October 26, 2022
Federal Funding News and Opportunities
The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) conducts basic and applied research for the Navy in a variety of scientific and technical disciplines. The research conducted at NRL is broad-based, multidisciplinary scientific research and advanced technological development directed toward maritime applications of new and improved materials, techniques, equipment, systems and ocean, atmospheric, and space sciences and related technologies. NRL is interested in receiving innovative proposals that offer potential for advancement and improvement in scientific and technical topic areas that will address the future operations and requirements of the Navy. and allow it to keep pace with rapidly developing technologies.
U.S. Department of Energy; Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Water Power Projects: Innovative Technologies to Enable Low Impact Hydropower and Pumped Storage Hydropower Growth Concept Papers due December 1, 2022
This funding opportunity seeks applications to address innovative solutions to retrofit non-powered dams with environmentally sustainable hydropower at a reasonable cost; applications to address development and testing technologies that mitigate challenges to pumped storage hydropower deployment, including market and revenue uncertainty, development costs and financing, long development timelines, permitting challenges, construction risks, and environmental impacts; and applications to address and encourage emerging organizations to support hydropower development.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Community Living Field Initiated Projects Program Research and Development proposals due December 16, 2022
The purpose of the Field Initiated (FI) Projects program is to develop knowledge, methods, procedures, and rehabilitation technology that maximize the full inclusion and integration into society, employment, independent living, family support, and economic and social self-sufficiency of individuals with disabilities, especially those with the highest support needs.
In carrying out a research activity under a FI Projects research grant, applicants must identify one or more hypotheses or research questions and, based on the hypotheses or research questions identified, perform an intensive, systematic study directed toward producing new scientific knowledge or better understanding of the subject, problem studied, or body of knowledge.
In carrying out a development activity under a FI Projects development grant, a grantee must use knowledge and understanding gained from research to create materials, devices, systems, methods, measures, techniques, tools, prototypes, processes, or intervention protocols that are beneficial to the target population.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Health Resources and Services Administration Primary Care Training and Enhancement – Residency in Training Mental and Behavioral Health due November 15, 2022
The purpose of this program is to train primary care residents in the prevention, identification, diagnosis, treatment, and referral of services for mental and behavioral health conditions for pediatric, adolescent, young adult, and other populations who are at-risk or have experienced abuse, trauma, or mental health and/or substance use disorders, including those related to the effects of gun. Primary care residencies eligible to apply include family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics and combined internal medicine and pediatrics (med-peds) residencies. Funding must be used to support both didactic training and at least a one-month clinical rotation primarily focused on mental and behavioral health conditions.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Health Resources and Services Administration Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Training Program due January 19, 2023
The purpose of the Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP) program is to increase access to evaluation and services for children with a wide range of developmental and behavioral concerns, including autism. Through this program, up to 15 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited DBP fellowship programs will provide post-graduate training, including fellowships, continuing education to practicing providers, and technical assistance to community agencies. Programs will prepare DBP fellows for leadership roles as teachers, researchers, and clinicians. In doing so, programs will build the workforce capacity to evaluate, diagnose or rule out developmental disabilities, including autism, as well as other behavioral health concerns; and support research and clinical care in the broad range of behavioral, psychosocial, and developmental issues through training of pediatric practitioners, residents, and medical students.
This funding opportunity will support new institutional research training programs in artificial intelligence (AI) for precision nutrition (AIPrN) that will focus on integration of the domains of precision nutrition, AI including machine learning, systems biology, systems science, Big Data, and computational analytics. The goal is to build a future workforce that will be able to use growing data resources to tackle complex biomedical challenges in nutrition science that are beyond human intuition. Such research will lead to the development of innovative solutions to combat diet-related chronic diseases.
This funding opportunity will address bottlenecks in training the nursing workforce and expand and diversify the pipeline of qualified nursing professionals through two training tracks:
- Nurse Education Professional Track will increase the number of clinical and vocational nursing instructors and educators by training new or upskilling experienced current or former nurses (including retired nurses) into advanced postsecondary credentialing necessary for nurses to become clinical and vocational nursing instructors and educators. Applicants will propose strategies to improve nursing professional, clinical instructor, and educator recruitment, preparation, development, training, and retention
- Nursing Career Pathway Track will train frontline healthcare professionals and paraprofessionals, including direct care workers, to advance along a career pathway and attain postsecondary credentials needed for middle- to high-skilled nursing occupations. Grantees will develop training partnerships between clinical settings and education and training providers to support accelerated learning and expanded access to clinical residencies and specialty care rotations.
