DEVCOM ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH

ARL BAA for FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH

DEVCOM ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY
BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR
FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
W911NF-23-S-0001
21 November 2022 – 20 November 2027
ISSUED BY:
U.S. Army Contracting Command
Aberdeen Proving Ground
Research Triangle Park Division
P. O. Box 12211
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211

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Special Notes
1. Formatting of the Announcement
The following table provides an overview of the outline structure of this announcement:
I.
A.
1.
a.
i.
(1)
(a)
(i)
2. See Appendix 1 for a Table of Acronyms used in this announcement.
3. See Appendix 2 for a Schedule of Amendments. Applicants are encouraged to frequently
check grants.gov, sam.gov, and the ARL website (www.arl.army.mil/) for updates and
amendments to this BAA. Special Notices issued against this BAA will be posted to sam.gov.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY 1
A. Required Overview Content 3
1. Agency Name 3
2. Research Opportunity Title 3
3. Announcement Type 3
4. Research Opportunity Number 3
5. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number 3
and Title
6. Response Dates 3
B. Additional Overview Information 3
II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING 5
OPPORTUNITY
A. Program Description 5
1. Foundational Research Topics of Interest 5
2. Army Research Directorate Targeted Opportunities 6
3. Army Research Office Targeted Opportunities 7
a. Single Investigator Award 7
b. Short-Term Innovative Research Award 7
c. Early Career Program 8
d. Research Instrumentation Program 9
e. Conference and Symposia Grants 10
B. Federal Award Information 12
C. Eligibility Information 15
1. Eligible Applicants 15
2. Cost Sharing or Matching 15
3. Other 15
D. Application and Submission Information 16
1. Address to View Broad Agency Announcement 16
2. Content and Form of Application Submission 16
3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award 28
Management (SAM)
4. Submission Dates and Times 29
5. Intergovernmental Review 30
6. Funding Restrictions 30
7. Other Submission Requirements 30
E. Proposal Review Information 31
1. Evaluation Criteria 31
2. Review and Selection Process 32
3. Recipient Qualification 32
F. Award Administration Information 34
1. Award Notices 34
2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements 34

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a. Required Representations and Certifications 34
b. Policy Requirements 38
3. Reporting 44
G. Agency Contacts 45
H. Other Information 46
1. Contract Proposals 46
2. Grant and Cooperative Agreement Proposals 53
APPENDIX 1: TABLE OF ACRONYMS 58
APPENDIX 2: SCHEDULE OF AMENDMENTS 61

