NSF) 
Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS)
Dear Colleague Letter: Data-Driven Discovery Science in Chemistry (D3SC)
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (though encouraged by March 1, 2017)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: The upper limit of a supplement request in response to this DCL is $60,000 for a maximum of 12 months.  EAGER requests may be for up to $300K and up to 2 years in duration. Requests for RAISE awards may be for up to $1,000,000 and up to 5 years in duration. 
 
Through this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), the Division of Chemistry (CHE) invites submission of requests for supplements and EAGER (EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research) and RAISE (Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering)  proposals that seek to capitalize on the data revolution. Successful proposals will emphasize what new information can be obtained from better utilization of data (including data from multiple laboratories, techniques, and/or chemical systems), and how this can lead to new research directions. Proposals that foster and strengthen interactions among chemists - particularly experimentalists and data scientists - to advance research goals, are strongly encouraged. Examples of possible projects include (but are not limited to) using tools of data visualization, data mining, machine learning, or other data analytics. 

EAGER supports exploratory work in its early stages on untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas or approaches. The proposed work should be "high risk-high payoff". The RAISE mechanism may also be appropriate if the proposed activities are interdisciplinary and promise transformational advances.  Another avenue of support will be through supplements to existing grants. Supplemental funding requests must enhance existing projects by incorporating or exploring the concepts described in this DCL.

NSFE2CDANational Science Foundation (NSF) 
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) and  Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC)
Energy-Efficient Computing: from Devices to Architectures (E2CDA)
Sponsor Deadline: March 7, 2017
OSP Deadline: February 28, 2017
Award Information: Type I awards will range from $800,000-$1,600,000 per year for 3 years, and Type II projects will range from $100,000-$200,000 per year for 1 to 3 years.  Approximately 2 to 4 Type I awards and 2 to 4 Type II awards will be made. The total amount of funds anticipated for this solicitation is up to $6,000,000 per year. 
 
A comprehensive and collaborative approach must be undertaken to maximize the potential for successfully identifying and implementing revolutionary solutions to break through the bottleneck of energy-constrained computational performance. Programmers, system architects, circuit designers, chip processing engineers, material scientists, and computational chemists must all explore these new paths together to co-design an optimal solution path. 
 
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) recognize this need, and agree to embark on a new collaborative research program to support compelling research that is of paramount importance to industry, academia and society at large. Each project will be jointly funded by NSF and the SRC through separate NSF and SRC funding instruments. This partnership will specifically support new research to minimize the energy impacts of processing, storing, and moving data within future computing systems, and will be synergistic with other research activities that address other aspects of this overarching energy-constrained computing performance challenge.  Within this intellectual framework, submitted proposals should address one or both of the following research paths and should comprehensively address the most aggressive goals within the chosen approach: 1. Disruptive system architectures, circuit microarchitectures, and attendant device and interconnect technology aimed at achieving the highest level of computational energy efficiency; and 2. Revolutionary device concepts and associated circuits and architectures that will greatly extend the practical engineering limits of energy-efficient computation.

Two types of awards will be made: Type I awards for multidisciplinary collaborative team efforts involving one or both of the above research paths; and Type II awards for a few smaller and more focused efforts within the general context of these research areas.

NSFINFEWSNational Science Foundation (NSF)  and
United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS)
Sponsor Deadline: March 6, 2017
OSP Deadline: February 27, 2017
Award Information:  Projects submitted to all tracks must have total budgets less than or equal to $2,500,000. Project duration is anticipated to be 3-5 years. The estimated number of awards are: Track 1: 5-10 awards; Track 2: 5-10 awards; and Track 3: 5-10 awards. The total amount available for this solicitation is $40,000,000. Of this amount, NSF anticipates contributing approximately $35,000,000 and USDA/NIFA anticipates contributing approximately $5,000,000. 
 
The overarching goal of INFEWS is to catalyze well-integrated interdisciplinary and convergent research to transform scientific understanding of the Food, Energy and Water (FEW) nexus (integrating all three components rather than addressing them separately), in order to improve system function and management, address system stress, increase resilience, and ensure sustainability.  This solicitation outlines three tracks of research: (1) FEW System Modeling (which includes the development of advanced computational methods and effective means for incorporating large quantities of disparate data); (2) Visualization and Decision support for Cyber-Human-Physical Systems at the FEW Nexus (aggregation of multiple data sources and integration of analysis into a comprehensive framework for decision making in the FEW context is required); and (3) Research to Enable Innovative Solutions. A proposal may be submitted to ONLY ONE track per competition. 

Both NSF and USDA/NIFA funds will be used to support Tracks 1-3. NSF will share all submitted materials with USDA/NIFA. Some projects and/or subawards may be funded directly by USDA/NIFA as determined by a joint NSF/USDA decision. 

National Robotics Initiative 2.0: Ubiquitous Collaborative Robots 
Sponsor Deadline: February 2, 2017
OSP Deadline: January 26, 2017
Award Information: Foundational projects will range from $350,000-$750,000 in total costs for up to 3 years. Integrative projects will range from $500,000-$1,500,000 in total costs for up to 4 years. See the solicitation for additional agency-specific guidelines. A total program budget of $30,000,000-$45,000,000 is anticipated this year to support 40-70 awards.
 
The goal of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) is to support fundamental research that will accelerate the development and use of robots in the United States that work beside or cooperatively with people. The original NRI program focused on innovative robotics research that emphasized the realization of collaborative robots (co-robots) working in symbiotic relationships with human partners. The NRI-2.0 program significantly extends this theme to focus on issues of scalability: how teams of multiple robots and multiple humans can interact and collaborate effectively; how robots can be designed to facilitate achievement of a variety of tasks in a variety of environments, with minimal modification to the hardware and software; how robots can learn to perform more effectively and efficiently, using large pools of information from the cloud, other robots, and other people; and how the design of the robots' hardware and software can facilitate large-scale, reliable operation. In addition, the program supports innovative approaches to establish and infuse robotics into educational curricula, advance the robotics workforce through education pathways, and explore the social, behavioral, and economic implications of our future with ubiquitous collaborative robots. Collaboration between academic, industry, non-profit, and other organizations is encouraged to establish better linkages between fundamental science and engineering and technology development, deployment and use. Well-justified international collaborations that add significant value to the proposed research and education activities will also be considered. The NRI-2.0 program is supported by multiple agencies of the federal government including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). 

