August 30, 2023
Federal Funding Opportunities
The overall objective of this funding opportunity is to support impactful, large marine debris removal projects that will improve the resilience of the coastal and marine environment. This competition considers impactful projects to be those that will have long-lasting and transformational benefits to marine and coastal trust resources, coastal communities, and/or local economies. To accomplish this, the Marine Debris Program seeks proposals for projects that remove and dispose of large marine debris, such as abandoned and derelict vessels, derelict fishing gear, and other large debris, and prevent the re-accumulation of marine debris in the environment.
This funding opportunity will support the installation, monitoring, and maintenance of proven marine debris interception and removal technologies to benefit marine and coastal trust resources, coastal communities, and/or local economies. For the purpose of this funding opportunity, marine debris interception technologies include devices, such as litter traps, shoreline removal technologies, booms, skimmers, conveyors with receptacles, floating collection devices, etc., that capture trash, plastics, and other macro-debris. Proven interception technologies are those that are not prototype devices and do not require additional research and development prior to deployment, and have been used successfully in the environment in which they are being proposed. These interception technologies may be utilized alone or together as part of a wider interception strategy.
The aim of the Precision Surgical Interventions (PSI) program is to catalyze advancements in the surgical field, with the final goals of providing the surgeon with revolutionary tissue visualization and classification tools, thus increasing surgical precision, decreasing reoperations, and improving patient care. PSI seeks to develop technologies that improve surgical outcomes through two technical areas:
- Area 1 aims to develop systems that image tumors intraoperatively at microscopic scales, and requires performers to develop an end-to-end pathology system that operates at the bedside or in vivo and classifies margins as positive or negative within 15 minutes, without a pathologist.
- Area 2 aims to develop devices and software to localize and visualize critical anatomical structures (nerves, blood vessels and organs) in three-dimensional during surgery, and requires performers to develop a real-time, end-to-end system that enables visualization of critical structures buried up to one centimeter deep.
This program solicits proposals on behalf of individuals pursuing or planning to pursue master’s or doctoral degrees in relevant space technology disciplines at accredited U.S. universities. Space Technology Graduate Research Fellows will perform research at their respective campuses and at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Centers. Each recipient will be matched with a technically relevant and community-engaged NASA researcher who will serve as the research collaborator on the award. Through this collaboration, graduate students will be able to take advantage of broader and/or deeper space technology research opportunities directly related to their academic and career objectives, acquire a more detailed understanding of the potential end applications of their space technology efforts, and directly disseminate their research results within the NASA community.
The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program supports research on the ecological, evolutionary, organismal, and social drivers that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. The central theme of submitted projects must be the quantitative, mathematical, or computational understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics. The intent is discovery of principles of infectious disease (re)emergence and transmission and testing mathematical or computational models that elucidate infectious disease systems. Projects should be broad, interdisciplinary efforts that go beyond the scope of typical studies. They should focus on the determinants and interactions of (re)emergence and transmission among any host species, including but not limited to humans, non-human animals, and/or plants. This includes, for example, the spread of pathogens; the influence of environmental factors such as climate; the population dynamics and genetics of vectors and reservoir species or hosts; how the physiology or behavior of the pathogen, vector, or host species biology affects transmission dynamics; the feedback between ecological transmission and evolutionary dynamics; and the cultural, social, behavioral, and economic dimensions of pathogen transmission and disease. Research may be on zoonotic, environmentally-borne, vector-borne, enteric, or respiratory pathogens of either terrestrial, aquatic, or marine systems and organisms, including diseases of animals and plants, at any scale from specific pathogens to inclusive environmental systems.