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I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
The purpose of this combined Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) under Federal Acquisition
Regulation (FAR) Part 35 and Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) under 2 Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR) 200.204 (henceforth referred to as “BAA”) is to solicit research
proposals for submission to the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command
(DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) for funding consideration.
Prior to this announcement, ARL announced two separate BAAs to support the mission: 1)
W911NF-17-S-0002 titled “Army Research Laboratory Army Research Office Broad Agency
Announcement for Fundamental Research”; and 2) W911NF-17-S-0003 titled “Army Research
Laboratory Broad Agency Announcement for Basic and Applied Scientific Research”. This
announcement succeeds BAA W911NF-17-S-0002 and BAA W911NF-17-S-0003 combining the
opportunities into a single announcement.
ARL’s mission as the Army’s foundational research laboratory is to Operationalize Science to
ensure overmatch in any future conflict. ARL’s foundational research mission spans basic
research (budget activity 6.1) and applied research (budget activity 6.2) as defined by 32 CFR
22.105 but may include advanced technology development (budget activity 6.3) and advanced
component development and prototypes (budget activity 6.4) when opportunities arise to directly
or indirectly help achieve ARL’s mission. ARL partners across the national security enterprise to
deliver fundamentally advantageous change that is rooted in the creation and exploitation of
scientific knowledge.
Whitepapers for initial concept reviews and full proposals are sought from institutions of higher
education, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, foreign organizations, foreign
public entities, and for-profit organizations (i.e. large and small businesses) for scientific research
that supports the ARL mission and the published ARL research topics of interest. Whitepapers
and full proposals are expected to be for cutting-edge innovative research that could produce
discoveries having a significant impact on enabling new and improved Army operational
capabilities and related technologies.
In an effort to provide ARL's research topics and related information in an easy to digest format
with search and filter options, ARL has published the following public website listing all current
ARL research topics: https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, hereafter referenced as the
ARL BAA topics website. Changes to these topics will be made using this website on an as
needed basis. A change to the ARL BAA topics website is not an amendment to this BAA and
will not be posted on https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/. A change to this document,
the BAA itself, is an amendment and will be posted on https://www.grants.gov/ and
https://sam.gov/. ARL will maintain a daily static snapshot of the ARL BAA topics website to
ensure submissions are aligned with listed research topics on the day of submission.
Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse the ARL BAA topics website for white
paper and proposal topics that ARL desires to explore. These specific research topics should be
viewed as suggestive, rather than limiting. ARL is always interested in considering other
innovative research concepts of relevance to the Army if those concepts align with ARL's mission.
Please see Section II, Detailed Information about the Funding Opportunity, for more information
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on the ARL research topics advertised through this BAA. Interested parties should also review
https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/ to obtain the latest version of the BAA for
whitepaper and proposal submission requirements.
To conserve valuable applicant and Government resources, and to facilitate determining whether a
proposed research idea meets the guidelines described herein, prospective applicants
contemplating submission of a whitepaper or proposal are strongly encouraged to contact an ARL
Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) to first discuss the concept. The TPOCs’ names and contact
information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics website.
After initial contact with an ARL TPOC, if an applicant elects to submit a whitepaper or proposal,
it should be prepared in accordance with the instructions contained in this BAA. Upon receipt, a
whitepaper will be reviewed by the ARL TPOC and a recommendation will be provided to the
applicant with either “encouraged to submit a proposal” or “not encouraged to submit a proposal”
based on the review and availability of funding. A whitepaper is not required to submit a proposal.
Proposals may be submitted at any time while this BAA is open.
The proposal submission guidelines differ for each legal instrument; therefore, applicants are
advised to follow the specific applicable guidelines listed in this BAA for the type of instrument
they are proposing. This BAA provides submission guidelines for proposals for FAR-based
procurement contracts, as well as assistance instruments and other transactions. Upon review of a
proposal, the government will advise applicants on the most appropriate instrument for the
proposed work.
In accordance with federal statutes, regulations, and Department of Defense and Army policies, no
person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from
participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or
activity receiving financial assistance from the Army.
Applicants submitting proposals are cautioned that only a Contracting Officer, Grants Officer, or
Agreements Officer can obligate the Government to any legal instrument involving federally
appropriated funds.
All administrative inquiries regarding this BAA shall be submitted via the ARL Contact Us
webpage: https://www.arl.army.mil/contact-us. Scientific and technical questions should be
referred to the TPOCs listed with each topic on the ARL BAA topics website:
https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/. Interested parties are encouraged to periodically
check any of the following websites for updates and amendments to this BAA:
https://www.grants.gov/, https://sam.gov/, or the ARL website BAA page at
https://www.arl.army.mil/collaborate-with-us/opportunity/arl-baa/.
DR. PATRICK BAKER
Director
Army Research Laboratory
(End of Section)
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A. Required Overview Content
1. Agency Name
U.S. Army Research Office
Issuing Acquisition Office
U.S. Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground, Research Triangle Park (ACC-
APG-RTP) Division
2. Research Opportunity Title
ARL Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Foundational Research for 21 November 2022 – 20
November 2027
3. Announcement Type
Announcement
4. Research Opportunity Number
W911NF-23-S-0001
5. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number and Title
12.431 – Basic Scientific Research
6. Response Dates
This BAA is a continuously open announcement valid throughout the period from the date of
issuance through 20 November 2027, unless announced otherwise. This announcement succeeds
BAA W911NF-17-S-0002 and W911NF-17-S-0003 (including all modifications) dated 1 April
2017.
(End of Section)
B. Additional Overview Information
This publication constitutes a BAA for awards as contemplated in FAR 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016
as well as a merit-based, competitive procedure in accordance with the Department of Defense
Grant and Agreement Regulations (DoDGARS) at 32 CFR 22.315(a) and the Office of the
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version
1.0 dated November, 2018.
This BAA document, and the online list of research topics found on the ARL BAA topics
website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, sets forth ARL’s research topics of
interest for whitepapers and proposals. This BAA is issued under FAR 6.102(d)(2), which
provides for the competitive selection of basic and applied research proposals, and 10 U.S.C.
4001, 10 U.S.C. 4021, and 10 U.S.C. 4022, which provide the authorities for issuing awards
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under this announcement for basic and applied research. The definitions of basic and applied
research may be found at 32 CFR 22.105.
Proposals submitted in response to this BAA and selected for award are considered to be the
result of full and open competition and in full compliance with the provision of Public Law 98-
369, “The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984” and subsequent amendments.
Use of a BAA to solicit for research and development is encouraged when:
1. The Government desires new and creative solutions to problem statements.
2. Using a conventional statement of work could result in unintentionally stifling ideas and
concepts given many possible approaches.
3. Fulfilling requirements for scientific study and experimentation directed toward advancing
the state-of-the-art or increasing knowledge or understanding rather than focusing on a
specific system or hardware solution.
4. The Government must be able to state its objectives in terms of areas of need or interest
rather than specific solutions or outcomes.
5. Meaningful proposals with varying technical/scientific approaches are reasonably
anticipated.
ARL reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals submitted in
response to this announcement. ARL will provide no funding for direct reimbursement of
whitepaper or proposal development costs and such costs are not considered an allowable direct
charge to any award resulting from this BAA or any other award. However, these costs may be
an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect costs specified in FAR 31.205-18
for FAR-based awards.
Whitepapers and technical and cost proposals (or any other material) submitted in response to this
BAA will not be returned to the applicant. It is the policy of the Government to treat all proposals
as sensitive, competitive information and to mark and disclose their contents only for the purposes
of evaluation.
An applicant may withdraw a proposal at any time before award by written notice or by email
sent to the Government TPOC identified for the topic in which the proposal was submitted.
(End of Section)
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II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
A. Program Description
1. Foundational Research Topics of Interest
ARL’s mission is to serve as the Army’s principal foundational research agency. ARL is
interested in all research proposals that can be shown to enable the future Army to deploy,
fight, and win decisively against any adversary, anytime, and anywhere, in a joint, multi-
domain, high-intensity conflict, while simultaneously deterring others and maintaining its
ability to conduct irregular warfare.
ARL comprises both the Army Research Directorate (ARD) and the Army Research Office
(ARO) whose programs execute research awards under this BAA. The ARD and ARO
missions are further defined below to help clarify the different opportunities and topic types
that may be found on ARL’s website.
ARL, through its ARD programs focuses on exploiting the most promising disruptive science
and technology through in-house research with eligible entities. ARD competitively selects
and funds innovative research concepts that can advance in-house research. ARD primarily
funds basic research proposals (budget activity 6.1) and applied research proposals (budget
activity 6.2) but may also select and fund advanced technology development (budget activity
6.3) and advanced component development and prototypes (budget activity 6.4) to exploit
ARL’s foundational research outcomes and directly or indirectly help achieve ARL’s mission.
The results of these research efforts are transitioned to the Army research and development
community, industry, or academia to further the technological superiority of our Soldiers,
Army, and nation. ARD-funded research represents a long-range Army view with system
applications often 10-20 years away. ARD does not invest in incremental modernization
improvements, but does invest in high-risk, high-payoff ideas in basic and applied science that
can advance the in-house research mission. Historically, most of the ARD awards are executed
as cooperative agreements but can include grants, procurement contracts, research other
transactions (OTs) and prototype OTs. For a description of ARD targeted opportunities, see
section 2 below.
ARL, through its ARO extramural research program, funds cutting-edge foundational research
that could result in innovations having a significant impact on enabling new and improved
Army operational capabilities and related technologies. ARO selects and funds eligible entities
conducting scientific studies and experimentation toward advancing the state of the art or
increasing basic knowledge and understanding across the sciences. ARO competitively selects
and funds basic research proposals across a broad range of scientific disciplines related to long-
term national security needs. ARO primarily funds basic research proposals (budget activity
6.1) but may also select and fund applied research proposals (budget activity 6.2). The results
of these research efforts are transitioned to the Army research and development community,
industry, or academia to further the technological superiority of our Soldiers, Army, and nation.
ARO-funded research represents the most long-range Army view, with system applications
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often 20–30 years away. The goal of ARO funding research proposals through this BAA is to
pursue high-risk, high-payoff ideas in basic science. In this manner, ARO provides the Army
with a dynamic method for rapidly investing or divesting in research to ensure the realization
of foundational discoveries that will enable future Army capabilities. ARO has allocated
funding each year to carry out the Army’s Extramural Research Program to fund foundational
research proposals. Most of the ARO awards are executed primarily through grants and
cooperative agreements, but also can include procurement contracts and other funding
instruments. ARO also provides targeted opportunities, which are described in section 3 below.
In an effort to provide ARL’s research topics and related information in an easy to digest
format with search and filter options, ARL has published the following public website listing
all current ARL research topics: https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, the ARL
BAA topics website. Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse this website to
see the topics ARL is interested in.
To support ARL’s mission, an additional research topic for “Support to ARL Foundation
Research Competencies” can be found on the ARL BAA topics website. Under this research
topic, ARL will consider whitepapers and proposals that may not directly align to a topic
published by an ARL TPOC, but can demonstrate a strong alignment to ARL’s mission.
ARL’s research mission is executed within identified foundational research competencies that
provide the Army foundational expertise and specialized capabilities grounded in scientific
excellence and driven by unique Army challenges. ARL is always interested in innovative
research whitepapers and proposals outside of the published topics on the ARL BAA topic
website that demonstrate a strong alignment to ARL’s foundational research competencies and
potential to create discovery, innovation, and transition of technologies for Army
transformational overmatch. To learn more about ARL’s foundational research competencies
visit the ARL website at https://www.arl.army.mil/what-we-do#competencies/.
A proposal submitted under the “Support to ARL Foundation Research Competencies” topic
must clearly describe the research and objectives, and will be considered by ARL if it is
aligned to one or more of these foundational research competencies that support the ARL
mission. Applicants interested in submitting a proposal under this topic are strongly
encouraged to first make preliminary inquiries as to the potential alignment to an ARL
foundational research competency and funding availability for the type of research effort
contemplated to the listed TPOC on the ARL BAA topics website.
2. Army Research Directorate (ARD) Targeted Opportunities
ARD has no established targeted opportunities outside of the research topics considered for
funding proposals submitted under this BAA. Discussion with the cognizant ARD TPOC
identified for a given ARD research topic published on the ARL public website is strongly
recommended before submission of a whitepaper or proposal.
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3. Army Research Office (ARO) Targeted Opportunities
ARO has established several types of targeted opportunities to support ARO research topics,
based on applications submitted under this BAA. Information about the following
opportunities is included below:
• Single Investigator (SI) Award
• Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Award
• Early Career Program (ECP) Award
• Research Instrumentation (RI) Award
• Conference and Symposia Grant Award
Unless special eligibility requirements are listed, the eligibility criteria of Section II.C applies.
Also, see Section II.E.1 of this BAA for the evaluation criteria related to these opportunities.
NOTE: ARO is not limited to funding these targeted opportunities; however, they represent
most awards ARO is expected to make.
a. Single Investigator (SI) Award
i. Description. SI awards are the most common awards. The objective of the award is to attract
outstanding individuals to propose research projects related to the ARO research topics that
will result in scientific discoveries.
iii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC identified
for a given topic at the ARL BAA topics website is strongly recommended before submission
of a whitepaper or proposal. The proposal is submitted by the institution where the individual
is employed.
iv. Funding Level: ARO encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs for appropriate budget
levels depending on the scope of effort. ARO’s standard funding levels for SI awards would
support a budget for three years at a level commensurate with supporting a single investigator
and one or two graduate students or a post-doc for three years (to include facilities and
administrative [F&A] costs).
b. Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Award
i. Description. The objectives of the STIR awards are to support rapid, short-term
investigations to assess the merit of innovative new concepts in basic research. STIR awards
provide an excellent opportunity to showcase new concepts and explore new areas in basic
research. Historically, STIR awards have helped shape new directions in research for the
Army.
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ii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-
baa/. As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC
identified for a given topic is strongly recommended before submission of a whitepaper or
proposal for a STIR award.
iii. Funding Level. Proposals in the amount of $60,000 or less are sought for STIR
awards. Capital equipment cannot be purchased under a STIR Program award. Report
preparation costs must not exceed $100. A fee is not permitted under STIR Program awards as
they are are awarded as grants. Due to the relatively small dollar amount and short-term nature
of these awards, applicants are encouraged to maximize the benefit derived from this funding
by prioritizing labor and employing other cost-saving measures in support of the STIR program
effort.
iv. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for STIR Awards.
Applicants should submit proposals with a Project Description (Technical Proposal) that is no
more than ten (10) pages long. No brochures or explanatory material should be submitted with
the proposal. Proposed research efforts must be "stand alone" and not predicated on the use of
any facilities other than those under the direct control of the applicant. Research must be
completed within nine (9) months of award.
c. Early Career Program (ECP) Award
i. Description. ECP awards are funded by the Army to support young in career scientists and
engineers who have received Ph.D. or equivalent degrees within the last five years and show
exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. The objective of the ECP
Award is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering; enhance early career
development of outstanding young in career investigators; and increase opportunities for the
young in career investigators to pursue research in areas relevant to the Army.
ii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-
baa/. As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC
identified for a given topic is strongly recommended before submission of a whitepaper or
proposal.
iii. Funding Level. ECP awards will not exceed $120,000 per year for 3 years.
iv. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for ECP Awards.
NOTE: The proposal is submitted by the institution where the individual is employed. The
proposal must include a supporting letter, both through official channels in the institution
where the individual is employed. The proposal must follow the format set forth in Section
II.D.2 (Application and Submission Information) of this BAA. The supporting letter must be
from the individual's Department Chairperson, Dean, Supervisor, or other official who speaks
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for the institution, and should address support for, and commitment to, the applicant. Strong
institution support for the applicant is essential. Evidence of this support can include the
applicant's salary, release time from administrative responsibilities, the purchase of equipment,
support for the applicant's graduate students, any cost sharing, any start-up funding, etc. The
proposal must support the institution’s views that the individual is an outstanding investigator,
and the institution is making a long-term commitment to the proposal and the research. Any
resulting award will be made to the institution, not to the investigator.
d. Research Instrumentation (RI) Award
i. Description. RI awards are designed to improve the capabilities of U.S. institutions of higher
education or a nonprofit whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research to conduct
research and educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense. Funds
provided in this award may be used to purchase instrumentation in support of this research or in
the development of new research capabilities.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. RI awards are open to U.S. institutions of higher
education and nonprofit organizations whose primary research is conducting scientific research
in accordance with 31 USC §6306.
iii. RI and Research Topics. The RI program may provide funding to purchase
instrumentation in support of ARO research topics listed on the ARL BAA topics website at
https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/ or in the development of new research
capabilities. It is highly recommended that potential applicants contact the appropriate ARO
TPOC identified for a topic that aligns to this instrumentation proposal. The ARO TPOCs’
names and contact information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics
website.
iv. Funding Level. ARO highly encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs of appropriate
budget levels prior to the submission of RI proposals.
v. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for RI Awards.
The request for instrumentation shall include the following elements:
(1) The “Project Abstract” is to describe the instrumentation requested and the research to be
supported by that instrumentation.
(2) The “Project Description (Technical Proposal)” is to describe how the proposed
instrumentation will: (i) establish new research capabilities, (ii) contribute to research currently
proposed to DoD, or (iii) enhance the quality of research currently being funded by ARL. It
will also include a description of how the proposed instrumentation will interface with or
upgrade other research facilities and instrumentation now available. Finally, a description will
be included of the amounts and sources of ongoing or proposed support for the research to be
supported by the instrumentation.
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(3) In the “Cost Proposal,” the budget is to address the instrumentation to be purchased, cost
per item, and total cost. Indicate the proposed source of the instrumentation and the name and
telephone number of a contact at that source. The budget should indicate the amount of funds
to be contributed by any other sources toward the purchase of the instrumentation. Note: Costs
associated with equipment/facility modifications are generally considered unallowable and
require the review and approval of the Grants Officer.
e. Conference and Symposia Grant Awards
i. Description. The Army supports conferences and symposia (as defined in the DoD
Travel Regulations) in areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research
or educational findings or to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new
research and educational techniques. The Army encourages the convening in the United
States of major international conferences, symposia, and assemblies of international
alliances.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. Notwithstanding the Army's authority to provide grant
support for such events DoD does not permit "co-sponsorship" (as defined in DoD 5500.07-R)
absent additional high-level staffing and approval. In other words, the conference grant support
identified in this BAA is not DoD sponsorship or co-sponsorship since ARL is neither an
organizer nor provider of any substantial logistical support for the conferences addressed in this
section. Funds provided cannot be used for payment to any federal government employee for
support, subsistence, or services in connection with the proposed conference or symposium.
iii. Connection with ARO Research Topics. The Army supports conferences and symposia in
areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research or educational findings or
to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new research and educational
techniques. It is highly recommended that potential applicants contact the appropriate TPOC
identified for a topic that aligns to the conference/symposia proposal. The ARO TPOCs’
names and contact information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics
website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
iv. Funding Level. ARO highly encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs of appropriate
budget levels prior to the submission of conference or symposia award applications.
v. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for Conference or Symposia Awards.
(1) Conference support proposals should be submitted a minimum of six (6) months prior to the
date of the conference. A proposal will not be funded if the conference date has already passed.
(2) The “Project Description (Technical Proposal)”, as discussed in for support of a conference
or symposium should include the following:
• A one page or less summary indicating the objectives of the project;
• The topics to be covered;
• The location and probable date(s) and why the conference is considered appropriate at the
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time specified;
• An explanation of how the conference will relate to the research interests of the Army and
how it will contribute to the enhancement and improvement of scientific, engineering,
and/or educational activities as outlined earlier in the research topic references in this
BAA and on the ARL website;
• The name of chairperson(s)/principal investigator (PI)(s) and his/her biographical
information;
• A list of proposed participants and the methods of announcement or invitation; and
(3) The “Cost Proposal” should include:
• Total project conference costs by major cost elements;
• Anticipated sources of conference income and amount from each source to document no
profit will accrue to the applicant;
• Anticipated use of funds requested; and
• A signed budget.
(End of Section)
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B. Federal Award Information
The ACC-APG RTP Division and ACC-APG Adelphi Contracting Division have the authority
to award a variety of instruments on behalf of ARL. Anticipated awards will be made in
the form of procurement contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, Technology
Investment Agreement (TIA), other transactions (OTs) for research, or OTs for
prototypes. The ACC-APG RTP Division and ACC-APG Adelphi Contracting Division will
select the type of instrument most appropriate for the effort proposed. Applicants should
familiarize themselves with these instrument types and the applicable regulations before
submitting a proposal. The Following are brief descriptions of the possible award
instruments:
1. Procurement Contract. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6303, which
reflects a relationship between the Federal Government and a state government, a local
government, or other entity/contractor when the principal purpose of the instrument is to
acquire property or services for the direct benefit or use of the Federal Government.
Contracts are primarily governed by the following regulations:
a. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
b. Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS)
c. Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (AFARS)
2. Grant. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6304, is used to enter into a
relationship:
a. The principal purpose of which is to transfer a thing of value to the recipient to carry
out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law or the United States,
rather than to acquire property or services for the Federal Government’s direct benefit
or use.
b. In which substantial involvement is not expected between the Federal Government and
the recipient when carrying out the activity contemplated by the grant.
c. No fee or profit is allowed.
3. Cooperative Agreement. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6305, is used to
enter into the same kind of relationship as a grant (see definition “grant”), except that
substantial involvement is expected between the Federal Government and the recipient
when carrying out the activity contemplated by the cooperative agreement. The term
does not include “cooperative research and development agreements” as defined in 15
U.S.C. 3710a. No fee or profit is allowed.
4. Technology Investment Agreement. An assistance instrument as described in 32 CFR
Part 37. A TIA may be a cooperative agreement or an Other Transaction for Research
under 10 U.S.C. 4021 both with provisions tailored for involving commercial firms or
research involving commercial application. To the maximum extent practicable, TIAs
shall provide for a 50/50 cost share between the Government and the applicant. No fee
or profit is allowed on TIAs.
5. Other Transaction for Research. A legal instrument, consistent with 10 U.S.C. 4021,
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which may be used for basic, applied, and advanced research projects. The research
covered under this instrument cannot be duplicative of research being conducted under an
existing DoD program. To the maximum extent practicable, OTs for research are to
provide for a 50/50 cost share between the Government and the applicant. An
applicant’s cost share may take the form of cash, independent research and development
(IR&D), foregone intellectual property rights, equipment, access to unique facilities,
and/or other means. Due to the extent of cost share, and the fact that an OT for research
does not qualify as a “funding agreement” as defined at 37 CFR 401.2(a), the intellectual
property provisions of this instrument can be negotiated to provide expanded protection
to an applicant’s intellectual property. No fee or profit is allowed on OTs for research.
Please refer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and
Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version 1.0 dated November 2018 for additional
information. This document, along with additional other transaction agreement (OTA)
resources, may be accessed at the following link:
https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/other-policy-areas.html
6. Other Transaction for Prototype or Production. A legal instrument, consistent with 10
U.S.C. 4022, which provides DoD the flexibility necessary to adopt and incorporate
business practices that reflect commercial industry standards and best practices into its
award instruments. OTs for prototypes or production are not FAR-based procurement
contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or OTs for Research. OTs for prototypes or
production have specific applications and conditions for use (see Appendix C of the
Other Transactions Guide linked below). The effort covered under an OT cannot be
duplicative of effort being conducted under an existing DoD program. Follow-on
production contracts and/or an OT may be awarded to a Prototype Other Transaction
Awardee, if applicable. Please refer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for
Acquisition and Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version 1.0 dated November 2018
for additional information. This document, along with other OTA resources, may be
accessed at the following link: https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/other-
policy-areas.html
7. Grants and cooperative agreements for institutions of higher education, nonprofit
organizations, foreign organizations, and foreign public entities are primarily governed
by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. 2 CFR Part 200
d. 2 CFR Part 1104
e. 32 CFR Parts 21, 22, 26, and 28
f. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
g. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
8. Grants and cooperative agreements for for-profit and nonprofit organizations exempted
from Subpart E—Cost Principles of 2 CFR Part 200, are primarily governed by the
following:
a. Federal statutes
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b. Federal regulations
c. 32 CFR Part 34 – Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with
For-Profit Organizations
d. 32 CFR Parts 21, 22, 26, and 28
e. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
f. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
9. OTs for Research are primarily governed by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. 32 CFR Part 37 – Technology Investment Agreements
d. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
e. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
f. Office of Secretary of Defense implementation guidance titled Other Transactions
(OT) Guide for Research Projects (November 2018, Version 1)
10. OTs for Prototypes or Production are primarily governed by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Office of Secretary of Defense implementation guidance titled Other Transactions
(OT) Guide for Prototype Projects (November 2018, Version 1)
11. The following websites may be accessed to obtain an electronic copy of the governing
regulations and terms and conditions:
a. FAR, DFARS, and AFARS: https://www.acquisition.gov
b. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): http://www.ecfr.gov
c. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions:
https://www.onr.navy.mil/en/work-with-us/manage-your-award/manage-grant-
award/grants-terms-conditions
d. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions:
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/#terms-and-conditions
(End of Section)
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C. Eligibility Information
1. Eligible Applicants
Unless noted in Section II.A.3 or as dictated by the award instrument type, eligible applicants
under this BAA include institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state and
local governments, foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and for-profit organizations
(i.e. large and small businesses). For ARO Targeted Opportunities, please see the specific
eligibility requirements in the II.A.3 ARO Targeted Opportunities section above. For specific
Other Transactions for Prototypes eligibility requirements, please see the “Other Transaction
for Prototype or Production” section within the II.B. Federal Award Information section.
2. Cost Sharing or Matching
Generally, there is no requirement for cost sharing, matching, or cost participation to be
eligible for award under this BAA. Cost sharing and matching is not an evaluation factor
used under this BAA. Exceptions may exist if the applicant is proposing the use of an OT for
research or prototype as an award instrument. Cost-sharing requirements may be found at 32
CFR Part 37 and in the DoD Other Transaction Guide for Prototype Projects
(https://www.dau.edu/pdfviewer/Source/Guidebooks/Other-Transactions-(OT)-Guide.pdf).
3. Other
Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) are subject to applicable
direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this solicitation in any capacity unless they
meet the following conditions. (1) FFRDCs must clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is
not otherwise available from the private sector. (2) FFRDCs must provide a letter, on official
letterhead from their sponsoring organization, that (a) cites the specific authority establishing
their eligibility to propose to Government solicitations and compete with industry, and (b)
certifies the FFRDC’s compliance with the associated FFRDC sponsor agreement’s terms and
conditions. These conditions are a requirement for FFRDCs proposing to be awardees or
subawardees.
University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) are eligible to submit proposals under this
BAA if their proposal contains a letter, on official letterhead, from their primary sponsor
concurring with the UARC’s proposal submission.
(End of Section)
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D. Application and Submission Information
1. Address to View Broad Agency Announcement
This BAA may be accessed via the following websites:
a. Grants.gov (www.grants.gov)
b. Contract Opportunities (sam.gov)
c. ARL website https://www.arl.army.mil/collaborate-with-us/opportunity/arl-baa/
Amendments to this BAA, if any, will be posted to these websites when they occur.
Supplemental information on topics, POCs, research areas, specific proposal rules and
requirements, and other relevant info may be disseminated through Special Notices posted
to the sam.gov Contract Opportunities website. Interested parties are encouraged to
periodically check these websites for updates and amendments.
Digital copies of submission forms can be downloaded from
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/. Paper copies of submission forms are
available upon request from the point of contact identified for a given topic.
The following information is for those wishing to respond to this BAA:
2. Content and Form of Application Submission
a. The Application Process Overview
Applicants are strongly encouraged to follow the below application process:
• Conduct a preliminary inquiry with an ARL TPOC
• Submit a Whitepaper to an ARL TPOC for review
• Submit a Full Proposal
All proposals for Assistance Instruments (Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Technology
Investment Agreements) must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov using the
Workspace system. Proposals for Procurement Contracts, OTs for Research that are not
Technology Investment Agreements, and OTs for Prototypes or Production may be submitted via
either Grants.gov or email to usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.baa@army.mil. See II.D Application
and Submission Information section of this BAA for information on the proposal submission
process.
b. Preliminary Inquiries*
Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to make a preliminary inquiry by first contacting
the ARL TPOC to discuss your ideas and the interests of ARL. ARL receives several hundred
research proposals annually and is able to provide support for only a limited number of the
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proposals received. ARL realizes the preparation of a research proposal often represents a
substantial investment of time and effort by the applicant. Therefore, in an attempt to minimize
this burden, ARL TPOCs are available to discuss the general need for the type of research
effort contemplated and availability of funding before an interested applicant expends
extensive effort in preparing a whitepaper or full proposal. The TPOC names, telephone
numbers, and email addresses are listed with each research Topic at the ARL BAA topics
website, https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, and they should be contacted, as
appropriate, prior to the submission of whitepapers or proposals.
*NOTE: The Government will not be obligated by any discussion that arises out of
preliminary inquiries.
c. Whitepaper Preparation and Submission
i. PURPOSE OF WHITEPAPERS:
Prospective proposers are strongly encouraged to submit whitepapers prior to the submission of
a complete, more detailed proposal. The purpose of whitepapers is to minimize the labor and
cost associated with the production of detailed proposals that have very little chance of being
selected for funding. Whitepapers are not full proposals and are meant to provide the ARL
TPOC with enough information to determine if there is interest on the part of ARL to receive a
full proposal.
ii. WHITEPAPER CONTENT:
Whitepapers do not have a prescribed format but are not expected to exceed five (5) total pages
and are encouraged to be submitted as a single portable document format (PDF) document. The
whitepaper should include at a minimum the title of the whitepaper, name of the individual and
organization submitting the whitepaper, the research topic name, topic identification (ID)
number, and the TPOC name against which the whitepaper is submitted. Whitepapers should
focus on describing objective and approach of the proposed research, including how it is
innovative, and how it could substantially increase the scientific state of the art. Whitepapers
should contain a brief cost estimate to understand a rough order of magnitude of the proposal
cost, and any biographical information to highlight applicant’s qualifications and experience.
Any proprietary data must be clearly marked. The applicant must also identify any
technical data or computer software contained in the whitepaper that is to be managed by
the Government with restrictions, limited rights in technical data and restricted rights in
computer software. In the absence of such identification, the Government will conclude
there are no limitations or restrictions on technical data or computer software included in
the whitepaper. Records or data bearing a restrictive legend may be included in the
whitepaper. It is the intent of the Army to treat all whitepapers as procurement sensitive
and to disclose their contents to Government employees or designated support contractors
only for the purpose of evaluation.
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iii. SUBMISSION OF WHITEPAPERS:
Whitepapers should be submitted via email to the TPOC identified in the topic proposed
against. Whitepapers submitted via email are encouraged to be submitted as a single PDF file
as an email attachment. If no TPOC is specifically listed, prospective applicants can submit
information and questions using the ARL’s website Contact Us page at
https://www.arl.army.mil/contact-us and selecting BAA Inquiry from the drop-down menu
for advice and assistance before preparing and submitting a whitepaper. In the contact form
subject line, include the phrase “BAA Whitepaper Submission,” and the research topic name
and topic ID number listed at the website.
iv. REVIEW OF WHITEPAPERS:
ARL TPOCs will receive and consider all whitepapers submitted and will provide a
response with either “encouraged to submit a proposal” or “not encouraged to submit a
proposal”.
d. Full Proposal Preparation and Submission
Proposals must be submitted in order for the applicant to be considered for funding.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit whitepapers (see instructions in II.D.2.c White
Paper Preparation and Submission section above) and received a recommendation from an
ARL TPOC to submit a proposal prior to submitting full proposals, however all proposals
submitted under the terms and conditions cited in this BAA will be reviewed regardless of the
recommendation received from the ARL TPOC, or lack of submission of a whitepaper.
i. COVER PAGE:
(1) A Cover Page is required. For contract proposals submitted by email, use ARO Form 51.
For all Assistance instruments and contract proposals submitted via Grants.gov, use the SF
424 (R&R) Form. Proposals will not be processed without either: (1) a signed Cover Page,
ARO Form 51, or (2) a SF 424 (R&R) Form.
(2) Should the project be carried out at a branch campus or other component of the
applicant, that branch campus or component should be identified in the space provided
(Block 11 on the ARO Form 51 and Block 12 on the SF 424 (R&R) Form).
(3) The title of the proposed project should be brief, scientifically representative, intelligible
to a scientifically-literate reader, and suitable for use in the public domain.
(4) The proposed duration for which support is requested should be consistent with the nature
and complexity of the proposed activity. For research topics listed at the ARL BAA topics
website, https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, applicants shall discuss the preferred
performance period with the TPOC.
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(5) Specification of a desired starting date for the project is important and helpful; however,
requested effective dates cannot be guaranteed.
(6) Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 7701, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996
[Section 31001(I)(1), Public Law 104-134] and implemented by 32 CFR 22.420(d), federal
agencies shall obtain each awardees’ Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). The TIN is being
obtained for purposes of collecting and reporting on any delinquent amounts that may arise out
of an awardees’ relationship with the Government.
(7) Applicants must provide their organization's Unique Entity Identifier (UIE) (formerly
Data Universal Number System (DUNS)). This number is a nine-digit number assigned
by D&B Information Services. See Section II.D.3 of this BAA for requirements pertaining
to the Unique Entity Identifier.
(8) Applicants must provide their assigned Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE)
Code. The CAGE Code is a 5-character code assigned and maintained by the Defense
Logistics Service Center (DLSC) to identify a commercial plant or establishment.
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ii. TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Use the following format for the Table of Contents. Forms are available at
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/
SECTION PAGE NUMBER
Table of Contents A-1
Statement of Disclosure Preference (Form 52 or 52A) B-1
Research and Related Other Project Information B-2
Project Abstract C-1
Project Description (Technical Proposal) D-1 - D-
Biographical Sketch E-1 - E-
Bibliography F-1 - F-
Current and Pending Support G-1 - G-
Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources H-1 - H-
Proposal Budget I-1 - I-
Contract Facilities Capital Cost of Money (DD Form 1861) J-1
Appendices K-
List Appendix Items:
This format applies to all proposals submitted via email and via Grants.gov. Applicants
should show the location of each section of the proposal, as well as major subdivisions of the
project description.
iii. STATEMENT OF DISCLOSURE PREFERENCE (FORM 52 OR 52A): Complete and
sign ARO Form 52 (Industrial Contractors) or ARO Form 52A (Educational and Nonprofit
Organizations).
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iv. RESEARCH AND RELATED OTHER PROJECT INFORMATION: Must be completed
and signed by all applicants.
v. PROJECT ABSTRACT:
(1) The project abstract shall be completed on the form entitled “Publicly Releasable Project
Abstract” found at the following website: https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/
(2) Unless otherwise instructed in this BAA, the project abstract shall include a concise
statement of work and basic approaches to be used in the proposed effort. The abstract should
include a statement of scientific objectives, methods to be employed, and the significance of the
proposed effort to the advancement of scientific knowledge.
(3) The abstract should be no longer than one (1) page (maximum 4,000 characters).
(4) The project abstract shall be marked by the applicant as publicly releasable. By
submission of the project abstract, the applicant confirms that the abstract is releasable to the
public. For a proposal that results in a grant award, the project abstract will be posted to a
searchable website available to the general public to meet the requirements of Section 8123
of the DoD Appropriations Act, 2015. The website address is
https://dodgrantawards.dtic.mil/grants.
vi. PROJECT DESCRIPTION (TECHNICAL PROPOSAL): The technical portion of
the proposal shall contain the following:
(1) A complete discussion stating the background and objectives of the proposed work, the
scientific approaches to be considered, the relationship to competing or related research, and
the level of effort to be employed. Include also the nature and extent of the anticipated results
and how they will significantly advance the scientific state-of-the-art. Also, if known, include
the manner in which the work will contribute to the accomplishment of the Army's mission.
Ensure the proposal identifies any scientific uncertainties and describes specific approaches for
the resolution or mitigation of the uncertainties.
(2) A brief description of your organization.
(3) The names of other federal, state, local agencies, or other parties receiving the proposal
and/or funding the proposed effort. If none, state so. Concurrent or later submission of the
proposal to other organizations will not prejudice its review by ARL if ARL is kept informed of
the situation.
(4) A statement regarding possible impact, if any, of the proposed effort on the environment,
considering as a minimum its effect upon water, atmosphere, natural resources, human
resources, and any other values.
(5) A statement regarding the use of Class I and Class II ozone- depleting substances. Ozone-
depleting substances are any substance designated as Class I by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), including but not limited to chlorofluorocarbons, halons, carbon tetrachloride,
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and methyl chloroform, and any substance designated as Class II by EPA, including but not
limited to hydrochlorofluorocarbons. See 40 CFR Part 82 for detailed information. If Class I
or II substances are to be utilized, a list shall be provided as part of the applicant's proposal. If
none, state so.
(6) The type of support, if any, requested by the applicant (e.g., facilities, equipment,
and materials).
vii. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
(1) This section shall contain the biographical sketches for key personnel only.
(a) Primary PI: The Primary PI provides a single or initial point of communication between
ARL and the awardee organization(s) about scientific matters. If not otherwise designated,
the first PI listed will serve as the Primary PI. This individual can be changed with
notification to ARL. ARL does not infer any additional scientific stature to this role among
collaborating investigators.
(b) Co-PIs: The individual(s) a research organization designates as having an appropriate
level of authority and responsibility for the proper conduct of the research and submission of
required reports to ARL. When an organization designates more than one PI, it identifies
them as individuals who share the authority and responsibility for leading and directing the
research, intellectually and logistically. ARL does not infer any distinction among multiple
PIs.
(2) The following information is required:
(a) Relevant experience and employment history including a description of any prior
Federal employment within one year preceding the date of proposal submission.
(b) List of up to five publications most closely related to the proposed project and up to
five other significant publications, including those being printed. Patents, copyrights, or
software systems developed may be substituted for publications.
(c) List of persons, other than those cited in the publications list, who have collaborated
on a project or a book, article, report or paper within the last four years. Include
pending publications and submissions. Otherwise, state "None."
(d) Names of each investigator's own graduate or post-graduate advisors and advisees.
NOTE: The information provided in (c) and (d) is used to help identify potential
conflicts or bias in the selection of reviewers.
(3) For the personnel categories of postdoctoral associates, other professionals, and students
(research assistants), the proposal may include information on exceptional qualifications of
these individuals that merit consideration in the evaluation of the proposal.
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(4) The biographical sketches are limited to three (3) pages per investigator and other
individuals that merit consideration.
viii. BIBLIOGRAPHY: A bibliography of pertinent literature is required. Citations must
be complete (including full name of author(s), title, and location in the literature).
ix. CURRENT AND PENDING SUPPORT:
This announcement requires all current and pending research support, as defined by Section 223
of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, must be disclosed at the time
of proposal submission, for all covered individuals. See Section F.2.b.x for additional
information on this requirement.
(1) All project support from whatever source must be listed. The list must include all projects
requiring a portion of the PI's and other key personnel's time, even if they receive no salary
support from the project(s).
(2) The information should include, as a minimum: (i) the project/proposal title and brief
description, (ii) the name and location of the organization or agency presently funding the work
or requested to fund such work, (iii) the award amount or annual dollar volume of the effort, (iv)
the period of performance, and (v) a breakdown of the time required of the PI and/or other key
personnel.
x. FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT, AND OTHER RESOURCES: The applicant should include
in the proposal a listing of facilities, equipment, and other resources already available to
perform the research proposed.
xi. PROPOSAL BUDGET (including DD Form 1861):
(1) Each proposal must contain a budget for each year of support requested and a cumulative
budget for the full term of requested support. Each budget year and the cumulative budget for
the full term must be documented on ARO Form 99. ARO Form 99 may be reproduced, but you
may not make substitutions in prescribed budget categories nor alter or rearrange the cost
categories as they appear on the form. The proposal may request funds under any of the
categories listed so long as the item is considered necessary to perform the proposed work and is
not precluded by applicable cost principles. In addition to the forms, the budget proposal should
include budget justification for each year.
(2) A signed summary budget page must be included. The documentation pages should be titled
"Budget Explanation Page" and numbered chronologically starting with the budget form. The
need for each item should be explained clearly.
(3) All cost data must be current and complete. Costs proposed must conform to the
following principles and procedures:
Institutions of Higher Education: 2 CFR Part 200
Nonprofit Organizations*: 2 CFR Part 200
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For-Profit/Commercial Organizations: FAR Part 31, DFARS Part 231, FAR Subsection
15.403-5, and DFARS Subsection 215.403-5.
*For those nonprofit organizations specifically exempt from the provisions of Subpart E of 2 CFR
Part 200 (see 2 CFR 200.401(c)), FAR Part 31 and DFARS Part 231 shall apply.
(4) Sample itemized budgets and the information they must include for a contract and for
grants and cooperative agreements can be found at Section II.H of this BAA (Other
Information). Before award of a cost-reimbursement type contract or assistance instrument it
must be established that an approved accounting system and financial management system
exist.
xii. APPENDICES: Some situations require that special information and supporting
documents be included in the proposal before funding can be approved. Such information and
documentation should be included by appendix to the proposal.
(1) To evaluate compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C.
A Section 1681 Et. Seq.), the Department of Defense is collecting certain demographic
and career information to be able to assess the success rates of women who are
proposed for key roles in applications in STEM disciplines. To enable this assessment,
each application must include the following forms completed as indicated.
(A) Research and Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) form:
The Degree Type and Degree Year fields on the Research and Related Senior/Key Person
Profile (Expanded) form will be used by DoD as the source for career information. In
addition to the required fields on the form, applicants must complete these two fields for all
individuals that are identified as having the project role of PD/PI or Co-PD/PI on the form.
Additional senior/key persons can be added by selecting the “Next Person” button.
(B) Research and Related Personal Data form:
This form will be used by DoD as the source of demographic information, such as gender,
race, ethnicity, and disability information for the Project Director/Principal Investigator and
all other persons identified as Co-Project Director(s)/Co-Principal Investigator(s). Each
application must include this form with the name fields of the Project Director/Principal
Investigator or any Co-Project Director(s)/Co-Principal Investigator(s) completed;
however, provision of the demographic information in the form is voluntary. If completing
the form for multiple individuals, each Co-Project Director/Co-Principal Investigator can
be added by selecting the “Next Person” button. The demographic information, if
provided, will be used for statistical purposed only and will not be made available to merit
reviewers. Applicants who do not wish to provide some or all of the information should
check or select the “Do not wish to provide” option.
(2) Data Management Plan: A data management plan is a document that describes which
data generated through the course of the proposed research will be shared and preserved,
how it will be done, or explains why data sharing or preservation is not possible or
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scientifically appropriate, or why the costs of sharing or preservation are incommensurate
with the value of doing so. See also: DoD Instruction 3200.12. In no more than 2 pages
set forth as a separate PDF document, discuss the following:
• The types of data, software, and other materials to be produced.
• How the data will be acquired.
• Time and location of data acquisition, if scientifically pertinent.
• How the data will be processed.
• The file formats and the naming conventions that will be used.
• A description of the quality assurance and quality control measures during
collection, analysis, and processing.
• A description of dataset origin when existing data resources are used.
• A description of the standards to be used for data and metadata format and
content.
• Appropriate timeframe for preservation.
• The plan may consider the balance between the relative value of data preservation
and other factors such as the associated cost and administrative burden. The plan
will provide a justification for such decisions.
• A statement that the data cannot be made available to the public when there are
national security or controlled unclassified information concerns (e.g., “This data
cannot be cleared for public release in accordance with the requirements in DoD
Directive 5230.09.”)
e. General Information
i. Classified Submissions: Proposals containing classified information are not accepted under
this BAA. However, proposals may discuss the need to access or generate controlled
unclassified information (CUI) or classified information for the proposed work. Where an award
requires access to classified information, clause 52.204-2 will be included in the award, as well
as a DD254, if issued. When an award requires access to CUI, DFARS Clause 252.204-7012
will be included in the award, as well as additional ARL specific requirements as determined
necessary. For questions regarding the potential for access to classified information and/or
controlled unclassified information, please coordinate with the TPOC for that topic area prior to
whitepaper or proposal submission.
ii. Post-Employment Conflict of Interest: There are certain post-employment restrictions on
former federal employees, including special government employees (18 U.S.C. 207). If a
prospective applicant believes a conflict of interest may exist, the situation should be discussed
with the TPOC listed in the BAA for their topic of scientific research who will then coordinate
with appropriate ARL legal counsel prior to the applicant expending time and effort in preparing
a proposal.
iii. Statement of Disclosure Preference: In accordance with Section II.D.2.e.iii of this BAA,
Form 52 or 52A shall be completed stating your preference for release of information contained
in your proposal. Copies of these forms may be downloaded from the ARL web site at
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/.
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NOTE: Submissions may be handled for administrative purposes by support contractors.
These support contractors are prohibited from submitting proposals under this BAA and are
bound by non-disclosure and/or conflict of interest requirements as deemed appropriate.
Applicants are cautioned, however, that portions of a submission may be subject to release
under terms of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, as amended.
iv. Equipment (see instrument-specific regulations provided in Section II.B of this BAA):
Normally, in accordance with 31 USC 6306, title to equipment or other tangible property
purchased with Government funds vests with nonprofit institutions of higher education or with
nonprofit organizations whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research if vesting will
facilitate scientific research performed for the Government. For-profit organizations are expected
to possess the necessary plant and equipment to conduct the proposed research. Deviations may
be made on a case-by-case basis to allow for-profit organizations to purchase equipment but
regulatory disposition instructions will be included in the award.
f. Submission of Proposals
Requests for waiver of electronic submission requirements may be submitted via email to:
usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.baa@army.mil or regular mail:
Army Research Office
ATTN: FCDD-RLR (Proposal Processing)
P.O. Box 12211
RTP, NC 27709-2211
All required forms for proposals may be downloaded from the ARL website at
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/.
All proposals for Assistance Instruments (Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and OTs) must be
submitted electronically through Grants.gov using the Workspace system. Proposals for
Contracts and OTs may be submitted via either Grants.gov or email. Proposals must be
submitted through the applicant’s organizational office having responsibility for
Government business relations. All signatures must be that of an official authorized to
commit the organization in business and financial affairs.
Proposal content requirements remain the same for both email and Grants.gov submission.
i. EMAIL SUBMISSION:
(1) Proposals requesting a Contract or OTs may be emailed directly to usarmy.rtp.devcom-
arl.mbx.baa@army.mil, do not email full proposals to the TPOC. Proposals for assistance
agreements cannot be sent via email, see below for submission of Assistance agreement
proposals through Grants.gov.
(2) The applicant must include with its proposal submission the representations required by
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Section II.F.2.a.i of this BAA. The representations must include applicant POC information
and be signed by an authorized representative. Note: If the applicant’s online SAM
Representations and Certifications include its response to the representations, a hard copy
representation is not required with proposal submission.
(3) All forms requiring signature must be completed, printed, signed, and scanned into a PDF
document. All documents must be combined into a single PDF formatted file to be attached
to the email.
ii. GRANTS.GOV SUBMISSION:
(1) Proposals requesting Assistance agreements must be submitted via Grants.gov; proposals
requesting a Contract or OT may be submitted either via Grants.gov or email (instructions
above).
(2) Grants.gov Registration must be accomplished prior to application submission in Grants.gov.
Each organization that desires to submit applications via Grants.Gov must complete a one-time
registration. There are several one-time actions your organization must complete in order to
submit applications through Grants.gov (e.g., obtain a Unique Entity Identifier, register with the
SAM, register with the credential provider, register with Grants.gov and obtain approval for an
authorized organization representative (AOR) to submit applications on behalf of the
organization). To register please see http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/organization-
registration.html
Please note the registration process for an Organization or an Individual can take between
three to five business days or as long as four weeks if all steps are not completed in a timely
manner.
Questions relating to the registration process, system requirements, how an application form
works, or the submittal process should be directed to Grants.gov at 1-800-518-4726 or
support@grants.gov.
NOTE: All web links referenced in this section are subject to change by Grants.gov and may not
be updated here.
(3) Specific forms are required for submission of a proposal. The forms are contained in the
Application Package available at http://www.grants.gov under the specific opportunity you are
submitting under. When viewing an opportunity, select the "Package” tab and then select
"View." A Grant Application Package and Application Instructions are available for this BAA
through the Grants.gov Apply portal under CFDA Number 12.431/Funding Opportunity Number
W911NF-23-S-0001. To apply, select “Apply” and then “Apply Now Using Workspace.”
*NOTE: Effective 31 December 2017, applicants must apply online at Grants.gov using the
application Workspace. For access to complete instructions on how to apply for opportunities
using Workspace refer to https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/workspace-
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overview.html.
The following documents are mandatory: (1) Application for Federal Assistance (R&R) (SF 424
(R&R)), and (4) Attachments form.
(4) The SF 424 (R&R) form is to be used as the cover page for all proposals submitted via
Grants.gov. The SF 424 (R&R) must be fully completed. AOR usernames and passwords serve
as “electronic signatures” when your organization submits applications through Grants.gov. By
using the SF 424 (R&R), proposers are providing the certification required by 32 CFR Part 28
regarding lobbying (see Section II.F.2.a.ii of this BAA). Block 11, “Descriptive Title of
Applicant’s Project,” must reference the research topic area being addressed in the effort by
identifying the specific paragraph from Section II.A of this BAA.
(5) The Attachments form must contain the documents outlined in Section II.D.2.e.ii entitled
“Table of Contents”. All documents must be combined into separate and single PDF formatted
files using the Table of Contents names. Include “W911NF-23-S-0001” in the title so the
proposal will be distinguished from other BAA submissions and upload each document to the
mandatory Attachments form.
(6) The applicant must include with its proposal submission the representations required by
Section II.F.2.a.ii of this BAA. The representations must include applicant POC information and
be signed by an authorized representative. Attach the representations document to an available
field within the Attachments form. Note: If the applicant’s online SAM Representations and
Certifications include its response to the representations, a hard copy representation is not
required with proposal submission.
(7) The Grants.gov User Guide at:
https://www.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm will assist
AORs in the application process. Remember that you must open and complete the Application
for Federal Assistance (R&R) (SF 424 (R&R)) first, as this form will automatically populate data
fields in other forms. If you encounter any problems, contact customer support at 1-800-518-
4726 or at support@grants.gov. If you forget your user name or password, follow the
instructions provided in the Credential Provider tutorial. Tutorials may be printed by right-
clicking on the tutorial and selecting “Print”.
(8) As it is possible for Grants.gov to reject the proposal during this process, it is strongly
recommended that proposals be uploaded at least two days before any established deadline in the
BAA so that they will not be received late and be ineligible for award consideration. It is also
recommended to start uploading proposals at least two days before the deadline to plan ahead for
any potential technical and/or input problems involving the applicant’s own equipment.
3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM)
a. Each applicant (unless the applicant is an individual or Federal awarding agency that is
exempt from those requirements under 2 CFR 25.110(b) or (c), or has an exemption approved
by the Federal awarding agency under 2 CFR 25.110(d)) is required to:
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i. Provide a valid unique entity identifier (formerly DUNS) in its application. Please
verify the accuracy of your Unique Entity Identifier (formerly DUNS) at the Dun and
Bradstreet (D&B) website http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform before registering with the
System for Award Management System (SAM).
ii. Be registered in SAM at https://www.sam.gov prior to submitting its application; and
iii. Maintain an active SAM registration with current information at all times during
which it has an active Federal award or an application or plan under consideration
by a Federal awarding agency.
b. The SAM obtains Legal Business Name, Doing Business Name (DBA), Physical Address, and
Postal Code/ Zip+4 data fields from D&B. If corrections are required, registrants will not be
able to enter/modify these fields in SAM; they will be pre-populated using D&B Unique Entity
Identifier record data. When D&B confirms the correction has been made, the registrant must
then re-visit sam.gov and click a “yes”' to D&B's changes. Only at this point will the D&B data
be accepted into the SAM record. Allow a minimum of two (2) business days for D&B to send
the modified data to SAM.
c. The Federal awarding agency may not make a Federal award to an applicant until the
applicant has complied with all applicable unique entity identifier and SAM requirements. If an
applicant has not fully complied with the requirements by the time the Federal awarding agency
is ready to make a Federal award, the Federal awarding agency may determine that the applicant
is not qualified to receive a Federal award and use that determination as a basis for making a
Federal award to another applicant.
4. Submission Dates and Times
a. Proposals
Proposals will be considered until and including the closing date of this announcement (see cover
page of this announcement for opening/closing dates). Proposals submitted after the closing date
will not be considered by the Government under this announcement.
b. Proposal Receipt Notices
i. Grants.gov: After a proposal is submitted to Grants.gov, the AOR will receive a series of three
emails from Grants.gov. The first two emails will be received within 24 to 48 hours after
submission. The first email will confirm time of receipt of the proposal by the Grants.gov system
and the second will indicate that the proposal has either been successfully validated by the system
prior to transmission to the grantor agency or has been rejected due to errors. A third email will
be received once the grantor agency has confirmed receipt of the proposal. Reference the
Grants.gov User Guide at
https://www.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm for
information on how to track your application package.
For the purposes of this BAA, an applicant’s proposal is not considered received by ARL until the
AOR receives email #3.
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ii. Email Submission: After a proposal is submitted to usarmy.rtp.devcom-
arl.mbx.baa@army.mil, the AOR will receive an email confirming time of receipt of the proposal
by the receiving agency. For the purposes of this BAA, an applicant’s proposal is not considered
received by the grantor agency until the AOR receives the email confirming receipt of the
proposal.
5. Intergovernmental Review
Not Applicable
6. Funding Restrictions
Other than the restrictions referenced in Section II.A.3, there are no other funding restrictions
associated with this BAA (e.g. direct costs, indirect costs, etc.).
7. Other Submission Requirements
a. Information to Be Requested from Successful Applicants: Applicants whose proposals are
accepted for funding will be contacted before award to provide additional information
required for award. The required information may include requests to clarify budget
explanations, representations, certifications, and some technical aspects.
b. For Contracts Only: Performance Work Statements (PWS). Prior to award the Contracting
Officer may request that the contractor submit a PWS for the effort to be performed, which
will be incorporated into the contract at the time of award.
(End of Section)
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E. Proposal Review Information
1. Evaluation Criteria
a. Proposals submitted against a BAA research topic and the ARO SI will be
evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
b. ARO Proposals submitted for STIR will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
c. ARO Proposals submitted for ECP will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
iv. Long-term commitment by the institution of higher education to the early
career investigator and the proposed research.
d. ARO Proposals submitted for RI will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
iv. The applicant’s capabilities, related experience, facilities, techniques, or
unique combinations of these, which are integral factors for achieving the
proposed objectives.
e. Proposals submitted for Conference Grants will be evaluated using the following
criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of proposed
conference/symposia activities.
ii. The potential contributions of the conference/symposia activities to the
Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
conference/symposia.
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2. Review and Selection Process
a. Upon receipt of a proposal, ARL staff will perform an initial review of its scientific merit and
potential contribution to the Army mission, and also determine if funds are expected to be
available for the effort. Proposals not considered having sufficient scientific merit or relevance to
the Army's needs, or those in areas for which funds are not expected to be available, may not
receive further review.
b. All proposals are treated as procurement sensitive and are disclosed only for the purpose of
evaluation. Proposals having sufficient scientific merit or relevance will be subject to a peer
review by highly qualified subject matter experts, both Government employees and non-
Government employees. While the applicant may restrict the evaluation to Government
employees, to do so may prevent review of the proposal by other qualified experts in the field of
research covered by the proposal. The applicant must indicate on the appropriate proposal form
(Form 52 or 52A) any limitation to be placed on disclosure of information contained in the
proposal.
c. Each proposal will be evaluated based on the evaluation criteria in Section II.E.1 of this BAA
rather than against other proposals for research in the same general area. Each evaluated
proposal will receive a recommendation of “select” or “do not select” as supported by the
evaluation.
d. Upon completion of an evaluation against the criteria in Section II.E.1, a proposal selected
for possible award will be analyzed for the realism and reasonableness of costs and funds
availability. Proposal costs must be determined reasonable and realistic before the Government
can make an award.
3. Recipient Qualification
a. Grant, Cooperative Agreement, and OT Proposals:
i. The Grants Officer is responsible for determining a recipient’s qualification prior to award.
In general, a Grants Officer will award grants or cooperative agreements only to qualified
recipients that meet the standards at 32 CFR 22.415. To be qualified, a potential recipient
must:
(1) Have the management capability and adequate financial and technical resources,
given those that would be made available through the grant or cooperative agreement, to
execute the program of activities envisioned under the grant or cooperative agreement;
(2) Have a satisfactory record of executing such programs or activities (if a prior
recipient of an award);
(3) Have a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics; and
(4) Be otherwise qualified and eligible to receive a grant or cooperative agreement
under applicable laws and regulations.
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Applicants are requested to provide information with proposal submissions to assist the Grants
Officer’s evaluation of recipient qualification.
ii. In accordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance in parts 180 and
200 of Title 2, CFR, it is DoD policy that DoD Components must report and use integrity and
performance information in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information
System (FAPIIS), or any successor system designated by OMB, concerning grants, cooperative
agreements, and OTs for research as follows:
If the total Federal share will be greater than the simplified acquisition threshold on any Federal
award under a notice of funding opportunity (see 2 CFR 200.88 Simplified Acquisition
Threshold):
(1) The Federal awarding agency, prior to making a Federal award with a total amount of
Federal share greater than the simplified acquisition threshold, will review and consider
any information about the applicant that is in the designated integrity and performance
system accessible through SAM (currently FAPIIS) (see 41 U.S.C. 2313);
(2) An applicant, at its option, may review information in the designated integrity and
performance systems accessible through SAM and comment on any information about
itself that a Federal awarding agency previously entered and is currently in the designated
integrity and performance system accessible through SAM;
(3) The Federal awarding agency will consider any comments by the applicant, in
addition to the other information in the designated integrity and performance system, in
making a judgment about the applicant's integrity, business ethics, and record of
performance under Federal awards when completing the review of risk posed by
applicants as described in 2 CFR 200.205 Federal awarding agency review of risk posed
by applicants.
b. Contract Proposals:
i. Contracts shall be awarded to responsible prospective contractors only. See FAR 9.104-1
for a listing of the general standards against which an applicant will be assessed to determine
responsibility.
Applicants are requested to provide information with proposal submission to assist the
Contracting Officer’s evaluation of responsibility.
ii. FAPIIS will be checked prior to making an award. The web address is: https://cpars.gov.
The applicant representing the entity may comment in this system on any information about
the entity that a federal government official entered. The information in FAPIIS will be used
in making a judgment about the entity’s integrity, business ethics, and record of performance
under Federal awards that may affect the official’s determination that the applicant is qualified
to receive an award.
(End of Section)
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F. Award Administration Information
1. Award Notices
Applicants whose proposals are recommended for award may be contacted by a Contract/Grant
Specialist to discuss additional information required for award. This may include
representations and certifications, revised budgets or budget explanations, certificate of current
cost or pricing data, subcontracting plan for small businesses, and/or other information as
applicable to the proposed award. The anticipated start date will be determined at that time.
The notification email is not an authorization to commit or expend funds. The Government is
not obligated to provide any funding until a Government Contracting/ Grants Officer signs the
award document.
The award document signed by the Government Contracting/Grants Officer is the official and
authorizing award instrument. The authorizing award instrument, signed by the Contracting/
Grants Officer, will be emailed to the PI and AOR.
2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements
a. Required Representations and Certifications:
i. Contract Proposals:
(1) Representations and certifications shall be completed by successful applicants prior to
award. FAR Online Representations and Certifications are to be completed through SAM at
https://www.sam.gov. As appropriate, DFARS and contract-specific certification packages will
be provided to the contractor for completion prior to award.
(2) FAR 52.203-18, PROHIBITION ON CONTRACTING WITH ENTITIES THAT
REQUIRE CERTAIN CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTS OR STATEMENTS—
REPRESENTATION (JAN 2017)
(a) Definition. As used in this provision--
“Internal confidentiality agreement or statement”, “subcontract”, and “subcontractor”, are
defined in the clause at 52.203-19, Prohibition on Requiring Certain Internal
Confidentiality Agreements or Statements.
(b) In accordance with section 743 of Division E, Title VII, of the Consolidated and
Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Pub. L. 113-235) and its successor
provisions in subsequent appropriations acts (and as extended in continuing resolutions),
Government agencies are not permitted to use funds appropriated (or otherwise made
available) for contracts with an entity that requires employees or subcontractors of such
entity seeking to report waste, fraud, or abuse to sign internal confidentiality agreements or
statements prohibiting or otherwise restricting such employees or subcontractors from
lawfully reporting such waste, fraud, or abuse to a designated investigative or law
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enforcement representative of a Federal department or agency authorized to receive such
information.
(c) The prohibition in paragraph (b) of this provision does not contravene requirements
applicable to SF 312, (Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement), Form 4414
(Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Agreement), or any other form
issued by a Federal department or agency governing the nondisclosure of classified
information.
(d) Representation. By submission of its offer, the applicant represents that it will not
require its employees or subcontractors to sign or comply with internal confidentiality
agreements or statements prohibiting or otherwise restricting such employees or
subcontractors from lawfully reporting waste, fraud, or abuse related to the performance of
a Government contract to a designated investigative or law enforcement representative of a
Federal department or agency authorized to receive such information (e.g., agency Office of
the Inspector General).
(3) FAR 52.204-26, COVERED TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT OR SERVICES-
REPRESENTATION (OCT 2020)
a) Definitions. As used in this provision, "covered telecommunications equipment or
services" and "reasonable inquiry" have the meaning provided in the clause 52.204-25,
Prohibition on Contracting for Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services
or Equipment.
(b) Procedures. The Offeror shall review the list of excluded parties in the System for Award
Management (SAM) ( https://www.sam.gov) for entities excluded from receiving federal
awards for "covered telecommunications equipment or services".
(c)(1) Representation. The Offeror represents that it [ ] does, [ ] does not provide covered
telecommunications equipment or services as a part of its offered products or services to the
Government in the performance of any contract, subcontract, or other contractual instrument.
(2) After conducting a reasonable inquiry for purposes of this representation, the offeror
represents that it [ ] does, [ ] does not use covered telecommunications equipment or services,
or any equipment, system, or service that uses covered telecommunications equipment or
services.
(4) FAR 52.209-11, REPRESENTATION BY CORPORATIONS REGARDING
DELINQUENT TAX LIABILITY OR A FELONY CONVICTION UNDER FEDERAL LAW
(FEB 2016)
(a) As required by sections 744 and 745 of Division E of the Consolidated and Further
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Pub. L 113-235), and similar provisions, if
contained in subsequent appropriations acts, the Government will not enter into a
contract with any corporation that--
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(1) Has any unpaid Federal tax liability that has been assessed, for which all judicial and
administrative remedies have been exhausted or have lapsed, and that is not being paid
in a timely manner pursuant to an agreement with the authority responsible for
collecting the tax liability, where the awarding agency is aware of the unpaid tax
liability, unless an agency has considered suspension or debarment of the corporation
and made a determination that suspension or debarment is not necessary to protect the
interests of the Government; or
(2) Was convicted of a felony criminal violation under any Federal law within the
preceding 24 months, where the awarding agency is aware of the conviction, unless an
agency has considered suspension or debarment of the corporation and made a
determination that this action is not necessary to protect the interests of the
Government.
(b) The applicant Offeror that—
(1) It is [ ] is not [ ] a corporation that has any unpaid Federal tax liability that has
been assessed, for which all judicial and administrative remedies have been
exhausted or have lapsed, and that is not being paid in a timely manner pursuant
to an agreement with the authority responsible for collecting the tax liability;
and
(2) It is [ ] is not [ ] a corporation that was convicted of a felony criminal violation
under a Federal law within the preceding 24 months.
ii. Grant and Cooperative Agreement Proposals:
(1) Grant awards greater than $100,000 require a certification of compliance with a national
policy mandate concerning lobbying. Statutes and Government-wide regulations require the
certification to be submitted prior to award. When submitting your grant through Grants.gov, by
completing blocks 18 and 19 of the SF 424 (R&R) Form, the grant applicant is providing the
certification on lobbying required by 32 CFR Part 28; otherwise, a copy signed by the AOR
must be provided. Below is the required certification:
CERTIFICATION AT APPENDIX A TO 32 CFR PART 28 REGARDING
LOBBYING: Certification for Contracts, Grants, Loans, and Cooperative Agreements the
undersigned certifies, to the best of his or her knowledge and belief, that:
(1) No Federal appropriated funds have been paid or will be paid, by or on behalf of
the undersigned, to any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or
employee of an agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress,
or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with the awarding of any
Federal contract, the making of any Federal grant, the making of any Federal loan, the
entering into of any cooperative agreement, and the extension, continuation, renewal,
amendment, or modification of any Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative
agreement.
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(2) If any funds other than Federal appropriated funds have been paid or will be paid
to any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any
agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee
of a Member of Congress in connection with this Federal contract, grant, loan, or
cooperative agreement, the undersigned shall complete and submit SF-LLL,
"Disclosure Form to Report Lobbying," in accordance with its instructions.
(3) The undersigned shall require that the language of this certification be included
in the award documents for all subawards at all tiers (including subcontracts,
subgrants, and contracts under grants, loans, and cooperative agreements) and that
all subrecipients shall certify and disclose accordingly.
This certification is a material representation of fact upon which reliance was placed when
this transaction was made or entered into. Submission of this certification is a prerequisite
for making or entering into this transaction imposed by 31 U.S.C. 1352. Any person who
fails to file the required certification shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than
$10,000 and not more than $100,000 for each such failure.
(2) In accordance with Section 743 of P.L. 113-235 , none of the funds appropriated or otherwise
made available by that or any other Act may be made available for a grant or cooperative
agreement with an entity that requires its employees or contractors seeking to report fraud, waste,
or abuse to sign internal confidentiality agreements or statements prohibiting or otherwise
restricting those employees or contractors from lawfully reporting that waste, fraud, or abuse to a
designated investigative or law enforcement representative of a Federal department or agency
authorized to receive the information.
PROHIBITION ON CONTRACTING WITH ENTITIES THAT REQUIRED CERTAIN
INTERNAL CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTS – REPRESENTATION
Agreement with the representation below will be affirmed by checking the “I agree”
box in block 17 of the SF424 (R&R) as part of the electronic proposal submitted via
Grants.gov. The representation reads as follows:
By submission of its proposal or application, the applicant represents that it does not
require any of its employees, contractors, or subrecipients seeking to report fraud,
waste, or abuse to sign or comply with internal confidentiality agreements or
statements prohibiting or otherwise restricting those employees, contractors,
subrecipients from lawfully reporting that waste, fraud, or abuse to a designated
investigative or law enforcement representative of a Federal department or agency
authorized to receive such information.
*Note that: Section 743 states that it does not contravene requirements applicable to SF
312, Form 4414, or any other form issued by a Federal department or agency governing
the nondisclosure of classified information.
(3) Recipients are required to submit the following representation with the application package
IAW the instructions at Section II.D.2.f.ii of this BAA:
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REPRESENTATIONS UNDER DOD ASSISTANCE AGREEMENTS:
APPROPRIATIONS PROVISIONS ON TAX DELINQUENCY AND FELONY
CONVICTIONS
The applicant is [ ] is not [ ] a “Corporation” meaning any entity, including any
institution of higher education, other nonprofit organization, or for-profit entity that has
filed articles of incorporation.
If the applicant is a “Corporation” please complete the following representations:
(a) The applicant represents that it is [ ] is not [ ] a corporation that has any unpaid
Federal tax liability that has been assessed, for which all judicial and administrative
remedies have been exhausted or have lapsed, and that is not being paid in a timely
manner pursuant to an agreement with the authority responsible for collecting the tax
liability.
(b) The applicant represents that it is [ ] is not [ ] a corporation that was convicted of
a criminal violation under any Federal law within the preceding 24 months.
NOTE: If an applicant responds in the affirmative to either of the above representations,
the applicant is ineligible to receive an award unless the agency suspension and
debarment official (SDO) has considered suspension or debarment and determined that
further action is not required to protect the Government’s interests. The applicant
therefore should provide information about its tax liability or conviction to the agency’s
SDO as soon as it can do so, to facilitate completion of the required considerations
before award decisions are made.
PROHIBITION ON CONTRACTING WITH ENTITIES USING CERTAIN
TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND VIDEO SURVEILLANCE SERVICES OR EQUIPMENT
Section 889 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY)
2019 (Public Law 115-232) prohibits the head of an executive agency from obligating or
expending loan or grant funds to procure or obtain, extend, or renew a contract to
procure or obtain, or enter into a contract (or extend or 105 renew a contract) to procure
or obtain the equipment, services, or systems prohibited systems as identified in section
889 of the NDAA for FY 2019. For more information on how this applies to all grant
recipients and sub-recipients after August 13, 2020, please see DoD Research General
Terms and Conditions (SEP 2021) NP Article IV. Other national policy requirements,
paragraph 18.
b. Policy Requirements:
The following list provides notable national policy requirements that may be applicable to an
award. NOTE: The following is not an all-inclusive list of policy requirements. For assistance
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awards, refer to the DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions at
https://www.onr.navy.mil/en/work-with-us/manage-your-award/manage-grant-award/grants-
terms-conditions for additional national policy requirements that may apply. For contract
awards, appropriate clauses will be added to award documents.
i. PROTECTION OF HUMAN SUBJECTS
(1) For Assistance Instruments:
(a) The recipient must protect the rights and welfare of individuals who participate as human
subjects in research under this award and comply fully with the requirements at 32 CFR part 219,
Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 3216.02, 10 U.S.C. 980, the National Policy
Requirements Concerning Live Organisms Terms and Conditions (Section A.1., Human Subjects,
at 81 Federal Register 78380, Appendix C to Part 1122), and when applicable, Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) policies and regulations.
(b) The recipient must not begin performance of research involving human subjects, also known
as human subjects research (HSR), that is covered under 32 CFR part 219, or that meets
exemption criteria under 32 CFR 219.101(b), or expends funding on such effort, until you receive
a formal notification of approval from the cognizant DoD Human Research Protection Official
(HRPO). Approval to perform HSR under this award is received after the HRPO has performed
a review of the recipient’s documentation of planned HSR activities and has officially furnished a
concurrence with the recipient’s determination as presented in the documentation.
(c) In order for the HRPO to accomplish this concurrence review, the recipient must provide
sufficient documentation to enable his or her assessment as follows:
(i) If the HSR meets an exemption criteria under 32 CFR 219.101(b), the documentation
must include a citation of the exemption category under 32 CFR 219.101(b) and a
rationale statement.
(ii) If the recipient’s activity is determined as “non-exempt research involving human
subjects”, the documentation must include:
− Assurance of Compliance (a written assurance that an institution will comply
with requirements of 32 CFR Part 219, as well as the terms of the assurance)
appropriate for the scope of work or program plan; and
− Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, as well as all documentation
reviewed by the IRB to make their determination.
(d) The HRPO retains final judgment on what activities constitute HSR, whether an exempt
category applies, whether the risk determination is appropriate, and whether the planned HSR
activities comply with the requirements in paragraph (a) of this section.
(e) The recipient must notify the Grants Officer/Agreements Officer immediately of any
suspensions or terminations of the Assurance of Compliance.
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(f) DoD staff, consultants, and advisory groups may independently review and inspect the
recipient’s research and research procedures involving human subjects and, based on such
findings, DoD may prohibit research that presents unacceptable hazards or otherwise fails to
comply with DoD requirements.
(g) Definitions for terms used in this section are found in DoDI 3216.02.
(2) For Contracts: DFARS clause 252.235-7004 is applicable to this solicitation and will be
included in any resultant contract award that supports research that includes or may include HSR.
ii. ANIMAL USE:
(1) Assistance Instruments:
(a) Prior to initiating any animal work under the award, the recipient must:
(i) Register the recipient’s research, development, test, and evaluation or training facility
with the Secretary of Agriculture in accordance with 7 U.S.C. 2136 and 9 CFR section
2.30, unless otherwise exempt from this requirement by meeting the conditions in 7
U.S.C. 2136 and 9 CFR parts 1-4 for the duration of the activity.
(ii) Have the recipient’s proposed animal use approved in accordance with DoDI
3216.01, Use of Animals in DoD Programs by a DoD Component Headquarters Oversight
Office.
(iii) Furnish evidence of such registration and approval to the grants officer.
(b) The recipient must make the animals on which the research is being conducted, and all
premises, facilities, vehicles, equipment, and records that support animal care and use available
during business hours and at other times mutually agreeable to the recipient, the United States
Department of Agriculture Office of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(USDA/APHIS) representative, personnel representing the DoD component oversight offices, as
well as the grants officer, to ascertain that the recipient is compliant with 7 U.S.C. 2131 et seq., 9
CFR parts 1-4, and DoDI 3216.01.
(c) The recipient’s care and use of animals must conform with the pertinent laws of the United
States, regulations of the Department of Agriculture, and regulations, policies, and procedures of
the DoD (see 7 U.S.C. 2131 et seq., 9 CFR parts 1-4, and DoDI 3216.01).
(d) The recipient must acquire animals in accordance with DoDI 3216.01.
(2) Contracts: The appropriate clauses shall be added to the award.
iii. BIOLOGICAL SAFETY PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS:
(1) Assistance Instruments and Contracts: Awards may be subject to biological safety
40