Two classes of proposals are invited through this competition:

1) Foundational (FND) projects focus on research into technologies that directly support one or more of the themes of the NRI-2.0 program. Such projects should lead to transformative approaches that address scientific or technology gaps that currently limit the development, use, or acceptance of co-robots in society. Proposals should clearly explain how the proposed results will further the overall program vision of ubiquitous co-robots. 
2) Integrative (INT) projects focus on research leading to complete co-robotic systems. The focus of these projects should be on the innovative integration of technologies. Integrative projects need to address more than one of the NRI-2.0 program themes or subthemes, and must include evaluation on physical robots, preferably in real-world settings. These projects should have a longer-term vision, with objectives that could not be attained simply by a collection of smaller projects provided with similar resources. The overall impact to the science of the NRI-2.0 program should be greater than the sum of each individual investigator contributions. Integrative projects should include multiple PIs, preferably from different disciplines. 

Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC)
Sponsor Proposal Windows: October 12-19, 2017 for Large and Medium projects; November 2-16, 2017 for Small projects; December 1-15, 2017 for Cybersecurity Education projects
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Small Projects may request up to $500,000 total budget with durations up to 3 years; Medium Projects may request $500,001 to $1,200,000 total budget with durations up to 4 years; and Large Projects may request $1,200,001 to $3,000,000 total budget with durations up to 5 years. Education projects may request up to $300,000 total budget for up to 2 years. In FY 2017, NSF anticipates approximately 10 Education awards, 50 Small awards, 25 Medium awards and 3 Large awards.
 
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.
 
Proposals must be submitted pursuant to one of the following designations:
  • CORE: The main focus of the SaTC research program, spanning the interests of NSF's Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Engineering (ENG), Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). Interdisciplinary proposals are welcomed to CORE.
  • EDU: The Education (EDU) designation will be used to label proposals focusing entirely on cybersecurity education.
  • STARSS: The Secure, Trustworthy, Assured and Resilient Semiconductors and Systems (STARSS) designation will be used to label proposals that are submitted to the joint program focused on hardware security with the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC). The STARSS designation may only be used for Small proposals. This designation has additional administrative obligations.
  • TTP: The Transition to Practice (TTP) designation will be used to label proposals that are focused exclusively on transitioning existing research results to practice. The TTP designation may only be used for Small and Medium proposals. 
Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SSE, SSI, S2I2)
Sponsor Deadlines: March 7, 2017 (for SSE proposals); April 11, 2017 (for S2I2 Conceptualization proposals); September 19, 2017 (for SSI proposals)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: An SSE award shall not exceed a total of $500,000 and a duration of 3 years. SSI awards shall range from $200,000 to $1,000,000 per year, and shall be 3 to 5 years in duration. S2I2 Conceptualization awards up to $500,000 will be made for 1 year.  Up to $5,000,000 is expected to be available for 10 SSE awards, up to $11,000,000 is expected to be available for 12 awards to SSI proposals, and up to $1,500,000 is expected to be available for 3 S2 I2  Conceptualization awards, subject to availability of funds.
 
Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SI 2 ) is a bold and long-term investment that maintains a sustained focus on realizing the Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering , which envisions a highly reusable and interoperable cyberinfrastructure architecture that integrates large-scale computing, high-speed networks, massive data archives, instruments and major facilities, observatories, experiments, and embedded sensors and actuators, across the nation and the world, to help make great strides towards revolutionizing virtually every science and engineering discipline. 

The SI2 program focuses on supporting robust, reliable and sustainable software that will support and advance sustained scientific innovation and discovery. The goal of this program is to catalyze and nurture the interdisciplinary processes required to support the entire software lifecycle, and result in the development of sustainable community software elements and reusable components at all levels of the software stack. The SI2 program aspires to support vibrant partnerships among academia, government, and industry researchers, including international entities, for the development and stewardship of a sustainable software infrastructure.

SI 2 includes three classes of awards:
  1. Scientific Software Elements (SSE): SSE awards target small groups that will create and deploy robust software elements for which there is a demonstrated need that will advance one or more significant areas of science and engineering.
  2. Scientific Software Integration (SSI): SSI awards target larger, interdisciplinary teams organized around the development and application of common software infrastructure aimed at solving common research problems faced by NSF researchers in one or more areas of science and engineering. SSI awards will result in a sustainable community software framework serving a diverse community or communities.
  3. Scientific Software Innovation Institutes (S2I2): S2I2 awards are intended to establish long-term hubs of excellence in software infrastructure and technologies, which will serve a research community of substantial size and disciplinary breadth. S2I2 includes two subclasses of awards: Conceptualization Awards, which are planning awards aimed at organizing an interdisciplinary community and understanding their software requirements and challenges; and Implementation Awards, which will be made to implement community activities that support software infrastructure, for example, such as those developed by the conceptualization awards. Only Conceptualization proposals will be accepted for this solicitation cycle. However, successful Conceptualization proposals must reflect the quality, commitment, and planning that will be needed to lead to full Implementation awards. Please note that Harvard may only submit one S2I2 Conceptualization proposal within the calendar year. If you are interested in submitting a S2I2 Conceptualization proposal, please contact Erin Cromack in FAS Research Development at cromack@fas.harvard.edu. 
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
United States-Israel Collaboration in Computer Science (USICCS)
Sponsor Full Proposal Window: February 1-15, 2017 
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  $400,000 in total is expected to be obligated in FY17 to support 6-9 awards.

