ONR Global is interested in promising concepts to achieve revolutionary capability advances with both military and commercial value in the multidisciplinary technology challenge areas described below. Specifically excluded are approaches that primarily result in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice, or are already funded by existing research programs.

ONR Global recognizes that international scientists and engineers conduct creative and novel research. This Global-X Challenge provides an opportunity for these international researchers to collaborate, generate revolutionary ideas and demonstrate these ideas will succeed. ONR Global invites outstanding international researchers to form multi-national, multidisciplinary teams to address one or more of these capability challenges. ONR Global will use existing online collaboration tools to help researchers to connect, collaborate and form teams. ONR Global will provide more information about collaboration forums during the Kick-off Webinar. Individual researchers may participate on more than one team. Teams are responsible for establishing nondisclosure agreements among team members, if necessary. All ONR Global and U.S. Federal employees are already covered by Federal laws requiring the protection of trade secrets and proprietary information.

Researchers from academia and industry may participate. ONR Global expects, but does not require, that multi-national teams will consist of at least two research entities outside of the U.S., whether from academia, industry and/or the broad research community. Researchers from U.S. research entities may also participate, but are not required. As stated above, this Global-X Challenge is an opportunity specifically directed toward international researchers; therefore, ONR Global expects the majority of team members will be outside of the U.S. Each team shall designate a lead Principal Investigator (PI) whose research organization outside of the U.S. will submit the white paper or proposal, and that will distribute funding to co-PIs and other subrecipients. For a given project team, one award is made to the PI’s institution. Only the PI’s institution will be the prime awardee, and that institution is responsible for all aspects of the grant, including conditions on the use of funds and other terms and conditions of the grant.

Teams must submit white papers describing their concept and approach by 23:59 EDT on 25 May 2020. ONR Global will evaluate submitted white papers and will invite teams with the most promising and revolutionary concepts, on or before 5 June 2020, to submit a grant proposal. Full proposals are due by 23:59 EDT on 13 July 2020.

Challenge Problem Statements:

• Tailored Material and Manufacturing
• Multifunctional Maritime Films for Persistent and Survivable Platforms and Warfighters
• Object Detection and Identification in any Medium (Air, Water, Sand/Earth)

Additional information, including the BAA, can be found on grants.gov.

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that has recently been identified as the causative agent of COVID-19, a respiratory disease that exhibits a wide range of clinical outcomes from mild disease to severe viral pneumonia and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). SARS-CoV-2 is able to spread efficiently from person-to-person and cases have been detected in most countries. On March 11, the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak was classified as a pandemic by the WHO. Transmission characteristics and the associated morbidity and mortality, viral pathogenesis, host immunity, natural history, and host range are currently poorly understood. Research is an important component of the public health emergency response before, during and after the emergency. Given this, there is an urgent public health need to better understand SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19, particularly to improve understanding of fundamental virology, immunology, and the development of animal models, reagents, and medical countermeasures and to share findings quickly and broadly.

Research Objectives and Scope:

• Studies to understand critical aspects of viral infection, replication and pathogenesis
• Studies to understand critical aspects of viral transmission
• Identification and characterization of the onset and duration of immunity in healthy and at-risk populations
• Virologic and serologic surveillance studies and natural history studies to understand the origin of the virus including the animal host reservoir, potential intermediate hosts, factors leading to spill over events, evidence of continued spill over events and studies at the human-animal 
• Studies to assess and characterize the natural history and long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection in various human populations including at risk populations
• Development or improvement of clinical diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2 to increase the sensitivity, specificity and ability to provide rapid results
• Development and testing of SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic candidates, in relevant in vitro, ex vivo or animal models, including
• Development of SARS-CoV-2-specific or broadly protective coronavirus vaccine candidates including
• Studies to inform the development of vaccination strategies for at-risk populations including use of age-specific adjuvants or novel antigen formulations/dosing;
• Development of assays and animal models
• Assess animal models for SARS-CoV-2 and how the models compare to human infection including animal models that represent at risk populations (elderly, immunocompromised, very young, pregnant models)
• Development of animal models for transmission experiment
• Development of organoid culture models and/or ex vivo explant models
  Computational modeling studies to identify and evaluate interventions to protect at-risk populations and for making public health policy decisions for control and mitigation measures
• Study interactions and impact between SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens including influenza (e.g., co-infections, interference)
• Comparative studies of SARS-CoV-2 to other coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-1 and MERS
• Data science approaches to develop algorithms, models, and informatics solutions