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program requirements IAW:
(a) Army Regulation (AR) 385-10, Chapter 20
https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ARN16777_ARN16343_AR385_10_
FINAL.pdf
(b) Department of Army (DA) Pamphlet (PAM) 385-69 on safety standards for microbiological
and biomedical laboratories. This pamphlet requires the mandatory use of the latest edition of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) and National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical
Laboratories (BMBL) https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/p385_69.pdf
(c) DoD Manual 6055.18-M, Enclosure 4, Section 13 https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=24365
iv. MILITARY RECRUITING:
(1) Assistance Instruments: This is to notify potential applicants that each grant or cooperative
agreement awarded under this announcement to an institution of higher education must include
the following term and condition:
(a) As a condition for receiving funds available to the DoD under this award, you agree that you
are not an institution of higher education (as defined in 32 CFR part 216) that has a policy or
practice that either prohibits, or in effect prevents:
(i) The Secretary of a Military Department from maintaining, establishing, or operating a
unit of the Senior Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC)—-in accordance with 10
U.S.C. 654 and other applicable Federal laws—-at that institution (or any sub-element of
that institution);
(ii) Any student at that institution (or any sub-element of that institution) from enrolling
in a unit of the Senior ROTC at another institution of higher education.
(iii) The Secretary of a Military Department or Secretary of Homeland Security from
gaining access to campuses, or access to students (who are 17 years of age or older) on
campuses, for purposes of military recruiting in a manner that is at least equal in quality
and scope to the access to campuses and to students that is provided to any other
employer; or
(iv) Access by military recruiters for purposes of military recruiting to the names of
students (who are 17 years of age or older and enrolled at that institution or any sub-
element of that institution); their addresses, telephone listings, dates and places of birth,
levels of education, academic majors, and degrees received; and the most recent
educational institutions in which they were enrolled.
(b) If you are determined, using the procedures in 32 CFR part 216, to be such an institution of
higher education during the period of performance of this award, we:
41

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(i) Will cease all payments to you of DoD funds under this award and all other DoD
grants and cooperative agreements; and
(ii) May suspend or terminate those awards unilaterally for material failure to comply
with the award terms and conditions.
v. SUBCONTRACTING:
(1) Assistance Instruments: N/A
(2) Contracts: Pursuant to Section 8(d) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. § 637(d)), it is the
policy of the Government to enable small business and small disadvantaged business (SDB)
concerns to be considered fairly as subcontractors. All other than U.S. small businesses
proposing contracts expected to exceed $750,000 and that have subcontracting possibilities are
required to submit a subcontracting plan IAW FAR 19.702(a), and shall do so with their
proposal.
Subcontracting plans are determined to be acceptable or unacceptable based on the criteria
established at FAR 19.705-4, DFARS 219.705-4, and AFARS 5119.705-4. Goals are
established on an individual contract basis and should result in realistic, challenging and
attainable goals that, to the greatest extent possible, maximize small business participation in
subcontracting for Small Business, SDB, Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB),
Economically-Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB), Service-Disabled
Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB), and
Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Small Business consistent with
applicants’ make-or-buy policy, the pool of and availability of qualified and capable small
business subcontractors, their performance on subcontracts, and existing relationships with
suppliers.
Subcontracting goals should result in efficient contract performance in terms of cost, schedule,
and performance and should not result in increased costs to the Government or undue
administrative burden to the prime contractor. More information on the Subcontracting program
and the DoD Subcontracting goals may be found at:
https://business.defense.gov/About/Goals-and-Performance/
vi. EXPORT CONTROL LAWS
(1) Assistance Instruments: N/A
(2) Contracts: Applicants should be aware of current export control laws and are responsible for
ensuring compliance with all export control laws, including International Traffic in Arms
Regulation (ITAR) (22 CFR 120 et. Seq.) and the Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR
730) requirements, as applicable. In some cases, developmental items funded by the Department
of Defense are now included on the United States Munition List (USML) and are therefore
subject to ITAR jurisdiction. The USML is available online at http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-
idx?node=pt22.1.121. Additional information regarding the President's Export Control Reform
Initiative can be found at http://export.gov/ecr/index.asp.
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vii. DRUG-FREE WORKPLACE:
(1) Assistance Instruments: The recipient must comply with drug-free workplace requirements
in 32 CFR Part 26, which is the DoD implementation of 41 U.S.C. 701, “Drug-free workplace
requirements for Federal contractors.”
(2) Contracts: The appropriate clause(s) shall be added to the award.
viii. DEBARMENT AND SUSPENSION:
(1) Assistance Instruments: The recipient must comply with requirements regarding debarment
and suspension in Subpart C of 2 CFR part 180, as adopted by DoD at 2 CFR part 1125. This
includes requirements concerning the recipient’s principals under an award, as well as
requirements concerning the recipient’s procurement transactions and subawards that are
implemented in DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions.
(2) Contracts: The appropriate clause(s) shall be added to the award.
ix. REPORTING SUBAWARDS AND EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION:
(1) Assistance Instruments: The recipient must report information about subawards and
executive compensation as specified in the award term in Appendix A to 2 CFR Part 170,
“Reporting subaward and executive compensation information,” modified as follows:
(a) To accommodate any future designation of a different Government wide Web site for
reporting subaward information, the Web site “http://www.fsrs.gov” cited in paragraphs a.2.i. and
a.3 of the award provision is replaced by the phrase “http://www.fsrs.gov or successor OMB-
designated Web site for reporting subaward information”;
(b) To accommodate any future designation of a different Government wide Web site for
reporting executive compensation information, the Web site “http://www.sam.gov” cited in
paragraph b.2.i. of the award provision is replaced by the phrase “https://www.sam.gov or
successor OMB-designated Web site for reporting information on total compensation”; and
(2) Contracts: The appropriate clause(s) shall be added to the award.
x. CONFLICT OF INTEREST/CONFLICT OF COMMITMENT REVIEW:
This announcement requires all current and pending research support, as defined by Section 223
of the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act, must be disclosed at the time of proposal
submission, for all covered individuals. Such disclosure will be updated annually during the
performance of any research project selected for funding, and whenever covered individuals are
added or identified as performing under the funded project. Covered Individuals are those who
are listed as key personnel on proposals, including but not restricted to, the principal investigator
or co-principal investigator.
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Any decision to accept a proposal for funding under this announcement will include full reliance
on the applicant's statements. Failure to report fully and completely all sources of project support
and outside positions and affiliations may be considered a materials statement within the meaning
of the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. 3729, and constitute a violation of Federal law.
ARL may conduct a pre-award conflict of interest/conflict of commitment review, as defined in
the National Security Presidential Memorandum- 33, of any proposal selected for funding.
Applicants are advised that any significant conflict of interest/conflict of commitment identified
may be a basis for the rejection of an otherwise awardable proposal.
3. Reporting
a. Additional reports including number and types will be specified in the award document but
will include as a minimum monthly financial status reports. The reports shall be prepared and
submitted in accordance with the procedures contained in the award document and mutually
agreed upon before award. Reports and briefing material will also be required as appropriate to
document progress in accomplishing program metrics. A final report that summarizes the
project and tasks will be required at the conclusion of the performance period for the award.
b. Service Contract Reporting (SCR). For Contracts Only. See FAR 52.204-14, SAM Users
Guide and DoD Guidebook for Service Contract Reporting in the System for Award
Management at https://dodprocurementtoolbox.com/cms/sites/default/files/resources/2020-
10/SCR%20Guidebook%2021%20October%202020.pdf.
c. If the total Federal share exceeds $500,000 on any Federal award under a notice of funding
opportunity, the post-award reporting requirements reflected in Appendix XII to 2 CFR 200 will
be included in the award document. This requirement also applies to modifications of awards
that: 1) increase the scope of the award, 2) are issued on or after January 1, 2016, and 3) increase
the federal share of the award’s total value to an amount that exceeds $500,000.
(End of Section)
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G. Agency Contacts
1. Questions of a technical or programmatic nature shall be directed to the TPOC for each
research topic. The TPOC information may be found in the description of each research topic at
the ARL BAA topics website, https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
2. Questions of a business or administrative nature are to be submitted through the ARL
Contact us webpage: https://www.arl.army.mil/contact-us/ . Proprietary information should not
be included in these contacts.
3. Comments or questions submitted should be concise and to the point, eliminating any
unnecessary verbiage. In addition, the relevant part and paragraph of the announcement should
be referenced.
4. Requests to withdraw a proposal shall be directed to
usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.baa@army.mil
(End of Section)
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A. Other Information
Below are two separate outlines of the informational requirements for a sample cost proposal.
Section H.1 is for a procurement contract and Section H.2 is for grants and cooperative
agreements.
1. CONTRACT Proposals
Cost Proposal – {No Page Limit}
Cover sheet to include:
1 BAA number
2 Technical area
3 Lead organization submitting proposal
4 Type of business, selected among the following categories: “LARGE BUSINESS”,
“SDB”, “OTHER SMALL BUSINESS”, “HBCU”, “MI”, “OTHER EDUCATIONAL”,
OR “OTHER NONPROFIT”
5 Contractor’s reference number (if any)
6 Other team members (if applicable) and type of business for each
7 Proposal title
8 TPOC to include: salutation, last name, first name, street address, city, state, zip code,
telephone, fax (if available), electronic mail (if available)
9 Administrative point of contact to include: salutation, last name, first name, street address,
city, state, zip code, telephone, fax (if available), and electronic mail (if available)
10 Award instrument requested: cost-plus-fixed-fee (CPFF), cost contract (no fee), cost
sharing contract (no fee), or other type of procurement contract (specify)
11 Place(s) and period(s) of performance
12 Total proposed cost separated by basic award and option(s) (if any)
13 Name, address, and telephone number of the proposer’s cognizant Defense Contract
Management Agency (DCMA) administration office (if known)
14 Name, address, and telephone number of the proposer’s cognizant Defense Contract Audit
Agency (DCAA) audit office (if known)
15 Date proposal was prepared
16 Unique Entity Identifier number
17 TIN number
18 CAGE code
19 Subcontractor information
20 Proposal validity period
21 Any Forward Pricing Rate Agreement, other such approved rate information, or such
other documentation that may assist in expediting negotiations (if available)
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Special Notice - Call for Literature Review on Information architectures in sensor networks for decision making coalition operations

8 FEB 24 OFFICIAL FINAL Version
Document Type: Special Notice
Posted Date: 8 February 2024
Category: Research and Development
Set Aside: N/A
Contracting Office Address
Department of the Army, Army Contracting Command, ACC - APG (W911NF) Research Triangle Park
Division, 800 Park Office Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Description
This modification references the ARL BAA, which can be found at Grants.gov or
https://beta.sam.gov/ : W911NF-23-S-0001.
Synopsis: The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM), Army Research
Laboratory (ARL) is looking for proposed research and development solutions under the ARL Broad
Agency Announcement (BAA) W911NF-23-S-0001 for Basic and Applied Scientific Research topic
Network Sciences, “Autonomous Sensing and Information Fusion for Advanced Indications and
Warnings” (ARL-BAA-0064)1. The Topic for this Special Notice is “Call for literature review on
information architectures in sensor networks for decision making in coalition operations”, and
funding for the award is expected to be provided by both the U.S. Army and the U.K. Ministry of
Defence (MOD), hereafter “Governments”. Upon receipt, the Governments will review compliant
proposals through a technical and programmatic review process in accordance with the evaluation
criteria referenced in the ARL BAA to determine which proposal may be awarded a Grant under this
topic.
The Governments reserve the right to cancel this special notice without award for any reason or for
no reason. Issuance of this notice does not commit the Governments to pay for any preparation
costs incurred in compiling a response. As a general matter, all requirements referenced in BAA
W911NF-23-S-0001 apply to this effort.
The Governments intend to award one grant to support a literature review on information
architectures in sensor networks for decision making in coalition operations outlined in the project
description below. Proposals should include an overview of the focus, themes, and scope of the
planned literature review, and highlight the team members and the specific strengths that each
brings to the effort. Proposal should include no more than five pages of technical content (in
addition to required attachments)
This research aligns with the main objectives and complements the research in the U.S. /U.K. Project
Arrangement concerning Distributed Analytics and Information Sciences – International Technology
Alliance2, and the U.S. DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory’s “Internet of Battlefield Things”
Collaborative Research Alliance3. The outcome will contribute to the Architectural Approaches
research in Dstl’s Sensor Fusion and Management project.
Background: The structure of where and when in a network to fuse information, including a
specification of how information is shared and combined between different nodes, can be called the
1 https://sam.gov/opp/427c652546d34f30972650dda01b4a93/view
2 https://arl.devcom.army.mil/cras/completed-alliances/
3 https://www.arl.army.mil/business/collaborative-alliances/current-cras/iobt-cra/
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8 FEB 24 OFFICIAL FINAL Version
information architecture. Traditionally, information fusion in sensor networks has occurred by
processing all information in a central node. This is commonly called centralized fusion. However, in
the military context, sensing assets are subject to adversarial action, and centralized architectures
may lack robustness and resilience. Alternative ways of processing data and information within a
network potentially have some attractive features of survivability, adaptability, security and
scalability, while posing some technological and algorithmic challenges.
The various non-centralized information architectures tend to fall within classes denoted as
decentralized or distributed fusion. Typically, decentralized fusion architectures share and process
data in a manner that every node has the centralized estimate, whereas distributed fusion considers
a hierarchical flow of information leading to partial fusion that progressively incorporates more
information up to the root node that contains the full fusion solution. The development of such
architectures for low level fusion such as detection, tracking and classification is far more mature
than for high level fusion tasks requiring situation and threat assessment. Furthermore, with the
prevalence of coalition operations consisting of partners with overlapping but not completely
aligned objectives as well as heterogeneous capabilities, the management of data flow within the
network is a great challenge. Due care must be paid to mission parameters and constraints which
may vary across a coalition, relating to, for example, privacy and security concerns.
Scope of the Call: This Special Notice invites proposals for a funded literature review on the topic of
“Information architectures in sensor networks for decision making in coalition operations”, as part of
the ARL BAA, for up to $100k total in U.S. Army and U.K. MOD funding and up to 9 months in
duration.
This call invites a review and analysis of the literature that will clarify the significant alternative
information architectures, relevant to information fusion with networks of heterogeneous sensors
that enable coalitions to achieve effective decision-making. From 2016-2021, Dstl- and DEVCOM-
ARL-sponsored Distributed Analytics and Information Sciences International Technology Alliance
(DAIS ITA) program made headway in the problem of distributed analytics and information science
for support of coalition operations. The review should survey advances from this program along
with recent findings in the literature from other research efforts. As a matter of clarifying existing
challenges, it should define a clear taxonomy of information architectures that deliver the necessary
information for disparate coalition decision makers. It should refer to fusion at different ‘levels’4, or
at different stages of information processing, which might be imposed by mission constraints, or
may be preferable for reasons of efficiency or exigency. It may also encourage the community to
adopt alternative precise definitions. Additionally, the review will set out with respect to alternative
information architectures what is known and what are the significant research challenges on the
topics of:
• survivability and adaptability of a network to passive and active5 adversarial activity,
including robustness and resilience to failure of nodes and communication links;
• scalability, with respect to network size, numbers of targets, and numbers of coalition
partners;
• quantification of uncertainty;
• attainment of convergence and consensus across nodes as possible in light of
security/privacy sharing constraints;
4 See for example the JDL Data Fusion Model: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA391479.pdf
5 Passive adversarial activity might include hiding or changing one’s appearance to mislead a classifier. Active
adversarial activity could mean seeking to damage or interfere with node’s sensing or communication
capability, e.g. by jamming or dazzling,
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8 FEB 24 OFFICIAL FINAL Version
• autonomous sensor management over heterogeneous nodes over multiple network
domains;
• autonomous scheduling of computation;
• the appropriate level of processing at which, or after which, to undertake data or
information fusion within the architecture;
• other issues as seen fit.
It can be assumed that the purpose of the network is to obtain either a global picture or overlapping
local pictures of an environment for the various coalition partners. Objectives may include:
prediction of enemy intentions; assessment of vulnerabilities; targeting; battle damage assessment;
warning and alerting. Distinctions may be made for how information architectures affect or
facilitate different classes of algorithms.
Approach: The aspiration is for the review to be a definitive paper, clarifying what is known, and
setting out research challenges for a 5 – 10 year time-frame. It is expected that this report would be
published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Application Process
Eligibility: Funding for the award will be provided by the Army Futures Command Forward Element –
Atlantic (AFC-ATL), Army Research Lab, and the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MOD) Defence Science and
Technology Laboratory (Dstl). Due to the international funding organizations, applicants are
encouraged to be led by a U.K. host University or eligible Research Institute. However, for this call
we will follow the eligibility requirements of the U.S. DEVCOM ARL BAA6. Should you require clarity
regarding the eligibility of a particular institute, please send a request to one of the contacts detailed
in Section 8.
Number of Awards: 1
Duration of Award: Award will be for up to 9 months.
Funding: Total funding not to exceed $100k (USD). There is no fixed amount awarded and the value
of award will vary depending on proposal and associated budget. Proposals are expected to be
submitted at a cost commensurate with the level of effort. Awards cover allowable research
expenses in accordance with US Title 2 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 200 (2 CFR 200).
Evaluators: Will be U.S. Army and U.K. MOD Government employees that are subject-matter experts
in the topic area, jointly nominated by the Governments. Award will be made by the US Army
Contracting Command.
Closing Date: The deadline for applications for award is 15 March 2024. Proposals received after
11:59 PM GMT on15 March will not be evaluated or considered for award. It is the responsibility of
the submitting party to confirm receipt of submissions.
How to Apply: Proposals for funding must be submitted by 15 March 2024 by sending all application
materials to US.Army.Grants@army.mil. The BAA lists several other options for submitting
proposals; however, proposals not submitted via this email address will not be considered. Queries
relating to the technical, managerial, contractual, and submission aspects of the call should be
addressed to those individuals identified in section 8.
6 https://arl.devcom.army.mil/collaborate-with-us/opportunity/arl-baa/
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8 FEB 24 OFFICIAL FINAL Version
Proposals should contain the following elements, and not exceed 5 pages:
• Detailed descriptions of the various emerging research areas that will be reviewed and how
they address the Call
• Team structure and team roles
• Cost breakdown (to include institutional cost-share)
• CVs of each member of the team (outside 5-page limit)
Evaluation Criteria
Proposals will be evaluated under the evaluation criteria of the U.S. Army BAA. The proposal will be
evaluated for the literature review plan’s scientific merit and potential contributions of the effort to
the Army mission and the interests of the U.K. MOD. Required documentation is outlined in the BAA
document. To facilitate rapid processing of the award, templates and instruction documents are
included in Appendix A.
Additional conditions
Conditions for award, including intangible property and publication requirements will be included as
terms in the award and in compliance with the Department of Defense R&D Terms and Conditions7.
In addition to the conditions in the BAA, the authorities for this joint proposal can be found within
the US/UK Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Cooperative Participation in Research and
Development Projects8.
For projects funded by this Award, the investigators are encouraged to publish the results of the
research in accordance with the normal academic practice but are required to allow the
Governments to view material prior to submission to ensure there is no inadvertent release of
sensitive material. There is a requirement for a mid-point progress report from the Award, covering
the work and successes of the project, together with the final report/publication.
Key Dates
Activity Date
Deadline for Proposals 15 March 2024
Anticipated Award start date 30 June 2024
Contacts
Below is a list of contact information for additional information related to the call for proposals.
Please copy Wilveria Sanders on any correspondence with other parties.
• Submission questions:
Jonathon Brame, U.S. Army (Jonathon.a.brame.civ@army.mil, 01895 626528)
o
• Technical Questions:
Lance Kaplan, U.S. Army (lance.m.kaplan.civ@army.mil, +1 (301) 394-4282)
o
Alasdair Hunter, Dstl, Architectural Approaches Lead, Sensor Fusion and
o
Management project. (ahunter@dstl.gov.uk, 01980 952938)
• Contracting Questions:
Wilveria Sanders, Army Contracting (wilveria.a.sanders.civ@army.mil, +1 (919) 549-
o
4328)
7 https://www.nre.navy.mil/work-with-us/manage-your-award/manage-grant-award/grants-terms-conditions
SEPTEMBER 2023 R&D General Terms and Conditions, Property- Article VI – Intangible Property
8 https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/l/treaty/tias/2000/126269.htm
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8 FEB 24 OFFICIAL FINAL Version
Appendix A
Additional documentation as part of a complete proposal will include the following items (with
templates for each provided as attachments):
1. Table of Contents
2. Publicly Releasable Project Abstract
3. Army Research Office Proposal Cover Page (ARO Form 51)
4. Protection of Proprietary Information During Evaluation and After Award (For
Educational Institutions / Non-Profit Organizations) (ARO Form 52a)
5. Project Description (proposal document – not to exceed 5 pages)
6. Biographical Sketch (for all PIs on the project)
7. Bibliography
8. Current and Pending Support (for all PIs on the project)
9. Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources
10. Summary Proposal Budget (ARO Form 99)
11. Contract Facilities Capital Cost of Money (DD Form 1861)
12. SF Form 424 (R&R)
13. Research and Related Senior/Key Person Profile (for all PIs on the project)
14. Research and Related Other Project Information
15. Representations Under DoD Assistance Agreements: Appropriations Provisions on Tax
Delinquency and Felony Convictions
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HBCU_MI ECP Special Notice

Document Type: Request for Full Proposal – Special Notice
Contracting Office Address:
Department of the Army, Army Contracting Command, ACC – APG Research Triangle Park
Division, 800 Park Office Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Reference:
Broad Agency Announcement W911NF-23-S-0001-0002, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities
Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory Broad Agency Announcement for
Foundational Research
PROGRAM TITLE: U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM)
Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority-
Serving Institutions (MI) Early Career Program (ECP). Under the DEVCOM ARL HBCU/MI
ECP Program, funding will be provided for HBCUs/MIs to participate in fundamental research
opportunities within the HBCU/MI community with DEVCOM ARL’s Army Research Office
(ARO) extramural research programs.
ELIGIBILITY: This opportunity is only open to HBCU/MIs as provided in 10 U.S.C. § 4144,
eligibility for this competition is open only to “covered educational institutions,” which are defined
as:
a. institutions of higher education eligible for assistance under Title III or V of the Higher
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.); or
b. accredited post-secondary minority institutions.
Enrollments, accreditation, and other factors may affect an institution’s eligibility in any given
year. With the exception of HBCUs and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) for which
eligibility can be readily validated with the U.S. Department of Education (DoEd), in order to meet
the eligibility criterion noted above, an institution must apply to the DoEd each year for Title III or
Title V eligibility. A copy of the DoEd letter dated November 2022 or later certifying eligibility for
Title III or Title V assistance should be included with each proposal submitted under this program.
The eligibility letter will not be included in the page limit. If the DoEd eligibility letter is not
submitted, DEVCOM ARL will utilize the current DoEd eligibility lists (Fiscal Year 2023) to
validate the eligibility of a proposing institution If DEVCOM ARL cannot verify the eligibility of a
submitting institution, the proposal will be considered ineligible and will not be reviewed or
considered for funding.
SYNOPSIS:
The DEVCOM Army Research Lab seeks unclassified research proposals from Historically Black
Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) under Broad Agency
Announcement (FOA) W911NF-23-S-0001-0002 (hereafter referred to as the DEVCOM ARL
BAA”) to establish an Army HBCU/MI Early Career Program (ECP) which embodies the high
priority placed by the government on maintaining the leadership position of the United States in
science by producing outstanding scientists and engineers and nurturing their continued
1

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development. Each award will support basic research contributing to Army modernization needs
conducted by outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their careers at HBCU/MI institutions.
ECP awards are funded by the Army to support early career scientists and engineers who show
exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. This targeted opportunity is open to
U.S. citizens, U.S. Nationals, or Lawful Permanent Residents of the U.S. who have held a tenure-
track position at a covered educational institution for fewer than five years at the time applications
are due in response to this special notice. Faculty at an institution of higher education which does
not designate a faculty appointment as "tenure track" are eligible if that fact is so indicated in the
proposal, and the supporting letter from the institute states that the faculty member submitting the
proposal will be considered for a permanent appointment, or it is demonstrated that the faculty
member is within five years of receiving his or her first competitively awarded federal research
funding (as principal investigator), excluding funds secured during graduate school or postdoctoral
training/fellowship and funds secured for training, fellowship, education, or career development.
The objective of the ECP Award is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering;
enhance development of outstanding early career investigators; and increase opportunities for early
career investigators to pursue research in areas relevant to the Army. Proposals that do not meet
these criteria for the Principal Investigator (PI) will be considered ineligible and not reviewed or
considered for funding.
DEVCOM ARL executes intramural and extramural research organized by eleven competencies
that provide the Army with foundational expertise and specialized capabilities grounded in
scientific excellence and driven by unique Army challenges. Our disruptive scientific research
coupled with collaborations and prioritized funding to the worldwide scientific community, both
academic and commercial, create and exploit scientific knowledge in the competencies that are
leveraged to develop new opportunities, build programs, align people and funding, and advise on
future operational concepts. DEVCOM ARL also seeks to dynamically and continually reshape
these competencies by creating and directing new scientific discoveries to redefine the frontiers of
the possible. The eleven DEVCOM ARL competencies are:
 Biological and Biotechnology Sciences
 Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences
 Energy Sciences
 Humans in Complex Systems
 Mechanical Sciences
 Military Information Sciences
 Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences
 Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences
 Sciences of Extreme Materials
 Terminal Effects
 Weapons Sciences
Interested parties must view current topics in the DEVCOM ARL BAA by going to the following
webs site: https://www.arl.army.mil/collaborate-with-us/. After clinking on “Browse Current
Topics,” filter results by selecting “Army Research Office” in the “Filters” window on the left, and
then click “Apply Filters.” This provides a full list of research programs applicable to this funding
opportunity. Results can be further refined by selecting specific “Disciplines” and/or “Sciences” in
the ”Filters” window on the left. Discussions with the cognizant Technical Point of Contact
2

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(TPOC) associated with the research topic of interest is strongly recommended before submission
of a research proposal, consistent with guidance in the DEVCOM ARL BAA.
Scientific knowledge and technologies produced in DEVCOM ARL HBCI/MI ECP will enable the
Army to address a broad range of technical challenges. Some of the research will be applicable to
master’s and Ph.D. level work that breaks new ground in the associated areas of research in the
DEVCOM ARL BAA.
FUNDING:
DEVCOM ARL plans to award up to eight (8) new HBCU/MI ECP grants at a total cost of
$990,000 each over a duration of 5 years, with funding profile of $110,000 in year one, $165,000
in year two, $220,000 in year three, $330,000 in year four, and $165,000 in year five. Note this is
more funding and longer duration than the typical ECP award specified in the DEVCOM ARL
BAA.
Faculty and/or post-doctoral associates as well as graduate research assistants at the applicant and
partner institutions may participate in the project and assist the PI as co-PI or in another capacity.
HBCUs/MIs applying under this Special Funding Announcement may propose collaboration with
up to one degree-granting Institution of Higher Education (IHE). Collaborations with entities other
than degree-granting IHEs are not permitted. Any proposed collaboration with an IHEs should be
explained in the narrative as well as the budget justification. A collaborator may not account for
more than 30% of the total budget.
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION:
An HBCU/MI institution may submit no more than three (3) proposals under this Special Notice. If
a given HBCU/MI submits more than three proposals, the institution will be required to coordinate
with DEVCOM ARL to withdraw all proposals that exceed this limit. This requirement does not
prohibit a covered institution from submitting a proposal for consideration under Broad Agency
Announcement W911NF-23-S-0001-0002 outside this particular opportunity.
Proposals must be submitted in accordance with instructions provided in the referenced BAA and
must be received no later than 4:00 PM (ET), January 12, 2024. An award announcement is
expected by March 2024. The recipient of an award will be contacted by a Contracting
Officer/Grant Specialist of the Army Contracting Command or by a representative of DEVCOM
ARL.
NOTE: The proposal is submitted by the institution where the individual is employed. The
proposal must include a supporting letter, both through official channels in the institution
3

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where the individual is employed. The proposal must follow the format set forth in Section
II.D.2 (Application and Submission Information) of this BAA. The supporting letter must be from
the individual's Department Chairperson, Dean, Supervisor, or other official who speaks
for the institution, and should address support for, and commitment to, the applicant. Strong
institution support for the applicant is essential. Evidence of this support can include the applicant's
salary, release time from administrative responsibilities, the purchase of equipment, support for the
applicant's graduate students, any cost sharing, any start-up funding, etc. The proposal must
support the institution’s views that the individual is an outstanding investigator, and the institution
is making a long-term commitment to the proposal and the research. Any resulting award will be
made to the institution, not to the investigator.
Proposals must be compliant with instructions provided in the associated BAA, with the exception
that whitepaper submission is not required in advance of full proposal submission. When preparing
a proposal under this special notice, applicants should enter “DEVCOM ARL HBCU/MI ECP” in
Field 4.b., Agency Routing Identifier, of the SF-424 (R&R) Application for Federal Assistance
form.
Questions regarding the intent, scope, and administration of this Request for Proposal: Special
Notice must be submitted to usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.hbcu-mi-programs@army.mil. The
deadline to submit questions is 4:00 PM (ET), December 15, 2023. Questions regarding
scientific programs should be directed to the program manager associated with the research area
of interest listed in the DEVCOM ARL BAA.
ARMY RESEARCH RISK ASSESSMENT:
Each proposal recommended for funding in accordance with II.E.2.c in the DEVCOM ARL BAA,
whose costs have been determined to be reasonable and realistic in accordance with II.E.2.d in the
DEVCOM ARL BAA, and for which funds are available, will be subject to an Army Research
Risk Assessment (ARRA) prior to award. The ARRA process is described fully in the DEVCOM
ARL BAA. More information on the Army Futures Command (AFC) Army Research Risk
Protection Program (ARRP) can be found on the following web site:
https://www.arl.army.mil/collaborate-with-us/opportunity/arrp/.
4

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Attachment 01 FAQ Army Risk Protection Program

Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Incorporating Change 1, (changes are in italicized text)
1. Q: What is Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP)?
A: The Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP) is an effort to help identify and mitigate existing or
potential risk of Conflicts of Commitment/Conflicts of Interest Conflicts of Commitment/Conflicts of Interest
(CoC/CoI) in Army research grants and cooperative agreements. ARRP information for proposers is included in
the Army’s Research Laboratory Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) instructions.
2. Q: What policies required the establishment of Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP )?
(What is driving this program)?
A: Congressional Law. National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2019 directed the Department of
Defense (DoD) to establish an initiative to work with academic institutions who perform defense research and
engineering activities to: (1) support protection of intellectual property, controlled information, key
personnel, and information about critical technologies relevant to national security; and (2) to limit undue
influence, including through foreign talent programs, by countries to exploit United States technology within
the Department of Defense research, science and technology, and innovation enterprise. Congress
subsequently amended NDAA 2019 in NDAA 2020 Section 1281, and NDAA 2021 Section 1299C.
Congress also enacted NDAA 2021, Section 1062, Limitation of Provision of Funds to Institutions of Higher
Education Hosting Confucius Institutes; and Section 223, Disclosure of Funding Sources in Applications for
Federal Research and Development Awards.
Executive Direction. The Presidential Memorandum on United States Government-Supported Research and
Development National Security Policy was issued on Jan 14, 2021, under National Security Presidential
Memorandum-33 (NSPM-33) and it directed action to strengthen protections of United States-supported
Research and Development (R&D) against foreign government interference and exploitation. NSPM-33
directs R&D participants to disclose conflicts of interest and commitment, and for organizations to have
established and administer policies and processes to identify and manage risks to research security and
integrity.
DoD Policy. On 20 July 2020, OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RESEARCH
AND ENGINEERING (OUSD(R&E)) issued DoD Instruction 5000.83, Technology and Program Protection
to Maintain Technological Advantage. This instruction establishes DoD policy, assigns responsibilities, and
provides procedures for Science and Technology (S&T) managers and engineers to manage system security
and cybersecurity technical risks from foreign intelligence collection of DoD-sponsored research and
technology that is in the interest of national security. As a means to counter the threat from strategic
competitor nations, the DoD will employ risk-based measures to protect systems and technologies from
adversarial exploitation and compromise of U.S. military vulnerabilities and weaknesses. The OUSD R&E
issued a policy memorandum on 20 Mar 2019, Subject: Actions for the Protection of Intellectual Property,
Controlled Information, Key Personnel, and Critical Technologies. This memorandum directed DoD Grants
managers to request proposer information using OPM standard forms for “Senior/Key Person Profile
(Expanded)”.
3. Q: Why is this program important now? What problem is it trying to solve?
A: NSPM-33 Implementation Guidance states that “Everyone involved in the research enterprise, including
the U.S. Government, research organizations, and researchers, has a role in both protecting research security
and maintaining the core values that drive American leadership in science, technology and innovation:
openness, transparency, honesty, equity, fair competition, objectivity, and democratic values.” This policy
provides clarity and direction on the role of the researcher and research organizations seeking Army research
funding.
DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release.

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Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
4. Q: How are Risk factors assessed? Is there a risk matrix/rubric?
A: The Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP) has a risk matrix or rubric that identifies four types
of risk factors: participation by the institution or key personnel conducting the research in foreign talent
programs; denied entity list affiliation or association; ongoing Conflicts of Commitment or Conflicts of Interest
(CoC or CoI) or funding from a strategic competitor; affiliation, association, or collaboration with a foreign
institution, person, or entity from a U.S. strategic competitor. See the Army website for a copy of the Army risk
matrix, or rubric.
5. Q: Is the Army’s risk matrix/rubric being applied to all potential performers, or just academic ones?
A: Risk assessments are completed where identified in the solicitation for Army-sponsored grants and
cooperative agreements. The Army’s risk matrix/rubric is applied to all Senior/Key Personnel identified.
6. Q: What is defined as Senior/Key Personnel or a Principal Investigator (PI)?
A: Senior/Key Personnel are those who (a) contributes in a substantive, meaningful way to the scientific
development or execution of a research and development project proposed to be carried out with a research and
development award from a Federal research agency; and (b) is designated as a covered individual by the Federal
research agency concerned
7. Q: How does the program define “foreign influence from a strategic competitor?”
A: The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) provides a comprehensive description of the issue
and its effects. NSTC stated that governments of some countries “seek to exploit the global research enterprise
to circumvent the costs and risks of conducting their own research, thereby increasing their economic and
military competitiveness at the expense of the United States and its allies and partners” … and that “some
individuals and foreign governments have exhibited increasingly sophisticated efforts to exploit, influence,
and undermine U.S. research activities and environments.” Some foreign governments have undue influence
through both licit and illicit means.
8. Q: Where is Conflict of Interest (COI) or Conflict of Commitment (COC) defined?
A: The definitions of COI and COC are defined in NSPM-33. It is also included in the Army’s Research
Laboratory Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) solicitations.
9. Q: Did DoD notify academia of the intent to implement new procedures to mitigate undue foreign
influence?
A: On October 10, 2019 USD(R&E) issued a memo to academia.
10. Q: ARRP involves fundamental research grants and cooperative agreements. Why is fundamental
research included? National Security Decision Directive 189 and subsequent Under Secretary of
Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment OUSD(A&S) guidance states fundamental research results
are supposed to be unrestricted.
A: Although, the intent of fundamental research is open and unrestricted to the extent practicable, foreign
talent programs and other efforts by strategic competitors pose the risk of damaging the open research
environment and negatively impact national security. The Army’s ARRP program works to identify potential
risks that could jeopardize the security and integrity of its funded research and research portfolio.
11. Q: Is Co-authorship with foreign entities/institutions used as part of the assessment?
A: Yes, co-authorship is an indicator of collaboration between researchers and research institutions to exchange
something of value. Co-authorship with a strategic competitor would be considered under Factor 4: Foreign
Institutions of the Army risk matrix/rubric.
12. Q: Is a co-published paper deemed more concerning than serving on a conference panel, for example?
A: Co-authorship and serving on a conference panel are both time-honored aspects of our fundamental
research ecosystem. Either or neither could be an indicator of potential foreign influence depending on the
nature of the co-authorship or the conference panel along with consideration of other factors.
DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release.

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Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
13. Q: Does a Principal Investigator (PI) need to disclose collaborations as Current & Pending
support?
A: Yes. The White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) Implementation Guidance has helped
describe what is required to be disclosed. It states, Current and Pending support includes “All R&D projects
currently under consideration from whatever source, and all ongoing projects, irrespective of whether support
is provided through the proposing organization, another organization, or directly to the individual, and
regardless of whether the support is direct monetary contribution or in-kind contribution (e.g.,
office/laboratory space, equipment, supplies, or employees).”
14. Q: What happens if the Principal Investigators (PI) or co-PIs have changed?
A: If PIs or Co-PIs change at any time, during performance of an award, the recipient must update its
Senior/Key Research Personnel by submitting updated forms identifying key personnel including
biographical sketch and resume/CV, plus the signed Privacy Act Statement for each key person
added/changed.
15. Q: What is a Privacy Act Statement and where can be found?
A: It is a required statement that needs to be signed by each Senior/Key Research Personnel identified in the
proposal. By signing this document, the Senior/Key Research Personnel are acknowledging that the
information collected may be used in processing, investigating, and maintaining records relevant to Federal
Assistance awarded by the Department of the Army. Records in these systems will be used to ensure Army
sponsored and/or awarded federal grants, assistance, contracts, and/or benefits are awarded to responsible
parties, entities, and individuals.
16. Q: What are the minimum required documents (Standard Form (SF) 424, Application For Federal
Assistance) for key personnel identified in the research?
A: Requirements are provided in the Army BAA website.
17. Q: Where can the Standard Form (SF) 424, Application For Federal Assistance forms be found and
instructions?
A: SF-424 Family | GRANTS.GOV
18. Q: Are consulting arrangements for senior/key persons required for disclosure as part of Army’s
proposal submissions under the individual's Current and Pending support?
A: We have adopted the OSTP Guidance for Implementing NSPM-33 clarification regarding consulting. Paid
consulting that falls outside of the individual’s appointment; separate from the institution’s agreement” would
be reported under Current and Pending Support. Consulting that is permitted by an individual's appointment
and consistent with the proposing organization's "Outside Activities" policies and procedures may be
excluded from reporting. In addition, research organizations should ensure that researchers do not
inappropriately characterize research activities or involvement in foreign government-sponsored talent
recruitment programs as consulting. Authorship or co-authorship on a scientific or technical published paper
or posted pre-print would be one manifestation of an activity that involves research.
19. Q: Will the Army adopt the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Guidance for
Implementing National Security Presidential Memorandum–33 (NSPM-33) guidance regarding
“Exclusions from disclosure requirements within the Research & Development award application
process”.
A: Yes. However, Compensation or consideration that are provided with terms and conditions and in
support of R&D activities are not considered gifts and must be disclosed by researchers as current and
pending support. Gifts are resources provided with no expectation of anything in return (e.g., time,
services, specific research activities, money), and do not require disclosure except when required by
Section 117 of the U.S. Department of State Higher Education Act.
DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release.

