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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 Lori Jarmon (ljjarmon@iastate.edu, 294-3316) 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.

Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 INnovations in Qubit Science for Fault Tolerant Quantum Computing (INQS) Program

DoD / Air Force

Solicitation: NOFOAFRLAFOSR20250004

https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/358422

Posted Date: February 12, 2025

White Paper Due Date: March 17, 2025 by 11:59 pm ET

Full Proposal Due Date: April 11,  2025 by 11:59 pm ET

The INQS program is a collaboration between AFOSR and LPS, and we seek revolutionary qubit approaches to quantum computation that have the potential to significantly advance scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC) beyond current state-of-the-art methods.
This NOFO invites proposals for basic research into solid-state qubits for quantum computing at various stages of maturity. Qubits of interest may support one or more of the required functions in a FTQC system. These functions may include, but are not limited to, data processing, memory storage, communication, spectator roles, or measurement.

Securing AI for Battlefield Effective Robustness (SABER) Proposers Day

DoD

Solicitation: DARPA-SN-25-42

https://sam.gov/opp/7b7b1852adad42a18921c07dcfc870a7/view

Posted Date:  February 07, 2025

Response Due Date:  February 25, 2025 by 05:00 pm EST  Register HERE

SABER aims to build an exemplar AI red team equipped with the necessary counter-AI techniques, tools, and technical competency to operationally assess AI-enabled battlefield systems. SABER seeks to establish a sustainable model for an operational AI red teaming process for the DoD. Our AI red team will target operationally assessing AI-enabled autonomous ground and aerial systems that could be deployed within the next 1-3 years. To assist the AI red team, the future solicitation will seek performers who can assist in surveying, evaluating, selecting, developing, and employing state-of-the-art physical (including manufacturing/materials), adversarial AI (including digital), cyber, and electronic warfare techniques and tools, or other relevant vectors for operational assessment of AI-enabled battlefield system development and deployment pipelines [5]. Additionally, the forthcoming solicitation will seek a performer to serve as an integration lead, assisting in integrating the technologies into an interoperable, operational AI red teaming toolkit to enable future AI red teams for the DoD and broader U.S. Government.

Innovative Solutions Education Services

DoD

Solicitation: N66001-25-Q-6052

https://sam.gov/opp/637515b72b1c4cf6a1f930c793e6ca18/view

Posted Date: February 05, 2025

Response Due Date:  February 21, 2025

Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific and Atlantic are seeking to acquire the latest information, research, data and analytics for existing and emerging technologies in support of their mission, much of which is readily available from academia. The intent is to revitalize and enhance Science and Technology (S&T) and Research and Development (R&D) practices and to spur innovation in the applications of these technology fields to Navy challenges.

ENERGY IMPROVEMENTS IN RURAL OR REMOTE AREAS – FISCAL YEAR 2025 RELEASE

DoE

Solicitation: DE-FOA-0003428

https://oced-exchange.energy.gov/Default.aspx#FoaId346899e7-fdd4-4709-9b08-505580f676c9

Posted Date: January 25, 2025

Concept Paper Due Date: February 27, 2025 by 5:00 pm ET

Proposal Due Date: August 28, 2025 by 5:00 pm ET

This funding opportunity provides support for rural and remote communities to build clean energy projects that benefit their communities. Benefits could include cleaner, more resilient, more reliable, and/or more affordable local energy sources for rural and remote communities. These projects could also increase local energy independence, tax revenue, economic development and diversification, and local jobs, and reduce environmental and health burdens.
This program aims to increase communities’ capacity to plan, build, and operate clean energy systems, e.g., by developing available technical expertise locally and with partners, and/or increasing community engagement with those projects. We (i.e., the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, unless noted otherwise), also expect that this opportunity will enable projects and people to demonstrate inspiring and practical paths to clean energy so an even broader range and number of rural and remote communities can benefit from clean energy.

2D Descriptive Melt Pour Process Digital Twin

MxD

Solicitation: 24-12-02

https://members.mxdusa.org/topics/38691/page/home

Posted Date: January 30, 2025

Proposal Due Date: February 28, 2025

MxD is working with a manufacturer where currently the melt pour process is heavily reliant on operator observation to determine when slurry mixture is ready to be poured. To reduce the burden on the operator and reduce product variability the manufacturer is looking to implement a 2D descriptive digital twin of the process.

Objective 1: Implement a 2D descriptive digital twin of a batch melt pour process. The digital twin is intended to capture existing process data, manually recorded information as input data, and new sensor data from the dependent “Melt Pour Process Sensor Deep Dive” MxD Project to determine the quality and the ready state of the final product.
The digital twin results will be used to build a library of “material recipes”. The recipe library will be accessed and used by the manufacturer’s operators and engineers to adjust the process for future batches based on the results of the digital twin.
Objective 2: Provide a framework report based on the implementation used in this project. The framework is for future expansion to other areas within the manufacturer’s environment. Aspects to incorporate, but limited to interoperability, data management and governance, scalability, and a method of tracking maturity of the digital twin(s).

