Mathematics, Computational, & Data Sciences

Limit: 1  // PI:  J. Denno (Cyber Convergence Center)  - Competitive Resubmission

Only one application per institution is allowed.

The Department of Defense (DoD) Cyber Scholarship Program (CySP) is authorized by Chapter 112 of title 10, United States Code, Section 2200. The purpose of the program is to support the recruitment of new cyber talent and the retention of current highly skilled professionals within the DoD cyber workforce. Additionally, this program serves to enhance the national pipeline for the development of cyber personnel by providing grants to institutions of higher education. The DoD Cyber and Digital Services Academy (DCDSA) will partner with the DoD CySP/DCDSA in 2024.

Regionally and nationally accredited U.S. institutions of higher education, designated under the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) and known as National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense, Research, and/or Cyber Operations (hereinafter referred to as NCAE-Cs) are invited to submit proposals for developing and managing a full-time, institution-based, grant-funded scholarship program in cyber-related disciplines for Academic Year 2024- 2025. NCAE-Cs may propose collaboration with other accredited institutions, and are encouraged to include accredited post-secondary minority institutions. NCAE-Cs must be in good standing with the NCAE-C Program Office and not be delinquent on any required documentation by the NCAE-C Program Office.

Consistent with 10 U.S.C. 2200b, NCAE-C proposals to this solicitation may also request modest collateral support for purposes of institutional capacity building to include faculty development, laboratory improvements, and/or curriculum development, in cyber-related topics to providing a strong foundation for a DoD CySP/DCDSA/DCDSA. [Special note: Requirements for proposing modest capacity building support are detailed in ANNEX II.]

To continue the development of a strong foundation for recruitment scholarship program during the Academic Year 2024-2025, students falling into one of the following categories may apply:

• • Rising second-year NCAE-C Community College students who will be transitioning into a bachelor’s degree program at a 4-year NCAE-C
• • Current individuals who hold a non-cyber related bachelor’s or graduate degree, cross training into cyber by pursuing an associate’s degree.
• • Juniors or Seniors pursuing a bachelor's degree (Sophomore's promoting to a Junior in Fall 2024 are eligible to apply)
• • Students in their first or second year of a master's degree; or
• • Students pursuing doctoral degrees.

Traditional National Guardsmen and reservists are eligible to apply under the recruitment program. Current DoD civilians and active duty military members are only eligible for the retention program. Applications for the retention program are processed under a different memorandum. NCAE-C are not required to forward or handle retention student applications. These individuals may also participate in the retention community college program.

Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) participants are eligible to apply as long as they do not currently have a service obligation with their ROTC activities.

Limit: 1 // PI: C. Laskowski (College of Law)
 

The Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence program aims to support a more holistic understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) in the modern world through the creation of new humanities research centers on artificial intelligence at eligible institutions. Centers must focus their scholarly activities on exploring the ethical, legal, or societal implications of AI.  

A Center is a sustained collaboration among scholars focused on exploring a specific topic. Successful applicants will examine the humanities implications of AI through two or more related scholarly activities. Centers must be led by scholars in the humanities or humanistic social sciences, but should include scholars from multiple disciplines. Scholars may come from one or more institutions. NEH welcomes international collaboration, but scholars at U.S. institutions must contribute significantly to the project. This program is for establishing new Centers; existing Centers and Institutes are not eligible in this competition.

In addition to the establishment of a sustainable Center, your project should engage in at least two activities that support research into the ethical, legal, or societal implications of AI. Appropriate activities may include but are not limited to: collaborative research and writing efforts; workshops or lecture series; education and mentoring; and the creation of digital tools to increase or advance scholarly discourse about AI.  

Limit: 2 // PIs:

Science & Engineering Track: Q. Hao (Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering)
Medical Research Track: M.  Kuhns (Immunobiology)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

M.D. Ramirez-Andeotta ( Environmental Science) - subaward to UTexas as an Alliance proposal.

An organization may serve as a lead organization on only one proposal per project type, not including conferences.Proposals that exceed the organizational limit will be returned without review. No exceptions will be made. 

