Funding Agency: National Institutes of Health
Title: Focused Technology Research and Development (R01 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Application Deadline: 6/5/19

This initiative will support projects that focus solely on development of technologies with the potential to enable acquisition of basic biomedical knowledge. Projects should be justified in terms of technical innovation, and utility for future biomedical impact. The products of this research will be functioning prototype instruments, methods, synthetic approaches, biological products, etc., characterized adequately to be ready for first application to the type of biomedical research questions that provide the rationale for their development, but application of the proposed technology to specific biomedical questions is considered beyond the scope of the program, should not be included, and would not be funded.

Proof of principle for the technology will have already been shown, but there will still be significant fundamental technical challenges. Applications should include preliminary data. Projects that have significant remaining risk but are supported by early feasibility studies might be appropriate for a three year R01 proposal with reduced budget to better manage risk and investment. Projects that are well supported by feasibility studies and propose to develop fully functional prototypes might require higher budgets and a four year duration (five years for early stage investigators). Projects that primarily focus on optimization, hardening, or obvious extrapolations of established technology might be less competitive.

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Title: Centers for Chemical Innovation
Preliminary Proposal Deadline: 8/13/19
Application Deadline: 2/19/20

The Centers for Chemical Innovation (CCI) Program supports research centers focused on major, long-term fundamental chemical research challenges. CCIs that address these challenges will produce transformative research, lead to innovation, and attract broad scientific and public interest. CCIs are agile structures that can respond rapidly to emerging opportunities through enhanced collaborations.

CCIs integrate research, innovation, education, broadening participation, and informal science communication. The CCI Program is a two-phase program. Both phases are described in this solicitation. Phase I CCIs receive significant resources to develop the science, management and broader impacts of a major research center before requesting Phase II funding. Satisfactory progress in Phase I is required for Phase II applications; Phase I proposals funded in FY 2020 will seek Phase II funding in FY 2023. The FY 2020 Phase I CCI competition is open to projects in all fields supported by the Division of Chemistry, and must have scientific focus and the potential for transformative impact in chemistry.

Funding Agency: Department of Defense
Title: Fiscal Year 2020 Department of Defense Basic Research Program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI)
Internal Deadline: 5/1/19
Application Deadline: 7/15/19

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) aims to (a) enhance research programs and capabilities in scientific and engineering disciplines critical to the national security functions of DoD; (b) enhance the capacity of HBCU/MI to participate in DoD research programs and activities; and (c) increase the number of graduates, including underrepresented minorities, in fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) important to the defense mission.

Applications for basic research projects are requested in areas of research of interest to the Agencies, as presented in their broad agency announcements. Limited Submission Applications are submitted through this Sharepoint site.

Funding Agency: Department of Energy
Title: Advanced Materials for High-Efficiency, Flexible and Reliable Coal-Fueled Power Plants
Application Deadline: 6/7/19

The development and qualification of new structural materials and fabrication of commercial scale components made from new structural materials are key steps in the development of next generation fossil energy (FE) power generation technologies, improving the efficiency of existing FE power plants by increasing working fluid (e.g. steam or supercritical CO2) steam temperature, and to enable existing FE power plants to safely and effectively operate in cycling modes for well beyond their original 30-year design life.

Advanced ultra-supercritical (AUSC) pulverized coal fired power plants and transformational supercritical CO2 power cycles will operate at temperatures and pressures up to 760 °Celsius and 5,000 psia (pounds per square inch absolute), and will require large components, up to 10 tons (such as boiler and heat exchanger tubing; valves, large diameter, thick wall steam and sCO2 pipe and pipe fittings, and steam and sCO2 turbine parts) to be fabricated from gamma prime strengthened nickel superalloys, such as Haynes 282 and Inconel 740. Gamma prime strengthened nickel superalloys this large have seldom been needed for other industries, and thus, there is not an established manufacturing supply chain for such components.

While some DOE funded work is ongoing to scale up the manufacturing of large gamma prime strengthened nickel superalloy components and establish a US based supply chain for them, there is considerable additional research and development (R&D) work needed to establish a US based supply chain for all the nickel superalloy components needed for advanced FE power plant technologies, or to upgrade existing FE power plants for increased power generation efficiency, and/or to provide existing FE power plants extended life (another 10 -20 years beyond original nominal 30 years design life) while operating in severe cycling conditions. Nickel superalloys alloys, and especially gamma prime strengthened nickel superalloys, are expensive to manufacture in basic ingot form and to fabricate into components.

The very high strength and compositional complexity of these alloys adds additional costs to conventional alloy component manufacturing methods (e.g., casting, forging, extrusion, and machining), and limits the choice of currently installed fabrication equipment in the US that could be used to fabricate large components from gamma prime strengthened nickel superalloys.