Physical Sciences & Engineering

Limit: 1 // P. C. Ellsworth (Entomology/ Maricopa Agricultural Center)

Duplicate or multiple submissions are not allowed.

NIFA requests applications for the Crop Protection and Pest Management (CPPM) program for fiscal year (FY) 2024 to address critical state, regional and national integrated pest management (IPM) needs to ensure food security and respond effectively to other major societal pest management challenges. The CPPM program supports projects that address these challenges with IPM approaches developed by coordinated state, regional, and national research, and extension efforts. The impact of these research and extension efforts will be increased by the establishment of communication networks and stakeholder participation in setting priorities. In FY 2024, NIFA will only accept competitive applications for funding in the Applied Research and Development Program (ARDP) and the Extension Implementation Program (EIP) areas of CPPM. NIFA will fund current Regional Coordination Program (RCP) area projects through continuation applications.

The purpose of the Crop Protection and Pest Management program is to address high priority issues related to pests and their management using IPM approaches at the state, regional and national levels. The CPPM program supports projects that will ensure food security and respond effectively to other major societal pest management challenges with comprehensive IPM approaches that are economically viable, ecologically prudent, and safe for human health. The CPPM program addresses IPM challenges for emerging issues and existing priority pest concerns that can be addressed more effectively with new and emerging technologies. The outcomes of the CPPM program are effective, affordable, and environmentally sound IPM practices and strategies needed to maintain agricultural productivity and healthy communities. ​

No applicants  // Limit: 4* // Tickets Available: 4

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

The Critical Materials Accelerator aims to validate and prototype technologies and processes that address critical materials challenges by developing alternatives, diversifying and expanding supply, increasing manufacturing and material efficiency, and establishing a circular economy. The Accelerator intends to speed up the adoption of innovation while promoting safe, sustainable, economic, and environmentally just solutions to meet current and future critical materials supply chain needs​.

This FOA solicits proposals that advance innovation to realize the Department’s critical minerals and materials vision of a reliable, resilient, affordable, diverse, sustainable, and secure domestic supply chains for the clean energy economy. Projects funded under this FOA will de-risk innovation and mature technology development in partnership with industry to reduce demand through alternative materials or technologies, extend the lifetime of critical materials, and advance secure and sustainable critical materials manufacturing technologies. Each topic area of the FOA addresses priority technologies and supply chain gaps identified by the Critical Materials Collaborative.

Topic Areas:

• Topic 1 – Use of Magnets with Reduced Critical Materials Content 
  • Topic 1a – Critical Material Lean/Free Magnets for Clean Energy Technologies: Projects will validate alternative magnet compositions that reduce or eliminate the use of critical materials by at least 25 wt.% 
  • Topic 1b – Motors and Drivetrains using Critical Material Lean/Free Magnets: Projects will prototype electric machines or drivetrains that use magnets that reduce or eliminate the use of critical materials by at least 25 wt.% 
• Topic 2 – Improved Unit Operations of Processing and Manufacturing of Critical Materials: Projects will make improvements to unit operations and/or processes to separate, refine/process critical materials for clean energy technologies that rely on critical materials.  
• Topic 3 – Critical Material Recovery from Scrap and Post-Consumer Products: Selectees will develop and validate approaches to recycle or recover critical materials from post-consumer products, including but not limited to, design for recycling and reuse and de-risking critical material recovery from waste and manufacturing scrap.  
• Topic 4 – Reduced Critical Material Demand for Clean Energy Technologies: Selectees will develop and validate materials, technologies, or processes that reduce or eliminate the use of critical materials for clean energy technologies. 

Submit ticket request  // Limit:2* // Tickets Available: 1

C. Algie (Architecture)

*If more than two submissions are received from a competitor, the two most recently submitted submissions will be considered. Only one submission per competitor can advance to Phase 2: Prepare!.

The Re-X Before Recycling Prize will award up to $5.6 million in federal funding and technical assistance from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories. The prize is designed to stimulate innovation and private investment in circular economy approaches that can transform waste streams into diverse, integrated circular supply networks and contribute to a robust, environmentally sustainable economy.