For Network Connectors, Design and Development Launch Pilots, and Conferences, full proposals must be submitted as a single submission from a lead organization, with other collaborating organizations included as subawardees. 

Collaborative Change Consortia and Alliances may submit proposals in one of two ways: 

• a single submission from a lead organization, with other collaborating organizations included as subawardees, OR 

• separate submissions from a lead organization and two collaborating organizations, with any additional collaborating organizations included as subawardees.

The INCLUDES Initiative is a comprehensive, national effort to enhance U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) discovery and innovation, focused on NSF’s commitment to ensuring accessibility and inclusivity in STEM fields, as communicated in the NSF Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years (FY) 2022 - 2026. The vision of the INCLUDES Initiative is to catalyze the STEM enterprise to work collaboratively for inclusive change, resulting in a STEM workforce that reflects the diversity of the Nation’s population. More specifically, the INCLUDES Initiative seeks to motivate and accelerate collaborative infrastructure building to advance equity and sustain systemic change to broaden participation in STEM fields at scale. Significant advancement in the inclusion of groups that have historically been excluded from or underserved in STEM will result in a new generation of STEM talent and leadership to secure the Nation’s future and long-term economic competitiveness. 

With this solicitation, NSF offers support for five types of projects that connect and contribute to the National Network: (1) Design and Development Launch Pilots, (2) Collaborative Change Consortia, (3) Alliances, (4) Network Connectors, and (5) Conferences. The INCLUDES National Network is a multifaceted collaboration of agencies, organizations, and individuals working collectively to broaden participation in STEM. The INCLUDES National Network serves as a testbed for designing, implementing, studying, refining, and scaling collaborative change models and is composed of:

Institutionally coordinated // Limit 1 // PI: J. M. Wang-Roveda (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
 

Institutionally coordinated submission. Contact RDS for more information.
Number of pre-proporsals allowed as lead institution: two

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has advanced tremendously and today promises personalized healthcare; enhanced national security; improved transportation; and more effective education, to name just a few benefits. Increased computing power, the availability of large datasets and streaming data, and algorithmic advances in machine learning (ML) have made it possible for AI research and development to create new sectors of the economy and revitalize industries. Continued advancement, enabled by sustained federal investment and channeled toward issues of national importance, holds the potential for further economic impact and quality-of-life improvements.

The 2023 update to the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan, informed by visioning activities in the scientific community as well as interaction with the public, identifies as its first strategic objective the need to make long-term investments in AI research in areas with the potential for long-term payoffs in AI. AI Institutes represent a cornerstone Federal Government commitment to fostering long-term, fundamental research in AI while also delivering significantly on each of the other eight objectives in that strategy. The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) identifies AI Institutes as a key component of a bold, sustained federal push to scale and coordinate federal AI R&D funding and to reinforce the foundation of technical leadership in AI.

This program is a multisector effort led by the National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with the Simons Foundation (SF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of Defense (DOD) Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD (R&E)), Capital One Financial Corporation (Capital One), and Intel Corporation (Intel).

This program solicitation expands the nationwide network of AI Research Institutes with new funding opportunities over the next two years. In this round, the program invites proposals for institutes that have a principal focus in one of the following themes aimed at transformational advances in a range of economic sectors, and science and engineering fields:

• Group 1 - Awards anticipated in FY 2024:
  • Theme 1: AI for Astronomical Sciences
     
• Group 2 - Awards anticipated in FY 2025:
  • Theme 2: AI for Discovery in Materials Research
  • Theme 3: Strengthening AI

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

An organization may only submit 1 proposal as the lead. There is no limit on the number of proposals on which an organization can be included as a sub-recipient.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is soliciting proposals for managing the operation and maintenance of the National Geophysical Facility (hereafter referred to as NGF) an NSF-funded major facility. The NGF is designed to enable the research community to ask, and address, questions about a variety of Earth processes from local to global scales. NGF will operate global and regional networks of sensors; provide a lending library of instrumentation and support services to enable PI-led field experiments; support archiving, quality control, and delivery of geophysical data and data product development; and provide education, outreach, workforce development, and community engagement activities that serve a wide range of audiences. NGF will be a single facility, with a single operator that will succeed NSF’s current geophysical facilities, the Seismological Facility for the Advancement of GEoscience (SAGE) and the Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of GEoscience (GAGE).