This is a joint program of NSF and the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF). The program supports research projects that develop new knowledge in the theory of computing; algorithm design and analysis; design, verification, and evaluation of software systems; and revolutionary computing models based on emerging scientific ideas.  Through this program, NSF and BSF will jointly support collaborations among US-based researchers and Israel-based researchers. US-based researchers will receive funds from NSF to support travel to Israel to interact with their Israeli counterparts. Israel-based and US-based researchers will receive funds allowable under the BSF program described at  http://www.bsf.org.il/ . 

Digital Technology - Data and Computational Research
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling, requires Letter of Inquiry
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Two types of applications, <$125,000 and >$125,000

This program seeks to support the efficient management and sharing of research data and code from acquisition through analysis; and grow the current and future scientific data work force. 

Grants in this program tend to fall into four broad types:
  • Software grants support technology development ranging from prototyping funds to substantial scaling resources;
  • Training grants aim at supporting work force training and curricular initiatives as well as targeted adoption of new technologies by specific communities;
  • Research grants bring historical, ethnographic, and economic research methods to bear on our understanding of scholarly activities in a changing technological context;
  • Community grants build networks for knowledge exchange across disciplines as well as institutions that serve to incubate sustainable research and software projects.
Grant requests can be made at any time. A brief letter of inquiry is the first step for an applicant.

Biomedical Science
United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC)
FY17 Broad Agency Announcement for Extramural Medical Research
Sponsor Deadline for Preliminary Proposals (required): Rolling through September 30, 2017 
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals (by invitation only): Rolling through September 30, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: No budget limits; award duration is up to 5 years

The USAMRMC mission is to provide solutions to medical problems of importance to the American Service member at home and abroad, as well as to the general public at large. Projects must be for scientific study and experimentation directed toward advancing the state of the art or increasing knowledge or understanding rather than focusing on a specific system or hardware solution. Research and development funded through this BAA are intended and expected to benefit and inform both military and civilian medical practice and knowledge. Support for conferences and symposia is also available, in addition to research funding. 

Under USAMRMC's Medical Simulation and Information Sciences Research Program, the Health Information Technology and Informatics (HITI) Portfolio solicits applications in the area of Health Information Technology Infrastructure and Data Management, specifically about improvements to data availability, management, storage, and operational use of Enterprise Health Data. Proposed objectives should ensure the unique identification of each patient, as well as aggregated data strategies for population health and big data.

Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Community-Based Data and Metadata Standards Efforts (R24)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): September 19, 2017
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: October 19, 2017
OSP Deadline: October 12, 2017
Award Information: Application budgets are limited to $250,000 direct costs per year. The maximum project period is up to 3 years. NIH intends to fund an estimate of 5 awards, corresponding to a total of $1.5 Million for fiscal year 2018.

This FOA is to provide time-limited, catalytic support for activities necessary to develop or extend/refine data and metadata standards and/or related tools in areas relevant to the NIH basic, translational, and clinical research mission. Projects can support activities at any point in the data standards lifecycle and should build on existing partnerships, infrastructure, and resources whenever possible. Projects must demonstrate a compelling science community interest and need for standards efforts in the specific domain(s) of interest, as well as a plan for meaningful engagement of the end-user communities and relevant stakeholders in the process. The data standard and any associated tools or products developed should be made freely available to the scientific research community via a curated, searchable portal. Projects should address long-term maintenance and sustainability of the data standard after the period of the NIH award; issues to be considered include approaches for dissemination, evaluation, and updating/refinement. Both short-term and longer-term projects are eligible.

BD2K Open Educational Resources for Skills Development in Biomedical Big Data Science (R25)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): July 2, 2017
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: August 2, 2017
OSP Deadline: July 26, 2017
Award Information: Application budgets may not exceed $200,000 in direct costs annually and need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. The maximum project period is 3 years.

The over-arching goal of this Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) R25 program is to support educational activities that complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation's biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs.
 
To accomplish that goal, this FOA will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on Courses for Skills Development for biomedical researchers who need the requisite knowledge and skills to extract knowledge from biomedical Big Data. To extend the reach of the course, each educational activity is required to develop open educational resources (OERs) that adhere to FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) principles. Ideally, OERs should be useful to individuals at all career levels, from predoctoral students to established investigators. 

BD2K Support for Meetings of Data Science Related Organizations (U13)
Sponsor Deadline: November 30, 2018
OSP Deadline: November 23, 2018
Award Information:  Up to  $470,000 annually in direct costs for up to 3 years. In FY17, NIH intends to fund approximately 4-5 awards, corresponding to $2,000,000 in total costs.

The purpose of this FOA is to support high quality and impactful conferences/scientific meetings that are convened by data science related organizations whose missions focus on biomedical data science. This FOA, which uses the NIH conference cooperative agreement program (U13), is part of the NIH-wide initiative, Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K). Data science related organizations have a critical role in advancing biomedical data science but often depend on meetings to carry out their work. This FOA will support high quality conferences or meetings that are relevant to the biomedical data science needs of the participating Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health. For the purpose of this FOA, a conference is defined as a gathering, such as in the form of a symposium, seminar, scientific meeting, workshop, or any other organized and formal meeting where persons assemble to coordinate, exchange, and disseminate information, or to explore or clarify a defined subject, problem, or area of knowledge.  Applicants representing data science related organizations may request support for one or a series of meetings over multiple years that address areas of data science aligned with the goals of the NIH BD2K program.

Support of conferences under this FOA is contingent on the fiscal and programmatic interests and priorities of the NIH BD2K Program. Therefore, the PD(s)/PI(s) of a conference cooperative agreement application is required to obtain a permission-to-submit letter. Applicants are urged to initiate contact well in advance of the chosen application receipt date to discuss the proposed meetings and ensure they address current BD2K programmatic priorities. This initial contact should occur no later than 6 weeks before that due date. 

BRAIN Initiative: Data Archives for the BRAIN Initiative (R24)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): September 19, 2017
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: October 19, 2017
OSP Deadline: October 12, 2017 
Award Information:  Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.The maximum project period is 5 years.  Issuing IC and partner components intend to commit an estimated total of $3 million to fund 3-5 awards in both FY17 and FY18. It is expected that costs will be substantially higher after the first year of these awards.
 