The prize is seeking innovations to unlock new or expanded supply chains that can reintegrate end-of-use products into the economy via re-use, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and/or repurposing (“Re-X”) before recycling.

The Re-X Before Recycling Prize invites competitors to work on one of two categories: established or emerging waste streams.

The Re-X Before Recycling Prize has three phases that will run from 2023 to 2025. During Phase 1, also called Identify!, competitors will identify new or expanded circular supply chain opportunities and the innovations needed to realize them and deliver community benefits. During Phase 2, called Prepare!, competitors will prepare to develop their innovation. During the final Phase 3, Develop!, competitors will continue to advance their idea toward implementation.

Areas of interest: 

Established Waste Streams: This topic area includes innovations focusing on how to utilize products that are currently available in U.S. waste streams. This topic area would include currently discarded products such as electrical devices, furnishings, consumer goods, and building materials.

Emerging Waste Streams: This topic area includes innovations focusing on how to utilize products that will be available in the future in waste streams. For example, clean energy technologies such as wind, solar, and batteries must expand dramatically to reach our decarbonization goals resulting in waste at the end of their product lifespans. These products may not be available in current waste streams in large volumes but will be in the future.

Limit: 1 // C-k Chan (Steward Observatory) & G. Leroy (Management Information Systems)

The overarching goal of this solicitation is to democratize access to NSF’s advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) ecosystem and ensure fair and equitable access to resources, services, and expertise by strengthening how Cyberinfrastructure Professionals (CIP) function in this ecosystemThis solicitation will support NSF’s advanced CI ecosystem with a scalable, agile, diverse, and sustainable network of CIPs that can ensure broad adoption of advanced CI resources and expert services including platforms, tools, methods, software, data, and networks for research communities, to catalyze major research advances, and to enhance researchers' abilities to lead the development of new CI.

UArizona is ineligible to propose as a lead institution * // Limit: 1 

*Eligibility note: Universities awarded as part of MIRO Group 6, Group 6R, and Group 7 are ineligible to propose as a lead institution to this funding opportunity. 
UArizona was awarded a  MUREP APPENDIX G MUREP Institutional Research Opportunity – MIRO Group 7 in 2018, which makes the institution ineligible to lead a proposal to this funding program.

The NASA OSTEM MUREP Program solicits proposals from four-year colleges/universities designated by the U.S. Department of Education as MSIs for the MUREP Institutional Research Opportunity (MIRO) awards. MIRO develops significant scientific, engineering, and/or technology research centers. The purpose of MIRO is to strengthen and develop the research capacity and infrastructure of MSIs in areas of strategic importance and value to NASA’s mission and priorities. MIRO awards promote STEM literacy and enhance and sustain the capability of institutions to perform NASA-related research and education. Additionally, MIRO strengthens student participation in research at MSIs in order to develop and diversify the next generation of the STEM workforce. MIRO awards directly support research pertinent to NASA’s five Mission Directorates (MDs) – Aeronautics Research, Exploration Systems Development, Space Operations, Science, and Space Technology. 

MIRO cooperative agreements are competitively awarded to MSIs to promote research capacity, expand aerospace research, increase workforce diversity, and strengthen students’ STEM skills.  The MIRO awards goals and objectives are to: 

1) Expand the nation's base for aerospace research and development by fostering new aerospace research and technology development concepts aligned with NASA research priorities as defined by NASA’s MDs. 

Objective 1.1: Develop significant scientific, engineering, and/or technology research centers at the MSI that align and engage one or more programs of the NASA Mission Directorates.

Objective 1.2: Increase the lead institution’s capacity to contribute to the priorities of NASA’s Mission Directorates (Aeronautics Research, Exploration Systems Development, Science, Space Operations and Space Technology) and NASA’s Centers and facilities.

2) Promote institutional advancement and enhanced research capacity through partnerships among MSIs, other academic institutions, NASA, and industry.

Objective 2.1: Increase the lead institution’s ability to sustain research efforts through development of strategic partnerships. .  