BioElectronics to Sense and Treat (BEST) Proposers Day

DoD

Solicitation: DARPA-SN-25-31

https://sam.gov/opp/8698a5251a4f44af896155e4cecba0a5/view

Posted Date: January 30, 2025

Registration Due Date: February 14, 2025, 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time Register Here

The Biological Technologies Office (BTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is hosting a Proposers Day for the potential proposer community in support of the planned Program Solicitation (PS) for the BioElectronics to Sense and Treat (BEST) program. The Proposers Day will be held in person and via webcast on February 19, 2025, from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM ET. Advance registration is required.

RFI Adaptive Avionics

DoD

Solicitation: W911W625RFI0001

https://sam.gov/opp/eb7e529c07754bec8d5ed7112ba6f983/view

Posted Date: January 30, 2025

Response Due Date: March 01, 2025 by 02:30 pm EST

The Army Contracting Command – Redstone Arsenal, on behalf of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC), is issuing this Request For Information (RFI) to identify industry partners, academia, or other government agencies capable of providing information on new or current technologies/ capabilities that can create dynamic, easily reconfigurable avionics systems that allow for real-time countering of emerging threats on the future battlefield.

NOI Future Program: Securing Artificial Intelligence for Battlefield Effective Robustness (SABER)

DARPA

Solicitation: DARPA-SN-25-39

https://sam.gov/opp/f3441e4190794fc98128e7e9ec0d7a4c/view

Posted Date: January 29, 2025

Given the latest advances in artificial intelligence (AI), the technology has reached a level of maturity, prompting a growing desire for these technologies to be integrated into Department of Defense (DoD) systems. AI may be used to give battlefield advantage by helping improve the speed, quality, and accuracy of decision-making while enabling autonomy and assistive automation. Due to the statistical nature of machine learning, prior work has focused primarily on ensuring the robustness of AI-enabled systems at inference time due to natural degradations in performance caused by data distribution shifts, for example, from a highly dynamic deployment environment. However, as early as 2014, AI has been demonstrated as manipulable given adversary control of the input [1]. Initial work has further confirmed the theoretical risks of data poisoning [2], physically constrained adversarial patches for evasion [3], and model stealing attacks [4]. These attacks are typically tested in simulated or physical environments with relatively pristine control compared to what might be expected on a battlefield. Today, there is no known reported ecosystem that operationally assesses deployed military AI-enabled systems for adversarial vulnerabilities, so the “theoretical” adversarial AI attacks have not been practically demonstrated in operational settings. Given this, the operational security risks of AI-enabled battlefield systems remain unknown. As such, SABER will build an exemplar AI red team equipped with the necessary counter-AI techniques, tools and technical competency to operationally assess AI-enabled battlefield systems, while establishing a sustainable model for an evergreen operational AI red teaming process. Our AI red team will be operationally assessing AI- enabled autonomous ground and aerial systems that could be deployed within the next 1-3 years. To assist the AI red team, the future solicitation will seek performers who can assist in surveying, evaluating, selecting, developing, and employing state-of-the-art physical (including manufacturing/materials), adversarial AI (including digital), cyber and electronic warfare techniques and tools, or other relevant vectors for enabling the operational assessment of AI-enabled system development and deployment pipelines [5]. Additionally, the forthcoming solicitation will seek a performer to serve as an integration lead, assisting in integrating the technologies into an interoperable operational AI red teaming toolkit to equip the AI red team and enable future AI red teams for the DoD and broader U.S. Government.

Industrial Energy Storage Systems Prize

EERE / America Made

https://www.herox.com/industrial-energy-storage

Posted January 23, 2025

Proposal Due Date: April 29, 2025, at 5 p.m. ET

America’s industrial sector, which manufactures materials and products essential to daily life and the U.S. economy, accounts for one-third of the nation’s primary energy use.

Industrial energy storage solutions that can accommodate cooling, thermal, and/or electric energy loads could serve as a cross-sector method for advancing efficiency of industrial facilities while reducing additional burden on the electric grid.

Phase 1: Design

Competitors present a cost-effective concept that has the potential to support industrial-level load storage for thermal or electric energy needs that increase the energy efficiency of the U.S. industry. Up to 18 winners are selected with up to six winners in each category. Winning teams each receive $100,000 in cash and are eligible to compete in Phase 2.

Strengthening American Infrastructure (SAI)

NSF

Solicitation: 25-534   replaces 24-519

https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/sai-strengthening-american-infrastructure/nsf25-534/solicitation#elig

Posted Date: January 24, 2025

Proposal Due Dates:  April 17, 2025  and    March 06, 2026  by 5:00 pm Local Time

Strengthening American Infrastructure (SAI) is an NSF program seeking to stimulate human-centered fundamental and potentially transformative research aimed at strengthening America’s infrastructure. Achieving program objectives requires the integration of expertise from across all science and engineering disciplines. SAI focuses on how fundamental knowledge about human reasoning and decision-making, governance, and social and cultural processes enables the building and maintenance of effective infrastructure that improves lives and society and builds on advances in technology and engineering. Successful projects will represent a convergence of expertise in one or more social, behavioral or economic sciences, deeply integrated with other disciplines to support substantial and potentially pathbreaking fundamental research applied to strengthening a specific focal infrastructure.

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