This FOA solicits applications to develop web-accessible data archives to capture, store, and curate data related to BRAIN Initiative activities. The data archives will work with the research community to incorporate tools that allow users to analyze and visualize the data, but the creation of such tools is not part of this FOA. The data archives will use appropriate standards to describe the data, but the creation of such standards is not part of this FOA. A goal of this program is to advance research by creating a community resource data archive with appropriate standards and summary information that is broadly available and accessible to the research community for furthering research.  

BRAIN Initiative: Integration and Analysis of BRAIN Initiative Data (R24)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): September 26, 2017
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: October 26, 2017
OSP Deadline: October 19, 2017 
Award Information:  Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.The maximum project period is 3 years.  Issuing IC and partner components intend to commit an estimated total of $4 million to fund 10 awards in both FY17 and FY18. 
 
This FOA solicits applications to develop informatics tools for analyzing, visualizing, and integrating data related to the BRAIN Initiative or to enhance our understanding of the brain.

National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Cancer Immunologic Data Commons (CIDC) (U24)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): February 3, 2017
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: March 3, 2017
OSP Deadlines: February 24, 2017
Award Information: Budget is limited to no more than $650K in direct costs for any budget year. The total project period for an application submitted in response to this FOA may not exceed 5 years. The NCI intends to fund a single Cancer Immunologic Data Commons (CIDC) award, corresponding to $650,000 in direct costs in fiscal year 2017.

The purpose of this FOA is to solicit applications for establishment of a Cancer Immunologic Data Commons (CIDC) to provide bioinformatics support as part of a Network for correlative studies in clinical trials involving cancer immunotherapy. The Network will encompass a single CIDC award (to be supported by this FOA) and up to three Cancer Immune Monitoring and Analysis Centers (CIMACs) (to be supported by a companion FOA, RFA-CA-17-005).  
The goal of the CIMACs-CIDC Network is to enable systematic incorporation of biomarker studies in NCI-supported early clinical trials for immunotherapy.  CIMACs will be responsible for comprehensive analyses of biospecimens from patients for biomarkers relevant to genomic, phenotypic, and functional aspects of responses to immunotherapy. CIDC will serve the bioinformatics needs of the Network, including collection, integration, access, and analysis of data generated from CIMACs. The CIDC will also contribute to the long-term goal of creating publicly accessible Data Commons for cancer immune profiling as well as clinical data that will allow integrated analysis across trials and access by the larger immuno-oncology research community.

Specifically, the CIDC will be expected to:
  • Adopt or develop data collection standards and database modules for key assay platforms for tumor- and immune-profiling.  This will be done in collaboration with CIMACs.
  • Establish database for collection and management of biomarker and associated clinical data generated from CIMACs.
  • Provide and maintain bioinformatics tools for data access and multi-dimensional analysis within and across trials in the CIMACs.
  • Facilitate regulated data sharing and access by outside investigators and research community, as appropriate and consistent with achieving the goals of the program.
  • The long term goal of the CIMACs-CIDC Network is to develop molecular signatures that define immune response categories to correlate with the clinical outcomes of immunotherapy in cancer. Collectively, the outcome of the Network research should lead to the identification of biomarkers with a translational potential for optimizing the therapeutic strategies for patients.
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Development of Innovative Informatics Methods and Algorithms for Cancer Research and Management (R21)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): 30 days prior to the deadline
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals: June 14, 2017; November 20, 2017
OSP Deadlines: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Up to $275,000 in direct costs over a 2 year period

The purpose of this FOA is to invite exploratory/developmental research grant (R21) applications for the development of innovative methods and algorithms in biomedical computing, informatics, and data science addressing priority needs across the cancer research continuum, including cancer biology, cancer treatment and diagnosis, cancer prevention, cancer control and epidemiology, and/or cancer health disparities.  As a component of the NCI's Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR) Initiative, this FOA encourages applications focused on the development of novel computational, mathematical, and statistical algorithms and methods that can considerably improve acquisition, management, analysis, and dissemination of relevant data and/or knowledge.

NIHNIMHCompModelsNational Institutes of Health (NIH) : (NOT-MH-17-010) (NOT-MH-17-011
) 
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Funds Available for Advancing Computational Modeling and Data Analytics Relevant to Mental Health (Admin Supp and Revision Apps)
Sponsor Deadlines: Applicants are encouraged to submit Administrative Supplement applications by May 1, 2017. NIMH encourages applications for revisions to be submitted prior the cycle I due dates for the appropriate activity code listed in the NIH Due Dates table. 
OSP Deadlines: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Application budgets for Administrative Supplements are limited to no more than the amount of the current parent award, and must reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.The project and budget periods must be within the currently approved project period for the existing parent award. Applicants submitting Revision Applications may request support which reflects the needs of the proposed project for up to 2 years, not to exceed the remaining years on the parent grant.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) announces the opportunity for investigators with relevant active NIMH-supported research project grants (R01, R03, R15, R21, R21/33, and R37), research centers (P-grants) and cooperative agreements (U-grants) to submit requests for administrative supplements and competitive revision applications for funded projects that could benefit from: (1) explanatory computational models (theory- and/or data-driven) to test underlying brain and behavioral mechanisms; and (2) analytical approaches leveraging complex datasets within and across levels of analysis (e.g., genes, molecules, cells, circuits, physiology, and behavior).  Funds are currently available for the implementation (or expansion) of computational, theoretical, and analytical approaches in existing basic, translational, clinical neuroscience and neuropsychiatry, and mental health services grants. The intent of these supplements is to support the addition of computational approaches for interpreting mental health-relevant data. Applicants for the administrative supplements are encouraged to form new collaborations between computational modelers, clinicians, neuroscientists, biologists, biostatisticians, mathematicians, engineers, etc. 

NOT-MH-17-011 announces funds available for Administrative Supplements to meet increased costs that are within the scope of an already approved award, but were unforeseen when the new or renewal application or grant progress report for non-competing continuation support was submitted. Requests for Administrative Supplements must be submitted to PA-16-287, Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Admin Supp).