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Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
20. Q: Will the Army allow research institutions, and their researchers, to submit corrections to
inaccurate or incomplete Senior/Key Personnel in the Standard Form (SF) 424, Application For
Federal Assistance?
A: Yes. The research institution should contact the Army Grants Officer as soon as the need for a correction
has been identified.
21. Q: If the institution discovers personnel who were paid 100% on an Army project were also
receiving financial support from a foreign entity - how do we report this?
A: It would be reported to the Army Program Manager (PM) and Grants Officer as an update to their
Research Submittal Current & Pending support attachment.
22. Q: Does the Army expect universities to review faculty’s personal contracts with foreign entities.
A: The Army would expect universities to review those type of events In Accordance With (IAW) their
institutions own policies.
23. Q: How will Senior/Key Personnel disclosures be assessed if their past activities were legal and
endorsed when undertaken versus today’s climate (i.e., with regards to foreign talent programs) or
direction (i.e., later inclusion on denied entity lists or subsequent issuances).
A: The Army team takes that into consideration when they review Senior/Key Personnel disclosures. A
situation like this could be a key discussion point in the consideration of a selectable proposal.
24. Q: Can a proposal be awarded even if there is a Senior/Key Person Conflicts of Commitment/Conflicts
of Interest (CoC/CoI) risk assessment rated as HIGH?
A: Yes. In some cases, the sponsoring institution may have the opportunity to address or mitigate the
potential risk identified. The process for providing a mitigation plan is included within the Army
announcements that allow for grant and cooperative agreement awards (e.g., Broad Agency Announcements,
Research Announcements). The Army has several courses of action with regards to this process. They may
accept the risk without mitigation, accept the residual risk with mitigations from the institution (even if it
remains High), or not accept the risk and, thus, not make an award.
25. Q: Will a proposer/institution be given the opportunity to come up with a mitigation plan?
A: Yes. The proposer can accept a mitigation plan offered by the Army or offer an alternate mitigation plan.
In some cases, the Army may offer a baseline mitigation plan and request the offeror to provide enhanced
mitigations tailored to their situation for the Army to consider. If an alternate mitigation plan is provided the
risk acceptance authority will evaluate and determine a path forward.
26. Q: Will a proposer be told the reason for a proposal deemed to be Moderate or High?
A: The proposer will be told the factor type based and rating level on the published Army risk matrix/rubric.
27. Q: On award, How are risk mitigation plans conveyed to a performing institution?
A: Risk mitigation will be captured in Other Terms and Conditions of the assistance award. The academic
institution is responsible for complying with Terms and Conditions of the award.
28. Q: Does the Army expect to see a specific management plan for a project that is deemed to be high
risk for potential Conflicts of Commitment/Conflicts of Interest (CoC/CoI)? Or, is it sufficient that
the research institution has a program in place to address it?
A: Risk mitigation should be tailored to the particular drivers of risk and the project. The Army would expect
to be informed of the details of the research institution’s management plan that the institution’s authorized
officials believe would help mitigate the risk or support a favorable risk acceptance decision.
29. Q: Can a Principal Investigator (PI) apply for more proposals if others were determined as “High”
Risk?
A: Yes, each proposal is evaluated independently.
DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release.

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Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
30. Q: Will the Army’s Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP) assessments affect the award
funding of proposals?
A: Award decisions will be affected by ARRP assessments. Additionally, through the process of applying
mitigations, the Army understands that changes to the proposal may affect content and cost of the final
proposal considered for award.
31. Q: Is the Army’s Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP) program only focused on the People’s
Republic of China’s government foreign influence?
A: No. While the PRC does constitute a large portion of known undue foreign influence cases in the U.S.,
there are numerous threats from all U.S. strategic competitors or other countries with a history of targeting
U.S. research and technology for unauthorized transfer and unduly influencing our research ecosystem.
32. Q: Will all proposals from foreign institutions or working with foreign Principal Investigators (PI)
result in either a moderate or High-risk assessment?
A: No. The US Army highly values the participation and contributions of foreign partners in our research
program. Collaboration with foreign partners is essential to the strategic advantage the US Army and our
partners gain from our fundamental research investments. The Army’s risk matrix/rubric and derived
assessments refer to strategic competitors and countries with a history of targeting U.S. research or
technology.
33. Q: Where can we find a list of strategic competitors or countries with a history of targeting U.S.
research and technology?
A: The Army leverages several unclassified and publicly available issuances such as the 2019 National
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the 2020 NDAA, the Director of National Intelligence report “Annual
Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community,” and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security
Agency report “Targeting U.S. Technologies. A Report of Foreign Targeting of Cleared Industry.” These
documents provide good foundational information to help our performer base understand the threat, where
that threat is originating from, and even some of the tactics, techniques, and procedures that could be used to
gain access to our technology.
34. Q: Will you provide the results of your assessments to other DoD, intelligence, or law
enforcement agencies?
A: Yes. The Army will provide results of our assessments, in accordance with the requirement contained in
National Security Presidential Memorandum–33 (NSPM-33) which states: “To strengthen the effectiveness
of response measures, heads of agencies shall share information about violators (e.g., those who violate
disclosure or other policies promulgated pursuant to this memorandum, participate in foreign government-
sponsored talent recruitment programs contrary to policies issued pursuant to section 4(c)(ii), or whose
activities clearly demonstrate an intent to threaten research security and integrity) across Federal funding
institutions and with Federal law enforcement agencies, the DHS, and State, to the extent that such sharing is
consistent with privacy laws and other legal restrictions, and does not interfere with law enforcement or
intelligence activities. Where appropriate and consistent with due process, privacy considerations, and all
other applicable law, heads of agencies should consider providing notice to other Federal funding institutions
in cases where significant concerns have arisen, but a final determination has not yet been made.”
35. Q: What are some best practices that academia can implement regarding education and mitigation of
“undue foreign influence?”
A: The following federal government issuances are resources for best practices and considerations:
• White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, “Recommended Practices For
Strengthening The Security And Integrity Of America's Science And Technology Research”,
January 2021”
• White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, White House: Enhancing The Security And
Integrity Of America's Research Enterprise: October 2020
• American Council on Education (ACE) Memorandum to ACE member Presidents and
Chancellors, May 10, 2018
• The Association of American Universities (AAU) and The Association of Public & Land Grant
DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release.

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Army Research Risk Assessment Program (ARRP) – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Universities (APLU), “University Actions to Address Concerns about Security Threats and Undue
Foreign Government Influence on Campus”, Updated May 2020
• Council on Government Relations (COGR) “Framework For Review of Individual Global
Engagements in Academic Research, Version 1.0, January 14, 2020
• Council on Government Relations (COGR) “Federal Focus on Inappropriate Foreign Influence on
Research: Practical Considerations in Developing an Institutional Response”, August 18, 2021
36. Q: What if I have other questions?
A: Please contact Usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.arrp-contact@army.mil
DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release.

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W911NF23S0001 Amendment 01

DEVCOM ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY
BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR
FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
W911NF-23-S-0001-0001
21 November 2022 – 20 November 2027
ISSUED BY:
U.S. Army Contracting Command
Aberdeen Proving Ground
Research Triangle Park Division
P. O. Box 12211
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211

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Special Notes
1. Formatting of the Announcement
The following table provides an overview of the outline structure of this announcement:
I.
A.
1.
a.
i.
(1)
(a)
(i)
2. See Appendix 1 for a Table of Acronyms used in this announcement.
3. See Appendix 2 for a Schedule of Amendments. Applicants are encouraged to frequently
check grants.gov, sam.gov, and the ARL website (www.arl.army.mil/) for updates and
amendments to this BAA. Special Notices issued against this BAA will be posted to sam.gov.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY 1
A. Required Overview Content 3
1. Agency Name 3
2. Research Opportunity Title 3
3. Announcement Type 3
4. Research Opportunity Number 3
5. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number 3
and Title
6. Response Dates 3
B. Additional Overview Information 3
II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING 5
OPPORTUNITY
A. Program Description 5
1. Foundational Research Topics of Interest 5
2. Army Research Directorate Targeted Opportunities 6
3. Army Research Office Targeted Opportunities 7
a. Single Investigator Award 7
b. Short-Term Innovative Research Award 7
c. Early Career Program 8
d. Research Instrumentation Program 9
e. Conference and Symposia Grants 10
B. Federal Award Information 12
C. Eligibility Information 15
1. Eligible Applicants 15
2. Cost Sharing or Matching 15
3. Other 15
D. Application and Submission Information 16
1. Address to View Broad Agency Announcement 16
2. Content and Form of Application Submission 16
3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award 30
Management (SAM)
4. Submission Dates and Times 31
5. Intergovernmental Review 32
6. Funding Restrictions 32
7. Other Submission Requirements 32
E. Proposal Review Information 33
1. Evaluation Criteria 33
2. Review and Selection Process 34
3. Recipient Qualification 41
F. Award Administration Information 44
1. Award Notices 44
2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements 44

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a. Required Representations and Certifications 44
b. Policy Requirements 48
3. Reporting 54
G. Agency Contacts 55
H. Other Information 56
1. Contract Proposals 56
2. Grant and Cooperative Agreement Proposals 63
APPENDIX 1: TABLE OF ACRONYMS 68
APPENDIX 2: SCHEDULE OF AMENDMENTS 71

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I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
The purpose of this combined Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) under Federal Acquisition
Regulation (FAR) Part 35 and Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) under 2 Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR) 200.204 (henceforth referred to as “BAA”) is to solicit research
proposals for submission to the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command
(DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) for funding consideration.
Prior to this announcement, ARL announced two separate BAAs to support the mission: 1)
W911NF-17-S-0002 titled “Army Research Laboratory Army Research Office Broad Agency
Announcement for Fundamental Research”; and 2) W911NF-17-S-0003 titled “Army Research
Laboratory Broad Agency Announcement for Basic and Applied Scientific Research”. This
announcement succeeds BAA W911NF-17-S-0002 and BAA W911NF-17-S-0003 combining the
opportunities into a single announcement.
ARL’s mission as the Army’s foundational research laboratory is to Operationalize Science to
ensure overmatch in any future conflict. ARL’s foundational research mission spans basic
research (budget activity 6.1) and applied research (budget activity 6.2) as defined by 32 CFR
22.105 but may include advanced technology development (budget activity 6.3) and advanced
component development and prototypes (budget activity 6.4) when opportunities arise to directly
or indirectly help achieve ARL’s mission. ARL partners across the national security enterprise to
deliver fundamentally advantageous change that is rooted in the creation and exploitation of
scientific knowledge.
Whitepapers for initial concept reviews and full proposals are sought from institutions of higher
education, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, foreign organizations, foreign
public entities, and for-profit organizations (i.e. large and small businesses) for scientific research
that supports the ARL mission and the published ARL research topics of interest. Whitepapers
and full proposals are expected to be for cutting-edge innovative research that could produce
discoveries having a significant impact on enabling new and improved Army operational
capabilities and related technologies.
In an effort to provide ARL's research topics and related information in an easy to digest format
with search and filter options, ARL has published the following public website listing all current
ARL research topics: https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, hereafter referenced as the
ARL BAA topics website. Changes to these topics will be made using this website on an as
needed basis. A change to the ARL BAA topics website is not an amendment to this BAA and
will not be posted on https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/. A change to this document,
the BAA itself, is an amendment and will be posted on https://www.grants.gov/ and
https://sam.gov/. ARL will maintain a daily static snapshot of the ARL BAA topics website to
ensure submissions are aligned with listed research topics on the day of submission.
Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse the ARL BAA topics website for white
paper and proposal topics that ARL desires to explore. These specific research topics should be
viewed as suggestive, rather than limiting. ARL is always interested in considering other
innovative research concepts of relevance to the Army if those concepts align with ARL's mission.
Please see Section II, Detailed Information about the Funding Opportunity, for more information
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on the ARL research topics advertised through this BAA. Interested parties should also review
https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/ to obtain the latest version of the BAA for
whitepaper and proposal submission requirements.
To conserve valuable applicant and Government resources, and to facilitate determining whether a
proposed research idea meets the guidelines described herein, prospective applicants
contemplating submission of a whitepaper or proposal are strongly encouraged to contact an ARL
Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) to first discuss the concept. The TPOCs’ names and contact
information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics website.
After initial contact with an ARL TPOC, if an applicant elects to submit a whitepaper or proposal,
it should be prepared in accordance with the instructions contained in this BAA. Upon receipt, a
whitepaper will be reviewed by the ARL TPOC and a recommendation will be provided to the
applicant with either “encouraged to submit a proposal” or “not encouraged to submit a proposal”
based on the review and availability of funding. A whitepaper is not required to submit a proposal.
Proposals may be submitted at any time while this BAA is open.
The proposal submission guidelines differ for each legal instrument; therefore, applicants are
advised to follow the specific applicable guidelines listed in this BAA for the type of instrument
they are proposing. This BAA provides submission guidelines for proposals for FAR-based
procurement contracts, as well as assistance instruments and other transactions. Upon review of a
proposal, the government will advise applicants on the most appropriate instrument for the
proposed work.
In accordance with federal statutes, regulations, and Department of Defense and Army policies, no
person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from
participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or
activity receiving financial assistance from the Army.
Applicants submitting proposals are cautioned that only a Contracting Officer, Grants Officer, or
Agreements Officer can obligate the Government to any legal instrument involving federally
appropriated funds.
All administrative inquiries regarding this BAA shall be submitted via the ARL Contact Us
webpage: https://www.arl.army.mil/contact-us. Scientific and technical questions should be
referred to the TPOCs listed with each topic on the ARL BAA topics website:
https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/. Interested parties are encouraged to periodically
check any of the following websites for updates and amendments to this BAA:
https://www.grants.gov/, https://sam.gov/, or the ARL website BAA page at
https://www.arl.army.mil/collaborate-with-us/opportunity/arl-baa/.
DR. PATRICK BAKER
Director
Army Research Laboratory
(End of Section)
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A. Required Overview Content
1. Agency Name
U.S. Army Research Office
Issuing Acquisition Office
U.S. Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground, Research Triangle Park (ACC-
APG-RTP) Division
2. Research Opportunity Title
ARL Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Foundational Research for 21 November 2022 – 20
November 2027
3. Announcement Type
Announcement
4. Research Opportunity Number
W911NF-23-S-0001
5. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number and Title
12.431 – Basic Scientific Research
6. Response Dates
This BAA is a continuously open announcement valid throughout the period from the date of
issuance through 20 November 2027, unless announced otherwise. This announcement succeeds
BAA W911NF-17-S-0002 and W911NF-17-S-0003 (including all modifications) dated 1 April
2017.
(End of Section)
B. Additional Overview Information
This publication constitutes a BAA for awards as contemplated in FAR 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016
as well as a merit-based, competitive procedure in accordance with the Department of Defense
Grant and Agreement Regulations (DoDGARS) at 32 CFR 22.315(a) and the Office of the
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version
1.0 dated November, 2018.
This BAA document, and the online list of research topics found on the ARL BAA topics
website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, sets forth ARL’s research topics of
interest for whitepapers and proposals. This BAA is issued under FAR 6.102(d)(2), which
provides for the competitive selection of basic and applied research proposals, and 10 U.S.C.
4001, 10 U.S.C. 4021, and 10 U.S.C. 4022, which provide the authorities for issuing awards
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under this announcement for basic and applied research. The definitions of basic and applied
research may be found at 32 CFR 22.105.
Proposals submitted in response to this BAA and selected for award are considered to be the
result of full and open competition and in full compliance with the provision of Public Law 98-
369, “The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984” and subsequent amendments.
Use of a BAA to solicit for research and development is encouraged when:
1. The Government desires new and creative solutions to problem statements.
2. Using a conventional statement of work could result in unintentionally stifling ideas and
concepts given many possible approaches.
3. Fulfilling requirements for scientific study and experimentation directed toward advancing
the state-of-the-art or increasing knowledge or understanding rather than focusing on a
specific system or hardware solution.
4. The Government must be able to state its objectives in terms of areas of need or interest
rather than specific solutions or outcomes.
5. Meaningful proposals with varying technical/scientific approaches are reasonably
anticipated.
ARL reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals submitted in
response to this announcement. ARL will provide no funding for direct reimbursement of
whitepaper or proposal development costs and such costs are not considered an allowable direct
charge to any award resulting from this BAA or any other award. However, these costs may be
an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect costs specified in FAR 31.205-18
for FAR-based awards.
Whitepapers and technical and cost proposals (or any other material) submitted in response to this
BAA will not be returned to the applicant. It is the policy of the Government to treat all proposals
as sensitive, competitive information and to mark and disclose their contents only for the purposes
of evaluation.
An applicant may withdraw a proposal at any time before award by written notice or by email
sent to the Government TPOC identified for the topic in which the proposal was submitted.
(End of Section)
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II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
A. Program Description
1. Foundational Research Topics of Interest
ARL’s mission is to serve as the Army’s principal foundational research agency. ARL is
interested in all research proposals that can be shown to enable the future Army to deploy,
fight, and win decisively against any adversary, anytime, and anywhere, in a joint, multi-
domain, high-intensity conflict, while simultaneously deterring others and maintaining its
ability to conduct irregular warfare.
ARL comprises both the Army Research Directorate (ARD) and the Army Research Office
(ARO) whose programs execute research awards under this BAA. The ARD and ARO
missions are further defined below to help clarify the different opportunities and topic types
that may be found on ARL’s website.
ARL, through its ARD programs focuses on exploiting the most promising disruptive science
and technology through in-house research with eligible entities. ARD competitively selects
and funds innovative research concepts that can advance in-house research. ARD primarily
funds basic research proposals (budget activity 6.1) and applied research proposals (budget
activity 6.2) but may also select and fund advanced technology development (budget activity
6.3) and advanced component development and prototypes (budget activity 6.4) to exploit
ARL’s foundational research outcomes and directly or indirectly help achieve ARL’s mission.
The results of these research efforts are transitioned to the Army research and development
community, industry, or academia to further the technological superiority of our Soldiers,
Army, and nation. ARD-funded research represents a long-range Army view with system
applications often 10-20 years away. ARD does not invest in incremental modernization
improvements, but does invest in high-risk, high-payoff ideas in basic and applied science that
can advance the in-house research mission. Historically, most of the ARD awards are executed
as cooperative agreements but can include grants, procurement contracts, research other
transactions (OTs) and prototype OTs. For a description of ARD targeted opportunities, see
section 2 below.
ARL, through its ARO extramural research program, funds cutting-edge foundational research
that could result in innovations having a significant impact on enabling new and improved
Army operational capabilities and related technologies. ARO selects and funds eligible entities
conducting scientific studies and experimentation toward advancing the state of the art or
increasing basic knowledge and understanding across the sciences. ARO competitively selects
and funds basic research proposals across a broad range of scientific disciplines related to long-
term national security needs. ARO primarily funds basic research proposals (budget activity
6.1) but may also select and fund applied research proposals (budget activity 6.2). The results
of these research efforts are transitioned to the Army research and development community,
industry, or academia to further the technological superiority of our Soldiers, Army, and nation.
ARO-funded research represents the most long-range Army view, with system applications
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often 20–30 years away. The goal of ARO funding research proposals through this BAA is to
pursue high-risk, high-payoff ideas in basic science. In this manner, ARO provides the Army
with a dynamic method for rapidly investing or divesting in research to ensure the realization
of foundational discoveries that will enable future Army capabilities. ARO has allocated
funding each year to carry out the Army’s Extramural Research Program to fund foundational
research proposals. Most of the ARO awards are executed primarily through grants and
cooperative agreements, but also can include procurement contracts and other funding
instruments. ARO also provides targeted opportunities, which are described in section 3 below.
In an effort to provide ARL’s research topics and related information in an easy to digest
format with search and filter options, ARL has published the following public website listing
all current ARL research topics: https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, the ARL
BAA topics website. Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse this website to
see the topics ARL is interested in.
To support ARL’s mission, an additional research topic for “Support to ARL Foundation
Research Competencies” can be found on the ARL BAA topics website. Under this research
topic, ARL will consider whitepapers and proposals that may not directly align to a topic
published by an ARL TPOC, but can demonstrate a strong alignment to ARL’s mission.
ARL’s research mission is executed within identified foundational research competencies that
provide the Army foundational expertise and specialized capabilities grounded in scientific
excellence and driven by unique Army challenges. ARL is always interested in innovative
research whitepapers and proposals outside of the published topics on the ARL BAA topic
website that demonstrate a strong alignment to ARL’s foundational research competencies and
potential to create discovery, innovation, and transition of technologies for Army
transformational overmatch. To learn more about ARL’s foundational research competencies
visit the ARL website at https://www.arl.army.mil/what-we-do#competencies/.
A proposal submitted under the “Support to ARL Foundation Research Competencies” topic
must clearly describe the research and objectives, and will be considered by ARL if it is
aligned to one or more of these foundational research competencies that support the ARL
mission. Applicants interested in submitting a proposal under this topic are strongly
encouraged to first make preliminary inquiries as to the potential alignment to an ARL
foundational research competency and funding availability for the type of research effort
contemplated to the listed TPOC on the ARL BAA topics website.
2. Army Research Directorate (ARD) Targeted Opportunities
ARD has no established targeted opportunities outside of the research topics considered for
funding proposals submitted under this BAA. Discussion with the cognizant ARD TPOC
identified for a given ARD research topic published on the ARL public website is strongly
recommended before submission of a whitepaper or proposal.
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3. Army Research Office (ARO) Targeted Opportunities
ARO has established several types of targeted opportunities to support ARO research topics,
based on applications submitted under this BAA. Information about the following
opportunities is included below:
• Single Investigator (SI) Award
• Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Award
• Early Career Program (ECP) Award
• Research Instrumentation (RI) Award
• Conference and Symposia Grant Award
Unless special eligibility requirements are listed, the eligibility criteria of Section II.C applies.
Also, see Section II.E.1 of this BAA for the evaluation criteria related to these opportunities.
NOTE: ARO is not limited to funding these targeted opportunities; however, they represent
most awards ARO is expected to make.
a. Single Investigator (SI) Award
i. Description. SI awards are the most common awards. The objective of the award is to attract
outstanding individuals to propose research projects related to the ARO research topics that
will result in scientific discoveries.
iii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC identified
for a given topic at the ARL BAA topics website is strongly recommended before submission
of a whitepaper or proposal. The proposal is submitted by the institution where the individual
is employed.
iv. Funding Level: ARO encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs for appropriate budget
levels depending on the scope of effort. ARO’s standard funding levels for SI awards would
support a budget for three years at a level commensurate with supporting a single investigator
and one or two graduate students or a post-doc for three years (to include facilities and
administrative [F&A] costs).
b. Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Award
i. Description. The objectives of the STIR awards are to support rapid, short-term
investigations to assess the merit of innovative new concepts in basic research. STIR awards
provide an excellent opportunity to showcase new concepts and explore new areas in basic
research. Historically, STIR awards have helped shape new directions in research for the
Army.
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ii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-
baa/. As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC
identified for a given topic is strongly recommended before submission of a whitepaper or
proposal for a STIR award.
iii. Funding Level. Proposals in the amount of $60,000 or less are sought for STIR
awards. Capital equipment cannot be purchased under a STIR Program award. Report
preparation costs must not exceed $100. A fee is not permitted under STIR Program awards as
they are awarded as grants. Due to the relatively small dollar amount and short-term nature of
these awards, applicants are encouraged to maximize the benefit derived from this funding by
prioritizing labor and employing other cost-saving measures in support of the STIR program
effort.
iv. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for STIR Awards.
Applicants should submit proposals with a Project Description (Technical Proposal) that is no
more than ten (10) pages long. No brochures or explanatory material should be submitted with
the proposal. Proposed research efforts must be "stand alone" and not predicated on the use of
any facilities other than those under the direct control of the applicant. Research must be
completed within nine (9) months of award.
c. Early Career Program (ECP) Award
i. Description. ECP awards are funded by the Army to support early career scientists and
engineers who show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. This
targeted opportunity is open to U.S. citizens, U.S. Nationals, or Lawful Permanent Residents of
the U.S. who have held a tenure-track position at a U.S. institution of higher education for
fewer than five years at the time of application. Faculty at an institution of higher education
which does not designate a faculty appointment as "tenure track" are eligible if that fact is so
indicated in the proposal, and the supporting letter from the institute states that the faculty
member submitting the proposal will be considered for a permanent appointment. The
objective of the ECP Award is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering;
enhance development of outstanding early career investigators; and increase opportunities for
early career investigators to pursue research in areas relevant to the Army.
ii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC identified
for a given topic is strongly recommended before submission of a whitepaper or proposal.
iii. Funding Level. ECP awards will not exceed $120,000 per year for 3 years.
iv. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for ECP Awards.
NOTE: The proposal is submitted by the institution where the individual is employed. The
proposal must include a supporting letter, both through official channels in the institution
8

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where the individual is employed. The proposal must follow the format set forth in Section
II.D.2 (Application and Submission Information) of this BAA. The supporting letter must be
from the individual's Department Chairperson, Dean, Supervisor, or other official who speaks
for the institution, and should address support for, and commitment to, the applicant. Strong
institution support for the applicant is essential. Evidence of this support can include the
applicant's salary, release time from administrative responsibilities, the purchase of equipment,
support for the applicant's graduate students, any cost sharing, any start-up funding, etc. The
proposal must support the institution’s views that the individual is an outstanding investigator,
and the institution is making a long-term commitment to the proposal and the research. Any
resulting award will be made to the institution, not to the investigator.
d. Research Instrumentation (RI) Award
i. Description. RI awards are designed to improve the capabilities of U.S. institutions of higher
education or a nonprofit whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research to conduct
research and educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense. Funds
provided in this award may be used to purchase instrumentation in support of this research or in
the development of new research capabilities.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. RI awards are open to U.S. institutions of higher
education and nonprofit organizations whose primary research is conducting scientific research
in accordance with 31 USC §6306.
iii. RI and Research Topics. The RI program may provide funding to purchase
instrumentation in support of ARO research topics listed on the ARL BAA topics website at
https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/ or in the development of new research
capabilities. It is highly recommended that potential applicants contact the appropriate ARO
TPOC identified for a topic that aligns to this instrumentation proposal. The ARO TPOCs’
names and contact information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics
website.
iv. Funding Level. ARO highly encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs of appropriate
budget levels prior to the submission of RI proposals.
v. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for RI Awards.
The request for instrumentation shall include the following elements:
(1) The “Project Abstract” is to describe the instrumentation requested and the research to be
supported by that instrumentation.
(2) The “Project Description (Technical Proposal)” is to describe how the proposed
instrumentation will: (i) establish new research capabilities, (ii) contribute to research currently
proposed to DoD, or (iii) enhance the quality of research currently being funded by ARL. It
will also include a description of how the proposed instrumentation will interface with or
upgrade other research facilities and instrumentation now available. Finally, a description will
be included of the amounts and sources of ongoing or proposed support for the research to be
9

