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ERI Funding Opportunities

Welcome to the ERI Funding Opportunities Site

College of Engineering campus
Research drives excellence in the College of Engineering by serving as a magnet to attract and retain outstanding faculty and students. Funding opportunities relevant to the College of Engineering will be posted here. If you are interested in pursuing any of these opportunities please contact ERI at eri-pre@iastate.edu for assistance or additional information. New opportunities are posted weekly. To have the new opportunities delivered directly to your inbox please subscribe using your ISU email address. One email per week.

 

 

Accelerating Speed to Power/Winning the Artificial Intelligence Race: Federal Action to Rapidly Expand Grid Capacity and Enable Electricity Demand Growth

DOE

DE-FOA-0003574

https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/360771

Posted Date: October 21, 2025

Close Date: November 21, 2025

 

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, impacted communities, and other stakeholders on issues related to gigawatt-scale generation and transmission investments driven by projected electricity demand growth from data centers, advanced manufacturing facilities, semiconductor fabrication plants, and other large energy users that are outpacing the capacity of the existing electric grid.

Advanced Technologies for combat casualty care (CCC) RFI

DARPA

DARPA-SN-26-06

https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/c22f60aa51424ec1b63fdb9743377871/view

Posted Date: October 23, 2025

Response Due Date: December 3, 2025, 4:00 pm ET

 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office (BTO) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) to solicit input from industry, academia, government laboratories, and non-traditional performers regarding the most advanced medical sensing, computational, modeling, actuation, therapeutic and robotics technologies that could transform continuum of care in contested, resource-constrained environments.

This RFI is issued solely for information-gathering and planning purposes. It does not constitute a solicitation for proposals, abstracts, or quotations.

DARPA Lift Challenge

DARPA

DARPA-SN-25-109

https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/a42d171966d74596b93bf5dda8d02aa1/view

Posted Date: October 23, 2025

Registration Deadline: May 1, 2026

 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Tactical Technology Office (TTO) is sponsoring the DARPA Lift Challenge. This Special Notice provides information for potential participants interested in competing. The DARPA Lift Challenge will be held Summer 2026, at the location announced on the challenge website. Advance registration will be required.

The objective of the DARPA Lift Challenge is to significantly advance the capabilities of vertical lift unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) by achieving substantial improvements in payload-to-weight ratio. Current multirotor UAS provide simplicity, affordability, and ease of operation; however, their primary limitation is their low payload-to-weight ratio, which typically falls at 1:1 or less. This restriction significantly limits their ability to carry heavy payloads or operate for extended durations.

Challenge and Registration website here

Track at Big Distances with Track-Before-Detect (TBD2) Proposers Day Announcement

DARPA

DARPA-SN-26-09

https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/fb18803610c44cdc88c48183a7fee09b/view

Published Date: October 21, 2025

Registration Deadline: October 27, 2025

Event Date: November 4, 2025

DARPA will host a Proposers Day in support of DARPA-PS-26-01, Track at Big Distances with Track-Before-Detect (TBD2) program on November 4, 2025 at the Executive Conference Center (ECC), located at 4075 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22203 from 9:30am to 5:00pm ET. The purpose of this conference is to provide information on the TBD2 program; promote additional discussion on this topic; address questions from potential proposers; and provide a forum for potential proposers to present their capabilities for teaming opportunities.

The objective of the TBD2 program is to enable continuous space-based detection and tracking of objects in cislunar space on tactical timelines. To accomplish this, TBD2 seeks to advance state of the art for signal processing algorithms so that when combined with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) or quasi-COTS optical sensors and/or focal plane arrays (FPAs), they can a) detect and track faint objects at gigameter (Gm) distances b) operate using available onboard processing capabilities, and c) do so on relevant timelines (within hours).

 

 

Amazon Research Awards 2025

Amazon

https://www.amazon.science/research-areas/latest-news/amazon-research-awards-issues-fall-2025-call-for-proposals

Submission Opened: October 1, 2025

Due Date: November 5, 2025, at 11:59 p.m PT

As the Amazon Research Awards (ARA) program continues to expand in scope, so does our call for proposals list. To that end, starting October 1, we will open the fall 2025 call for proposals in eight research areas listed below.

  1. AI for Information Security
  2. AWS Agentic AI
  3. Automated Reasoning
  4. Build on Trainium: Responsible AI
  5. AWS Cryptography
  6. Cybersecurity Research and Anti-Abuse Technologies
  7. Sustainability
  8. Think Big

The deadline for submissions is November 5, 2025 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Proposals will be reviewed for the quality of their scientific content, creativity, and their potential for impact at scale. Proposals related to theory, practice, and novel techniques are all welcome.

ARA provides grant recipients unrestricted funds and AWS promotional credits. Funded projects are assigned an Amazon research contact, and recipients also receive training resources, including AWS tutorials and hands-on sessions with Amazon scientists and engineers.