NOT-MH-17-010 announces funds available for revision applications. Revision applications can support a significant expansion of the scope or research protocol approved and funded for the "parent" award on which the revision application is based. Revision applications must be sent in response to an FOA with the same activity as the parent grant (i.e., if a grantee seeks a revision to an R01, the revision application must be sent in response to an FOA for R01s) and that allows revision applications. The FOA does not need to be the one to which the parent grant was submitted.  

Harnessing Big Data to Halt HIV (R01)
Sponsor Deadlines: May 7, 2017; September 7, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. The maximum project period is 5 years. 

The purpose of this FOA is to promote research that transforms understanding of HIV transmission, the HIV care continuum, and HIV comorbidities using Big Data Science (BDS). These approaches should include projects to assemble big data sources, conduct robust and reproducible analyses, and create meaningful visualization of big data.

NIHNIGMSNational Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Institute of General Medicine (NIGMS)
Modeling of Infectious Disease Agent Study Research Projects (R01)
Sponsor Deadlines: February 5, 2017; June 5, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. The maximum project period is 5 years.

The purpose of this FOA is to support innovative research that will develop and apply computational tools and methods for modeling interactions between infectious agents and their hosts, disease spread, prediction systems and response strategies. The models should be useful to researchers, policymakers, or public health workers who want to better understand and respond to infectious diseases. This research opportunity encourages applications from institutions/organizations that propose to provide the scientific and public health communities better resources, knowledge, and tools to improve their ability to prepare for, identify, detect, control, and prevent the spread of infectious diseases caused by naturally occurring or intentionally released pathogens, including those relevant to biodefense.

Areas of focus include c onceptual development of models, particularly analytical and statistical tools for interpreting and using large data sets or model results.

NIHU24National Institutes of Health (NIH): (PAR-15-331) (PAR 15-333)
National Cancer Institute (NCI) 
Informatics Resources/Technologies for Cancer Research and Management (U24)
Sponsor Deadlines: June 14, 2017; November 20, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Application budgets for Advanced Development may not exceed $600,000 in Direct Costs (excluding consortium F&A costs) per year for up to 5 years.  B udgets for Sustained Support applications are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project; duration may be up to 5 years.
 
NCI invites applications in response to two Program Announcements: PAR-15-331: Advanced Development of Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research and Management (U24) and PAR-15-333: Sustained Support for Informatics Resources for Cancer Research and Management (U24).   

The purpose of PAR-15-331, Advanced Development of Informatics Technologies for Cancer Research and Management (U24), is to invite Cooperative Agreement (U24) applications for advanced development and enhancement of emerging informatics technologies to improve the acquisition, management, analysis, and dissemination of data and knowledge across the cancer research continuum, including cancer biology, cancer treatment and diagnosis, cancer prevention, cancer control and epidemiology, and/or cancer health disparities. As a component of the NCI's Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR) Initiative, this FOA focuses on emerging informatics technology, defined as one that has passed the initial prototyping and pilot development stage, has demonstrated potential to have a significant and broader impact, has compelling reasons for further improvement and enhancement, and has not been widely adopted in the cancer research field. The central mission of ITCR is to promote research-driven informatics technology across the development lifecycle to address priority needs in cancer research. In order to be successful, proposed development plans must have a clear rationale on why the proposed technology is needed and how it will benefit the cancer research field. In addition, mechanisms to solicit feedback from users and collaborators throughout the development process should be included. 

PAR-15-333, Sustained Support for Informatics Resources for Cancer Research and Management (U24), invites applications for the continued development and sustainment of high-value informatics research resources to serve current and emerging needs across the cancer research continuum.As a component of ITCR Program, this FOA focuses on supporting activities necessary for improved user experience and availability of existing, widely-adopted informatics tools and resources. This is in contrast to early-stage and advanced development efforts to generate these tools and resources that are supported by companion ITCR FOAs. In addition, mechanisms for assessing and maximizing the value of the resource to researchers and supporting collaboration and/or deep engagement between the resource and the targeted research community should be described.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Informatics Methodology and Secondary Analyses for Immunology Data in ImmPort (UH2)
Sponsor Deadline for Letter of Intent (requested): 30 days prior to the deadline
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals: October 4, 2017; October 4, 2018
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Direct costs are limited to $275,000 over a 2 year period. No more than $200,000 may be requested in any single year. The maximum project period is 2 years.

With rapid technological advances and application of high-throughput assays, NIAID-supported research programs are not only changing the landscape of immunological studies, but also generating datasets in such large volume and complexity that specialized infrastructure is required to support data sharing as well as integrative, secondary and reproducibility analyses. Recognizing this growing need, the NIAID Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation (DAIT) has funded the development of a public data sharing repository, the Immunology Database and Analysis Portal ( ImmPort), which serves as a unique resource for public data sharing of immunological studies. 

The goals of this FOA are to support the development of new or improved informatics tools and methods for the reuse of shared data in ImmPort; and to support secondary analyses of existing immunology datasets to address basic and clinical immunology questions.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Systems Biology: The Next Generation for Infectious Diseases (U19)
Sponsor Deadline for Letter of Intent (requested): February 15, 2017
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: March 15, 2017
OSP Deadline: March 8, 2017
Award Information:  Budgets for direct costs of up to $2,000,000 per year may be requested.  The maximum project period is 5 years. NIAID intends to commit $11 million in FY2018 to fund up to 5 awards.

This FOA solicits applications to establish Systems Biology Centers that use systems biology approaches to build predictive models for infectious diseases.  These models will be derived from hypotheses related to systems-level host/pathogen molecular interactions during infection or treatment using integrated datasets generated from a combination of high-throughput experimental approaches, including omics technologies and computational approaches. Importantly, the Centers must clearly integrate experimental approaches and computational modeling to test and validate hypotheses of significance to the infectious diseases field. 

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
The Application of Big Data Analytics to Drug Abuse Research (R01)
Sponsor Deadline for Letter of Intent (requested): 30 days prior to the deadline
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals: February 5, 2017; June 5, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. The maximum project period is 5 years. 