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supported by the instrumentation.
(3) In the “Cost Proposal,” the budget is to address the instrumentation to be purchased, cost
per item, and total cost. Indicate the proposed source of the instrumentation and the name and
telephone number of a contact at that source. The budget should indicate the amount of funds
to be contributed by any other sources toward the purchase of the instrumentation. Note: Costs
associated with equipment/facility modifications are generally considered unallowable and
require the review and approval of the Grants Officer.
e. Conference and Symposia Grant Awards
i. Description. The Army supports conferences and symposia (as defined in the DoD
Travel Regulations) in areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research
or educational findings or to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new
research and educational techniques. The Army encourages the convening in the United
States of major international conferences, symposia, and assemblies of international
alliances.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. Notwithstanding the Army's authority to provide grant
support for such events DoD does not permit "co-sponsorship" (as defined in DoD 5500.07-R)
absent additional high-level staffing and approval. In other words, the conference grant support
identified in this BAA is not DoD sponsorship or co-sponsorship since ARL is neither an
organizer nor provider of any substantial logistical support for the conferences addressed in this
section. Funds provided cannot be used for payment to any federal government employee for
support, subsistence, or services in connection with the proposed conference or symposium.
iii. Connection with ARO Research Topics. The Army supports conferences and symposia in
areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research or educational findings or
to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new research and educational
techniques. It is highly recommended that potential applicants contact the appropriate TPOC
identified for a topic that aligns to the conference/symposia proposal. The ARO TPOCs’
names and contact information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics
website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
iv. Funding Level. ARO highly encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs of appropriate
budget levels prior to the submission of conference or symposia award applications.
v. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for Conference or Symposia Awards.
(1) Conference support proposals should be submitted a minimum of six (6) months prior to the
date of the conference. A proposal will not be funded if the conference date has already passed.
(2) The “Project Description (Technical Proposal)”, as discussed in for support of a conference
or symposium should include the following:
• A one page or less summary indicating the objectives of the project;
• The topics to be covered;
• The location and probable date(s) and why the conference is considered appropriate at the
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time specified;
• An explanation of how the conference will relate to the research interests of the Army and
how it will contribute to the enhancement and improvement of scientific, engineering,
and/or educational activities as outlined earlier in the research topic references in this
BAA and on the ARL website;
• The name of chairperson(s)/principal investigator (PI)(s) and his/her biographical
information;
• A list of proposed participants and the methods of announcement or invitation; and
(3) The “Cost Proposal” should include:
• Total project conference costs by major cost elements;
• Anticipated sources of conference income and amount from each source to document no
profit will accrue to the applicant;
• Anticipated use of funds requested; and
• A signed budget.
(End of Section)
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B. Federal Award Information
The ACC-APG RTP Division and ACC-APG Adelphi Contracting Division have the authority
to award a variety of instruments on behalf of ARL. Anticipated awards will be made in
the form of procurement contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, Technology
Investment Agreement (TIA), other transactions (OTs) for research, or OTs for
prototypes. The ACC-APG RTP Division and ACC-APG Adelphi Contracting Division will
select the type of instrument most appropriate for the effort proposed. Applicants should
familiarize themselves with these instrument types and the applicable regulations before
submitting a proposal. The Following are brief descriptions of the possible award
instruments:
1. Procurement Contract. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6303, which
reflects a relationship between the Federal Government and a state government, a local
government, or other entity/contractor when the principal purpose of the instrument is to
acquire property or services for the direct benefit or use of the Federal Government.
Contracts are primarily governed by the following regulations:
a. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
b. Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS)
c. Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (AFARS)
2. Grant. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6304, is used to enter into a
relationship:
a. The principal purpose of which is to transfer a thing of value to the recipient to carry
out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law or the United States,
rather than to acquire property or services for the Federal Government’s direct benefit
or use.
b. In which substantial involvement is not expected between the Federal Government and
the recipient when carrying out the activity contemplated by the grant.
c. No fee or profit is allowed.
3. Cooperative Agreement. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6305, is used to
enter into the same kind of relationship as a grant (see definition “grant”), except that
substantial involvement is expected between the Federal Government and the recipient
when carrying out the activity contemplated by the cooperative agreement. The term
does not include “cooperative research and development agreements” as defined in 15
U.S.C. 3710a. No fee or profit is allowed.
4. Technology Investment Agreement. An assistance instrument as described in 32 CFR
Part 37. A TIA may be a cooperative agreement or an Other Transaction for Research
under 10 U.S.C. 4021 both with provisions tailored for involving commercial firms or
research involving commercial application. To the maximum extent practicable, TIAs
shall provide for a 50/50 cost share between the Government and the applicant. No fee
or profit is allowed on TIAs.
5. Other Transaction for Research. A legal instrument, consistent with 10 U.S.C. 4021,
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which may be used for basic, applied, and advanced research projects. The research
covered under this instrument cannot be duplicative of research being conducted under an
existing DoD program. To the maximum extent practicable, OTs for research are to
provide for a 50/50 cost share between the Government and the applicant. An
applicant’s cost share may take the form of cash, independent research and development
(IR&D), foregone intellectual property rights, equipment, access to unique facilities,
and/or other means. Due to the extent of cost share, and the fact that an OT for research
does not qualify as a “funding agreement” as defined at 37 CFR 401.2(a), the intellectual
property provisions of this instrument can be negotiated to provide expanded protection
to an applicant’s intellectual property. No fee or profit is allowed on OTs for research.
Please refer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and
Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version 1.0 dated November 2018 for additional
information. This document, along with additional other transaction agreement (OTA)
resources, may be accessed at the following link:
https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/other-policy-areas.html
6. Other Transaction for Prototype or Production. A legal instrument, consistent with 10
U.S.C. 4022, which provides DoD the flexibility necessary to adopt and incorporate
business practices that reflect commercial industry standards and best practices into its
award instruments. OTs for prototypes or production are not FAR-based procurement
contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or OTs for Research. OTs for prototypes or
production have specific applications and conditions for use (see Appendix C of the
Other Transactions Guide linked below). The effort covered under an OT cannot be
duplicative of effort being conducted under an existing DoD program. Follow-on
production contracts and/or an OT may be awarded to a Prototype Other Transaction
Awardee, if applicable. Please refer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for
Acquisition and Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version 1.0 dated November 2018
for additional information. This document, along with other OTA resources, may be
accessed at the following link: https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/other-
policy-areas.html
7. Grants and cooperative agreements for institutions of higher education, nonprofit
organizations, foreign organizations, and foreign public entities are primarily governed
by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. 2 CFR Part 200
d. 2 CFR Part 1104
e. 32 CFR Parts 21, 22, 26, and 28
f. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
g. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
8. Grants and cooperative agreements for for-profit and nonprofit organizations exempted
from Subpart E—Cost Principles of 2 CFR Part 200, are primarily governed by the
following:
a. Federal statutes
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b. Federal regulations
c. 32 CFR Part 34 – Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with
For-Profit Organizations
d. 32 CFR Parts 21, 22, 26, and 28
e. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
f. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
9. OTs for Research are primarily governed by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. 32 CFR Part 37 – Technology Investment Agreements
d. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
e. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
f. Office of Secretary of Defense implementation guidance titled Other Transactions
(OT) Guide for Research Projects (November 2018, Version 1)
10. OTs for Prototypes or Production are primarily governed by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Office of Secretary of Defense implementation guidance titled Other Transactions
(OT) Guide for Prototype Projects (November 2018, Version 1)
11. The following websites may be accessed to obtain an electronic copy of the governing
regulations and terms and conditions:
a. FAR, DFARS, and AFARS: https://www.acquisition.gov
b. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): http://www.ecfr.gov
c. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions:
https://www.onr.navy.mil/en/work-with-us/manage-your-award/manage-grant-
award/grants-terms-conditions
d. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions:
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/#terms-and-conditions
(End of Section)
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C. Eligibility Information
1. Eligible Applicants
Unless noted in Section II.A.3 or as dictated by the award instrument type, eligible applicants
under this BAA include institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state and
local governments, foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and for-profit organizations
(i.e. large and small businesses). For ARO Targeted Opportunities, please see the specific
eligibility requirements in the II.A.3 ARO Targeted Opportunities section above. For specific
Other Transactions for Prototypes eligibility requirements, please see the “Other Transaction
for Prototype or Production” section within the II.B. Federal Award Information section.
2. Cost Sharing or Matching
Generally, there is no requirement for cost sharing, matching, or cost participation to be
eligible for award under this BAA. Cost sharing and matching is not an evaluation factor
used under this BAA. Exceptions may exist if the applicant is proposing the use of an OT for
research or prototype as an award instrument. Cost-sharing requirements may be found at 32
CFR Part 37 and in the DoD Other Transaction Guide for Prototype Projects
(https://www.dau.edu/pdfviewer/Source/Guidebooks/Other-Transactions-(OT)-Guide.pdf).
3. Other
Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) are subject to applicable
direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this solicitation in any capacity unless they
meet the following conditions. (1) FFRDCs must clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is
not otherwise available from the private sector. (2) FFRDCs must provide a letter, on official
letterhead from their sponsoring organization, that (a) cites the specific authority establishing
their eligibility to propose to Government solicitations and compete with industry, and (b)
certifies the FFRDC’s compliance with the associated FFRDC sponsor agreement’s terms and
conditions. These conditions are a requirement for FFRDCs proposing to be awardees or
subawardees.
University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) are eligible to submit proposals under this
BAA if their proposal contains a letter, on official letterhead, from their primary sponsor
concurring with the UARC’s proposal submission.
(End of Section)
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D. Application and Submission Information
1. Address to View Broad Agency Announcement
This BAA may be accessed via the following websites:
a. Grants.gov (www.grants.gov)
b. Contract Opportunities (sam.gov)
c. ARL website https://www.arl.army.mil/collaborate-with-us/opportunity/arl-baa/
Amendments to this BAA, if any, will be posted to these websites when they occur.
Supplemental information on topics, POCs, research areas, specific proposal rules and
requirements, and other relevant info may be disseminated through Special Notices posted
to the sam.gov Contract Opportunities website. Interested parties are encouraged to
periodically check these websites for updates and amendments.
Digital copies of submission forms can be downloaded from
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/. Paper copies of submission forms are
available upon request from the point of contact identified for a given topic.
The following information is for those wishing to respond to this BAA:
2. Content and Form of Application Submission
a. The Application Process Overview
Applicants are strongly encouraged to follow the below application process:
• Conduct a preliminary inquiry with an ARL TPOC
• Submit a Whitepaper to an ARL TPOC for review
• Submit a Full Proposal
All proposals for Assistance Instruments (Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Technology
Investment Agreements) must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov using the
Workspace system. Proposals for Procurement Contracts, OTs for Research that are not
Technology Investment Agreements, and OTs for Prototypes or Production may be submitted via
either Grants.gov or email to usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.baa@army.mil. See II.D Application
and Submission Information section of this BAA for information on the proposal submission
process.
b. Preliminary Inquiries*
Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to make a preliminary inquiry by first contacting
the ARL TPOC to discuss your ideas and the interests of ARL. ARL receives several hundred
research proposals annually and is able to provide support for only a limited number of the
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proposals received. ARL realizes the preparation of a research proposal often represents a
substantial investment of time and effort by the applicant. Therefore, in an attempt to minimize
this burden, ARL TPOCs are available to discuss the general need for the type of research
effort contemplated and availability of funding before an interested applicant expends
extensive effort in preparing a whitepaper or full proposal. The TPOC names, telephone
numbers, and email addresses are listed with each research Topic at the ARL BAA topics
website, https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, and they should be contacted, as
appropriate, prior to the submission of whitepapers or proposals.
*NOTE: The Government will not be obligated by any discussion that arises out of
preliminary inquiries.
c. Whitepaper Preparation and Submission
i. PURPOSE OF WHITEPAPERS:
Prospective proposers are strongly encouraged to submit whitepapers prior to the submission of
a complete, more detailed proposal. The purpose of whitepapers is to minimize the labor and
cost associated with the production of detailed proposals that have very little chance of being
selected for funding. Whitepapers are not full proposals and are meant to provide the ARL
TPOC with enough information to determine if there is interest on the part of ARL to receive a
full proposal.
ii. WHITEPAPER CONTENT:
Whitepapers do not have a prescribed format but are not expected to exceed five (5) total pages
and are encouraged to be submitted as a single portable document format (PDF) document. The
whitepaper should include at a minimum the title of the whitepaper, name of the individual and
organization submitting the whitepaper, the research topic name, topic identification (ID)
number, and the TPOC name against which the whitepaper is submitted. Whitepapers should
focus on describing objective and approach of the proposed research, including how it is
innovative, and how it could substantially increase the scientific state of the art. Whitepapers
should contain a brief cost estimate to understand a rough order of magnitude of the proposal
cost, and any biographical information to highlight applicant’s qualifications and experience.
Any proprietary data must be clearly marked. The applicant must also identify any
technical data or computer software contained in the whitepaper that is to be managed by
the Government with restrictions, limited rights in technical data and restricted rights in
computer software. In the absence of such identification, the Government will conclude
there are no limitations or restrictions on technical data or computer software included in
the whitepaper. Records or data bearing a restrictive legend may be included in the
whitepaper. It is the intent of the Army to treat all whitepapers as procurement sensitive
and to disclose their contents to Government employees or designated support contractors
only for the purpose of evaluation.
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iii. SUBMISSION OF WHITEPAPERS:
Whitepapers should be submitted via email to the TPOC identified in the topic proposed
against. Whitepapers submitted via email are encouraged to be submitted as a single PDF file
as an email attachment. If no TPOC is specifically listed, prospective applicants can submit
information and questions using the ARL’s website Contact Us page at
https://www.arl.army.mil/contact-us and selecting BAA Inquiry from the drop-down menu
for advice and assistance before preparing and submitting a whitepaper. In the contact form
subject line, include the phrase “BAA Whitepaper Submission,” and the research topic name
and topic ID number listed at the website.
iv. REVIEW OF WHITEPAPERS:
ARL TPOCs will receive and consider all whitepapers submitted and will provide a
response with either “encouraged to submit a proposal” or “not encouraged to submit a
proposal”.
d. Full Proposal Preparation and Submission
Proposals must be submitted in order for the applicant to be considered for funding.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit whitepapers (see instructions in II.D.2.c White
Paper Preparation and Submission section above) and received a recommendation from an
ARL TPOC to submit a proposal prior to submitting full proposals, however all proposals
submitted under the terms and conditions cited in this BAA will be reviewed regardless of the
recommendation received from the ARL TPOC, or lack of submission of a whitepaper.
i. COVER PAGE:
(1) A Cover Page is required. For contract proposals submitted by email, use ARO Form 51.
For all Assistance instruments and contract proposals submitted via Grants.gov, use the SF
424 (R&R) Form. Proposals will not be processed without either: (1) a signed Cover Page,
ARO Form 51, or (2) a SF 424 (R&R) Form.
(2) Should the project be carried out at a branch campus or other component of the
applicant, that branch campus or component should be identified in the space provided
(Block 11 on the ARO Form 51 and Block 12 on the SF 424 (R&R) Form).
(3) The title of the proposed project should be brief, scientifically representative, intelligible
to a scientifically-literate reader, and suitable for use in the public domain.
(4) The proposed duration for which support is requested should be consistent with the nature
and complexity of the proposed activity. For research topics listed at the ARL BAA topics
website, https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, applicants shall discuss the preferred
performance period with the TPOC.
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(5) Specification of a desired starting date for the project is important and helpful; however,
requested effective dates cannot be guaranteed.
(6) Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 7701, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996
[Section 31001(I)(1), Public Law 104-134] and implemented by 32 CFR 22.420(d), federal
agencies shall obtain each awardees’ Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). The TIN is being
obtained for purposes of collecting and reporting on any delinquent amounts that may arise out
of an awardees’ relationship with the Government.
(7) Applicants must provide their organization's Unique Entity Identifier (UIE) (formerly
Data Universal Number System (DUNS)). This number is a nine-digit number assigned
by D&B Information Services. See Section II.D.3 of this BAA for requirements pertaining
to the Unique Entity Identifier.
(8) Applicants must provide their assigned Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE)
Code. The CAGE Code is a 5-character code assigned and maintained by the Defense
Logistics Service Center (DLSC) to identify a commercial plant or establishment.
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ii. TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Use the following format for the Table of Contents. Forms are available at
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/
SECTION PAGE NUMBER
Table of Contents A-1
Statement of Disclosure Preference (Form 52 or 52A) B-1
Research and Related Other Project Information B-2
Project Abstract C-1
Project Description (Technical Proposal) D-1 - D-
Biographical Sketch E-1 - E-
Bibliography F-1 - F-
Current and Pending Support G-1 - G-
Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources H-1 - H-
Proposal Budget I-1 - I-
Contract Facilities Capital Cost of Money (DD Form 1861) J-1
Appendices K-
List Appendix Items:
This format applies to all proposals submitted via email and via Grants.gov. Applicants
should show the location of each section of the proposal, as well as major subdivisions of the
project description.
iii. STATEMENT OF DISCLOSURE PREFERENCE (FORM 52 OR 52A): Complete and
sign ARO Form 52 (Industrial Contractors) or ARO Form 52A (Educational and Nonprofit
Organizations).
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iv. RESEARCH AND RELATED OTHER PROJECT INFORMATION: Must be completed
and signed by all applicants.
v. PROJECT ABSTRACT:
(1) The project abstract shall be completed on the form entitled “Publicly Releasable Project
Abstract” found at the following website: https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/
(2) Unless otherwise instructed in this BAA, the project abstract shall include a concise
statement of work and basic approaches to be used in the proposed effort. The abstract should
include a statement of scientific objectives, methods to be employed, and the significance of the
proposed effort to the advancement of scientific knowledge.
(3) The abstract should be no longer than one (1) page (maximum 4,000 characters).
(4) The project abstract shall be marked by the applicant as publicly releasable. By
submission of the project abstract, the applicant confirms that the abstract is releasable to the
public. For a proposal that results in a grant award, the project abstract will be posted to a
searchable website available to the general public to meet the requirements of Section 8123
of the DoD Appropriations Act, 2015. The website address is
https://dodgrantawards.dtic.mil/grants.
vi. PROJECT DESCRIPTION (TECHNICAL PROPOSAL): The technical portion of
the proposal shall contain the following:
(1) A complete discussion stating the background and objectives of the proposed work, the
scientific approaches to be considered, the relationship to competing or related research, and
the level of effort to be employed. Include also the nature and extent of the anticipated results
and how they will significantly advance the scientific state-of-the-art. Also, if known, include
the manner in which the work will contribute to the accomplishment of the Army's mission.
Ensure the proposal identifies any scientific uncertainties and describes specific approaches for
the resolution or mitigation of the uncertainties.
(2) A brief description of your organization.
(3) The names of other federal, state, local agencies, or other parties receiving the proposal
and/or funding the proposed effort. If none, state so. Concurrent or later submission of the
proposal to other organizations will not prejudice its review by ARL if ARL is kept informed of
the situation.
(4) A statement regarding possible impact, if any, of the proposed effort on the environment,
considering as a minimum its effect upon water, atmosphere, natural resources, human
resources, and any other values.
(5) A statement regarding the use of Class I and Class II ozone- depleting substances. Ozone-
depleting substances are any substance designated as Class I by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), including but not limited to chlorofluorocarbons, halons, carbon tetrachloride,
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and methyl chloroform, and any substance designated as Class II by EPA, including but not
limited to hydrochlorofluorocarbons. See 40 CFR Part 82 for detailed information. If Class I
or II substances are to be utilized, a list shall be provided as part of the applicant's proposal. If
none, state so.
(6) The type of support, if any, requested by the applicant (e.g., facilities, equipment,
and materials).
vii. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
(1) This section shall contain the biographical sketches for key personnel only.
(a) Primary PI: The Primary PI provides a single or initial point of communication between
ARL and the awardee organization(s) about scientific matters. If not otherwise designated,
the first PI listed will serve as the Primary PI. This individual can be changed with
notification to ARL. ARL does not infer any additional scientific stature to this role among
collaborating investigators.
(b) Co-PIs: The individual(s) a research organization designates as having an appropriate
level of authority and responsibility for the proper conduct of the research and submission of
required reports to ARL. When an organization designates more than one PI, it identifies
them as individuals who share the authority and responsibility for leading and directing the
research, intellectually and logistically. ARL does not infer any distinction among multiple
PIs.
(2) The following information is required:
(a) Relevant experience and employment history including a description of any prior
Federal employment within one year preceding the date of proposal submission.
(b) List of up to five publications most closely related to the proposed project and up to
five other significant publications, including those being printed. Patents, copyrights, or
software systems developed may be substituted for publications.
(c) List of persons, other than those cited in the publications list, who have collaborated
on a project or a book, article, report or paper within the last four years. Include
pending publications and submissions. Otherwise, state "None."
(d) Names of each investigator's own graduate or post-graduate advisors and advisees.
NOTE: The information provided in (c) and (d) is used to help identify potential
conflicts or bias in the selection of reviewers.
(3) For the personnel categories of postdoctoral associates, other professionals, and students
(research assistants), the proposal may include information on exceptional qualifications of
these individuals that merit consideration in the evaluation of the proposal.
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(4) The biographical sketches are limited to three (3) pages per investigator and other
individuals that merit consideration.
viii. BIBLIOGRAPHY: A bibliography of pertinent literature is required. Citations must
be complete (including full name of author(s), title, and location in the literature).
ix. CURRENT AND PENDING SUPPORT:
This announcement requires all current and pending research support, as defined by Section 223
of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, must be disclosed at the time
of proposal submission, for all covered individuals. See Section F.2.b.x for additional
information on this requirement.
(1) All project support from whatever source must be listed. The list must include all projects
requiring a portion of the PI's and other key personnel's time, even if they receive no salary
support from the project(s).
(2) The information should include, as a minimum: (i) the project/proposal title and brief
description, (ii) the name and location of the organization or agency presently funding the work
or requested to fund such work, (iii) the award amount or annual dollar volume of the effort, (iv)
the period of performance, and (v) a breakdown of the time required of the PI and/or other key
personnel.
x. FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT, AND OTHER RESOURCES: The applicant should include
in the proposal a listing of facilities, equipment, and other resources already available to
perform the research proposed.
xi. PROPOSAL BUDGET (including DD Form 1861):
(1) Each proposal must contain a budget for each year of support requested and a cumulative
budget for the full term of requested support. Each budget year and the cumulative budget for
the full term must be documented on ARO Form 99. ARO Form 99 may be reproduced, but you
may not make substitutions in prescribed budget categories nor alter or rearrange the cost
categories as they appear on the form. The proposal may request funds under any of the
categories listed so long as the item is considered necessary to perform the proposed work and is
not precluded by applicable cost principles. In addition to the forms, the budget proposal should
include budget justification for each year.
(2) A signed summary budget page must be included. The documentation pages should be titled
"Budget Explanation Page" and numbered chronologically starting with the budget form. The
need for each item should be explained clearly.
(3) All cost data must be current and complete. Costs proposed must conform to the
following principles and procedures:
Institutions of Higher Education: 2 CFR Part 200
Nonprofit Organizations*: 2 CFR Part 200
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For-Profit/Commercial Organizations: FAR Part 31, DFARS Part 231, FAR Subsection
15.403-5, and DFARS Subsection 215.403-5.
*For those nonprofit organizations specifically exempt from the provisions of Subpart E of 2 CFR
Part 200 (see 2 CFR 200.401(c)), FAR Part 31 and DFARS Part 231 shall apply.
(4) Sample itemized budgets and the information they must include for a contract and for
grants and cooperative agreements can be found at Section II.H of this BAA (Other
Information). Before award of a cost-reimbursement type contract or assistance instrument it
must be established that an approved accounting system and financial management system
exist.
xii. APPENDICES: Some situations require that special information and supporting
documents be included in the proposal before funding can be approved. Such information and
documentation should be included by appendix to the proposal.
(1) To evaluate compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C.
A Section 1681 Et. Seq.), the Department of Defense is collecting certain demographic
and career information to be able to assess the success rates of women who are
proposed for key roles in applications in STEM disciplines. To enable this assessment,
each application must include the following forms completed as indicated.
(A) Research and Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) form:
The Degree Type and Degree Year fields on the Research and Related Senior/Key Person
Profile (Expanded) form will be used by DoD as the source for career information. In
addition to the required fields on the form, applicants must complete these two fields for all
individuals that are identified as having the project role of PD/PI or Co-PD/PI on the form.
Additional senior/key persons can be added by selecting the “Next Person” button.
(B) Research and Related Personal Data form:
This form will be used by DoD as the source of demographic information, such as gender,
race, ethnicity, and disability information for the Project Director/Principal Investigator and
all other persons identified as Co-Project Director(s)/Co-Principal Investigator(s). Each
application must include this form with the name fields of the Project Director/Principal
Investigator or any Co-Project Director(s)/Co-Principal Investigator(s) completed;
however, provision of the demographic information in the form is voluntary. If completing
the form for multiple individuals, each Co-Project Director/Co-Principal Investigator can
be added by selecting the “Next Person” button. The demographic information, if
provided, will be used for statistical purposed only and will not be made available to merit
reviewers. Applicants who do not wish to provide some or all of the information should
check or select the “Do not wish to provide” option.
(2) Data Management Plan: A data management plan is a document that describes which
data generated through the course of the proposed research will be shared and preserved,
how it will be done, or explains why data sharing or preservation is not possible or
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scientifically appropriate, or why the costs of sharing or preservation are incommensurate
with the value of doing so. See also: DoD Instruction 3200.12. In no more than 2 pages
set forth as a separate PDF document, discuss the following:
• The types of data, software, and other materials to be produced.
• How the data will be acquired.
• Time and location of data acquisition, if scientifically pertinent.
• How the data will be processed.
• The file formats and the naming conventions that will be used.
• A description of the quality assurance and quality control measures during
collection, analysis, and processing.
• A description of dataset origin when existing data resources are used.
• A description of the standards to be used for data and metadata format and
content.
• Appropriate timeframe for preservation.
• The plan may consider the balance between the relative value of data preservation
and other factors such as the associated cost and administrative burden. The plan
will provide a justification for such decisions.
• A statement that the data cannot be made available to the public when there are
national security or controlled unclassified information concerns (e.g., “This data
cannot be cleared for public release in accordance with the requirements in DoD
Directive 5230.09.”)
(3) With the application, the Applicant must provide the following “Privacy Act Statement”
consent form for each Covered Individual in the proposal. This form must also be signed
by the Applicant as that Individual’s Sponsor.
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Privacy Act Statement
Army Futures Command or Department of the Army
Application for Federal Assistance
Authority: Government Paperwork Elimination Act (Pub. L. 105-277, 44 U.S.C. 3504); Executive Order 12372,
Intergovernmental review of Federal Programs (47 FR 30959); 42 U.S. Code § 6605 – Disclosure of funding
sources in applications for Federal research and development awards; Public Law 117-167, CHIPS and Science
Act; Public Law 116-92, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020; 5 U.S.C. 9101, Access to
Criminal History for National Security and Other Purposes 5 CFR §1320.8, Agency collection of information
Responsibility; 18 U.S.C. § 1001, False Statements, Concealment; E.O. 13478, Amendments to Executive Order
9397 Related to Federal Use of social Security Numbers; NSPM-33, National Security Presidential Memorandum
33 on National Security for United States Research and Development; DoD-D 5240.01, DoD Intelligence
Activities; DoD-I 5200.02, Department of Defense Personnel Security Program; Army Regulation 381-10, U.S.
Army Intelligence Activities
Purpose: The information collected may be used in processing, investigating, and maintaining records relevant to
Federal Assistance awarded by the Department of the Army. Records in these systems will be used to ensure
Army sponsored and/or awarded federal grants, assistance, contracts, and/or benefits are awarded to responsible
parties, entities, and individuals.
Routine Uses: To contractors, grantees, experts, consultants, students, and others performing or working on a
contract, service, grant, cooperative agreement, or other assignment for the Federal Government when necessary
to accomplish an agency function.
To the appropriate Federal, State, local, territorial, tribal, foreign, or international law enforcement authority or
other appropriate entity where a record, either alone or in conjunction with other information, indicates a
violation or potential violation of law, whether criminal, civil, or regulatory in nature.
DoD Blanket Routine Use (http://dpcld.defense.gov/privacy)
Effect of not providing information: Providing information to the Department of the Army is voluntary.
However, 42 U.S. Code § 6605, which imposes certain disclosure requirements in connection with Federal
research and development awards, provides various enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance. One such
mechanism, which the Department of the Army intends to pursue here, is rejection of such applications.
Proposal Title (or grants.gov number): ____________________________
Acknowledgment of consent:
Covered individual (Signature): ______________________________ Date: ___________
Covered individual (Name print): ______________________________
Sponsor signature (Signature): ______________________________ Date: ___________
Sponsor signature (Name print): ______________________________
Institution Name: ________________
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e. General Information
i. Classified Submissions: Proposals containing classified information are not accepted under
this BAA. However, proposals may discuss the need to access or generate controlled
unclassified information (CUI) or classified information for the proposed work. Where an award
requires access to classified information, clause 52.204-2 will be included in the award, as well
as a DD254, if issued. When an award requires access to CUI, DFARS Clause 252.204-7012
will be included in the award, as well as additional ARL specific requirements as determined
necessary. For questions regarding the potential for access to classified information and/or
controlled unclassified information, please coordinate with the TPOC for that topic area prior to
whitepaper or proposal submission.
ii. Post-Employment Conflict of Interest: There are certain post-employment restrictions on
former federal employees, including special government employees (18 U.S.C. 207). If a
prospective applicant believes a conflict of interest may exist, the situation should be discussed
with the TPOC listed in the BAA for their topic of scientific research who will then coordinate
with appropriate ARL legal counsel prior to the applicant expending time and effort in preparing
a proposal.
iii. Statement of Disclosure Preference: In accordance with Section II.D.2.e.iii of this BAA,
Form 52 or 52A shall be completed stating your preference for release of information contained
in your proposal. Copies of these forms may be downloaded from the ARL web site at
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/.
NOTE: Submissions may be handled for administrative purposes by support contractors.
These support contractors are prohibited from submitting proposals under this BAA and are
bound by non-disclosure and/or conflict of interest requirements as deemed appropriate.
Applicants are cautioned, however, that portions of a submission may be subject to release
under terms of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, as amended.
iv. Equipment (see instrument-specific regulations provided in Section II.B of this BAA):
Normally, in accordance with 31 USC 6306, title to equipment or other tangible property
purchased with Government funds vests with nonprofit institutions of higher education or with
nonprofit organizations whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research if vesting will
facilitate scientific research performed for the Government. For-profit organizations are expected
to possess the necessary plant and equipment to conduct the proposed research. Deviations may
be made on a case-by-case basis to allow for-profit organizations to purchase equipment but
regulatory disposition instructions will be included in the award.
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f. Submission of Proposals
Requests for waiver of electronic submission requirements may be submitted via email to:
usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.baa@army.mil or regular mail:
Army Research Office
ATTN: FCDD-RLR (Proposal Processing)
P.O. Box 12211
RTP, NC 27709-2211
All required forms for proposals may be downloaded from the ARL website at
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/.
All proposals for Assistance Instruments (Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and OTs) must be
submitted electronically through Grants.gov using the Workspace system. Proposals for
Contracts and OTs may be submitted via either Grants.gov or email. Proposals must be
submitted through the applicant’s organizational office having responsibility for
Government business relations. All signatures must be that of an official authorized to
commit the organization in business and financial affairs.
Proposal content requirements remain the same for both email and Grants.gov submission.
i. EMAIL SUBMISSION:
(1) Proposals requesting a Contract or OTs may be emailed directly to usarmy.rtp.devcom-
arl.mbx.baa@army.mil, do not email full proposals to the TPOC. Proposals for assistance
agreements cannot be sent via email, see below for submission of Assistance agreement
proposals through Grants.gov.
(2) The applicant must include with its proposal submission the representations required by Section
II.F.2.a.i of this BAA. The representations must include applicant POC information and be signed
by an authorized representative. Note: If the applicant’s online SAM Representations and
Certifications include its response to the representations, a hard copy representation is not required
with proposal submission.
(3) All forms requiring signature must be completed, printed, signed, and scanned into a PDF
document. All documents must be combined into a single PDF formatted file to be attached
to the email.
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ii. GRANTS.GOV SUBMISSION:
(1) Proposals requesting Assistance agreements must be submitted via Grants.gov; proposals
requesting a Contract or OT may be submitted either via Grants.gov or email (instructions
above).
(2) Grants.gov Registration must be accomplished prior to application submission in Grants.gov.
Each organization that desires to submit applications via Grants.Gov must complete a one-time
registration. There are several one-time actions your organization must complete in order to
submit applications through Grants.gov (e.g., obtain a Unique Entity Identifier, register with the
SAM, register with the credential provider, register with Grants.gov and obtain approval for an
authorized organization representative (AOR) to submit applications on behalf of the
organization). To register please see http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/organization-
registration.html
Please note the registration process for an Organization or an Individual can take between
three to five business days or as long as four weeks if all steps are not completed in a timely
manner.
Questions relating to the registration process, system requirements, how an application form
works, or the submittal process should be directed to Grants.gov at 1-800-518-4726 or
support@grants.gov.
NOTE: All web links referenced in this section are subject to change by Grants.gov and may not
be updated here.
(3) Specific forms are required for submission of a proposal. The forms are contained in the
Application Package available at http://www.grants.gov under the specific opportunity you are
submitting under. When viewing an opportunity, select the "Package” tab and then select
"View." A Grant Application Package and Application Instructions are available for this BAA
through the Grants.gov Apply portal under CFDA Number 12.431/Funding Opportunity Number
W911NF-23-S-0001. To apply, select “Apply” and then “Apply Now Using Workspace.”
*NOTE: Effective 31 December 2017, applicants must apply online at Grants.gov using the
application Workspace. For access to complete instructions on how to apply for opportunities
using Workspace refer to https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/workspace-
overview.html.
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The following documents are mandatory: (1) Application for Federal Assistance (R&R) (SF 424
(R&R)), and (4) Attachments form.
(4) The SF 424 (R&R) form is to be used as the cover page for all proposals submitted via
Grants.gov. The SF 424 (R&R) must be fully completed. AOR usernames and passwords serve
as “electronic signatures” when your organization submits applications through Grants.gov. By
using the SF 424 (R&R), proposers are providing the certification required by 32 CFR Part 28
regarding lobbying (see Section II.F.2.a.ii of this BAA). Block 11, “Descriptive Title of
Applicant’s Project,” must reference the research topic area being addressed in the effort by
identifying the specific paragraph from Section II.A of this BAA.
(5) The Attachments form must contain the documents outlined in Section II.D.2.e.ii entitled
“Table of Contents”. All documents must be combined into separate and single PDF formatted
files using the Table of Contents names. Include “W911NF-23-S-0001” in the title so the
proposal will be distinguished from other BAA submissions and upload each document to the
mandatory Attachments form.
(6) The applicant must include with its proposal submission the representations required by
Section II.F.2.a.ii of this BAA. The representations must include applicant POC information and
be signed by an authorized representative. Attach the representations document to an available
field within the Attachments form. Note: If the applicant’s online SAM Representations and
Certifications include its response to the representations, a hard copy representation is not
required with proposal submission.
(7) The Grants.gov User Guide at:
https://www.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm will assist
AORs in the application process. Remember that you must open and complete the Application
for Federal Assistance (R&R) (SF 424 (R&R)) first, as this form will automatically populate data
fields in other forms. If you encounter any problems, contact customer support at 1-800-518-
4726 or at support@grants.gov. If you forget your user name or password, follow the
instructions provided in the Credential Provider tutorial. Tutorials may be printed by right-
clicking on the tutorial and selecting “Print”.
(8) As it is possible for Grants.gov to reject the proposal during this process, it is strongly
recommended that proposals be uploaded at least two days before any established deadline in the
BAA so that they will not be received late and be ineligible for award consideration. It is also
recommended to start uploading proposals at least two days before the deadline to plan ahead for
any potential technical and/or input problems involving the applicant’s own equipment.
3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM)
a. Each applicant (unless the applicant is an individual or Federal awarding agency that is
exempt from those requirements under 2 CFR 25.110(b) or (c), or has an exemption approved
by the Federal awarding agency under 2 CFR 25.110(d)) is required to:
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i. Provide a valid unique entity identifier (formerly DUNS) in its application. Please
verify the accuracy of your Unique Entity Identifier (formerly DUNS) at the Dun and
Bradstreet (D&B) website http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform before registering with the
System for Award Management System (SAM).
ii. Be registered in SAM at https://www.sam.gov prior to submitting its application; and
iii. Maintain an active SAM registration with current information at all times during
which it has an active Federal award or an application or plan under consideration
by a Federal awarding agency.
b. The SAM obtains Legal Business Name, Doing Business Name (DBA), Physical Address, and
Postal Code/ Zip+4 data fields from D&B. If corrections are required, registrants will not be
able to enter/modify these fields in SAM; they will be pre-populated using D&B Unique Entity
Identifier record data. When D&B confirms the correction has been made, the registrant must
then re-visit sam.gov and click a “yes”' to D&B's changes. Only at this point will the D&B data
be accepted into the SAM record. Allow a minimum of two (2) business days for D&B to send
the modified data to SAM.
c. The Federal awarding agency may not make a Federal award to an applicant until the
applicant has complied with all applicable unique entity identifier and SAM requirements. If an
applicant has not fully complied with the requirements by the time the Federal awarding agency
is ready to make a Federal award, the Federal awarding agency may determine that the applicant
is not qualified to receive a Federal award and use that determination as a basis for making a
Federal award to another applicant.
4. Submission Dates and Times
a. Proposals
Proposals will be considered until and including the closing date of this announcement (see cover
page of this announcement for opening/closing dates). Proposals submitted after the closing date
will not be considered by the Government under this announcement.
b. Proposal Receipt Notices
i. Grants.gov: After a proposal is submitted to Grants.gov, the AOR will receive a series of three
emails from Grants.gov. The first two emails will be received within 24 to 48 hours after
submission. The first email will confirm time of receipt of the proposal by the Grants.gov system
and the second will indicate that the proposal has either been successfully validated by the system
prior to transmission to the grantor agency or has been rejected due to errors. A third email will
be received once the grantor agency has confirmed receipt of the proposal. Reference the
Grants.gov User Guide at
https://www.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm for
information on how to track your application package.
For the purposes of this BAA, an applicant’s proposal is not considered received by ARL until the
AOR receives email #3.
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ii. Email Submission: After a proposal is submitted to usarmy.rtp.devcom-
arl.mbx.baa@army.mil, the AOR will receive an email confirming time of receipt of the proposal
by the receiving agency. For the purposes of this BAA, an applicant’s proposal is not considered
received by the grantor agency until the AOR receives the email confirming receipt of the
proposal.
5. Intergovernmental Review
Not Applicable
6. Funding Restrictions
Other than the restrictions referenced in Section II.A.3, there are no other funding restrictions
associated with this BAA (e.g. direct costs, indirect costs, etc.).
7. Other Submission Requirements
a. Information to Be Requested from Successful Applicants: Applicants whose proposals are
accepted for funding will be contacted before award to provide additional information
required for award. The required information may include requests to clarify budget
explanations, representations, certifications, and some technical aspects.
b. For Contracts Only: Performance Work Statements (PWS). Prior to award the Contracting
Officer may request that the contractor submit a PWS for the effort to be performed, which
will be incorporated into the contract at the time of award.
(End of Section)
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E. Proposal Review Information
1. Evaluation Criteria
a. Proposals submitted against a BAA research topic and the ARO SI will be
evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
b. ARO Proposals submitted for STIR will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
c. ARO Proposals submitted for ECP will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
iv. Long-term commitment by the institution of higher education to the early
career investigator and the proposed research.
d. ARO Proposals submitted for RI will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
iv. The applicant’s capabilities, related experience, facilities, techniques, or
unique combinations of these, which are integral factors for achieving the
proposed objectives.
e. Proposals submitted for Conference Grants will be evaluated using the following
criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of proposed
conference/symposia activities.
ii. The potential contributions of the conference/symposia activities to the
Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
conference/symposia.
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2. Review and Selection Process
a. Upon receipt of a proposal, ARL staff will perform an initial review of its scientific merit and
potential contribution to the Army mission, and also determine if funds are expected to be
available for the effort. Proposals not considered having sufficient scientific merit or relevance to
the Army's needs, or those in areas for which funds are not expected to be available, may not
receive further review.
b. All proposals are treated as procurement sensitive and are disclosed only for the purpose of
evaluation. Proposals having sufficient scientific merit or relevance will be subject to a peer
review by highly qualified subject matter experts, both Government employees and non-
Government employees. While the applicant may restrict the evaluation to Government
employees, to do so may prevent review of the proposal by other qualified experts in the field of
research covered by the proposal. The applicant must indicate on the appropriate proposal form
(Form 52 or 52A) any limitation to be placed on disclosure of information contained in the
proposal.
c. Each proposal will be evaluated based on the evaluation criteria in Section II.E.1 of this BAA
rather than against other proposals for research in the same general area. Each evaluated
proposal will receive a recommendation of “select” or “do not select” as supported by the
evaluation.
d. Upon completion of an evaluation against the criteria in Section II.E.1, a proposal selected
for possible award will be analyzed for the realism and reasonableness of costs and funds
availability. Proposal costs must be determined reasonable and realistic before the Government
can make an award.
e. Army Research Risk Assessment. Each proposal with a recommendation to “select” in
accordance with II.E.2.c above, whose costs have been determined to be reasonable and
realistic in accordance with II.E.2.d above, for which funds are available, and where a grant or
cooperative agreement will be the award instrument type, will be subject to an Army Research
Risk Assessment prior to award.
i. The Army Research Risk Assessment Program. The Army Research Risk Assessment
Program (ARRP) is an adaptive risk management security program applied to Army-
funded research designed to help protect Army Science and Technology (S&T) by
identifying possible vectors of undue foreign influence.
In order to identify and mitigate undue foreign influence as required by federal law and
policy, the Army will perform a research risk assessment of each proposal selected
based on the criteria above for consideration of a fundamental research grant or
cooperative agreement award. ARRP risk assessments for these subject proposals will
be developed for all proposed Senior/Key personnel, (also referred to as “Covered
Individuals”). These risk assessments will be based on information disclosed in the
Standard Form (SF) 424, “Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded),” any of its
accompanying or referenced documents, publicly available information, and
information contained in internal Army databases. Nationality or citizenship is not a
factor in the risk assessment.
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ARRP has a risk matrix which identifies risk factors and resulting risk ratings. The
matrix generally looks at four factors, or risk areas: participation in foreign talent
programs; denied entity list affiliation or association (see
https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/the-denied-persons-list and
https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/policy-guidance/lists-of-parties-of-concern/entity-
list); funding sources to include conflict of interest or conflict of commitment, or
funding from a strategic competitor; and foreign influence showing a pattern or history
of affiliation, association, or collaboration with a foreign institution, person or entity
from a U.S. strategic competitor. The matrix is set forth below:
Identified Specific Actions of the Senior/Key Personnel
Rating
Foreign Talent Denied Entities Funding Foreign
Program Institutions
Indicators of Indicators of an Indicators of active Indicators of active
active (ongoing) active (ongoing) (ongoing) conflict of (ongoing) direct
participation or affiliation or past interest, conflict of affiliation,
HIGH sponsorship in a affiliation or commitment, or association or
strategic present pattern of direct collaboration with
competitor association with funding from a a foreign
Foreign Talent an entity on the strategic competitor institution, person,
Program U.S. Gov’t or country with or entity from a
denied entity or history of targeting strategic
person list or EO U.S. research or competitor
13959 or technology
subsequent
similar issuances
Indicators of past Indicators of past Indicators of any Indicators of a
participation in a association with history or history or pattern
Foreign Talent an entity nonconsecutive of association or
MODERATE Program with a identified in the pattern of, conflict of collaboration with
U.S. strategic U.S. Gov’t interest, conflict of foreign institution,
competitor, or denied entity or commitment, or person, or entity
country with a person list or EO funding from a from a strategic
history of 13959 or strategic competitor competitor or
targeting U.S. subsequent or country with country with
research or similar issuances history of targeting history of targeting
technology U.S. research or U.S. research or
technology technology
No participation No indicators of No indicators of past No indicators of an
in a Foreign past or current funding from a association or
LOW Talent Program association or strategic competitor collaboration with
affiliation with or country with a foreign
an entity on the history of targeting institution, person,
U.S. Gov’t U.S. research or or entity from a
denied entity or technology strategic
person list or EO competitor or
13959 or country with
subsequent history of targeting
similar issuances U.S. research or
technology
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• Affiliation is academic, professional, or institutional appointments or positions
with a foreign government-connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntary (including adjunct, visiting, honorary, or lectures/visits) where direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
• Association is academic, professional, or institutional appointments or positions
with a foreign government-connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntary (including adjunct, visiting, honorary, or lectures/visits) where no direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
• Collaboration is academic, professional, or institutional agreement to jointly
work together with a foreign government connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntarily, in an official or unofficial capacity. Co-authorship in research endeavors is an example of collaboration.
• Strategic competitors are those adversaries identified in the current year
Annual Threat Assessment report from Director of National Intelligence. The 2021 assessment was published on April 9, 2021 and can be found at https://www.dno.gov/.
• Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment are defined in NSPM-33 and
in the CONOP as well as the ARRP Policy memorandum.
• Senior/Key Personnel are those who (a) contribute in a substantive, meaningful
way to the scientific development or execution of a research and development project proposed to be carried out with a research and development award from a Federal research agency; and (b) are designated as a covered individual by the Federal research agency concerned. ARRP risk ratings range from LOW to HIGH depending on the amount, type, and timing of foreign associations or affiliations that could constitute a foreign-influenced “Conflict of Interest” or “Conflict of Commitment,” as defined by National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33). Once the research risk assessments are performed, the Army risk acceptance authority has several courses of action available for consideration. These courses of action are as follows: Course of Action 1 - The Army risk acceptance authority may accept the risk rating that results from the risk assessment process and proceed with the award. This typically happens with proposals with risk ratings of “LOW” but could also happen with the other risk ratings. In Course of Action 1, the applicant will not be required to do anything related to the risk assessment process or the assigned risk rating. Course of Action 2 - The Army risk acceptance authority may accept the risk rating with some research protection requirements added to the grant or cooperative agreement award. This typically happens with proposals with risk ratings of “MODERATE” but 36