 Objective 2.2: Increase the lead institution’s pursuit of additional funding opportunities offered by NASA, industry, and other agencies.

 Objective 2.3: Increase the ability of research leadership at the lead institution to leverage resources to enhance its research capacity at the project, program, department, college, and/or university levels.

3) Strengthen participation of faculty, researchers, and students at MSIs in the research programs of NASA’s MDs.

Objective 3.1: Increase faculty and researcher knowledge and skills in NASA-related research through professional development and NASA research opportunities.

Objective 3.2: Increase capacity to develop student knowledge and skills in NASA-related research through curriculum enhancement, redesign, and development at the course, degree, and/or department levels.

Objective 3.3: Increase capacity to develop student knowledge and skills in NASA-related research through NASA internships and opportunities.

4) Facilitate mechanisms to ensure degrees awarded to students from MSIs in NASA-related fields reflect the diversity of our nation and contribute to the diversity of the NASA workforce.

Objective 4.1: Increase the number of undergraduate and graduate degrees awarded to students from MSIs in NASA-related fields.     

No Applicants // Limit: 3 // Tickets Available: 3 

This NOFO announces the availability of funds and solicits applications from eligible entities to develop projects for hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) reclamation and innovative destruction technologies. Section 60109 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provided the EPA with $15 million for competitive grants for “reclaim and innovative destruction technologies” consistent with subsections (a) through (i) and subsection (k) of section 103 division S of Public Law 116-260 (42 U.S.C. 7675) (also known as the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act). Enacted in 2020, the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act authorizes the EPA to address climate-damaging greenhouse gases (GHGs) called HFCs by: phasing down their production and consumption, maximizing reclamation and minimizing releases from equipment, and facilitating the transition to next-generation technologies through sector-based restrictions on HFCs. HFCs are potent GHGs commonly used in refrigeration and air conditioning equipment, as well as foams and many other applications. A global phasedown of HFCs is expected to avoid up to 0.5°C of global warming by 2100. There are hundreds of possible HFC compounds. The 18 HFCs listed as regulated substances by the AIM Act are some of the most commonly used HFCs and have high impacts as measured by the quantity emitted multiplied by their respective global warming potentials (GWPs). For more information on the AIM Act and its implementing regulations, please visit https://www.epa.gov/climate-hfcs-reduction.

Areas of Interest

The objectives of the HFC Reclaim and Innovative Destruction Grants, as described under Assistance Listing 66.047, are to support and contribute to addressing HFCs under the AIM Act by funding the following three project areas (listed order below does not indicate preference):
(1) Reclaim Technologies – pilot projects for new/better technologies to increase the reclamation of HFCs by expanding access to reclamation and improving the reclamation process;
(2) Reclaim Market Dynamics – programs or pilot projects for innovative strategies that address market dynamics to increase HFC reclamation by lowering barriers; or
(3) Innovative Destruction Technologies – pilot projects for innovative technologies or innovative deployment of technologies to destroy unusable and/or unwanted HFCs

 Limit: 2 // J.  Green (Environmental Science), L. Ikner (Environmental Science)

*Deadline note: Due to the competitive nature of this funding program, this selection process is running with an anticipated deadline.
We will inform all applicants of relevant updates in the guidelines, submission deadlines, and eligibility as soon as more information becomes available.

The Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering Program invests in future leaders who can take risks, explore new frontiers in their fields of study, and follow uncharted paths that may lead to groundbreaking discoveries.

The Foundation established the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering to allow the nation's most promising early career professors to pursue their science and engineering research with few funding restrictions and limited paperwork requirements.

Competitive Proposals Will explain clearly in the nomination letter(s) why the investigator is creative, innovative and promising. The proposed research program has breakthrough potential and reflects that promise and a sense of adventure and creativity. Proposals should put the work and its significance in context of the larger field. And differentiates projects should be accessible to a group of very successful scientists from a diverse set of fields (i.e. stay away from field-specific jargon). Projects must have high impact referees that can emphasize the significance and impact of the “big idea” and how the fellowship will significantly impact the nominee’s career.