The purpose of this FOA is to encourage the application of Big Data analytics to reveal deeper or novel insights into the biological and behavioral processes associated with substance abuse and addiction. NIDA recognizes that to accelerate progress toward understanding how the human brain and behavior is altered by chronic drug use and addiction, it is vital to develop more powerful analytical methods and visualization tools that can help capture the richness of data being generated from genetic, epigenetic, molecular, proteomic, metabolomic, brain-imaging, micro-electrode, behavioral, clinical, social, services, environmental studies as well as data generated from electronic health records. Applications for this FOA should develop and/or utilize computational approaches for analyzing large, complex datasets acquired from drug addiction research. The rapid increase of technologies to acquire unprecedented amounts of neurobiological and behavioral data, and an expanding capacity to store those data, results in great opportunity to bring to bear the power of the computational methods of Big Data analytics on drug abuse and addiction.

National Library of Medicine (NLM)
NLM Career Development Award in Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (K01)
Sponsor Deadlines: February 12, 2017; June 12, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Award budgets are composed of salary (up to $100,000 plus fringe benefits) and other program-related expenses ($50,000  per year). The total project period may not exceed 3 years.

The purpose of the NLM Career Development Award (K01) in Biomedical Informatics and Data Science is to provide support and "protected time" (a minimum of 75% of full-time professional effort for up to three years) for an intensive career development experience in biomedical informatics and data science leading to research independence. NLM invites K01 applications from junior investigators, who have either a health professional or research doctorate and who are in the first three years of their initial faculty positions. Candidates who received their training at one of NLM's university-based biomedical informatics training programs are encouraged to apply.

National Library of Medicine (NLM)
NLM Express Research Grants in Biomedical Informatics (R01)
Sponsor Deadlines: February 5, 2017; June 5, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: The NLM Express Research Grant has a limit of $250,000 per year in direct costs. The maximum project period is 4 years.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) offers support for innovative research in biomedical informatics and data science. The scope of NLM's interest in the research domain of informatics is broad and interdisciplinary, developing methods and approaches in biomedical computing, data science and related information fields for application domains of health and biomedicine, including health care delivery, basic biomedical research, clinical and translational research, precision medicine, public health, biosurveillance, health information management in disasters, and similar areas. NLM defines biomedical informatics as the science of optimal representation, organization, management, integration and presentation of information relevant to human health and biology, for purposes of learning, sharing and use. 

Novel Analytical Approaches for Metabolomics Data (R03)
Sponsor Deadline: February 14, 2017
OSP Deadline: February 7, 2017
Award Information: Up  to $100,000 in direct costs, exclusive of sub-contract F&A, for 1 year of support. The Common Fund intends to commit $1,000,000 in FY 2017 to fund 6-7 awards.

The purpose of this small research grant FOA is to foster collaboration between computational scientists, metabolomics experts, and biomedical researchers in developing, piloting, and/or validating novel bioinformatic approaches that address current analytical hurdles in metabolomics data. A goal of providing powerful approaches that will be useful to biomedical researchers, as well as bioinformaticians, is particularly encouraged. Projects are not intended to supplement ongoing metabolomics analyses, but to provide a tool for broader use by the biomedical research community. Projects are expected to use existing, publicly available metabolomics data and complement the efforts and resources of the   Common Fund Metabolomics Program.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Powering Research Through Innovative Methods for Mixtures in Epidemiology (PRIME) (R01)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (requested): January 22, 2017
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals: February 22, 2017
OSP Deadline: February 14, 2017
Award Information: U p to $350,000 per year in direct costs for up to 5 years. NIEHS intends to fund an estimate of 5-7 awards, corresponding to a total of $2 million, for fiscal year 2018.

The purpose of this FOA is to stimulate the development of innovative statistical, data science, or other quantitative approaches to studying the health effects of complex chemical mixtures in environmental epidemiology.  Development of novel methods and/or the application of quantitative methods from other fields to epidemiology are encouraged.  Relevant applications include those that evaluate the effects of individual chemicals within a mixture, interactions between chemicals, and the combined effect of the chemical mixture on health outcomes.  Mixtures must include a minimum of three independent chemicals or chemical groups to be responsive to this FOA. However, applicants are encouraged to consider all biologically relevant chemicals for which data is available.   

Multiple Partners
Predictive Multiscale Models for Biomedical, Biological, Behavioral, Environmental and Clinical Research (U01)
Sponsor Deadline for Letters of Intent (strongly encouraged): 30 days prior to the deadline
Sponsor Deadlines for Full Proposals: January 30, 2017; May 29, 2017; September 29, 2017
OSP Deadlines: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information:  Projects are limited to below $500,000 direct costs per year.  Budgets are expected to range from $200,000 to $400,000 in Total Direct Costs each year for up to 5 years. NASA may consider funding projects in the range of $150,000 in direct costs per year, for up to 3 years. 

The goal of this interagency funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to support the development of multiscale models to accelerate biological, biomedical, behavioral, environmental and clinical research. The NIH, ARO, DOE, FDA, NASA, NSF, and ONR recognize that in order to efficiently and effectively address the challenges of understanding multiscale biological and behavioral systems, researchers will need predictive, computational models that encompass multiple biological and behavioral scales. This FOA supports the development of non-standard modeling methods and experimental approaches to facilitate multiscale modeling, and active participation in community-driven activities through the Multiscale Modeling (MSM) Consortium.  

NIHtechR01National Institutes of Health (NIH): (PA-14-155) (PA-14-156)
Technologies in Biomedical Computing, Informatics, and Big Data Science (R01)
Sponsor Deadline: February 5, 2017
OSP Deadline: January 30, 2017
Award Information: Early Stage Awards will not exceed $300k in direct costs per year for up to 3 years. Extended Development, Hardening and Dissemination Awards are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. Project periods are limited to 5 years.
 