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could also happen with the other risk ratings. Also, typically, these added research
protection requirements could include, but be limited to the following in the grant or
cooperative agreement award:
o The University's Security Office shall provide the Principal Investigator and key
personnel related to this award training on foreign talent recruitment programs
and threat awareness and reporting requirements.
o The University shall disclose to the Army Research Laboratory Security Office
and Grants Officer all international travel, i.e., all international travel completed
as part of any university business, by the Principal Investigator and key personnel
related to this award instrument prior to travel.
o The University shall report to the Army Research Laboratory Security Office and
Grants Officer all inquiries by foreign operatives or suspected foreign operatives
into research associated with the award.
o The University is encouraged to utilize students without potential conflicts of
interest or conflicts of commitment as identified in U.S. National Security
Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-33).
Under Course of Action 2, the applicant will be asked to sign the grant or cooperative
agreement prior to award, confirming agreement to these added requirements. Should
the applicant not agree to these added research protection requirements, the Army risk
assessment authority may decide not to award.
Course of Action 3 - The Army risk acceptance authority is not willing to accept the
risk assigned as a result of the assessment process. In this case, the applicant will be
provided an opportunity to provide a risk mitigation plan. This typically happens with
proposals with risk ratings of “HIGH” but could also happen with the other risk ratings.
In Course of Action 3, the applicant will be informed of the risk rating assigned during
the risk assessment process as well as the block(s) on the matrix where the review
resulted in some type of finding that contributed to the assigned risk rating. Should the
applicant choose to not submit a risk mitigation plan, the Army risk assessment
authority may decide not to award. Should the applicant choose to submit a risk
mitigation plan, the Army will review such plan. As a result of this review, the Army
risk acceptance authority may then be willing to accept the risk assigned with the
mitigation plan and proceed with the award or the Army risk acceptance authority may
not be willing to accept the risk and may decide not to award. Further, should the risk
mitigation plan include proposal revisions that affect those aspects of the proposal
included in the review or selection process under SECTION II.E.2.c, the original
proposal evaluation will be reviewed and revised as appropriate based on the proposal
revisions.
ii. Actions Required by Applicants.
(1) By submission of this application and authorized signature on the SF 424
(R&R) Form, the Applicant agrees to comply with the following
requirements:
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• To certify that each covered individual who is listed on the application
has been made aware: (1) of all relevant disclosure requirements,
including the requirements of 42 U.S.C. § 6605; and (2) that false
representations may be subject to prosecution and liability pursuant to,
but not limited to, 18 U.S.C. §§287, 1001, 1031 and 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-
3733 and 3802. See National Science and Technology Council
Guidance for Implementing National Security Presidential
Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33) on National Security Strategy for United
States Government-Supported Research and Development (January
2022), at p. 7 (available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2022/01/010422-NSPM-33-Implementation-
Guidance.pdf).
• To establish and maintain an internal process or procedure to address
foreign talent programs, conflicts of commitment, conflicts of interest,
and research integrity.
• To exercise due diligence to identify Foreign Components or
participation by Senior/Key Personnel in Foreign Government Talent
Recruitment Programs and agree to share such information with the
Government upon request.
(2) With the application, the Applicant must provide a completed “Privacy Act
Statement” consent form for each Covered Individual that is also signed by
the Applicant as that Individual’s Sponsor. The “Privacy Act Statement”
form is included at SECTION II.D.2.d.xii (3) of this BAA.
(3) During the award period of performance:
• If, at any time, during performance of this award, the Recipient learns
that its Senior/Key Research Personnel (including any subawardee
personnel who receive this designation) are or are believed to be
participants in a Foreign Government Talent Program or have Foreign
Components with a strategic competitor or country with a history of
targeting U.S. technology for unauthorized transfer, the recipient will
notify the Government or Grants Officer within 5 business days of
awareness.
• This disclosure must include specific information as to the personnel
involved and the nature of the situation and relationship. The
Government will review this information and conduct any necessary
fact-finding or discussion with the Recipient. The Government’s
determination on disclosure may include acceptance, mitigation, or
termination of the award.
• Failure of the Recipient to reasonably exercise due diligence to discover
or ensure that neither it nor any of its Senior/Key Research Personnel
involved in the subject award are participating in a Foreign Government
Talent Program or have a Foreign Component with a strategic
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competitor or country with a history of targeting U.S. technology for
unauthorized transfer may result in the Government exercising remedies
in accordance with federal law and regulation.
• The provisions concerning this disclosure will be included in each
award.
• The Recipient will be required to flow down this provision to all sub
awardees who have personnel designated as Senior/Key Research
Personnel as a result of their involvement in the performance of the
research.
iii.Actions Required by Covered Individuals.
Federal law requires that all current and pending research support, as defined by 42 U.S.C. §6605,
must be disclosed at the time of proposal submission, for all covered individuals. The Government
may require an updated disclosure during the performance of any research project selected for
funding. The Government will require an updated disclosure whenever covered individuals are
added or identified as performing under the funded project. See definition of “Covered Individuals”
below.
Covered Individuals are also required to sign the “Privacy Act Statement” and provide such signed
statement to the applicant for submission with the proposal.
Any decision to accept a proposal for funding under this announcement will include full reliance on
the individual’s statements. Failure to report fully and completely all sources of project support and
outside positions and affiliations may be considered a material statement within the meaning of the
False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. 3729, and constitute a violation of Federal law.
iv.Privacy Act Compliance. All information collected and developed for the purpose of
conducting ARRP risk assessments will be maintained in accordance with the following
authorities:
• Office of Personnel Management (OPM) System of Records Notice (SORN) GOVT-1.
This SORN governs information collected from federal grantees for the purpose of
conducting a national security investigation or carrying out other lawful statutory,
administrative, or investigative purposes of the agency, to the extent the information is
relevant and necessary to the requesting agency’s decision.
• Department of the Army (DA) SORN A0381-20b-DAMI (Feb. 10, 2009, 74 F.R.
6596). This SORN applies to information contained in systems used by the Department
of the Army to develop ARRP risk assessments.
• 32 C.F.R. Appendix A to Part 310, Paragraph N: DoD Blanket Routine Uses. Pursuant
to this provision, a record from a system of records maintained by a Component may
be disclosed as a routine use outside the DoD or the U.S. Government for the purpose
of counterintelligence activities authorized by U.S. law or Executive order or for the
purpose of enforcing laws that protect the national security of the United States.
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v.Definitions
• Covered Individual. An individual who contributes in a substantive, meaningful way
to the scientific development or execution of a research and development project
proposed to be carried out with a research and development award from a Federal
research agency; and is designated as a covered individual by the Federal research
agency concerned. See 42 U.S.C. § 6605, Definitions. (For purposes of this BAA,
“covered individuals” are all Senior/Key Personnel.)
• Senior/Key Research Personnel. This term includes the Principal Investigator (PI) and
other individuals who contribute to the scientific development or execution of a project
in a substantive, measurable way, whether or not they receive salaries or compensation
under the award. These include individuals whose absence from the project would be
expected to impact the approved scope of the project. (For purposes of this BAA,
“Senior/Key Personnel” are all considered “covered individuals.”
• Foreign Associations and Affiliations. Association is defined as collaboration,
coordination or interrelation, professionally or personally, with a foreign government-
connected entity where no direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
Affiliation is defined as collaboration, coordination, or interrelation, professionally or
personally, with a foreign government-connected entity where direct monetary or non-
monetary reward is involved.
• Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Programs. In general, these programs include
any foreign-state-sponsored attempt to acquire U.S. scientific-funded research or
technology through foreign government-run or funded recruitment programs that target
scientists, engineers, academics, researchers, and entrepreneurs of all nationalities
working and educated in the U.S. Distinguishing features of a Foreign Government
Talent Recruitment Program may include:
• Compensation, either monetary or in-kind, provided by the foreign state to the
targeted individual in exchange for the individual transferring their knowledge
and expertise to the foreign country. In-kind compensation may include
honorific titles, career advancement opportunities, promised future
compensation or other types of remuneration or compensation.
• Recruitment, in this context, refers to the foreign-state-sponsor’s active
engagement in attracting the targeted individual to join the foreign-sponsored
program and transfer their knowledge and expertise to the foreign state. The
targeted individual may be employed and located in the U.S. or in the foreign
state.
• Contracts for participation in some programs that create conflicts of
commitment and/or conflicts of interest for researchers. These contracts include,
but are not limited to, requirements to attribute awards, patents, and projects to
the foreign institution, even if conducted under U.S. funding, to recruit or train
other talent recruitment plan members, circumventing merit-based processes,
and to replicate or transfer U.S.-funded work in another country.
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• Many, but not all, of these programs aim to incentivize the targeted individual to
physically relocate to the foreign state. Of particular concern are those programs
that allow for continued employment at U.S. research facilities or receipt of U.S.
Government research funding while concurrently receiving compensation from
the foreign state.
• Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Programs do not include research
agreements between the University and a foreign entity, unless that agreement
includes provisions that create situations of concern addressed elsewhere in this
section; agreements for the provision of goods or services by commercial
vendors; or invitations to attend or present at conferences.
• Conflict of Interest. A situation in which an individual, or the individual’s spouse or
dependent children, has a financial interest or financial relationship that could directly
and significantly affect the design, conduct, reporting, or funding of research.
• Conflict of Commitment. A situation in which an individual accepts or incurs
conflicting obligations between or among multiple employers or other entities.
Common conflicts of commitment involve conflicting commitments of time and effort,
including obligations to dedicate time in excess of institutional or funding agency
policies or commitments. Other types of conflicting obligations, including obligations
to improperly share information with, or withhold information from, an employer or
funding agency, can also threaten research security and integrity and are an element of
a broader concept of conflicts of commitment.
• Foreign Component. Performance of any significant scientific element or segment of a
program or project outside of the U.S., either by the University or by a researcher
employed by a foreign organization, whether or not U.S. government funds are
expended. Activities that would meet this definition include, but are not limited to:
involvement of human subjects or animals; extensive foreign travel by University
research program or project staff for the purpose of data collection, surveying,
sampling, and similar activities; collaborations with investigators at a foreign site
anticipated to result in co-authorship; use of facilities or instrumentation at a foreign
site; receipt of financial support or resources from a foreign entity; or any activity of
the University that may have an impact on U.S. foreign policy through involvement in
the affairs or environment of a foreign country.
• Strategic Competitor. A nation, or nation-state, that engages in diplomatic, economic
or technological rivalry with the United States where the fundamental strategic
interests of the U.S are under threat.
3. Recipient Qualification
a. Grant, Cooperative Agreement, and OT Proposals:
i. The Grants Officer is responsible for determining a recipient’s qualification prior to award.
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In general, a Grants Officer will award grants or cooperative agreements only to qualified
recipients that meet the standards at 32 CFR 22.415. To be qualified, a potential recipient
must:

Have the management capability and adequate financial and technical resources,

given those that would be made available through the grant or cooperative agreement, to
execute the program of activities envisioned under the grant or cooperative agreement;

Have a satisfactory record of executing such programs or activities (if a prior

recipient of an award);

Have a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics; and

Be otherwise qualified and eligible to receive a grant or cooperative agreement

under applicable laws and regulations.
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Applicants are requested to provide information with proposal submissions to assist the Grants
Officer’s evaluation of recipient qualification.
ii. In accordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance in parts 180 and
200 of Title 2, CFR, it is DoD policy that DoD Components must report and use integrity and
performance information in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information
System (FAPIIS), or any successor system designated by OMB, concerning grants, cooperative
agreements, and OTs for research as follows:
If the total Federal share will be greater than the simplified acquisition threshold on any Federal
award under a notice of funding opportunity (see 2 CFR 200.88 Simplified Acquisition
Threshold):

The Federal awarding agency, prior to making a Federal award with a total amount of

Federal share greater than the simplified acquisition threshold, will review and consider
any information about the applicant that is in the designated integrity and performance
system accessible through SAM (currently FAPIIS) (see 41 U.S.C. 2313);

An applicant, at its option, may review information in the designated integrity and

performance systems accessible through SAM and comment on any information about
itself that a Federal awarding agency previously entered and is currently in the designated
integrity and performance system accessible through SAM;

The Federal awarding agency will consider any comments by the applicant, in

addition to the other information in the designated integrity and performance system, in
making a judgment about the applicant's integrity, business ethics, and record of
performance under Federal awards when completing the review of risk posed by
applicants as described in 2 CFR 200.205 Federal awarding agency review of risk posed
by applicants.
b. Contract Proposals:
i. Contracts shall be awarded to responsible prospective contractors only. See FAR 9.104-1
for a listing of the general standards against which an applicant will be assessed to determine
responsibility.
Applicants are requested to provide information with proposal submission to assist the
Contracting Officer’s evaluation of responsibility.
ii. FAPIIS will be checked prior to making an award. The web address is: https://cpars.gov.
The applicant representing the entity may comment in this system on any information about
the entity that a federal government official entered. The information in FAPIIS will be used
in making a judgment about the entity’s integrity, business ethics, and record of performance
under Federal awards that may affect the official’s determination that the applicant is qualified
to receive an award.
(End of Section)
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F. Award Administration Information
1. Award Notices
Applicants whose proposals are recommended for award may be contacted by a Contract/Grant
Specialist to discuss additional information required for award. This may include
representations and certifications, revised budgets or budget explanations, certificate of current
cost or pricing data, subcontracting plan for small businesses, and/or other information as
applicable to the proposed award. The anticipated start date will be determined at that time.
The notification email is not an authorization to commit or expend funds. The Government is
not obligated to provide any funding until a Government Contracting/ Grants Officer signs the
award document.
The award document signed by the Government Contracting/Grants Officer is the official and
authorizing award instrument. The authorizing award instrument, signed by the Contracting/
Grants Officer, will be emailed to the PI and AOR.
2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements
a. Required Representations and Certifications:
i. Contract Proposals:
(1) Representations and certifications shall be completed by successful applicants prior to
award. FAR Online Representations and Certifications are to be completed through SAM at
https://www.sam.gov. As appropriate, DFARS and contract-specific certification packages will
be provided to the contractor for completion prior to award.
(2) FAR 52.203-18, PROHIBITION ON CONTRACTING WITH ENTITIES THAT
REQUIRE CERTAIN CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTS OR STATEMENTS—
REPRESENTATION (JAN 2017)
(a) Definition. As used in this provision--
“Internal confidentiality agreement or statement”, “subcontract”, and “subcontractor”, are
defined in the clause at 52.203-19, Prohibition on Requiring Certain Internal
Confidentiality Agreements or Statements.
(b) In accordance with section 743 of Division E, Title VII, of the Consolidated and
Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Pub. L. 113-235) and its successor
provisions in subsequent appropriations acts (and as extended in continuing resolutions),
Government agencies are not permitted to use funds appropriated (or otherwise made
available) for contracts with an entity that requires employees or subcontractors of such
entity seeking to report waste, fraud, or abuse to sign internal confidentiality agreements or
statements prohibiting or otherwise restricting such employees or subcontractors from
lawfully reporting such waste, fraud, or abuse to a designated investigative or law
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enforcement representative of a Federal department or agency authorized to receive such
information.
(c) The prohibition in paragraph (b) of this provision does not contravene requirements
applicable to SF 312, (Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement), Form 4414
(Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Agreement), or any other form
issued by a Federal department or agency governing the nondisclosure of classified
information.
(d) Representation. By submission of its offer, the applicant represents that it will not
require its employees or subcontractors to sign or comply with internal confidentiality
agreements or statements prohibiting or otherwise restricting such employees or
subcontractors from lawfully reporting waste, fraud, or abuse related to the performance of
a Government contract to a designated investigative or law enforcement representative of a
Federal department or agency authorized to receive such information (e.g., agency Office of
the Inspector General).
(3) FAR 52.204-26, COVERED TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT OR SERVICES-
REPRESENTATION (OCT 2020)
a) Definitions. As used in this provision, "covered telecommunications equipment or
services" and "reasonable inquiry" have the meaning provided in the clause 52.204-25,
Prohibition on Contracting for Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services
or Equipment.
(b) Procedures. The Offeror shall review the list of excluded parties in the System for Award
Management (SAM) ( https://www.sam.gov) for entities excluded from receiving federal
awards for "covered telecommunications equipment or services".
(c)(1) Representation. The Offeror represents that it [ ] does, [ ] does not provide covered
telecommunications equipment or services as a part of its offered products or services to the
Government in the performance of any contract, subcontract, or other contractual instrument.
(2) After conducting a reasonable inquiry for purposes of this representation, the offeror
represents that it [ ] does, [ ] does not use covered telecommunications equipment or services,
or any equipment, system, or service that uses covered telecommunications equipment or
services.
(4) FAR 52.209-11, REPRESENTATION BY CORPORATIONS REGARDING
DELINQUENT TAX LIABILITY OR A FELONY CONVICTION UNDER FEDERAL LAW
(FEB 2016)
(a) As required by sections 744 and 745 of Division E of the Consolidated and Further
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Pub. L 113-235), and similar provisions, if
contained in subsequent appropriations acts, the Government will not enter into a
contract with any corporation that--
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(1) Has any unpaid Federal tax liability that has been assessed, for which all judicial and
administrative remedies have been exhausted or have lapsed, and that is not being paid
in a timely manner pursuant to an agreement with the authority responsible for
collecting the tax liability, where the awarding agency is aware of the unpaid tax
liability, unless an agency has considered suspension or debarment of the corporation
and made a determination that suspension or debarment is not necessary to protect the
interests of the Government; or
(2) Was convicted of a felony criminal violation under any Federal law within the
preceding 24 months, where the awarding agency is aware of the conviction, unless an
agency has considered suspension or debarment of the corporation and made a
determination that this action is not necessary to protect the interests of the
Government.
(b) The applicant Offeror that—
(1) It is [ ] is not [ ] a corporation that has any unpaid Federal tax liability that has
been assessed, for which all judicial and administrative remedies have been
exhausted or have lapsed, and that is not being paid in a timely manner pursuant
to an agreement with the authority responsible for collecting the tax liability;
and
(2) It is [ ] is not [ ] a corporation that was convicted of a felony criminal violation
under a Federal law within the preceding 24 months.
ii. Grant and Cooperative Agreement Proposals:
(1) Grant awards greater than $100,000 require a certification of compliance with a national
policy mandate concerning lobbying. Statutes and Government-wide regulations require the
certification to be submitted prior to award. When submitting your grant through Grants.gov, by
completing blocks 18 and 19 of the SF 424 ( R&R) Form, the grant applicant is providing the
certification on lobbying required by 32 CFR Part 28; otherwise, a copy signed by the AOR
must be provided. Below is the required certification:
CERTIFICATION AT APPENDIX A TO 32 CFR PART 28 REGARDING
LOBBYING: Certification for Contracts, Grants, Loans, and Cooperative Agreements the
undersigned certifies, to the best of his or her knowledge and belief, that:
(1) No Federal appropriated funds have been paid or will be paid, by or on behalf of
the undersigned, to any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or
employee of an agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress,
or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with the awarding of any
Federal contract, the making of any Federal grant, the making of any Federal loan, the
entering into of any cooperative agreement, and the extension, continuation, renewal,
amendment, or modification of any Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative
agreement.
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All Topics Document for ARL BAA W911NF23S0001 07JUNE2024