The award recipient will work closely with NSF and the scientific community to ensure that NGF capabilities support, and advance, Earth Sciences and related disciplines. In cooperation with NSF, and within available resources, the recipient will plan and execute a viable, coherent, and inclusive program to: (1) streamline the management and operations of existing geophysical facility capabilities into one consolidated geophysical facility; (2) enhance existing facility capabilities in instrumentation, data services and cyberinfrastructure; and (3) implement a bold vision to broaden participation and foster a culture of equity and inclusion in the Earth Sciences and related disciplines.

The NSF Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) in the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) has primary responsibility for the programmatic oversight of NGF and activities will be coordinated with the Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE), Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS), and Office of Polar Programs (OPP). 

A single award will be made as a cooperative agreement with a duration of five years. NSF may renew the award for an additional five years, subject to availability of funds, the recipient's satisfactory performance, and review of a cost proposal for the second 5-year period. NSF’s decision will be informed by the National Science Board Statement on Recompetition of Major Facilities (NSB 2015-45 or its successor).
 

For planning purposes, proposers can assume a base budget of approximately $39.5 million during the first year of the award, beginning October 2025 and should plan for no more than a 6% budget increase in each of the subsequent years. All budget amounts given herein are tentative and for initial planning purposes only. Actual annual funding increments will be determined based on the detailed cost estimate required per Section VII.C below and an Annual Plan and Budget submitted by the recipient to, and approved by, NSF. Funding increments are subject annually to the availability of funds and will be contingent on the performance of the recipient. Ongoing recapitalization of instrumentation, and escalation factors used for cost estimating, should be articulated in the Cost Estimating Plan.

Transition funding of up to $1,000,000 for a duration of up to six (6) months will be available for organizations other than the incumbent organization. Relevant transition activities include interviewing and hiring personnel, establishing subcontracts, transferring data and property, and obtaining permits and licenses. Should a transition period be necessary, the incumbent will retain responsibility for management of NGF and the new recipient will have the appropriate level of access to incumbent personnel and facilities associated with NGF as determined by NSF. The funding request for a transition period should be made within the Transition Plan and should not be included in the formal cost estimate or proposed budget for the initial 5-year period but must conform to the same requirements.

Institutionally Coordinated // Limit: 3* // PI:  E-J. Lee (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

*UArizona is invited to submit up to three nominations, one for each of the three disciplinary categories: Life Sciences; Physical Sciences & Engineering; and Chemistry.

The Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists recognize the United States' most promising faculty-rank researchers in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemistry. One Blavatnik National Awards Laureate in each disciplinary category will receive $250,000 in unrestricted funds, and additional nominees will be recognized as Finalists.

Interested applicants or nominators should contact Marie Teemant, Associate, Research Development Services.

Limit: 2  // PIs: 
Kenry (Pharmaceutics & Pharmacokinetics)
S. Song (Biomedical Engineering)

Only two nominations are allowed per institution.

These competitive research awards provide seed money for junior faculty members that often result in additional funding from other sources. The award amount provided by ORAU is $5,000. The applicant’s institution is required to match the award with at least an additional $5,000. This is a one-year grant (June 1 to May 31).

Eligibility for the Powe Awards is open to full-time assistant professors at ORAU member institutions within two years of their tenure track appointment at the time of application. If there is a question about eligibility, your ORAU Councilor makes the final determination. Only two nominations are allowed per institution.

Research projects must fall within one of these five disciplines:

• Engineering and Applied Science
• Life Sciences
• Mathematics/Computer Sciences
• Physical Sciences
• Policy, Management, or Education

Junior faculty members interested in applying should consult their ORAU Councilor, and visit the frequently asked questions.