The NIH is interested in promoting a broad base of research and development of technologies in biomedical computing, informatics, and Big Data Science that will support rapid progress in areas of scientific opportunity in biomedical research.  It is expected that this research and development is conducted in the context of important biomedical and behavioral research problems.  As such, applications are intended to develop enabling technologies that could apply to the interests of most NIH Institutes and Centers and range from basic biomedicine and including research to all relevant organ systems and diseases. Major themes of research include collaborative environments; data integration; analysis and modeling methodologies; and novel computer science and statistical approaches.  New opportunities are also emerging as large and complex data sets are becoming increasingly available to the research community.  

There are two FOAs for R01 awards available in this area. The first, Early Stage Development of Technologies in Biomedical Computing, Informatics, and Big Data Science (PA-14-155), aims to address biomedical research areas in biomedical computing, informatics, and Big Data science through the early stage development of new software, tools and related resources, as well as the fundamental research (e.g., methodologies and approaches) leading up to that development.

The second, Extended Development, Hardening and Dissemination of Technologies in Biomedical Computing, Informatics and Big Data Science (PA-14-156) is to support the extended development, maintenance, testing, evaluation, hardening and dissemination of existing biomedical software. The proposed work should apply best practices and proven methods for software design, construction, and implementation to extend the applicability of existing technologies in biomedical computing, informatics and big data science to a broader biomedical research community.

Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS) and 
National Institutes of Health (NIH) 
Joint NSF/NIH Initiative on Quantitative Approaches to Biomedical Big Data (QuBBD) 
Sponsor Deadline: September 12, 2017
OSP Deadline: September 5, 2017
Award Information: Award sizes are expected to range from $200,000-$300,000 (total costs) per year with durations of up to 3 years. Approximately $5,000,000 will be made available per year for new applications ($2,000,000 from NSF, $3,000,000 from NIH). 10-20 awards from this competition may be made by either NSF or NIH at the option of the agencies, not the grantee.
 
Researchers now have the ability to collect, store, and analyze vast amounts of health- and disease-related data from biological, biomedical, behavioral, social, environmental, and clinical studies. The explosion in the availability of biomedical big data from disparate sources, and the complex data structures including images, networks, and graphs, pose significant challenges in terms of visualization, modeling, and analysis. NSF and the NIH  recognize that fundamental questions in basic, clinical, and translational research could benefit greatly from multidisciplinary approaches that involve experts in quantitative disciplines such as mathematics, statistics, and computer science.  The Quantitative Approaches to Biomedical Big Data Program is designed to support research that addresses important application areas at the intersection of the biomedical and data sciences by encouraging inter- and multi-disciplinary collaborations that focus on innovative and transformative approaches to address these challenges.

Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE)
Cognitive Neuroscience (CogNeuro) 
Sponsor Deadlines: February 13, 2017; August 14, 2017
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Average award size is ~$175K per year (including both direct and indirect costs) and the average duration is 3 years
 
The cognitive neuroscience program seeks to fund highly innovative proposals that employ brain-based measurements in order to advance our understanding of the neural systems that mediate cognitive processes.  New frontiers in cognitive neuroscience research have emerged from investigations that integrate data at different spatial and temporal scales.  Human cognitive science encompasses a wide range of topics, including attention, learning, memory, decision-making, language, social cognition, and emotions. Proposals will be considered that investigate a particular cognitive process using human brain data. 

Education and Training
AERAAmerican Educational Research Association (AERA)
AERA Research Grants
Sponsor Deadline: January 25, 2017
OSP Deadline: January 18, 2017
Award Information: Awards for Research Grants are up to $20,000 for 1 year projects, or up to $35,000 for 2 year projects
 
This program seeks to stimulate research on U.S. education issues using data from the large-scale, national and international data sets supported by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), NSF, and other federal agencies, and to increase the number of education researchers using these data sets. Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals that:
  • develop or benefit from new quantitative measures or methodological approaches for addressing education issues;
  • include interdisciplinary teams with subject matter expertise, especially when studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning;
  • analyze TIMSS, PISA, or other international data resources; or
  • include the integration and analysis of more than one data set.
Research projects related to at least one of the strands above and to science and/or mathematics education are especially encouraged. Other topics of interest include policies and practices related to student achievement in STEM, contextual factors in education, educational participation and persistence (kindergarten through graduate school), early childhood education, and postsecondary education.

NSFCSforAllNational Science Foundation
Computer Science for All: Researcher Practitioner Partnerships (CS for All: RPP)
Sponsor Deadline: February 28, 2017
OSP Deadline: February 21, 2017
Award Information:  Small proposals provide a maximum of $300,000 for up to 2 years. Medium proposals offer a maximum of $1,000,000 for up to 3 years. Large proposals will be made up to $2,000,000 for up to 4 years. A total of $20,000,000 will be awarded to support approximately 5 small, 10 medium, and 4 large awards.
 
This program aims to provide all  U.S. students the opportunity to participate in computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) education in their schools at the K-12 levels. With this solicitation, the National Science Foundation (NSF) focuses on researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) that foster the research and development needed to bring CS/CT to all schools. Specifically, this solicitation aims to provide high school teachers with the preparation, professional development (PD) and ongoing support that they need to teach rigorous computer science courses, and K-8 teachers with the instructional materials and preparation they need to integrate CS/CT into their teaching. In order to ensure that advances in computing education are inclusive of our diverse student populations, proposals must address the longstanding underrepresentation in computing of groups such as women, persons with disabilities, African Americans/Blacks, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Native Pacific Islanders, and persons from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

CT refers to the thought processes involved in formulating problems and their solutions in such a way that the solutions can be effectively carried out by an information-processing agent (usually a computer). CT activities do not require the presence of a computing tool, but involve the requisite reasoning needed to capitalize on the use of computational tools. CS, as used in this solicitation, includes CT but also the broad range of understandings, competencies, and skills needed to apply computation in our digital world. It includes topics of problem specification and representation; algorithm development; software design, programming, and debugging; the Internet; big data; cybersecurity; and application across a wide range of disciplines, including the associated societal impact and ethical considerations.