Current Research Topics for DEVCOM ARL BAA For Foundational Research
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Current Research Topics for the
DEVCOM ARL BAA For Foundational Research
W911NF-23-S-0001
Disclaimer
All current ARL research topics can be found at: https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunties/arl-baa.
Changes to these topics will be made using the website on an as needed basis. This document is
a printed copy of the current ARL research topics as of the noted print date. ARL maintains a
daily static snapshot of the ARL research topic website to ensure submissions are aligned with
listed research topics on the day of submission. The available Army Research Office (ARO)
topics are listed alphabetically followed by an alphabetical listing of the Army Research
Directorate (ARD) topics. Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse the ARL
research topic website and review the ARL BAA for instructions on submissions.
The DEVCOM ARL Broad Agency Announcement for Foundational Research,
W911NF-23-S-0001,
is available on https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/
Link to all current ARL research topics
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Available Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topics
The available Army Research Office (ARO) topics are listed in alphabetical order.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Advanced Learning-Enabled Intelligent Cyber Physical Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0032
TPOC: MaryAnne Fields, PhD - mary.a.fields22.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4350
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Mathematics and Statistics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber,
and Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Future Vertical Lift;Next Generation Combat Vehicle
Keywords: Intelligent Systems, Interaction, Assured Operations, Online learning, Robust
Intelligence, World Models, Memory Systems, Causality
Description:
Intelligent cyber physical systems play an increasingly important role in civilian and military
settings. With few exceptions, current intelligent systems are restricted to highly constrained
environments for short duration missions. Future systems will need to perform a variety of tasks
in complex, possibly contested, open worlds for extended periods of time. One important
characteristic of open worlds is that the intelligent system will encounter new contexts, activities,
and objects that will require it to adapt previously trained algorithms. Advanced capabilities in
learning, reasoning, interaction, and assured operations are essential to the development of
intelligent systems that can greatly enhance the Army's mobility, agility, lethality, and
survivability in future conflicts.
ON-LINE LEARNING THEORY, METHODOLOGY, AND TECHNIQUES
Over the past 50 years, machine learning has made great strides in classification, natural
language processing, and task learning. However, machine learning still lacks the rigor, agility,
and flexibility necessary to operate in complex, contested open worlds. This thrust focuses on
establishing a theoretical foundation for on-line or continuous machine learning. New learning
approaches will need to address both the dimensionality challenges and temporal characteristics
that may be evolving continuously. In addition, new techniques must address robustness to
enable the learning system to deal with novelty, noise, observation errors and potentially
malicious input that aim to disrupt learning. Innovative approaches to continuous learning will
allow systems to adapt to changing contexts and environments while maintaining previously
learned knowledge. Under this thrust, we investigate approaches that help the intelligent systems
deal with dynamic environments, devise new, transferable skills, and cope with unknown
situations.
While end-to-end learning may be important for certain applications, it may not be an effective
approach for the complex environments typical of most battlefields. Instead, there is a need for
compositional learning systems in which each component may learn primitive actions that are
later combined, and adapted, to solve complex long-horizon manipulation problems. Research is
needed to understand how to express and learn the preconditions and post-conditions for each of
the primitive actions. Linking elements from a library of primitives and adapting the ensemble to
solve an existing problem is also an outstanding issue. Automated curriculum learning in which
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the CPS devises its own learning strategy is an open research area. Important issues in this area
include generating sample task environments from observation, memory and simulation;
sequencing those task into an effective curriculum; and transferring the learning as the tasks
become more complex.
DECISION MAKING FOR THE OPEN WORLD
Long duration operations require CPSs to continually reason, make decisions, or take actions
with very limited knowledge of the pertinent events or objects that could impact those decisions.
In real world missions, systems often address multiple near-simultaneous tasks to accomplish
their objectives - on a battlefield, systems need to travel to a location while searching for
potential adversaries and sharing information with teammates. Architectures that draw from
psychological models for human decision making, such as Dual Process theory, may enable
CPSs to effectively distribute the processing for near-simultaneous reasoning tasks. Advances in
risk-aware online planning will enable autonomous systems to balance potentially conflicting
objectives and operate safely in poorly understood environments. CPSs also need to develop a
sense of "'causality" that discovers relationships between objects and events and allows the
system to incorporate temporal and spatial information into the reasoning processes.
Storing and accessing information is vital to long term mission. Not all pertinent information is
collected at the same time: new research in memory systems will enable cyber physical systems
to determine what information, in what form, it needs to store to support future actions that may
or may not relate to its current action. Memory systems are not simply information stores -
processes like reflection, abstraction, and learning enable CPSs to develop new information.
Retrieval mechanisms are very important - information is not useful unless the system can recall
it when it is needed. Research to understand effective memory structure and processes will
benefit from a collaboration with cognitive scientists to understand memory in biological
systems. New approaches are needed to address potential issues with memory systems such as
catastrophic or forgetting, limited storage capacity, and development of new methods to
efficiently use external knowledge stores.
INTERACTION
Future autonomous systems must interact physically with humans and other intelligent systems
operating in the same space, remotely with spatially distant entities, and virtually in cyberspace
with intelligent software agents. New research in human-robot interaction and robot-robot
teaming will enable humans and robots to share the same space and work together on complex
tasks. Research in Ad-hoc teamwork will enable entities (human and systems) to dynamically
join together to address a specific problem, then pursue separate tasks after the problem is
solved. In this type of teaming, there is no prior coordination between agents and we cannot
assume that the entities share the same types of learning algorithms or reward structures or that
they have prior agreements regarding action coordination and information sharing. Some of the
important research problems within ad-hoc teaming are: ensuring that actions are understandable
to fellow teammates; modeling the capabilities of team members; including humans in the
ad-hoc teams, and dynamically modeling the performance of both the team and the individuals.
Explicit Human-Robot interaction has been extensively explored throughout the last decade.
Implicit Human-Robot interaction, on the other hand, is relatively unexplored. In this case,
humans may not directly interact with an intelligent system but instead take actions that the
system could use as input. The human actions may be intentional, unintentional or even
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unconscious but they are a rich source of signals for learning or cooperative actions. These
implicit actions may also provide context information that could be used to adapt a previously
learned behavior to a new environment. Some important research topics in this area include:
identifying implicit signals, the value of implicit robot-human signals, and context-aware
interaction.
ASSURED OPERATIONS
Assured operations require a deep understanding of how a complex system composed of several
components, including mechanical systems, computational hardware, and software algorithms
operates as a coordinated system. In much the same way as the community is trying to
understand the behavior of neural networks, which are composed of layers of mathematical
functions, this topic seeks to understand how information and actions flow from the lowest levels
of the system to system level decisions and actions. Along those lines, new theory and principles
are needed to understand the impact of both gradual and abrupt changes at the component level
on the evolution of the entire system. Investigating modularity and compositionality will enable
the system to address the multiple near-simultaneous problems it is likely to encounter in long
term operations. New theories in information sharing in dynamic environments will lay the
foundation for accountability and provide clear criteria for component-level and global
input/output specification (in terms of computation, rate, semantics, ..) that can be used to: train a
learning component, optimize outputs of a planning component, and test individual and systems
level components. As these areas mature, they will provide a firm mathematical foundation for
systems-level research in learning-based design, performance guarantees, and robustness to
degraded components.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP)
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0022
TPOC: Meg Shea, PhD - margaret.e.shea6.civ@army.mil - 240-941-4880
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Network, Cyber, and Computational
Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Assured PNT;Long Range Precision Fires;Network/C3I
Keywords:
Description:
Topics of interest within Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP) include:
1. Quantum degenerate atomic gases, both Bose and Fermi, their excitations and properties,
including mixed species, mixed state, and molecular;
2. Quantum enhanced precision metrology;
3. Nonlinear processes;
4. Quantum systems in cavities;
5. Collective and many-body states of matter; and
6. Emerging areas.
There is an interest in emerging areas of AMO physics such as collective states of matter,
emergent lattices in quantum gases, non-equilibrium many body dynamics, advanced quantum
simulation, and metrology in non-ideal environments. Research efforts within the AMP fall
within two thrust areas: Advanced Quantum Capabilities and Novel Quantum Methods. It is
anticipated that research efforts within these areas will lead to applications including novel
materials, efficient computational platforms, and exquisite quantum sensors.
Advanced Quantum Many-body Dynamics
The focus of this thrust is the development and study of strongly correlated many-body systems.
The quantum simulator portion of the thrust seeks research on novel techniques and studies that
leverage our control and understanding of simple quantum mechanical systems to explore more
complex quantum effects and materials. The effort seeks the validation of many-body quantum
theories through the development of experimental tools including quantum gas microscopes,
atom-array experiments, synthetic gauge fields, mixed species, and novel interactions.
Complimenting this effort will be the inclusion of foundational investigations into quantum
mechanics, such as entanglement, many-body localization, collective modes, and entropy. To
take advantage of the precision inherent in future quantum devices, these systems will need to
connect to the classical world in such a manner that allows them to sample the signal of interest
while remaining robust to noisy environments. Consequently, studies of how the quantum
system interacts with classical world, and the quantum-to-classical boundary are also of interest.
Investigating how to maximize both the quality and quantity of entanglement within these
systems will be a priority. General issues of quantum coherence, quantum interference,
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entanglement growth, entanglement purity, and non-equilibrium phenomena, as well as
discovering new scientific opportunities are also of interest.
Novel Quantum Metrology
The AMP Program has a general interest in exploring fundamental AMP that may impact future
Army capabilities. This thrust is divided into two main areas: precision metrology beyond the
standard limit and harnessing collective many-body states to improve quantum sensing. The
Novel Quantum Metrology efforts will expand the foundations of quantum measurement into
new areas that seek to exploit entanglement, spin-squeezing, harnessing collective-spin states,
developing back-action avoidance measurements, and other areas that increase fundamental
precision through interactions, including cavities and Rydberg atoms. It is expected that research
in this thrust will complement efforts in the Advanced Quantum Many-body Dynamics thrust
and vice versa. For example, collective many body states could be studied in optical lattices or
quantum gas microscopes and foundational research of entanglement are anticipated to provide
new metrological capabilities in non-ideal environments.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Biochemistry
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0017
TPOC: Stephanie A. McElhinny, PhD - stephanie.a.mcelhinny.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4240
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Chemistry;Materials Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Sciences
of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: Biotechnology, Bioengineering, Biomaterials
Description:
This program emphasizes basic research focused on understanding and controlling the activity
and assembly of biomolecules. Scientific advances supported by this program are anticipated to
enable the development of novel systems, materials and processes that enhance Soldier
protection and performance. Overarching goals of the program are to provide the scientific
foundations to expand the chemical diversity accessible by biomolecules and to support
biological activity outside of the cellular environment, including integration of biological
systems with synthetic systems.
The Biomolecular Specificity and Regulation thrust is focused on novel approaches to engineer
the specificity and regulation of biomolecules, either via modulation of natural mechanisms or
via design of non-natural mechanisms. Approaches to expand the chemical diversity of
ligands/substrates that are recognized/accepted by biomolecules and/or the products of
biocatalytic reactions beyond elements and chemical bonds common to natural biological
systems are of particular interest. This includes both individual enzymatic reactions as well as
multi-step biocatalytic pathways. The goal of this thrust is to develop novel engineered
approaches to modulate and control biomolecular activity, with emphasis on expanding the
chemical diversity accessible by biomolecules and achieving biomolecular control in
non-cellular contexts.
The Biomolecular Assembly and Organization thrust is focused on understanding the molecular
interactions and design rules that govern self-assembly of biomolecules into both naturally
occurring biomolecular structures and non-natural human-designed architectures. This thrust
aims to elucidate fundamental understanding of sequence-structure-property relationships in
natural biomolecular assemblies, biomaterials, and biological composites to enable rational
design of biological and hybrid biological/abiological assemblies with tailored properties and
functions. Biomolecular assembly across length scales is of interest, including discrete
multi-protein complexes or nucleic acid structures, as well as hierarchical protein or nucleic acid
assemblies and biological composites. This thrust includes homogeneous assemblies utilizing a
single building block, as well as heterogeneous systems in which a mixture of different
biomolecules and/or non-biological species (e.g., minerals, synthetic polymers) self-assemble.
Of particular interest are approaches to expand the chemical diversity of biomolecular
architectures beyond elements and chemical bonds common to natural biological systems. This
research thrust also includes the design of self-assembled biomolecular or hybrid
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biological/abiological architectures that provide control over the chemical environment and
spatial organization necessary to support complex biomolecular function in non-cellular
contexts, including artificial cells and cell-free systems.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Biomathematics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0021
TPOC: Virginia B. Pasour, PhD - virginia.b.pasour.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4254
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Data Sciences and Informatics;Earth and Environmental
Sciences;Mathematics and Statistics;Network Science;Physics;Social Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems
Army Modernization Priorities: Soldier Lethality
Keywords: biomathematics, mathematical biology, theoretical ecology, theoretical
epidemiology, modeling
Description:
The introduction of Biomathematics as a separate area of basic research recognizes the
importance and specialized nature of quantitative methods, specifically mechanistic modeling, in
the biological sciences. Biology involves a large number of entities that interact with each other
and their environment in complex ways, and at multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Understanding how dynamics at different spatial scales come together to form a biological
system and understanding the dynamics of a system at intermediate timescales, as opposed to its
long term, asymptotic behavior, are critically important in biology, more so than in many other
fields.
This complexity makes biomathematics a highly interdisciplinary field that requires unique and
highly specialized mathematical competencies to quantify structure in these relationships. In fact,
progress in mathematical models of biological systems has traditionally been achieved by
making convenient simplifications; major advances in Biomathematics research continue to
require removing these assumptions (for example, stationarity, ergodicity and deterministic
nature) and finding ways to effectively model the essential complexity. Modeling techniques
currently utilized in the field range from agent-based approaches for determining the results of
individual behavior, whether those individuals be molecules, zooplankton, or humans, to
multi-compartmental modeling in physiology, epidemiology and neurobiology, to network
models involved in understanding ecosystem and human social dynamics, as well as
encompassing both deterministic and stochastic approaches. Research in control techniques is
also valuable for its potential application in militarily important areas such as bio warfare and
disease spread. Exciting new opportunities to advance the field are found in high risk attempts to
develop modeling techniques in areas of mathematics, such as algebra and topology, not
traditionally brought to bear on biological problems, advances in Bayesian statistics, a growing
recognition that the diffusion approximation is not necessarily adequate for many systems, and
the availability of large amounts of complex biological data.
The ultimate goal of the Biomathematics Program focuses on adapting existing mathematics and
creating new mathematical techniques to uncover fundamental relationships in biology, spanning
different biological systems as well as multiple spatial and temporal scales. One area of special
interest to the program is Neuromathematics, the mechanistic mathematical modeling of neural
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processes. Recent advances in neuroscience provide important foundations to begin
understanding how the brain works. Combined with experimental data, innovative mathematical
modeling provides an unparalleled opportunity to gain a revolutionary new understanding of
brain physiology, cognition (including sensory processing, attention, decision-making, etc.), and
neurological disease. With this new understanding, improved soldier performance, as well as
treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, and other brain-related
disorders suffered by the warfighter will be able to be achieved more effectively, efficiently, and
ethically than via experimentation alone.
Thrust areas of the Biomathematics Program are as follows:
Fundamental Laws of Biology
The field of physics has long been "'mathematized" so that fundamental principles such as
Newton's Laws are not considered the application of mathematics to physics but physics itself.
The field of biology is far behind physics in this respect; a similar process of mathematization is
a basic and high-risk goal of the ARO Biomathematics Program. The identification and
mathematical formulation of the fundamental principles of biological structure, function, and
development applying across systems and scales will not only revolutionize the field of biology
but will motivate the creation of new mathematics that will contribute in as-yet-unforeseen ways
to biology and the field of mathematics itself. For example, heterogeneity/stochasticity is
ubiquitous in biological systems; is heterogeneity necessary for tipping points that result in
diseased individuals and epidemics and if so, what is its role? More generally, is heterogeneity in
biological systems necessary for their functioning or a problem to be overcome, or is the answer
system/function dependent?
Multiscale Modeling/Inverse Problems
Biological systems function through diversity, with large scale function emerging from the
collective behavior of smaller scale heterogeneous elements. This "'forward" problem includes
creating mechanistic mathematical models at different biological scales and synchronizing their
connections from one level of organization to another, as well as an important sub problem, how
to represent the heterogeneity of individual elements and how much heterogeneity to include in
the model. For example, the currently increasing ability to generate large volumes of molecular
data provides a significant opportunity for biomathematical modelers to develop advanced
analytical procedures to elucidate the fundamental principles by which genes, proteins, cells,
etc., are integrated and function as systems through the use of innovative mathematical and
statistical techniques. The task is complicated by the fact that data collection methods are noisy,
many biological mechanisms are not well understood, and, somewhat ironically, large volumes
of data tend to obscure meaningful relationships. However, traditionally "'pure" mathematical
fields such as differential geometry, algebra and topology, integration of Bayesian statistical
methods with mathematical methods, and the new field of topological data analysis, among
others, show promise in approaching these problems. Solutions to these types of multiscale
problems will elucidate the connection, for example, of stem cells to tissue and organ
development or of disease processes within the human body to the behavior of epidemics.
The "'inverse" problem is just as important as the forward problem. From an understanding of
the overall behavior of a system, is it possible to determine the nature of the individual elements?
For example, from knowledge of cell signaling, can we go back and retrieve information about
the cell? Although inverse problems have been studied for a long time, significant progress has
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been elusive. This thrust area involves innovations in spatial and/or temporal modeling of
multi-level biological elements with the goal of achieving a deeper understanding of biological
systems and eventually connecting top-down (data-driven) and bottom-up (model-based)
approaches.
Hybrid Modeling
While the Biomathematics Program has primarily been concerned with developing and using
mathematical modeling techniques to understand the mechanisms behind biological system
function, future predictions about a system have typically been achieved through statistical
modeling using available data; these methods are limited by their ability to make trustworthy
predictions only under the same situations under which the data was collected. This thrust seeks
to develop new methods that will take advantage of the strengths of both types of modeling, still
allowing the hypothesis and testing of biological mechanism while also allowing prediction
under an expanded set of conditions. These new methods will facilitate the utilization of the
increasingly available data in many areas of biology to expand our ability to understand and
predict biological systems and may be furthered through the use and development of existing and
new data analysis techniques. For example, can we develop a mechanistic model to understand a
cell's ability to repair damage to its DNA by incorporating Machine Learning?
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Bionic Electronics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0069
TPOC: Albena Ivanisevic, PhD - albena.ivanisevic.civ@army.mil - (301) 580-3020
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Chemistry;Electronics;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: bioelectronics, biotronics, bionic
Description:
This research area focuses on the discovery and manipulation of phenomena and the creation of
new processes where electronics and biology overlap at the cellular / sub-cellular level. This
length scale is where the amplitudes of many types of energies (e.g., electrostatic, mechanical,
and chemical terms) converge, and correspondingly, where electronics can have fundamental
biological impacts and where leveraging electronics capabilities at the nanoscale can yield
unique new understanding of the cellular and intracellular processes.
New electronic structures and materials are now able to focus localized static electric and
magnetic fields and electromagnetic fields at the nanoscale, which presents the opportunity to
selectively address and manipulate the organelles and membranes making up the structure of the
cell. Moreover, cell constituents can have a frequency dependent response to mechanical and
electromagnetic excitation, resulting in unique electronically enabled and controlled biological
experiments. Molecular and subcellular events at the biological interfaces or surfaces are key to
downstream biological dynamics. The stimulation or manipulation of these events by electronic
means provides the opportunity for unique control and experimentation that are orthogonal to
existing biochemical or genetic approaches. Ion flow, which is fundamental to inter- and
intra-cellular signaling and process control, is susceptible to electromagnetic influence and
produces electromagnetic signatures of cellular processes. The dynamics of charged and
polarized cellular components also produces minute displacement currents, and can produce very
large field distributions in a confined nanoscale space (e.g., within a protein scaffold or across a
lipid bilayer); both of which are subject to electromagnetic probing and analysis. The different
geometries of organelles within a cell result in different electromagnetic signatures and
sensitivities which can be leveraged for selective control of cellular processes. Proteins play a
role in almost every cellular process. As extremely large and complex molecules, they should
have electromagnetic and mechanical responses that can be exploited for control. The skeletal
protein assemblies of the cell, in particular, may offer a highway for the introduction of electrical
currents or mechanical vibrations. Bio-chemical or genetic alteration of the interface of the cell
and its components can introduce new electromagnetic properties, for example a new capability
for photosynthesis in bacteria or new electromagnetic responses. Cellular engineering of
membranes, cellular organelles, and proteins by the introduction of nano-particles and
bio-molecules can introduce new sensitivities and new functionality. Opto-genetics is a
well-established procedure for interrogating cells. Early attempts at "'magneto-genetics" have
been controversial, however "'electro- or RF-genetics" may offer new opportunities. There may
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also be inherently non-trivial quantum mechanical mechanisms linked to biological behaviors,
such as navigation. Inherently quantum phenomena such as the tunneling of electrons and
protons play a critical role in many intracellular processes and can be modulated or manipulated
with nanoscale electric fields. This research area seeks understanding and control of inter- and
intra-cellular phenomena at the micro- and nano-scale. The program facilitates highly innovative
extensions of techniques based on the unique capabilities of electronics as well as totally new,
complementary methods, addressing the internal function and electrical processes within a living
entity. Biotronics seeks to accomplish this with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution
and with minimal disruption of "'normal" living cell function. The basic science questions being
addressed by the Biotronics program are geared to achieve a natural evolution into bionic
electronics. Through this evolution the goal is to us
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Complex Dynamics and Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0018
TPOC: Dean R. Culver, PhD - dean.r.culver.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4225
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Data Sciences and Informatics;Materials Science;Mathematics and
Statistics;Mechanics;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Energy
Sciences;Humans in Complex Systems;Mechanical Sciences;Military Information
Sciences;Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum
Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials;Terminal Effects;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Air and Missile Defense;Future Vertical
Lift;Network/C3I;Next Generation Combat Vehicle;Synthetic Training Environment
Keywords: nonlinear dynamics; mechanics; high dimensional; morphological computation;
chaos; embodied intelligence; hierarchical mechanics; heterogeneous systems; stochastic control;
stochastic learning
Description:
The Complex Dynamics and Systems program emphasizes fundamental understanding of the
dynamics, both physical and information theoretic, of nonlinear and nonconservative systems as
well as innovative scientific approaches for engineering and exploiting nonlinear and
nonequilibrium physical and information theoretic dynamics for a broad range of future
capabilities (e.g. novel energetic and entropic transduction, agile motion, and force generation).
The program seeks to understand how information, momentum, energy, and entropy flows and
transforms in nonlinear systems due to interactions with the system's surroundings or within the
system itself. Research efforts are not solely limited to descriptive understanding, however.
Central to the mission of the program is the additional emphasis on pushing beyond descriptive
understanding toward engineering and exploiting time-varying interactions, fluctuations, inertial
dynamics, phase space structures, modal interplay, practical control opportunities, and other
consequences of nonlinearity in novel ways to enable the generation of useful work, agile
motion, and engineered energetic and entropic transformations. Further information on the
current scientific thrust areas are detailed in the paragraphs that follow.
High-Dimensional Nonlinear Dynamics
Classical dynamics has produced limited fundamental insight and theoretical methods
concerning strongly nonlinear, high-dimensional, dissipative, and time-varying systems. For over
a century, qualitative geometric approaches in low-dimensions have dominated research in
dynamics. These approaches of reduced-order-modeling of high-dimensional dynamics are often
premised on empirical and statistical model fitting and are incapable of capturing the effects of
slowly growing instabilities and memory. The program seeks to develop novel theoretical and
experimental methods for understanding the physical and information dynamics of driven
dissipative continuous systems. It also seeks novel reduced-order-modeling methodologies
capable of retaining time-dependent and global nonlinearities. Novel research pertaining to the
analysis and fundamental physics of time-varying nonlinear systems and transient dynamics is a
high-priority.
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Embodied and Distributed Control, Sensing, and Actuation
This thrust develops deeper understanding, through supporting theory and experiment, of the role
of embodiment and dynamics on a physical system's capability to process information and
transform energy. Proposals emphasizing the mechanics and control of soft, continuous bodies
are encouraged along with novel experimental paradigms leveraging programmable printed
matter. Generally, this thrust strongly leverages advances in, and approaches from, sensory
biomechanics, neuromechanics, underactuated systems theory, and mechanical locomotion
dynamics to understand the motion of both articulated and continuum dynamical systems
operating in highly-dynamic environments. The scientific principles sought, however, are not
limited to biological movement and manipulation. Proposals are strongly encouraged that view
morphology in an abstract sense. For example, understanding morphology as a system's
symmetry, its confinement (e.g. chemical reactions), or its coupling topology.
Statistical Physics of Control and Learning
The program seeks to lay the foundations for an algorithmic theory of control and learning that
goes significantly beyond the state of-the-art in model predictive control and integrates novel
learning methodologies that are not mere variations of artificial neural networks and deep
learning. Additional goals of this program is to develop an experimentally tested theoretical
framework for controlling and creating new types of critical dynamics, phase transitions, and
universality classes by bringing together theory and physical principles in statistical dynamics
with control and dynamical systems theory (controlling statistical dynamics).
Topics of interest relating to this include: nonlinear control of distributions with non-Gaussian
uncertainty; non-Gaussian uncertainty representations; understanding relationships between
work absorption and dynamics in the presence of fluctuations leading to emergent prediction and
emergent centralization; steering multi-critical interacting dynamical systems toward desired
universal scaling behaviors; externally controlling the strength of stochastic fluctuations and
intrinsic noise in systems that are driven far from thermal equilibrium and display generic scale
invariance; and selectively targeting and stabilizing specific self-generated spatio-temporal
patterns in strongly fluctuating reaction-diffusion systems. Stochastic control at the microscale to
enable novel manipulation of the dynamics of synthetic and natural biomolecular machines is
also of interest.
Mechanics of Hierarchical and Heterogeneous Systems
Recent experimental, theoretical, and computational advancements have made it possible to
challenge macroscopic, continuum representations of inherently hierarchical systems like never
before - acknowledging that desirable macroscopic characteristics arise as a function of
architecture and interaction between scales cascading all the way down to the nanoscopic
environments within. This thrust in part seeks to develop reduced order and component-level
models of nano-scale mechanisms in order to identify principles of physical interaction in these
intricate (and in most cases only stochastically or empirically understood) systems. In addition to
understanding the capabilities of component and mechanism design at the nano-scale, the
program encourages the characterization of energy and information passing from one "'scale" to
the next, as well as sensing and control strategies that tap into hierarchical and complex systems
at different scales and locations.
Topics of interest include, but are certainly not limited to: magnetohydrodynamics; the control of
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plasmas; frontiers of dynamical systems theory exploring turbulence; modeling biochemical
mechanisms in order to identify design principles that exceed their capabilities; locomotion at
micro- and sub-micro-scales. The program highly encourages studies that approach these
problems from the perspective of hierarchical structures as assemblies of known base units rather
than continua whose emergent properties can be modeled by approximating the complexity of
the structure within.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Computational Mathematics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0034
TPOC: Radhakrishnan Balu, PhD - radhakrishnan.balu.civ@army.mil - (301) 394-4302
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Mathematics and Statistics;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Mechanical Sciences;Network, Cyber, and
Computational Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Assured PNT;Network/C3I
Keywords: Mathematical modeling, Scientific computation, Fractional order methods,
Mathematics of QIS, Atmospheric physics, Embedded simulation
Description:
The research strategy of this program is to focus on the following opportunities for crucial
discoveries: innovative methodologies for solving currently intractable problems that take
advantage of symmetry, conservation, and recurrence, that can adapt to both the evolving
solution and to the evolving run-time resource allocation of modern computer architectures;
novel algorithms that accommodate different mathematical models at different scales, interacting
subsystems, and coupling between models and scales; methods that incorporate nonlocality
through integral operators with advantageous representations. Research in this area will
ultimately lead to the development of new mathematical principles that enable faster and higher
fidelity computational methods, and new methods that will enable modeling of future problems.
Scientific computation is an essential component of scientific inquiry, complementing theory and
experiment, and is also an essential element of engineering in both design and in failure autopsy.
Simulations in support of inquiry, design, or autopsy often require expert knowledge in order to
select methods that are compatible with the assumptions of the scenario at hand, require
considerable skill to properly set up, require considerable time, memory, and storage on large
scale parallel/distributed/heterogeneous systems to compute, and require considerable skill and
effort to distill useful information from the massive data sets which result. Expert knowledge is
also required to quantitatively estimate solution accuracy and to estimate the time and effort
required to achieve a desired accuracy. Data has become ubiquitous and is potentially very
valuable in increasing solution accuracy and/or decreasing the effort required to solve, but
mathematically sound methods for incorporating data into accurate simulations are incomplete.
Simulations are not always timely, with results often not being available until after they are
needed, for example in calculating failure of New Orleans levees during Katrina and in revising
those estimates based on real time surge data.
The emphasis in the Computational Mathematics program is on mathematical research directed
towards developing capabilities in these and related areas. For problems that are not
time-limited, research areas of interest include but are not limited to the following:
Advances in Numerical Analysis. Novel methodologies are sought for solving currently
intractable problems. New ways of taking advantage of symmetry, conservation, and recurrence
are of interest, as are new ways of creating sparsity and new computational structures which can
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adapt to both the evolving solution and to the evolving run-time resource allocation of modern
computer architectures. Rigorous analysis is sought for each in order to enable error bounds,
error distribution, and error control.
Mathematics for Quantum Information Systems (QIS). New mathematical constructs and
understanding are sought in order to provide useful mathematical tools and language to others
working to advance QIS. QIS goes far beyond quantum computing (QC), with focus also on
quantum networking, quantum sensing, topological quantum computing, and topological phases
of matter. Advances are sought in factors of von Neumann algebras, type II and type III, that are
yet to be fully explored even after a century of studies from a QIS point of view. Topological
quantum information processing going beyond anyons and in 3+1 spacetime dimensions are of
interest. Exploration of noncommutative geometry from QIS point of view are important in
pushing the field. Advances are sought in the language for quantum field theory as a basis for
QIS and for the associated mathematical structures that are involved. New bases for QIS-based
chemical and biological systems are just beginning; language and representations for these
more-complex and messier-than-physics-based-systems are sought in order to enable new
mathematical models. The QIS of metamaterials-based systems is very different from other
systems, and new mathematics is sought that is capable of representing the unification of these
disparate QIS themes.
Fractional Order Methods. As an alternative to high order methods and other less-local
operators, fractional operators are another nonlocal operator that have proven to work well in
modeling and have the advantage of not enforcing dubious assumptions of smoothness,
especially at discontinuities and interfaces. However, the nonlocality of fractional operators also
typically introduces a significant increase in computational load. Advances in novel efficient
computational methods for these operators are of interest. Army systems often operate under
rapidly-changing unpredictable and adverse conditions. It is desirable for models to be
computationally simulated and fast enough to drive decision making, exercise control, and to
help avoid disaster. Such simulations need to be created, run, and interpreted in better than real
time. Research directed towards making this goal achievable is of interest, such as: Fast Methods
for Atmospheric Physics. Modeling and prediction of local and mid-range atmospheric physics
are a key part of the domain of operations. New exploratory efforts in fast algorithms for
atmospheric physics have been identified as an area where new computational methods could
make an important impact on problems of current and future Army interest. The emphasis of
these efforts is on mathematical methods which have some promise of wider application rather
than methods limited only to specific application areas.
Reduced Order Models. Full scale simulations are often not realizable in real time. In order to
investigate the behavior of systems under a variety of possible scenarios, many runs are required.
Reduced order models are one way to enable this. Possible methods to create these models
include adaptive simplification methods based on singular value decompositions and reduced
order numerics. To be useful, all such models should be equipped with reliable estimates of
accuracy.
Problem Solving Environments. To enable rapid decision making that is driven by simulation,
it is necessary to set up simulations very quickly and obtain results in an understandable format.
Matlab is one current tool for such a problem solving environment. What are other approaches?
Embedded Simulation. As algorithms become more efficient and computational devices shrink,
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it will become increasingly possible to use real-time simulation to drive control systems. New
methods which address this goal are welcome, especially those which permit user- controlled
and/or adaptively-controlled tradeoffs between speed and accuracy. Decision Making. One valid
criticism of numerical simulation is that it takes so long to set up, run, and post-process the
results that they cannot be used in a timely manner to guide decision making. Mathematical ideas
that help address this problem are of interest.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Condensed Matter Physics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0029
TPOC: Joe X. Qiu, PhD - joe.x.qiu.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4297
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Photonics,
Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities: Assured PNT;Network/C3I
Keywords: Solid-state physics; Crystal lattices; Correlated oxides
Description:
This program strives to drive research that looks beyond the current understanding of natural and
designed condensed matter, to lay a foundation for revolutionary electronic device concepts for
future generations of warfighters.
Strong Correlations and Novel Quantum Phases of Matter. Understanding, predicting, and
experimentally demonstrating novel phases of matter in strongly correlated solid state materials
will lay a foundation for new technology paradigms for applications ranging from information
processing to sensing to novel functional materials. Interest primarily involves strong
correlations of electrons, but those of other particles or excitations are not excluded. This thrust
is currently emphasizing endeavors to determine if material properties can be significantly
altered by dressing bosonic states within materials with engineered fluctuations of the vacuum.
Topologically Non-Trivial Phases in Condensed Matter. Topologically non-trivial states of
matter in solid state materials beyond the quantum Hall phases have shown a remarkable
opportunity to advance our understanding of physics and provide a foundation for novel device
concepts. This thrust emphasizes the interaction between magnetic order and topological states.
A deeper understanding of these interactions is necessary to determine if meaningful device
concepts can be built upon them. The thrust is also broadly interested in the discovery and
engineering of new non-trivial phases, verification of non-trivial topologies and phase transitions
between trivial and non-trivial topological states.
Unique Instrumentation Development. Advanced studies of SSP phenomena often require unique
experimental techniques with tools that are not readily available. The construction and
demonstration of new methods for probing and controlling unique quantum phenomena in solid
state materials is of particular interest.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Dynamical Influences on Social Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0102
TPOC: Gregory Ruark, PhD - gregory.a.ruark.civ@army.mil - (240) 890-3591
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Mathematics and Statistics;Social Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Humans in Complex Systems;Military
Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
The overall goal of this program is to enhance fundamental understanding of the interdependent,
reciprocal, and complex relationships across social systems accounting for environmental factors
needed to enhance future warfighters' performance across operational contexts. Performance is
traditionally bounded to a task where the ability to successfully execute actions and achieve
mission objectives is a result of training and leadership. This narrow focus on the task, however,
does not account for the critical factors in everyday interactions that impacts performance: the
social system that shapes the warfighters through shared norms, values, and expectations; lived
experiences that support inter- and intra-dependence; and exogenous variables that directly and
indirectly impact quality of life. A warfighter's social systems exists among other systems -
whether embedded within larger systems, parallel to, in competition to, and/or in opposition of -
that see reciprocal influence forces exchanged between them. These social systems transcend the
task or operational environment to include garrison, schools, deployments, and other institutions
to include those outside the military that co-exist with social systems, and in combination impact
the warfighters' capabilities development. Therefore, it is important to take a holistic approach
that accounts for the human, social, and environmental elements that interact and over time
shape development to understand and predict performance levels and variability within and
across missions.
The Dynamical Influences on Social Systems program supports fundamental research to
understand how to construct, maintain, and, as necessary, reconstruct social systems within and
across environments that promote the desired social behaviors necessary for effective
performance. Successful projects will develop new innovative theoretical, methodological, and
modeling approaches to understand scalable human behaviors within complex systems and
across environments. This program has three focal areas of interest. First, create the scientific
capability to identify and assess the influence of meaningful contextual factors that consciously
and unconsciously impact ongoing affective, cognitive, and behavioral processes within and
across individuals and collectives. Second, to enable the integration of the science of time (i.e.,
the experience and perception of time) to understand cascading effects beyond first and second
order effects on social systems. Third, to understand the impact of advanced technologies that
more closely mimic human characteristics and capabilities on the evolution of various social
systems.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Earth Materials and Processes
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0007
TPOC: Jamin M. Rager, PhD - jamin.m.rager.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4313
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Data Sciences and Informatics;Earth and Environmental Sciences;Mechanics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Humans in
Complex Systems;Mechanical Sciences;Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber, and
Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: geoscience, earth science, environmental, civil engineering, urban, built
environment, atmosphere, terrain
Description:
The Earth Materials and Processes program seeks to enable maneuver, communication and
situational awareness in all terrain through understanding and prediction of the physical and
mechanical properties and behaviors of rocks, soil, and man-made earth surfaces and their
interactions with their surrounding environment. The Program is especially interested in
interdisciplinary efforts that could be eligible for cross-discipline support. Topics for
consideration include but are not limited to the following:
Investigations on the transmission of information (e.g., seismic, acoustic, or radio frequency) in
challenging environments: Of special interest are urban, high-latitude, high-altitude, and forested
environments. Access to new field areas and high-resolution data collection and modeling
provide opportunities to differentiate sources and characterize terrain.
Research on fundamental processes within the built environment: How natural and artificial
surfaces (e.g., soil, sand, or concrete) store and conduct energy depending on their spatial
relationships, inherent material properties, and imparted features such as moisture storage and
evapotranspiration. Detailed characterization of these environments will enable prediction of
geophysical and environmental processes in diverse urban settings. Investigations that support
the development, integrity, and resilience of cyber-physical systems as related to environmental
sensing are of special interest.
Science to advance environmental security: These efforts must focus on the fundamental
knowledge that will inform new approaches and tools to predict and mitigate risks posed by
changing environments and extreme weather events and to ensure access to natural resources,
including strategic minerals. Note that (1) the Program focus is on the science required to enable
development of tools and products, not the development of the tools and products themselves,
and (2) proposals must target specific Army-relevant challenges rather than general topics (e.g.,
extreme weather, climate change, natural hazards, as broadly defined). A discussion with the
program manager is encouraged to determine if a topic sufficiently addresses an Army challenge.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Electrochemistry
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0025
TPOC: Hugh C. De Long, PhD - hugh.c.delong.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4271
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Chemistry;Materials Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Energy Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: Electrochmistry, Redox, Chemistry, Transport, Electroactive
Description:
This Program supports fundamental electrochemical studies to understand and control the
physics and chemistry that govern electrochemical redox reactions and transport of species, and
how these are coupled with electrode, catalysis, electrolyte, and interface. Research includes
ionic conduction in electrolytes, electrocatalysis, interfacial electron transfer, transport through
coatings, surface films and polymer electrolytes, activation of carbon-hydrogen and
carbon-carbon bonds, and spectroscopic techniques that selectively probe electrode surfaces and
electrode-electrolyte interfaces. Novel electrochemical synthesis, investigations into the effect of
microenvironment on chemical reactivity, quantitative models of electrochemical systems, and
electrochemistry using excited electrons are also of interest. This Program is divided into two
research thrusts, although other areas of electrochemical research may be considered:
Reduction-oxidation (Redox) Chemistry and Electrocatalysis
The Redox Chemistry and Electrocatalysis thrust supports research to understand how material
and morphology affect electron transfer and electrocatalysis, to tailor electrodes and
electrocatalysts at a molecular level, and to discover new spectroscopic and electrochemical
techniques for probing surfaces and selected species on those surfaces.
Transport of Electroactive Species
The Transport of Electroactive Species thrust supports research to uncover the mechanisms of
transport through heterogeneous, charged environments such as polymers and electrolytes, to
design tailorable electrolytes based on new polymers and ionic liquids, and to explore new
methodologies and computational approaches to study the selective transport of species in
charged environments.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Electronic Sensing
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0027
TPOC: Tania M. Paskova, PhD - tania.m.paskova.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4334
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Electronics;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Future Vertical Lift;Long Range Precision Fires;Soldier
Lethality
Keywords:
Description:
This program focuses on basic research investigations leading to new electronic sensing science
that enable 100% situational awareness to include day/night, all weather, non-line-of-sight and
through natural and man-made obstructions for sensing of personnel, weapons, chemical and
biological threats. The Electronic Sensing (ES) program is currently emphasizing research
focused on materials development, including experimental, theoretical and computational studies
that design, create, and understand novel materials functionalities and device operation concepts
through advances in the fields of electronics, photonics, photoacoustics and piezo-phototronics to
enhance or enable new detection capabilities. This program is divided into two thrusts: (i) Novel
materials platforms and (ii) Advanced sensing concepts.
Novel materials platforms
This thrust seeks to push beyond the state of the art in conventional material systems, seeking
novel advanced material platforms with functionality beyond the established limits on
sensitivity. Research of interest is targeting fundamental understanding of nontraditional
materials and nanostructures of high quality enabling new phenomena and unique properties that
could lead to higher detectivity and ultrafast response at or near ambient temperature. This thrust
also supports research aimed at exploring the properties and capabilities of artificially engineered
materials platforms including, but not limited to: metamaterials; 2D vertical or lateral stacking;
azimuthally twisted mono/bilayers or chiral twisted nanowires, which can enable exotic
phenomena such as strong electron correlations, superconductivity or novel optically excited
quasiparticles such as moire excitons or trions, leading to enhanced energy transport toward the
quantum limits in efficiency. Engineered 3D photonic and artificially shaped 2D crystals into
increasingly complex 3D structures, benefitting from expansion into the additional dimension
that could allow enhanced interaction with light or enhanced chemical reactivity are also of
interest. Advances in these areas require deep understanding of mechanisms of interface
formation, new phenomena and properties arising from the unique integration of same or
dissimilar materials, calling for innovative theoretical and experimental methods.
Advanced sensing concepts
This thrust emphasizes research in design and development of tailored device architectures based
on different sensing concepts to achieve performance metrics surpassing current capabilities to
detect, recognize and identify targets and threats. The goal of this thrust is to develop new
engineered approaches to enhance the stimulus-response characteristics and improve the
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signal-to-noise ratio and conversion (transduction) of the signal to another form with higher
efficiency, while reducing all components of the noise (thermal, optical, mechanical, and
electrical) and thus enabling higher sensitivity, reliability and resilience to various environmental
factors. Of particular interest are research efforts exploring innovative hybrid architectures in
pursue of novel or multi-functionality, benefiting from various combinations of optical and
piezoelectric electromechanical resonances, nonlinear plasmonics, selective gating or field
modulation and tailored band structure when targeting different sensing modalities, such as
electro-optic, thermal, acoustic, chemical or biosensing. Other modalities and mixed concepts
that meet the Army needs for highly sensitive, fast, tunable, flexible or multimodal sensors are
also welcome. Advances in these areas require theory-guided experimental research paving the
way towards development of new generation detectors with enhanced multi-band, broad-band or
hyperspectral capabilities.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Environmental Chemistry
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0005
TPOC: Elizabeth (Liz) K. King-Doonan, PhD - elizabeth.k.king-doonan.civ@army.mil - (919)
549-4386
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Chemistry;Earth and Environmental Sciences
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Energy
Sciences;Humans in Complex Systems;Military Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: Environment, Chemistry, Fate, Transport, Climate, Arctic
Description:
The Environmental Chemistry Program seeks to support transformative research to enable
unprecedented detection, prediction, manipulation, and mitigation strategies in complex
environmental matrices. This is an interdisciplinary program that incorporates recent discoveries
in chemical, biological, and physical principles to enhance national security.
Current focus areas for this portfolio include, but are not limited to, the following:
Biogeochemical transport and transformation aims to elucidate and characterize novel
biogeochemical mechanisms that drive (or prevent) the release and/or transformation of
emerging compounds of concern within or across environmental reservoirs. Environmental
reservoirs of interest include the lithosphere (e.g., soils and sediments), biosphere (e.g., plants
and microbiome), hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
Environmental chemistry of the built environment supports research to understand the
biogeochemical interactions that are unique to built and urban environments. The reactions in
these environments are a function of the structure and partitioning of the compounds present, the
chemical and physical properties of the built/artificial materials, and the microenvironments that
form at the natural-built interface. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to)
environmental/biofilm formation on Army-relevant built materials, biological and chemical
transport in subterranean built environments, and contaminant transport and transformation
through diverse urban interfaces.
Environmental forensics strives to develop cutting-edge approaches to enable novel techniques
for detection, tracking, source partitioning, and prediction at military-relevant scales. Research
that leverages recent discoveries in other scientific fields such as biology, physics, network and
data science, and computational modeling are encouraged. Topics that focus on
instrument/sensor development and materials design are not supported.
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Environmental chemistry to inform environmental security characterizes how dynamic and
extreme weather events (e.g., fires, flooding, drought), or extreme environmental conditions
(e.g., temperature, relative humidity) alter the speciation, partitioning, transformation, and
recovery of biological and chemical compounds of interest, including critical resources.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Fluid Dynamics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0030
TPOC: Jack R. Edwards, PhD - jack.r.edwards36.civ@army.mil - 919-549-4235
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Mechanics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Future Vertical Lift;Long Range Precision Fires
Keywords: fluid, turbulence, dynamic stall,
Description:
Fluid dynamics plays a critical role in many Army operational capabilities. Accurate and
efficient prediction of the flow physics required for the design of future advanced capabilities
and improvements to the performance of existing systems is challenged by the nonlinear and
high-dimensional character of the governing equations. In addition, Army relevant platforms are
often dominated by flows with high degrees of unsteadiness, turbulence, and compressibility and
are characterized by multiple and widely separated spatio-temporal scales and geometrical
complexity of solid or flexible boundaries. The program seeks to support basic research
investigations of fundamental and novel flow physics underpinning future concepts and
capabilities for Army platforms.
The program seeks basic research proposals in the following three thrust areas:
Dynamics of Unsteady and Separated Flows
Efforts in this research area require novel and aggressive strategies for examination of the
interplay between disparate spatio-temporal scales, the inclusion of physically significant sources
of three dimensionality, and the characterization of the role of flow instabilities and nonlinear
interactions across a range of Mach and Reynolds numbers appropriate to Army aerial vehicle
and weapons systems. In all cases, the flow is characterized by a high degree of unsteadiness.
Criteria for identifying the signatures of unsteady separation and/or incipient separation are of
particular interest, as are diagnostics capable of real time measurements of such
signatures. Historical management of complexity has often resulted in scientific approaches that
lead to the elimination of potentially critical flow physics. Research efforts capable of gaining
deep understanding of highly complicated flows are likely to allow these critical physics to be
exploited.
Nonlinear Flow Interactions and Turbulence
Many Army relevant flows are governed by strong nonlinearities and are fundamentally
turbulent in nature. Historically, many analysis tools developed for linear dynamics have been
applied to gain understanding of flow behaviors. The practical usefulness of such techniques has
saturated; the ability to gain global understanding of the evolution of flows requires the
development and use of approaches that can deal directly with inherent nonlinearities. Operator
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theoretic methods are making great strides in tackling the perennial difficulties associated with
the Navier-Stokes equations. Our understanding of turbulent flows is also benefitting from new
approaches based in dynamical systems theory to build frameworks beyond the notions based on
Reynolds averaging and stochastic dynamics. By leveraging the existence of underlying
deterministic structures, significant advances in the ability to design systems capable of not just
dealing with turbulence but exploiting its dynamics may become possible. Modeling turbulent
flows near walls at high Reynolds is a continuing challenge for practical applications of
scale-resolving simulation methods. Creative numerical and theoretical constructs may benefit
from novel non-intrusive diagnostics that can accurately measure turbulent flow properties near
walls.
Dispersed-phase Interactions with Aerodynamic Surfaces
Understanding the dynamics of the interaction of dispersed phases (sand, dust, rain, frozen
precipitation) with aerodynamic surfaces is necessary to mitigate potential performance
degradations and to expand the range of applicability of Army aerospace systems. Accurate
prediction and description of dispersed-phase interactions within aerodynamic boundary layers,
with solid surfaces, and with other dispersed-phase components is needed for a better
understanding of the underlying flow physics. Advances in modeling and simulation strategies
capable of predicting near-surface dispersed phase and dense-phase effects are needed, as are
quantitative diagnostics capable of interrogating local flow phenomena that impact overall
aerodynamic performance.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Genetics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0035
TPOC: Micheline K. Strand, PhD - micheline.k.strand.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4343
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Soldier Lethality
Keywords: genetics, genetic variation, DNA barcoding, mitochondria, oxidative stress
Description:
The Genetics program supports fundamental basic research in genetics, molecular biology,
genomics, epigenetics, and systems biology in areas that are anticipated to enable improved
cognitive and physical performance capabilities, increase survivability, and enable new Army
capabilities in areas such as biomaterials, sensing and intelligence. This program emphasizes
innovative high-risk fundamental research in areas such as identification and characterization of
genetic variation, gene function, gene regulation, genetic interactions, gene pathways, gene
expression patterns, epigenetics, mitochondrial regulation and biogenesis, and nuclear and
mitochondrial DNA stability and instability. More specifically the Genetics program is currently
focused on the following questions: Can we advance our understanding of the factors that affect
mitochondrial integrity and oxidative stress? Can we further our understanding, characterization
and exploitation of genetic variation within and between species? Can we fully identify,
characterize and understand the relationships with and the effects of prokaryotes and fungi on
larger eukaryotes, including in eukaryotic organs traditionally considered to be sterile? How can
we exploit genetic pathways and genetic variation to protect soldiers and develop new Army
capabilities?
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Information Assurance
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0010
TPOC: Paul L. Yu, PhD - paul.l.yu.civ@army.mil - (240) 890-3589
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Network/C3I
Keywords: cyber defense, resiliency and robustness, trusted computing and communication,
wireless security
Description:
Information Assurance
The Information Assurance program establishes the scientific mathematical and information
processing foundations for achieving information and decision dominance under threat
conditions. Information provided to warfighters must be authentic, accurate, secure, reliable, and
timely. The research program seeks the development of foundational science to assure
information flows in autonomous cyber systems, protect their interactions with capable
adversaries, and understand how to apply and account for deception. Central to program efforts
is the resilience of complex systems in highly dynamic and congested environments that are
contested by capable adversaries.
Models and Metrics for Next Generation Systems
The program seeks foundational science to measure a complex system and provide
trustworthiness and robustness guarantees. Assurance principles and metrics are needed to help
define, develop, and evaluate future resilient systems and networks that can, with measurable
confidence, survive and recover from sophisticated attacks and intrusions. An enduring challenge
is the proactive discovery of exploits and vulnerabilities in cyber-physical systems, neural
networks, and other complex systems. Ideally, the subsequent mitigation process improves
resilience against future attacks. Deep understanding and accurate modeling of attacker-defender
interactions will also be important to improve future system development. In addition, some
areas of interest for improving warfighter performance include the development of
human-centric security and usability metrics, computational models for usable security in
stressful situations, and adaptive security protocols according to perceived threats.
Trusted Learning for Cyber Autonomy
Future Army autonomous systems, especially cyber-physical systems working alongside
soldiers, are subject to adversarial attacks during operations such as fault injection. While current
testing and verification techniques help assure system integrity prior to deployment, few of them
can help mitigate runtime risk or achieve automatic recovery after a compromise. Robustness
certification or domain adaptation at both the data processing layer and the information/decision
layer may lead to better mission sustainment and resiliency against adversarial manipulation and
exploits. Also lacking is the ability to adapt to changing operational environments, mission
requirements, and adversarial conditions. New research is sought to establish fundamental
principles for cyber autonomous system adaptation, including trusted cyber-domain learning,
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decision making, introspection, self-healing, and adaptation. Assurance of the autonomous
response for safety and correctness is critical for defense systems to maintain mission assurance.
Cyber Deception
Cyber deception is a proactive technique to degrade the adversary's effectiveness by
manipulating its cognitive state and decision process. Scientific understanding is required to
establish effective models for understanding and tracking the adversary's tactics, techniques, and
procedures (TTP) and quantify the effectiveness of deceptive maneuvers in steering the
adversary's decision processes. Deceptive cyber artifacts have been used to engage adversaries
but the dynamics between attackers and defenders, especially mental interactions, are not well
understood. Advanced methods are sought to understand adversaries through neutralized
engagements to inform effective deception schemes. Capable adversaries will also leverage
deceptive techniques in engaging with Army networks; it is critical to model deceptive
adversaries that attempt to mask their TTP, evade detection, and launch sophisticated attacks.
Trustworthy Tactical Communication
The program seeks direct guidance in the design of theory, protocols, and techniques that assure
delivery of trustworthy information over tactical wireless systems. Novel ideas in fundamental
research areas, such as information-theoretic security and game theory, may yield new
paradigms for physical layer security (ranging from confidentiality to authentication to
trustworthiness), fundamental bounds in trust management and data integrity in distributed
systems, and assured information delivery and dissemination in tactical environments. The
corresponding constructions stemming from such investigations represent a significant avenue
for improving trustworthiness of future tactical wireless communications.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Information Processing and Fusion
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0008
TPOC: John S. Hyatt, PhD - john.s.hyatt11.civ@army.mil - (240) 309-8380
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Mathematics and Statistics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
With ubiquitous data acquisition capabilities, effective data and information processing is of
critical importance to defense missions. The Information Processing and Fusion program is
concerned with the creation of innovative theories and algorithms for extracting actionable
intelligence from diverse, distributed multimodal data to support Army operations.
Foundations of Image and Multimodal Data Analysis
Innovative research is sought concerning: (1) novel representations of multimodal data to enable
the understanding of multimodal sensor data and contextual information, including nonstandard
data types beyond image and video; (2) detection, localization, and recognition of objects and
locations from image data with particular emphasis on provable performance guarantees; (3)
detection of events, actions, and activities to extract activity-based intelligence, especially when
no extensive training data is available; and (4) integrated approaches that enable semantic
descriptions of objects and events including relations. Learning and adaptation should enable the
representation at both low and high levels, where inputs from actual users of the systems are
used to improve the performance of the algorithms and the fidelity of models at all levels of the
modeling hierarchy. Of high interest are methods to exploit the structure of the data, capture its
intrinsic dimensionality, and extract information content of data, and which go beyond
correlative modeling to incorporate causality, symbolic reasoning, and physics. The development
of an "'information/complexity theory" and a "'learning theory" specific for remote sensing,
imaging data, and decision tasks is highly desirable.
Data and Information Fusion
Multimodal data acquisition systems are increasingly prevalent with disparate sensors and other
information sources, ranging in design from a finite number of locally grouped sensors to a very
large, geographically dispersed sensor network. This thrust seeks advanced mathematical
theories and approaches for integrating multimodal data and contextual information to provide
actionable intelligence. Of particular interest are systematic and unifying approaches for data and
information fusion from diverse sources with heterogeneous fidelities and timescales, varying
degrees of overlap, and differing levels of uncertainty. Scalable methods are needed for
efficiently handling vast amounts of data, as are methods for preserving data provenance and
identifying the key raw data used to generate fused representations or make predictions. Fusion
in networked environments addressing issues such as adaptive, distributed, and cooperative
fusion is emphasized. Theories and principles for performance analysis and guarantees at all
fusion levels to support robust, uncertainty-aware data and information fusion are important to
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ensure successful military operations.
Active and Collaborative Sensing
Modern sensing systems typically include multiple networked sensors with communication
capabilities where the whole network can be thought of as a meta-sensor that can be controlled,
in addition to each individual node having some controllable degrees of freedom such as
mobility for unmanned aerial/ground systems, pan-tilt-zoom for infrastructure sensors, or
waveform for agile radar. Depending on the task or query, it is desirable for the system to control
the data acquisition process to acquire the "'most informative data" for the specific task or query,
to minimize uncertainty, or to identify the type and deployment scheme of additional sensors
required. Consequently, of particular interest are methods that address the integration of
mobility, sensor-selection, modality selection, and active observation for real-time assessment
and improvements of sensing performance. Another research area of interest is
performance-driven active data collection, where a query is given to the system together with a
desired performance bound. Where the confidence in answering the query is insufficient, the
system should actively interrogate or control sensors to achieve the desired confidence. Such an
active learning and information-driven sensor control should include the user in the feedback
loop.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Knowledge Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0033
TPOC: Robert St. Amant - robert.a.stamant2.civ@army.mil - (240) 927-2060
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Economics;Mathematics and
Statistics;Network Science;Social Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Network/C3I;Next Generation Combat Vehicle;Synthetic
Training Environment
Keywords: Game Theory; Natural Language Processing; Decision Making; AI as software;
Problem Solving
Description:
The overall objective of the Knowledge Systems program is to augment human decision makers
(both commanders and Soldiers) with enhanced-embedded battlefield intelligence that will
provide them with the necessary situational awareness, reconnaissance, and decision making
tools to decisively defeat any future adversarial threats. While software agents will likely be the
decision aide, it turns out robots also need planning and decision tools and need to be able to
understand their human handlers/ colleagues. Given these objectives, it becomes necessary to
understand (a) fundamentals of what intelligence means in the context of autonomous systems
and how to build intelligent systems especially as it relates to interaction amongst a network of
humans and machines, and (b) foundational algorithmic issues in representation and reasoning
about networks inherent in societies and nature.
Information Networks
In order to model network effects it is necessary to algorithmically represent large networks and
reason about them. Unfortunately, information about networks is seldom complete - data
available might be missing crucial pieces of information, might have contradictory pieces of
information, or could be approximate (with associated notions of uncertainty). Representing and
reasoning about these networks requires advances in knowledge representation, graph and data
mining, natural language processing, algorithmic graph theory, machine learning, and
uncertainty quantification and reasoning. Examples include the emerging area of Graphons
which provide new tools for generating and reasoning about graphs that occur in practice
(satisfying power law distributions), but also provide new tools for Machine Learning. In
particular, a major goal of this thrust are tools and techniques that allow data driven approaches
to capturing latent relationships with powers to both explain and predict. Advances in this thrust
would not only lead to improved autonomous systems and algorithms, but also
enhanced-embedded battlefield intelligence with tools for creating necessary situational
awareness, reconnaissance, and decision making. Finally, it should be noted that algorithmic
notions of approximations, tight performance bounds, probabilistic guarantees, etc., would be
major concerns of the solution space.
Adversarial Reasoning
Development of appropriate mathematical tools to model and reason about societies and cultures,
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that brings together tools from Game Theory, Social Sciences and Knowledge Representation.
Research of interest includes, but is not limited to, Game Theory for security applications while
accounting for bounded rationality, development of Game Theory based on data regarding
cultural and adversarial groups, and Behavioral Game Theory that can explain intelligence in
groups and societies. In particular, the role of human biases in decision making and game theory
is of importance to this thrust of the program.
Natural Language Processing and Affective Computing
Inference algorithms work incredibly well when data is in a structured format. However, most
reports, email, and conversations are written out as text with information embedded in them.
This thrust seeks advances in purposeful Natural Language Processing at scale that can account
for context and mode-switches by bringing together statistical and logical methods. Indeed, when
combined with other signals, such as video signals, the inter-play of non-verbal and verbal/
textual communication provides rich contextual information, which, in turn, leads to accurate
information being gleaned from an interaction.
Engineering AI Systems
AI systems are insular, brittle, dependent on massive amounts of data, and with no avenues for
composition. While notions of type systems, effect systems, assume-guarantee assertions, and
procedural and process abstractions are all now available to describe and compose software
components, similar notions of modularity are critically needed for building AI systems from
small learning-based components. There are examples such as model-cards and data-sheets that
are now available, which along with notions of Probabilistic Programming could provide the
necessary basis. However, there are a number of problems, especially in the context of Deep
Neural Networks, that still need to be addressed. The necessary science required to address AI
safety - rigorous specifications for composition, run-time monitoring, self-healing, reasoning,
etc., are all of interest to this program.
Afore mentioned problems of interest deal with tools for producing robust AI
systems. However, the task of designing and building AI systems from scratch - from vague
definitions of problem to be solved - is still open. An enormous amount of insight and effort
may go into the process of turning an ambiguous description into a formal problem specification
amenable to an AI solution. What data sources are relevant? What structure can be identified in
the problem space? What makes one family of solution techniques better than another? Which
measures should be adopted for evaluating the quality of a solution? Research on problem
formulation and formalization can be found in the literature, with results in some specialized
areas such as concept learning for DNNs, general game playing, and historical work on
formalizing data analysis procedures. General solutions are lacking, however, which has a
bearing on current challenges in AI (e.g. under-specification for ML systems) and may
contribute to the relatively slow adoption of AI in some high-stakes domains (e.g. clinical
practice in medicine). The need is more than simply for automated tools to assist AI
developers. Rather, the scientific question to be answered concerns the extent to which the
informal process of problem formulation can be formalized.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Materials Design
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0012
TPOC: Evan L. Runnerstrom, PhD - evan.l.runnerstrom.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4259
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Chemistry;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Photonics,
Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities: Soldier Lethality
Keywords: self-assembly, soft materials, colloids, functional materials, metamaterials,
Description:
The overarching goal of the Materials Design program is to establish new smart materials
concepts by pursuing fundamental science that exploits multiple physical and chemical forces at
play during directed self-assembly to create stimuli-responsive, multifunctional materials with
designer geometries, hierarchical complexity, and the ability to dynamically switch among
configurations, thereby enabling the future Warfighter to adapt to any environment or situation.
Bottom-up materials science, functional materials, and soft matter are the unifying themes of the
Materials Design program. The program supports experimental, theoretical, and computational
advances to better design, create, understand, and manipulate novel functional materials from the
bottom up. The foundations established here support the realization of 3D metamaterials,
reconfigurable optics and electronics, bio-mimetic materials, and multi-functional materials that
dynamically respond to their environment.
The Science of Self-Assembly supports basic research into the multiple physical and chemical
forces at play during directed, bottom-up 3-D assembly into super-structures incorporating
multiple components. The goal is to design novel self-assembled materials that would be
impossible to create using top-down techniques. Self-assembling materials systems of interest
include: colloids; nanocrystals; liquid crystals; functional biomaterials and bio-hybrid materials;
and/or hybrids (e.g., polymeric composites) of these materials. Specific research interests
include: non-equilibrium and dissipative self-assembly; 3-D photonic crystals and structural
color; interactions between self-assembled materials and water; and non-traditional assembly
directing forces (e.g., turbulence).
Reconfigurable Materials supports the design and synthesis of soft matter capable of reversible
transformations. The goal is to elucidate the design rules for creating novel functional materials
with dynamic property contrast and/or emergent behavior and develop new methods to
"'program" materials with the ability to respond in specific ways to external stimuli.
Reconfigurable materials systems of interest include: bio-mimetic materials; liquid crystal
elastomers; colloidal metamaterials; 3D/4D metamaterials; and active matter. Specific research
interests include: 3D/4D printing of functional materials with molecular-scale precision;
materials that form reconfigurable networks; "'natural" (i.e., non-robotic) active matter capable
of autonomous collective behavior and/or computation, and, in particular, materials capable of
changing their shape, color, or texture.
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Computer-aided Materials Design seeks to leverage recent advances in machine learning,
artificial intelligence, computational materials science, and other numerical approaches to solve
difficult materials design problems, particularly those in soft matter, self-assembly, and
reconfigurable materials. Points of interest include inverse design of self-assembled materials;
data-driven design of heterogeneous hierarchical materials; and novel models or algorithms for
solving materials-specific problems. Specific research interests include: "'self-driving" materials
simulations; unified simulation approaches that bridge all time- and length-scales of interest; and
designing soft materials to perform AI/ML computations (e.g., physical artificial neural
networks).
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Mechanical Behavior of Materials
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0001
TPOC: Daniel P. Cole, PhD - daniel.p.cole.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4371
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Chemistry;Data Sciences and Informatics;Materials Science;Mathematics and
Statistics;Mechanics;Network Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Sciences of Extreme Materials;Terminal
Effects;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
This program focuses on basic research investigations that enable unprecedented mechanical
properties in advanced structural materials in order to ensure high performance under a variety of
extreme and highly variable operational conditions. Experimental, theoretical, and numerical
efforts are encouraged, particularly those that promote understanding of the underlying physical
mechanisms leading to extraordinary behaviors. Studies may focus on a variety of materials,
including: metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, and hybrid structures. Research efforts that
leverage recent discoveries in other scientific fields, such as Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics,
Network Science and Data Science, are also highly encouraged. These investigations are
expected to enable transformative capabilities for the Soldier in the areas of protection,
maneuver, and sustainability. Current focus areas for this portfolio include, but are not limited to,
the following:
Extreme Thermomechanical Behaviors. This thrust emphasizes foundational concepts that
enable structural materials with extraordinary combinations of ultrahigh temperature stability
and exceptional mechanical properties under non-equilibrium conditions, e.g. transient thermal
loads, high g-loading, and/or variable oxidizing environments. Areas of interest include:
Understanding, control, or confinement of deformation mechanisms; exploiting
interface/interphase interactions in heterogeneous materials; and concepts enabling materials to
undergo refinement under relevant conditions to enhance thermomechanical performance.
Disruptive Mechanical Responsiveness. This thrust focuses on structural materials with
unprecedented mechanical responsiveness when subject to complex loading environments, e.g.
severe and/or high strain rate events. Areas of interest include materials that actively respond to
dynamic loading environments and other external stimuli through rapid adaptation of shape,
topology, mechanical properties, and/or through the ability to intrinsically process information.
In addition, this thrust seeks concepts for manipulation of mechanical forces within materials at
specific spatial locations, particularly for the consideration of inelastic behaviors.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Microbiology
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0006
TPOC: Robert J. Kokoska, PhD - robert.j.kokoska2.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4342
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems;Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
This program supports basic research in fundamental microbiology that can help advance needs
in Soldier protection and performance. There are two primary research thrusts within this
program: (i) Microbial Survival Mechanisms in Challenging and Extreme Environments and (ii)
Analysis and Engineering of Microbial Communities.
The Microbial Survival Mechanisms in Challenging and Extreme Environments thrust focuses
on the study of the cellular and genetic mechanisms and responses that underlie bacterial,
archaeal and fungal survival in the face of environmental stress, as well as the ability of these
microbes to thrive under those conditions. These stressors include extremes in temperature, pH,
or salinity; the presence of toxins including metals and toxic organic molecules; oxidative stress;
and cellular starvation and the depletion of specific nutrients. Included here is the study of
microbial metabolism under conditions of slow growth and the transitions into and out of slow
growth phases. Research approaches can include fundamental studies of microbial physiology
and metabolism, cell biology, and molecular genetics that examine key cellular networks linked
to survival and environmental adaptation, microbial cell membrane structure, and the dissection
of relevant critical signal transduction pathways and other sense-and-respond mechanisms.
The Analysis and Engineering of Microbial Communities thrust supports basic research that
addresses the fundamental principles that drive the formation, proliferation, sustenance and
robustness of microbial communities through reductionist, systems-level, ecological and
evolutionary approaches. Bottom-up analysis of nutrient consumption, information exchange,
signaling interactions, spatial/temporal effects, structure-function relationships, and biosynthetic
output for single and multi-species communities within the context of planktonic and both native
and engineered biofilm architectures is considered. The use of these approaches for the analysis
of model microbial systems that address the biology of mammalian and environmental
microbiomes are welcome. Of joint interest with the ARO Biomathematics Program, research
efforts that advance the ability to work with biological data sets toward an understanding of
microbiological systems marked by ever-increasing complexity are encouraged.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Modeling of Complex Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0020
TPOC: Robert S. Martin, PhD - robert.s.martin163.civ@army.mil - (301) 580-7573
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Mathematics and Statistics;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber,
and Computational Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: data assimilation, inverse problems, model closure, geometric data analysis,
information theory, sparsity, data compression
Description:
The Modeling of Complex Systems Program is a program of fundamental mathematics
oriented research directed at addressing the critical challenges resulting from the approximate
nature of mathematical models that are particularly exacerbated by complex macroscopic
phenomena. While models have traditionally relied on tuned, empirically inspired closures, this
program seeks to rigorously explore the bounds of model predictive power through the
development of coupled nonlinear uncertainty propagation methodologies and novel data
assimilation techniques for the self-consistent integration of observed data within constrained
modeling frameworks. By leveraging available prior knowledge such as conservation laws,
invariances, symmetries, graph interaction structure, and information geometry, the program
seeks to improve predictive horizons beyond naive interpolative data fitting across a variety of
disciplines. The program particularly seeks modeling frameworks that can be adapted to span a
variety of disciplines where complete first principle descriptions are unavailable,
computationally inaccessible, or that require inference of missing and incomplete information in
problem descriptions to enable rapid predictions for applications ranging from anomaly detection
to design and planning. Although they break down into more specific research directions, the
three thrust areas of interest to the Modeling of Complex Systems Program are 1) development
and analysis of new, general, outer-loop modeling and data assimilation frameworks 2)
validation metrics for models of complex phenomena that avoid overfitting phenomena and 3)
data topology, hierarchical compression, and nonlinear sparsity in quantifying optimal minimal
model state representations across the range of observed emergent system complexities.
Note that the research in modeling of complex phenomena supported by the Modeling of
Complex Systems Program is primarily mathematical analysis and not numerical analysis or
computational mathematics. Rather than demonstrating asymptotic convergence of numerical
methods to an assumed mathematical model form, the goal instead is in the development of
frameworks capable of asymptotic convergence of predicted uncertainty bounds to observed
distributions under the assumptions of finite complexity computation and limited data
availability.
Models of particular complex systems that address and are to be utilized for more specific
purposes and objectives will be assessed within the context of one of the program's other
modeling thrust areas. Research carried out under this section should address the general theory
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and analysis of mathematical modeling from a broader perspective.
Furthermore, any modeling research effort that could be of benefit to military applications but
that might not fall directly under one or more of the program thrust areas will still be considered,
particularly if the innovation in the modeling and analysis are significant and noteworthy.
The three major areas and subsequent sub-areas of research for the Modeling of Complex
Systems Program are described further below.
Outer-Loop Modeling Frameworks and Analysis
Mathematical modeling is fundamental to nearly every other direction of research in the
physical, social, and computational sciences. A common element of modeling - even if the
phenomenon in question is highly complex - is truncation and simplification that sacrifices
realistic application and utility for computational tractability. This is particularly true for
enabling outer-loop models such as those used in design optimization, uncertainty quantification,
model predictive control, and inverse problems. Where necessary, data-driven simplifications
motivated by observed regularity with corresponding uncertainty bounds are preferred to ad hoc
assumptions. Modeling frameworks are desired that are able to eschew the usual computational
simplification assumptions and realistically capture, adequately govern and/or control, and
effectively operate within the particular complexities of real-world environments and
phenomena, while maintaining sufficient computational tractability to provide testable
predictions at relevant timescales. Of specific interest are hybrid model frameworks that capture
both causal and predictive features, data assimilation in compressed spaces, probabilistic
modeling frameworks for the nonlinear evolution of uncertainty, and applications of categorical
models.
Validation Metrics
A critical component of any mathematical modeling framework, reliable validation metrics are
required to attain confidence in model predictions. Traditional metrics, such as a few low
moments of quantities of interest, often leave system characteristics unconstrained for
phenomena in which observers in general and the Army in particular may later become
interested. This is particularly true of rare event and heavy-tailed phenomena. With the
application of increased model complexity to many complex phenomena, as in the case of highly
parameterized purely data-driven models, new metrics need to be developed to balance model
expressivity with the risk of overfitting. Approaches for understanding the bounds of model
validity near mode transition boundaries where model assumptions fail are also particularly
critical. As is the case for the modeling effort, these metrics should preferably be in a complete
mathematical analytical framework, which is to say, in part, that they should derive from the
problem in question and its inherent complexity as opposed to a situation in which one forces the
model to fit an a priori chosen metric. Further, with the proliferation of post-hoc data-mining,
development of rigorous metrics that are resilient to overfitting are particularly critical.
Data Topology, Hierarchical Compression, and Nonlinear Sparsity
Representation of complex, irregular geometric objects and complicated, often high-dimensional,
abstract phenomena, functions, and processes is fundamental for Army, DoD, and civilian needs.
These compressed representations are often a critical initial step in modeling of any complex
system. Such needs arise in the multiscale models of physical phenomena, coarse-graining,
sociological and biological objects, information flow, and many other contexts. While any finite
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representation of real data is necessarily lossy, finding efficient spaces that retain the information
necessary for a given prediction task is a critical component of building computationally
tractable models. Any research that incorporates an innovative information geometric and/or
topological approach to address a problem with military, defense, and intelligence applications is
welcome and will be considered, but there are three specific threads that are of particular interest
to this thrust of the program: 1) geometric data analysis, and 2) multiscale geometric modeling,
including dynamics and physical modeling on domains with fine, complex, geometric and/or
topological structure and 3) the fundamental mathematical structure of closure models.
Geometric data analysis includes - among other subfields - topological data analysis, subspace
analysis, manifold learning, empirical dynamic modeling, and dimension reduction techniques.
Current research directions of importance to Army applications include video, audio, and image
processing (i.e. mathematical signal analysis), fast and accurate object recognition (i.e.
reconstructing and matching geometric data through queries over a database), embedology,
causal inference, geometrically motivated methods and structures for working effectively with
large - and often real-time extracted - data sets that may be corrupted in some way (e.g. missing
or distorted data), and the application of persistent homology in the detection and classification
of signals by shape. New approximation theory that does not require the classical assumptions -
primarily smoothness - and that provides structure for the many new non-smooth approximation
techniques currently under investigation is required. Concurrently, research on the metrics by
which we measure and evaluate the approximation is needed.
Additionally, approximation theory for information flow and other abstract phenomena in large
wireless communication, sensor and social networks is also of interest. The approximation
theory developed under support of this program is expected to provide building blocks for
computational geometry, pattern recognition, automatic target recognition, visualization systems,
information processing and network information flow.
Multiscale geometric modeling, analysis, and dynamics are of particular interest, both in the
context of models of physical phenomena over real-world terrain and in the aforementioned
complex, high-dimensional data structures. Models that make use of self-similar structures and
recursively defined spaces (e.g. fractals, solenoids, etc.) would be of great interest in adapting or
enhancing current techniques in areas such as data mining, fluid and heat flow, and search,
evasion, deployment, and maneuver over complex terrain that exhibits self-similar properties
(e.g. urban or mountainous terrain). Current techniques for dealing with complex dynamical
processes and large, noisy, and possibly corrupted data sets could be greatly improved in both
the time and efficiency realms by employing techniques from scale symmetry, which often
allows one to reduce a large and unwieldy number of variables to a more manageable problem if
the variables are appropriately scaled.
Finally, closure models, and particularly those that exploit self-similarity or other structural
invariances, are of interest. However, reliance on model closures remains contingent on the
development of rigorous mathematical foundations for highly parameterized models such as
those arising from neural network approximations in establishing convergence properties,
uniqueness, and equivalence of the resulting inferred maps.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Modern Optics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0009
TPOC: James A. Joseph, PhD - james.a.joseph30.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4213
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Network,
Cyber, and Computational Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
The objective of this program is to promote a deeper understanding of the properties of light and
the discovery of new optical effects that can improve Army capabilities. Most sensing and
communications systems depend on light in some way. This program seeks transformational
basic science discoveries in optical physics that are needed to enable dynamic control of light for
remote sensing, information routing, and energy transmission. In order to accomplish this goal,
the Modern Optics Program targets new or emerging phenomena related to quantum optics,
light-matter interactions, structured light and ultra-short pulse lasers.
Quantum Photonics. This thrust seeks to push beyond the state of the art in photonics and
integrated optical platforms, seeking novel functionality beyond classical limits on sensitivity,
accuracy, and stability. Research efforts may include studies addressing complexity and loss in
integrated optical systems, scalable realizations of multi-photon quantum states or quantum light
sources, and novel laser platforms to probe or manipulate quantum information in physical
qubits. Basic science understanding is needed to push integrated photonics into the quantum
regime which will be essential for next generation quantum technology.
Meta-Optics. This thrust looks for novel functionality enabled by optical metamaterials. In this
area, the conventional norms of classical optics will be broken. Examples include resolution
beyond the diffraction limit, super-lensing, as well as subwavelength control of optical fields.
Proposals related to non-Hermitian optics and the physics of exceptional points, where these
concepts are utilized to fabricate photonic structures with novel properties and sensors with
precision beyond the state of the art are sought. In general, any phenomena arising from optical
metamaterials that would benefit the Soldier and improve Army capabilities will be considered.
Extreme Light. This thrust focuses on extreme light, meaning the examination of optical fields in
extreme limits, such as shortest pulse and/or high intensity. General areas of study under this
thrust include, THz formation, broadband localized radiation, coherent control of atomic and
molecular energy states, plasma effects in materials, and relativistic plasma physics. Theoretical
and experimental research efforts are needed to push beyond the state of the art in ultrafast
science and to understand how extreme light interacts with matter.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Multi-Agent Network Control
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0031
TPOC: Derya Cansever, PhD - derya.h.cansever.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4282
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber,
and Computational Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Long Range Precision Fires;Network/C3I;Next Generation
Combat Vehicle
Keywords: Control, Reinforcement Learning, Quantum, Multi-Agent, Distributed, Data Driven,
Networked Systems
Description:
The objective of the Multi-Agent Network Control program is to establish the physical,
mathematical and information processing foundations for the control of complex dynamic
networks with possibly multiple controllers that may operate using different information sets.
The research program seeks the development of novel mathematical and computational methods
for the modeling and control of the collective behavior of large-scale networked systems
controlled by of heterogeneous agents which may or may not follow a common goal. Autonomy
is central to program efforts to support anticipated dynamics of the future battle space.
Requirements of such environments may include mobility, effective sensor coverage, efficient
information flow, responsiveness to support the military goals of information superiority,
dominant maneuver and precision engagement.
Distributed and Time-Varying Control of Networked Systems
Distributed control techniques play a major role in the analysis and synthesis of networked
systems. They have been successfully used in robotics for replicating self-organized behaviors
found in nature (e.g., bird flocking, fish schooling, and synchronization) and in developing
applications such as formation control, rendezvous, robot coordination, and distributed
estimation. Many dynamic systems are, or can be made time-varying, and they may be subject to
possibly abrupt transitions of the states, and hard to predict disturbances and external effects.
Innovative methods that incorporate, and even exploit time varying nature of distributed systems
for establishing their stability, robustness and optimality is of interest. Analysis and control of
networked non-linear systems where standard linearization methods are not satisfactorily
applicable is also sought. Potential use of techniques such as geometry, graph theory, topological
analysis and other innovative methods are encouraged.
Data Driven Control and Learning
Control of systems with unknown dynamics and methods to reduce their uncertainties has been
part of mainstream control systems research, examples of which include Reinforcement Learning
(RL), Adaptive Control, and in general data driven control. Reinforcement Learning is shown to
be closely related to Stochastic Dynamic Programming, which enabled successful leveraging of
significant body of research of the latter. However, data driven controls such as RL face
significant challenges, including computational complexity, very long convergence times, and
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lack of sufficiently rich training data. Hybrid approaches that properly incorporate prior or
learned models of the systems to be controlled into the problem formulation are emerging and
their furthering is encouraged in this program. Broadly, research to address fundamental issues in
data driven control is sought. Those include, but not limited to, efficient computation methods
that allow real-time operations without sacrificing precision, scalability, optimization algorithms
that address the occurrence of multiple local minima encountered in learning and developing
systematic methods for reliable transfer of learning from other experiments. Use and advancing
of control theoretical tools such as stability analysis, non-convex optimization, and other
innovative approaches to address these open problems is encouraged. New insights to RL
algorithms which may extend, modify, or replace standard Markovian formulations are desired.
Extensions of RL techniques to networked systems featuring multiple controllers with
applications to autonomy and coordination among interacting agents are sought. Innovative
research focused on adaptive control, and system identification techniques to reduce
uncertainties and facilitate optimal or near-optimal control is also in scope.
Control of Quantum Systems and novel applications of control theory
Innovative tools and methodology from control theory could provide new insights and
approaches to pave the path for solving some of the outstanding problems in quantum, such as
maintaining coherence and stability of Quantum Qubits and their entangled states. Capabilities
enabled by quantum computers are expected to surpass their classical counterparts in the future.
However, maintaining the desired state of qubits remains a fundamental problem encountered in
the realization of quantum computers and quantum networks. Adaptation of control theoretical
tools and approaches in enhancing the stability of coherence of qubits and reducing the impact of
noise in quantum gates and their operations could provide new research opportunities in the
control of networked quantum systems.
Researching and devising other applications of control theory in areas that are relevant to the
Army and that could advance the state of control theory itself is of interest. Among novel
applications of potential interest is the study of control functions acting on neural circuits that are
distributed in the brain. These interactions include synchronization, but their fundamental
principles and underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Modeling and analysis of these
phenomena could provide novel research opportunities in the control of networked systems.
Similarly, study of biological systems has unveiled control architectures that are not encountered
in industrial control systems. Understanding the principles, analyzing the effectiveness of such
naturally occurring control systems and their potential adaptation to the control of man-made
applications could be an area of fertile research.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Neurophysiology of Cognition
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0016
TPOC: Chou P. Hung, PhD - chou.p.hung.civ@army.mil - (240) 962-0229
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Mathematics
and Statistics;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
The Neurophysiology of Cognition program supports non medically oriented high-risk
high-reward basic research that will enable discovery of the appropriate molecular, cellular,
systems and behavioral-level codes underlying cognition and performance across multiple time
scales. An overarching goal of the program is to foster advances in a broad range of
experimental, computational and theoretical approaches applied to animal models and humans as
well as data. Inquiries are strongly encouraged for projects that include recent methodological
advances to assess and augment the nervous system (i.e., electrophysiological, imaging or
computational). Basic research opportunities are sought in two primary research thrusts within
this program: (i) Evolutionary and Revolutionary Interactions and (ii) Neural Computation.
Evolutionary and Revolutionary Interactions (with Real and Mixed Worlds)
The Evolutionary and Revolutionary Interactions thrust aims to understand evolutionary
neurophysiological processes that enable complex task performance in both unstructured and
structured real-world environments. Foundational research is encouraged to uncover biological
mechanisms and to concurrently develop efficient and adaptive computational and modeling
frameworks that abstract cognitive phenomena such as anticipatory sensing, automatic learning,
complex decision-making, and rapid adaptive action. How these neural phenomena translate
across teams of human and AI agents and span wider ranges of spatiotemporal scales and task
complexities is of particular importance. Experimental approaches building upon man-made
structured and mixed environments with increasingly complex, information-rich/poor/deceptive
and cooperative/competitive features will be most informative. Also, foundational research to
understand and improve cognitive performance and to avoid cognitive failures by understanding
(across neuromechanistic, glymphatic, and neurocomputational levels) sleep and mitigation of
cognitive fatigue due to physiological and environmental stressors is of high value.
Neural Computation, Information Coding, and Translation
The Neural Computation thrust is focused on broadening understanding of the mechanisms
employed by neural circuits and systems to generate desirable computations and to learn and
adapt from few examples. Research in this thrust can broadly address research in areas such as
studying aspects of multiscale information processing dynamics mediating computations among
neurons, glial cells and blood vessels as well as identifying how these circuits and circuit
architectures generate desirable computations over multiple timescales, discovering mechanisms
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for bidirectional control. Mathematical and computational frameworks are encouraged for
closed-loop prediction and control of neural dynamics and to translate across divergent
information types (e.g. differing in information capacity, throughput, modality, processing
architectures, levels of abstraction). Focus should be paid to uncovering fundamental principles
of neural system adaptations required to solve unstructured problems, infer expectations of
teammates and adversaries and of tasks and the environment, and estimating rewards for
complex decisions. Integrative approaches involving combinations of experimentation, theory
and mechanistic modeling are highly encouraged, for both biological and novel hybrid
living-nonliving frameworks.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Optoelectronics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0019
TPOC: Michael D. Gerhold, PhD - michael.d.gerhold.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4357
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Electronics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Energy
Sciences;Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences;Photonics,
Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities: Air and Missile Defense;Network/C3I;Next Generation
Combat Vehicle
Keywords: optoelectronics, photonics, semiconductor
Description:
Research in this subarea includes novel semiconductor structures, processing techniques, and
integrated optical components. The generation, guidance and control of UV through infrared
signals in semiconductor, dielectric, and metallic materials are of interest. The Army has
semiconductor laser research opportunities based on low dimensional semiconductor structures
(quantum dots, wells, wires, etc.) operating in the eye-safer (>1.4), 3-5, and 8-12 microns regions
for various applications, such as LIDAR, infrared countermeasures, and free space/integrated
data links. Components and sources in the UV/visible spectral ranges (particularly < 300 nm)
may be of interest as well. Research is necessary in semiconductor materials growth and device
processing to improve the efficiency and reliability of the output of devices at these wavelengths.
However, near infrared or wavelength agnostic device advances can be explored for potential
impact on various material systems and wavelengths of interest.
Research that leads to an increase in the data rate of optoelectronic structures is sought.
Interfacing of optoelectronic devices with electronic processors will be investigated for full
utilization of available bandwidth. Electro-optic components will be studied for use in guided
wave data links for interconnections and optoelectronic integration, all requirements for
high-speed full situational awareness. Optical interconnect components are needed in
guided-wave data links for computer interconnection and in free-space links for optical
switching and processing. For high-speed optical signal processing as well as potential for power
scaling, research on individual and 1 or 2-D arrays of surface or edge-emitting lasers is
necessary. Spectral and coherent beam combining approaches for integrated photonics need
more exploration. Research addressing efficient, novel optical components for high-speed
switching based on electro-optic materials, nanostructures, metamaterials or other regimes may
be of interest. Emitters and architectures for novel display and processing of battlefield imagery
are important.
Research on components and sub-elements of photonic circuits used in neuromorphic photonic
information processing and computation are of interest. Photonic processing within a photonic
integrated circuit (PIC) requires smaller and more energy efficient modulator devices on the
order of 5 microns and 1 femtojoule/bit. Modulation bandwidth of 10 Gb/s or more, and
insertion loss of 0.1 dB or less are needed to cascade modulators with less than 1 dB/cm total
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W911NF23S0001 Amendment 02