U.S. Department of Transportation; Federal Highway Administration Exploratory Advanced Research Program proposals due December 5, 2022
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) through its Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Program seeks proposals for research projects that could lead to transformational changes and revolutionary advances in highway engineering and intermodal surface transportation. This program supports scientific investigations and studies to advance the current knowledge and state-of-the-art in the sciences and technologies employed in the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance and management of the nation’s highways. Specifically, through this opportunity FHWA will support research addressing the following two topics:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Highway Transportation: With the growing number of maturing and commercial applications, there is still a need for early state research to support emerging advances in AI than can solve even more complex questions in highway transportation. Accordingly, the FHWA is seeking to demonstrate the potential of untried advances in AI for solving nationally critical questions in highway transportation.
- New Approaches to Reduce Embodied Carbon from Infrastructure Construction, Maintenance, and Operations: Recent fundamental advances in science and technology can enhance existing or provide new data driven approaches for effectively assessing the impact of highway infrastructure on the earth’s climate and engineer construction materials that provide better engineering as well as environmental performance than those currently used. Examples include but are not limited to sensing and communications that allow for ubiquitous tracking of materials from extraction through re-use, machine learning approaches that are explainable, contextually valid, and transferable, and multi-scale modeling that are flexible and open.
National Endowment for the Humanities Cultural and Community Resilience due January 12, 2023
This program supports community-based efforts to mitigate climate change and COVID-19 pandemic impacts, safeguard cultural resources, and foster cultural resilience through identifying, documenting, and/or collecting cultural heritage and community experience. The program prioritizes projects from disadvantaged communities in the U.S. or its jurisdictions, and encourages applications that employ inclusive methodologies.
This program supports comprehensive assessment and strategic planning efforts by humanities organizations to mitigate physical and operational environmental impacts and adapt to a changing climate. Projects will result in climate action and adaptation planning documents or similar detailed assessments including prioritized, measurable actions and their expected outcomes.
Through this new initiative, the Directorate for Education and Human Resources and the newly established Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP), will support inclusive experiential learning opportunities designed to provide cohorts of diverse learners with the crucial skills needed to succeed in emerging technology fields, including advanced manufacturing, advanced wireless, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum information science, semiconductors, and microelectronics, and prepare them to enter the workforce ready to solve pressing scientific and societal challenges. Key goals of this new program are to:
- Expand access to career-enhancing experiential learning opportunities for a broader, more diverse population, including adult learners interested in re-skilling and/or upskilling
- Promote cross sector partnerships between organizations in emerging technology fields and those with expertise in workforce development; and
- Develop a workforce aligned with regional economies based on emerging technologies across the Nation, in alignment with the mission of the new TIP Directorate.
The Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-1 Program (Mid-scale RI-1) supports the design or implementation of unique and compelling RI projects. Mid-scale implementation projects may include any combination of equipment, instrumentation, cyberinfrastructure, broadly used large scale datasets and the personnel needed to successfully commission the project. Mid-scale RI-1 design projects include the design efforts intended to lead to eventual implementation of a mid-scale class RI project. Mid-scale RI-1 projects should involve the training of a diverse workforce engaged in the design and implementation of science, technology, engineering, and math research infrastructure.
The Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE: EDU) program seeks to promote novel, creative, and transformative approaches to generating and using new knowledge about STEM teaching and learning to improve STEM education for undergraduate students. IUSE: EDU supports projects that seek to bring recent advances in STEM knowledge into undergraduate education, that adapt, improve, and incorporate evidence-based practices into STEM teaching and learning, and that lay the groundwork for institutional improvement in STEM education. In addition to innovative work at the frontier of STEM education, this program also encourages replication of research studies at different types of institutions and with different student bodies to produce deeper knowledge about the effectiveness and transferability of findings.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and its partners support the continued growth of a broad and diverse interdisciplinary research community for the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-powered innovation, providing a unique opportunity to broadly promote the NSF vision and core values, especially inclusion and collaboration. The Expanding AI Innovation through Capacity Building and Partnerships (ExpandAI) program aims to significantly broaden participation in AI research, education, and workforce development through capacity development projects and through partnerships within the National AI Research Institutes ecosystem.