Proposals may be submitted in the following size classes:
  • Small proposals are designed to support the initial steps in establishing a strong and well-integrated RPP team that could successfully compete for a Medium or Large proposal in the near future;
  • Medium proposals are designed to support the modest scaling of a promising approach by a well-defined RPP team; and
  • Large proposals are designed to support the widespread scaling of an evidence-based approach by a RPP team that builds on some prior collaborations.
NSFCISEREUSupplementsNational Science Foundation
Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
Dear Colleague Letter: Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Supplemental Funding
Sponsor Deadline: Rolling (p riority will be given to requests submitted before March 30, 2017; if requests for REU supplemental support exceed funds available in CISE, requests will be considered in the order received)
OSP Deadline: 5 business days prior to submission
Award Information: Up  to $8,000 per student per year (this amount usually covers stipend but a small portion of the fund can be used for other related purposes e.g.; student travel to a conference).  The duration for new requests is typically 1 year.
 
NSF invites grantees with active CISE awards to submit requests for Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Supplemental funding. REU stipend support helps retain talented students, while providing meaningful research experiences and encouraging research-based careers. The participation of students from groups underrepresented in computing -- underrepresented minorities, women, and persons with disabilities -- is strongly encouraged. In addition, CISE encourages REU supplements that specifically afford U.S. veterans an opportunity to engage in meaningful research experiences. For single investigator projects, CISE REU supplemental funding requests should typically be for no more than two students for one year. Research teams funded through multi-investigator projects may request support for a larger number of students, commensurate with the size and nature of their projects.

Awards under no cost extension (NCE) are not eligible for this supplement. Participating students must be a US citizen, or a permanent resident of the US. The proposed start date for a supplement must be after the conclusion of all existing REU supplements on the corresponding active CISE award.   

NSFSTEMCompPartnershipsNational Science Foundation
Directorate of Education & Human Resources (EHR)
STEM + Computing Partnerships (STEM+C)
Sponsor Deadline: March 29, 2017
OSP Deadlines: March 22, 2017
Award Information: Exploratory Integration Awards up to $1,250,000 are available for up to 3 years. Design and Development awards will be made up to $2,500,000 for a maximum duration of 3 years. Field-Building Conferences and Workshops will be funded up to $250,000 for a maximum duration of 2 years. NSF anticipates a total budget for this program of  $49,895,000 to support 25-35 awards.
 
As computing has become an integral part of the practice of modern science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the STEM + Computing Partnerships program seeks to address the urgent need to prepare students from the early grades through high school in the essential skills, competencies, and dispositions needed to succeed in a computationally-dependent world. Thus, STEM+C advances the integration of computational thinking and computing activities in early childhood education through high school (pre-K-12) to provide a strong and developmental foundation in computing and computational thinking through the integration of computing in STEM teaching and learning, and/or the applied integration of STEM content in pre-K-12 computer science education.

One expectation of the STEM+C program is that it will prepare students to confront the emerging challenges in computational and data-enabled science and engineering. Accordingly, the solicitation broadens the definition of computing to include computational science, data science, human computer interfaces, and cybersecurity.

Three types of awards are available: 
  • Exploratory Integration supports creative, highly innovative work, such as development of prototypes; pilot testing of new tools and models; conducting innovative research on teaching and learning; designing and studying new pedagogical environments; identifying, adapting, or designing instruments to measure learning processes; modifying instructional practice; or conducting research to provide proof-of-concept and preliminary evidence;
  • Design and Development supports proposals that build on prior evidence demonstrating promise for impact on student or teacher learning in classrooms, schools, out-of-school environments, or other learning settings. Investigators may propose interventions for design, research, implementation, and testing that, based upon prior evidence, can potentially advance and innovate new learning, teaching, and pedagogical environments suitable for advancing integration of computing in one or more STEM disciplines; and 
  • Field-Building Conferences and Workshops support convenings that have potential to expand the field of STEM + computing and evidence leading to effective, interdisciplinary integration of computing within other STEM disciplines. 
NSFCyberTrainingNational Science Foundation
Directorate of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
Training-based Workforce Development for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (CyberTraining)
Sponsor Deadline: October 9, 2017
OSP Deadline: October 2, 2017
Award Information: $300,000-$500,000 for up to 3 years. NSF anticipates a total budget for this program of  $4,500,000 to support 10-15 awards.
 
The overarching goal of this program is to prepare, nurture and grow the national scientific workforce for creating, utilizing, and supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) that enables cutting-edge science and engineering and contributes to the Nation's overall economic competitiveness and security.  For the purpose of this solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the resources, tools, and services for advanced computation, data handling, networking and security. This solicitation calls for developing innovative, scalable training programs to address the emerging needs and unresolved bottlenecks in scientific and engineering workforce development of targeted, multidisciplinary communities, at the postsecondary level and beyond, leading to transformative changes in the state of workforce preparedness for advanced CI in the short and long terms.  A primary goal is to broaden CI access and adoption by (i) increasing or deepening accessibility of methods and resources of advanced CI and of computational and data science and engineering by a wide range of institutions and scientific communities with lower levels of CI adoption to date; and (ii) harnessing the capabilities of larger segments of diverse underrepresented groups. Proposals from and in partnership with the aforementioned communities are especially encouraged.  For student training, a key concern is not to increase the time to degree; hence the emphasis shall be on out-of-class, informal training.
There are three tracks for submissions:

(i)  CI Professionals (CIP): aimed at the training and career pathway development of research cyberinfrastructure and professional staff who  develop, deploy, manage, and support effective use of advanced CI for research;
(ii)  Domain science and engineering (DSE): aimed primarily at the communities of CI Contributors and sophisticated CI Users, and aligned with the  research and education priorities of the participating domain directorates; and
(iii)  Computational and data science literacy (CDL): aimed at the CI User community at the undergraduate level.  

Questions about this newsletter or proposal submission may be directed to:

Jennifer Corby
Research Development Officer
jcorby@fas.harvard.edu | 617-495-1590

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