Eligibility:

• Candidates must be faculty members who are eligible to serve as principal investigators engaged in research in the natural and physical sciences or engineering and must be within the first three years of their faculty careers.
• Disciplines that will be considered include biology, chemistry, bio-medical engineering, physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, astronomy, computer science, earth science, ocean science, and all branches of engineering. Candidates engaged in research in the social sciences will not be considered.
• Candidates must be faculty members in the first three years of their faculty careers, that is, whose initial appointment began no earlier than May 31, 2021, and no later than May 31, 2024.

Limit: 3 // PIs:
Y. Vitaliy (Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering)
B. Revil-Baudard (Materials Science and Engineering)
H. Rastgoftar (Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering)

The DEVCOM Army Research Lab seeks unclassified research proposals from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) under Broad Agency Announcement (FOA) W911NF-23-S-0001-0002 (hereafter referred to as the DEVCOM ARL BAA”) to establish an Army HBCU/MI Early Career Program (ECP) which embodies the high priority placed by the government on maintaining the leadership position of the United States in science by producing outstanding scientists and engineers and nurturing their continued development. Each award will support basic research contributing to Army modernization needs conducted by outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their careers at HBCU/MI institutions. ECP awards are funded by the Army to support early career scientists and engineers who show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. This targeted opportunity is open to U.S. citizens, U.S. Nationals, or Lawful Permanent Residents of the U.S. who have held a tenure- track position at a covered educational institution for fewer than five years at the time applications are due in response to this special notice. Faculty at an institution of higher education which does not designate a faculty appointment as "tenure track" are eligible if that fact is so indicated in the proposal, and the supporting letter from the institute states that the faculty member submitting the proposal will be considered for a permanent appointment, or it is demonstrated that the faculty member is within five years of receiving his or her first competitively awarded federal research funding (as principal investigator), excluding funds secured during graduate school or postdoctoral training/fellowship and funds secured for training, fellowship, education, or career development. The objective of the ECP Award is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering; enhance development of outstanding early career investigators; and increase opportunities for early career investigators to pursue research in areas relevant to the Army. Proposals that do not meet these criteria for the Principal Investigator (PI) will be considered ineligible and not reviewed or considered for funding.

The eleven DEVCOM ARL competencies are:

•   Biological and Biotechnology Sciences

•   Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences

•   Energy Sciences

•   Humans in Complex Systems

•   Mechanical Sciences

•   Military Information Sciences

•   Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences

•   Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences

•   Sciences of Extreme Materials

•   Terminal Effects

•   Weapons Sciences

DEVCOM ARL plans to award up to eight (8) new HBCU/MI ECP grants at a total cost of $990,000 each over a duration of 5 years, with funding profile of $110,000 in year one, $165,000 in year two, $220,000 in year three, $330,000 in year four, and $165,000 in year five. Note this is more funding and longer duration than the typical ECP award specified in the DEVCOM ARL BAA.

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

The University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC) can nominate five applications for the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award. 
For more information please contact: UACC-PreAward.

The Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award supports independent young physician-scientists conducting disease-oriented research that demonstrates a high level of innovation and creativity. The goal is to support the best young physician-scientists doing work aimed at improving the practice of cancer medicine.

The Clinical Investigator Award responds to three recognized realities:

• Though there has never been a more pressing need or more promising time for clinical cancer research, fewer young physicians enter this area of investigation every year.
• The number of institutions committed to training young physicians in the scientific discipline and methodologies of clinical investigation is critically low.
• The burden of medical school debt (averaging over $100,000) discourages many physicians from pursuing clinical investigation.

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation’s award offers solutions to these realities. The awardee will receive financial support for three years, as well as assistance with certain research costs such as the purchase of equipment. The Foundation will also retire up to $100,000 of any medical school debt still owed by the awardee.

The Clinical Investigator Award program is specifically intended to provide outstanding young physicians with the resources and training structure essential to becoming successful clinical investigators. The goal is to increase the number of physicians capable of moving seamlessly between the laboratory and the patient’s bedside in search of breakthrough treatments.