Before applying, we encourage researchers to visit the ARA website and read our frequently asked questions for more specific program information. We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Discover DSO Day (D3)

DOD

DARPA-SN-26-07

https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/6e25aba551c04f0894f6c238ea9b9d85/view

Posted Date: October 17, 2025

Event Date: January 13, 2026

 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is sponsoring a Discover DSO Day (D3) event to (1) familiarize participants with DSO’s mission; (2) promote understanding of DSO funding opportunities; and (3) facilitate discussions with DSO program managers. The event will be held in person only on January 13, 2026, in Orlando, FL. Advance registration is required for all individuals attending. Note that all deadlines and times listed in this notice and on the registration website are Eastern Time. To identify and explore ideas that could potentially revolutionize the state of the art, DARPA strongly encourages participation by small businesses, academic and research institutions, and first‐time Government contractors (e.g., non-traditional proposers) in events such as this and any subsequent solicitation. Please note that D3 is a separate event from DSO Pitch Day, requiring separate registration. Details about the DSO Pitch Day can be found on the DSO webpage (https://www.darpa.mil/about/offices/dso).

2025 Army Geospatial Center (AGC) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)

Army

Solicitation: W5J9CQ25R0002

https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/ad5c3bb83b6049cf936ee5d2021619a1/view

Posted Date: October 14, 2025

Proposal Due Date: October 13, 2026

AGC is soliciting white papers and proposals in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 35.016, Department of Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 206.102(d)(2), and DFARS 235.016, which provides for competitive selection of basic and applied research, advanced technology development, and advanced component development and prototypes (hereinafter referred to as research). This announcement is general in nature and addresses multiple topic areas of research for the Systems and Acquisition Support Directorate. Submissions in response to this announcement shall be for areas relating to the advancement of a wide variety of geospatial topics, which are listed herein. Accordingly, proposals selected for award are the result of full and open competition and fully compliant with Public Law 98-369, “The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984,” DFARS 215.371-4(a)(4), and DFARS 235.006-71. This BAA is for procurement contracts (hereinafter referred to as contracts) only, and does not include grants, cooperative agreements, or other transactions.

Altermagnetism for devices (Altered B) Request for Information (RFI)

DARPA

Solicitation: DARPA-SS-26-01

https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/4fd49ead4efb48938f69069e5316fd88/view

Posted Date: October 10, 2025

Responses Due Date: November 12, 2025 by 4:00 pm ET

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is requesting information on areas of research related to altermagnetism and its applicability to advanced electronic devices.

Altermagnetism is a recently discovered type of magnetic ordering that exhibits features of both ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. Like antiferromagnetism, the spins in an altermagnetic
system align in a collinear, antiparallel fashion, yielding zero net magnetization. Unlike  antiferromagnetism, however, the crystal fields of the antialigned spins in altermagnets are related by a rotational symmetry element, rather than a translational or inversion element. This crystal symmetry imparts a non-relativistic spin splitting onto the band structure of the material, akin to ferromagnetism.
Because altermagnetic materials possess unique properties, the field of spintronics is a potential application space. Spintronic devices exploit the interaction of spin-polarized currents with
magnetic materials to perform computations and store data, with the promise that switching energies could potentially be orders of magnitude lower than current Metal–Oxide– Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET) technologies. However, integrating ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic materials into spintronic devices presents challenges.

DSO Pitch Day Solicitation

DARPA

Solicitation: DARPA-PA-26-01

https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/8ce78d0be9514a158e0dc4ea2f3ebd6b/view

Posted Date: October 17, 2025

Abstract Deadline: October 27, 2025 by 12:00 pm ET

The mission of DARPA’s Defense Science Office (DSO) is to identify and sponsor scientific discovery to fuel innovation in research and development for defense. DSO develops and executes an aggressive and forward-leaning portfolio that accelerates the development and maturation of scientific advances across a broad set of technical areas to create asymmetric advantage for U.S. National Security. DSO aims to create strategic surprise by pushing technology toward its fundamental scientific limits, thereby expanding the art of the possible. In addition, DSO looks for transformative trends at the global scale and their potential impact on our nation.
In pursuit of this mission, DARPA DSO will host a Pitch Day for engagement with prospective proposers and to catalyze future efforts in the Technical Thrust Areas listed in Section B below.
Each Thrust Area also includes a list of example research topics that highlight areas of interest specific to DSO Pitch Day. In order to be selected, proposals must investigate innovative new
scientific or research approaches that enable revolutionary advances. DSO is explicitly not interested in approaches or technologies that primarily result in evolutionary improvements to
the existing state of practice nor in projects that only require time and money to complete. This Program Announcement DARPA-PA-26-01 constitutes DSO’s Pitch Day solicitation.

 

 

U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), CHIPS Research and Development Office (CRDO) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)

DOC

2025-NIST-CHIPS-CRDO-01

https://www.nist.gov/chips/r%2526d-funding-opportunities/crdo-broad-agency-announcement-baa

Posted Date: September 24, 2025

Due Date: September 30, 2029

The United States is in a battle for global leadership in the critical and emerging
technologies (CETs) that will drive decades of national and economic security and
prosperity. To ensure U.S. global dominance in the industries of the future, we seek to
advance the President’s stated agenda to secure the U.S. position as the unrivaled world
leader in CETs. As the nation’s premier laboratory with the mission to promote U.S.
innovation and industrial competitiveness, NIST is poised to work with industry at every
step to support U.S. manufacturing and technological capacity in CETs.

To grow U.S. leadership in semiconductor technology and accelerate the pace of commercialization to enable technology dominance in the industries of the future, in areas including advanced microelectronics research and development with a nexus to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Quantum Technology, Biotechnology, Biomanufacturing, Commercialization of Innovation, and/or Standards Development.

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