This program is designed to provide expedited funding for research projects focusing on obtaining time-sensitive data in light of this public health emergency (e.g., the research questions cannot be efficiently addressed in another context and the nature of the event and/or impacted populations are well suited for the proposed study). Hence it is critical to enhance data-sharing and access and to have NIAID-funded data be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). All NIAID-funded researchers are expected to share research data to enhance the rigor and reproducibility of research results and secondary use per the NIAID Data Sharing Guideline at https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/data-sharing-and-release-guidelines, as appropriate and consistent with achieving the goals of the program.

Additional information can be found in PAR-20-178.

Full Proposal Due Date: May 8, 2020, 4:00 p.m.

Introduction: The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals in the area of technologies that speed, parallelize and systematize energetics formulation1 development. Capabilities developed for explosive and propellant formulations are of primary interest, though development may also entail capabilities for other energetics including obscurants and pyrotechnics. Specifically, DARPA seeks to develop 1) safe, semi-automated experimental capabilities that integrate energetics ingredient synthesis with formulation development and testing and 2) theoretical, experimental, and/or statistical methods that enable safe, accurate evaluation of key energetics properties at reduced scale. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in energetics research capabilities. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

Technical Area Descriptions:

RIDE Phases1 and 2 are comprised of two independent TAs

• TA1 (Chemical Synthesis and Formulation Platforms), and
• TA2 (Advanced Energetics Metrology)
• Proposers may propose to both TAs, but must do so in two separate proposals.

Additional information for this opportunity can be found on grants.gov. The BAA is available here.

HRSA proposal due date: April 10, 2020

Purpose:

The purpose of this program is to assist states and local authorities in a) preserving and improving public health, b) building capacity to address other public health matters and support and enforce regulations intended to improve the public’s health, and c) preventing and suppressing communicable diseases.

To fulfill the program’s purpose, NOSLO: Health Legislation and Governance has the following objectives: 1) facilitate bidirectional communication and data/information sharing between HRSA and state officials, 22) strengthen HRSA-funded programs by better understanding state stakeholder needs, priorities, and perspectives, and 3) support capacity-building activities at the state level that strengthen the health care safety net and advance shared public health goals with HRSA.

The term “capacity-building” includes actions that build, strengthen, and maintain the necessary competencies and resources needed to sustain or improve health services delivery to vulnerable and under-served populations. Capacity-building activities supported through NOSLO: Health Legislation and Governance include technical assistance and training; data collection, sharing, and analysis; materials development; or other agreed-to actions that enable states to operate in a comprehensive, responsive, coordinated, and effective manner.

Core Activities:

• Educate Core Activities
  • Provide HRSA and public health stakeholders with policy analysis, research, and other relevant information related to state legislators’ and legislative officials’ needs and priority issues
  • Increase state legislators’ and legislative officials’ awareness of HRSA priorities, programs, initiatives, and resources to strengthen the health care safety net
• Innovate Core Activities
  • Share state health care and public health best practices with HRSA and the public to inform HRSA-funded programs and public health stakeholders
  • Offer capacity-building assistance to state legislators and legislative officials to support and spread best practices that benefit populations served by HRSA and enhance the impact of HRSA-funded programs
• Situate Core Activities
  • Provide HRSA with state context and feedback from state legislators and legislative officials on the state policy landscape and HRSA-funded program activities
  • Facilitate engagements between HRSA staff and state legislators and legislative officials to strengthen the health care safety net

Additional information, including the Notice of Funding Opportunity, is available on the HRSA website.