U.S. ARMY COMBAT CAPABILITIES
DEVELOPMENT COMMAND (DEVCOM)
ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY
BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
W911NF-23-S-0001-0002
21 November 2022 – 20 November 2027
ISSUED BY:
U.S. Army Contracting Command
Aberdeen Proving Ground
Research Triangle Park Division
P. O. Box 12211
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211

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Special Notes
1. Formatting of the Announcement
The following table provides an overview of the outline structure of this announcement:
I.
A.
1.
a.
i.
(1)
(a)
(i)
2. See Appendix 1 for a Table of Acronyms used in this announcement.
3. See Appendix 2 for a Schedule of Amendments. Applicants are encouraged to frequently
check grants.gov, sam.gov, and the ARL website (www.arl.army.mil/) for updates and
amendments to this BAA. Special Notices issued against this BAA will be posted to sam.gov.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY 1
A. Required Overview Content 3
1. Agency Name 3
2. Research Opportunity Title 3
3. Announcement Type 3
4. Research Opportunity Number 3
5. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number 3
and Title
6. Response Dates 3
B. Additional Overview Information 3
II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING 5
OPPORTUNITY
A. Program Description 5
1. Foundational Research Topics of Interest 5
2. Army Research Directorate Targeted Opportunities 6
3. Army Research Office Targeted Opportunities 7
a. Single Investigator Award 7
b. Short-Term Innovative Research Award 7
c. Early Career Program 8
d. Research Instrumentation Program 9
e. Conference and Symposia Grants 10
B. Federal Award Information 12
C. Eligibility Information 15
1. Eligible Applicants 15
2. Cost Sharing or Matching 15
3. Other 15
D. Application and Submission Information 16
1. Address to View Broad Agency Announcement 16
2. Content and Form of Application Submission 16
3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award 30
Management (SAM)
4. Submission Dates and Times 31
5. Intergovernmental Review 32
6. Funding Restrictions 32
7. Other Submission Requirements 32
E. Proposal Review Information 33
1. Evaluation Criteria 33
2. Review and Selection Process 34
3. Recipient Qualification 41
F. Award Administration Information 44
1. Award Notices 44
2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements 44

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a. Required Representations and Certifications 44
b. Policy Requirements 48
3. Reporting 54
G. Agency Contacts 55
H. Other Information 56
1. Contract Proposals 56
2. Grant and Cooperative Agreement Proposals 63
APPENDIX 1: TABLE OF ACRONYMS 68
APPENDIX 2: SCHEDULE OF AMENDMENTS 71

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I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
The purpose of this combined Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) under Federal Acquisition
Regulation (FAR) Part 35 and Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) under 2 Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR) 200.204 (henceforth referred to as “BAA”) is to solicit research
proposals for submission to the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command
(DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) for funding consideration.
Prior to this announcement, ARL announced two separate BAAs to support the mission: 1)
W911NF-17-S-0002 titled “Army Research Laboratory Army Research Office Broad Agency
Announcement for Fundamental Research”; and 2) W911NF-17-S-0003 titled “Army Research
Laboratory Broad Agency Announcement for Basic and Applied Scientific Research”. This
announcement succeeds BAA W911NF-17-S-0002 and BAA W911NF-17-S-0003 combining the
opportunities into a single announcement.
ARL’s mission as the Army’s foundational research laboratory is to Operationalize Science to
ensure overmatch in any future conflict. ARL’s foundational research mission spans basic
research (budget activity 6.1) and applied research (budget activity 6.2) as defined by 32 CFR
22.105 but may include advanced technology development (budget activity 6.3) and advanced
component development and prototypes (budget activity 6.4) when opportunities arise to directly
or indirectly help achieve ARL’s mission. ARL partners across the national security enterprise to
deliver fundamentally advantageous change that is rooted in the creation and exploitation of
scientific knowledge.
Whitepapers for initial concept reviews and full proposals are sought from institutions of higher
education, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, foreign organizations, foreign
public entities, and for-profit organizations (i.e. large and small businesses) for scientific research
that supports the ARL mission and the published ARL research topics of interest. Whitepapers
and full proposals are expected to be for cutting-edge innovative research that could produce
discoveries having a significant impact on enabling new and improved Army operational
capabilities and related technologies.
In an effort to provide ARL's research topics and related information in an easy to digest format
with search and filter options, ARL has published the following public website listing all current
ARL research topics: https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, hereafter referenced as the
ARL BAA topics website. Changes to these topics will be made using this website on an as
needed basis. A change to the ARL BAA topics website is not an amendment to this BAA and
will not be posted on https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/. A change to this document,
the BAA itself, is an amendment and will be posted on https://www.grants.gov/ and
https://sam.gov/. ARL will maintain a daily static snapshot of the ARL BAA topics website to
ensure submissions are aligned with listed research topics on the day of submission.
Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse the ARL BAA topics website for white
paper and proposal topics that ARL desires to explore. These specific research topics should be
viewed as suggestive, rather than limiting. ARL is always interested in considering other
innovative research concepts of relevance to the Army if those concepts align with ARL's mission.
Please see Section II, Detailed Information about the Funding Opportunity, for more information
1

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on the ARL research topics advertised through this BAA. Interested parties should also review
https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/ to obtain the latest version of the BAA for
whitepaper and proposal submission requirements.
To conserve valuable applicant and Government resources, and to facilitate determining whether a
proposed research idea meets the guidelines described herein, prospective applicants
contemplating submission of a whitepaper or proposal are strongly encouraged to contact an ARL
Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) to first discuss the concept. The TPOCs’ names and contact
information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics website.
After initial contact with an ARL TPOC, if an applicant elects to submit a whitepaper or proposal,
it should be prepared in accordance with the instructions contained in this BAA. Upon receipt, a
whitepaper will be reviewed by the ARL TPOC and a recommendation will be provided to the
applicant with either “encouraged to submit a proposal” or “not encouraged to submit a proposal”
based on the review and availability of funding. A whitepaper is not required to submit a proposal.
Proposals may be submitted at any time while this BAA is open.
The proposal submission guidelines differ for each legal instrument; therefore, applicants are
advised to follow the specific applicable guidelines listed in this BAA for the type of instrument
they are proposing. This BAA provides submission guidelines for proposals for FAR-based
procurement contracts, as well as assistance instruments and other transactions. Upon review of a
proposal, the government will advise applicants on the most appropriate instrument for the
proposed work.
In accordance with federal statutes, regulations, and Department of Defense and Army policies, no
person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from
participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or
activity receiving financial assistance from the Army.
Applicants submitting proposals are cautioned that only a Contracting Officer, Grants Officer, or
Agreements Officer can obligate the Government to any legal instrument involving federally
appropriated funds.
All administrative inquiries regarding this BAA shall be submitted via the ARL Contact Us
webpage: https://www.arl.army.mil/contact-us. Scientific and technical questions should be
referred to the TPOCs listed with each topic on the ARL BAA topics website:
https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/. Interested parties are encouraged to periodically
check any of the following websites for updates and amendments to this BAA:
https://www.grants.gov/, https://sam.gov/, or the ARL website BAA page at
https://www.arl.army.mil/collaborate-with-us/opportunity/arl-baa/.
DR. PATRICK BAKER
Director
Army Research Laboratory
(End of Section)
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A. Required Overview Content
1. Agency Name
U.S. Army Research Office
Issuing Acquisition Office
U.S. Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground, Research Triangle Park (ACC-
APG-RTP) Division
2. Research Opportunity Title
ARL Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Foundational Research for 21 November 2022 – 20
November 2027
3. Announcement Type
Announcement
4. Research Opportunity Number
W911NF-23-S-0001 Amendment 2
5. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number and Title
12.431 – Basic Scientific Research
6. Response Dates
This BAA is a continuously open announcement valid throughout the period from the date of
issuance through 20 November 2027, unless announced otherwise. This announcement succeeds
BAA W911NF-17-S-0002 and W911NF-17-S-0003 (including all modifications) dated 1 April
2017.
(End of Section)
B. Additional Overview Information
This publication constitutes a BAA for awards as contemplated in FAR 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016
as well as a merit-based, competitive procedure in accordance with the Department of Defense
Grant and Agreement Regulations (DoDGARS) at 32 CFR 22.315(a) and the Office of the
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version
1.0 dated November, 2018.
This BAA document, and the online list of research topics found on the ARL BAA topics
website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, sets forth ARL’s research topics of
interest for whitepapers and proposals. This BAA is issued under FAR 6.102(d)(2), which
provides for the competitive selection of basic and applied research proposals, and 10 U.S.C.
4001, 10 U.S.C. 4021, and 10 U.S.C. 4022, which provide the authorities for issuing awards
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under this announcement for basic and applied research. The definitions of basic and applied
research may be found at 32 CFR 22.105.
Proposals submitted in response to this BAA and selected for award are considered to be the
result of full and open competition and in full compliance with the provision of Public Law 98-
369, “The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984” and subsequent amendments.
Use of a BAA to solicit for research and development is encouraged when:
1. The Government desires new and creative solutions to problem statements.
2. Using a conventional statement of work could result in unintentionally stifling ideas and
concepts given many possible approaches.
3. Fulfilling requirements for scientific study and experimentation directed toward advancing
the state-of-the-art or increasing knowledge or understanding rather than focusing on a
specific system or hardware solution.
4. The Government must be able to state its objectives in terms of areas of need or interest
rather than specific solutions or outcomes.
5. Meaningful proposals with varying technical/scientific approaches are reasonably
anticipated.
ARL reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals submitted in
response to this announcement. ARL will provide no funding for direct reimbursement of
whitepaper or proposal development costs and such costs are not considered an allowable direct
charge to any award resulting from this BAA or any other award. However, these costs may be
an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect costs specified in FAR 31.205-18
for FAR-based awards.
Whitepapers and technical and cost proposals (or any other material) submitted in response to this
BAA will not be returned to the applicant. It is the policy of the Government to treat all proposals
as sensitive, competitive information and to mark and disclose their contents only for the purposes
of evaluation.
An applicant may withdraw a proposal at any time before award by written notice or by email
sent to the Government TPOC identified for the topic in which the proposal was submitted.
(End of Section)
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II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
A. Program Description
1. Foundational Research Topics of Interest
ARL’s mission is to serve as the Army’s principal foundational research agency. ARL is
interested in all research proposals that can be shown to enable the future Army to deploy,
fight, and win decisively against any adversary, anytime, and anywhere, in a joint, multi-
domain, high-intensity conflict, while simultaneously deterring others and maintaining its
ability to conduct irregular warfare.
ARL comprises both the Army Research Directorate (ARD) and the Army Research Office
(ARO) whose programs execute research awards under this BAA. The ARD and ARO
missions are further defined below to help clarify the different opportunities and topic types
that may be found on ARL’s website.
ARL, through its ARD programs focuses on exploiting the most promising disruptive science
and technology through in-house research with eligible entities. ARD competitively selects
and funds innovative research concepts that can advance in-house research. ARD primarily
funds basic research proposals (budget activity 6.1) and applied research proposals (budget
activity 6.2) but may also select and fund advanced technology development (budget activity
6.3) and advanced component development and prototypes (budget activity 6.4) to exploit
ARL’s foundational research outcomes and directly or indirectly help achieve ARL’s mission.
The results of these research efforts are transitioned to the Army research and development
community, industry, or academia to further the technological superiority of our Soldiers,
Army, and nation. ARD-funded research represents a long-range Army view with system
applications often 10-20 years away. ARD does not invest in incremental modernization
improvements, but does invest in high-risk, high-payoff ideas in basic and applied science that
can advance the in-house research mission. Historically, most of the ARD awards are executed
as cooperative agreements but can include grants, procurement contracts, research other
transactions (OTs) and prototype OTs. For a description of ARD targeted opportunities, see
section 2 below.
ARL, through its ARO extramural research program, funds cutting-edge foundational research
that could result in innovations having a significant impact on enabling new and improved
Army operational capabilities and related technologies. ARO selects and funds eligible entities
conducting scientific studies and experimentation toward advancing the state of the art or
increasing basic knowledge and understanding across the sciences. ARO competitively selects
and funds basic research proposals across a broad range of scientific disciplines related to long-
term national security needs. ARO primarily funds basic research proposals (budget activity
6.1) but may also select and fund applied research proposals (budget activity 6.2). The results
of these research efforts are transitioned to the Army research and development community,
industry, or academia to further the technological superiority of our Soldiers, Army, and nation.
ARO-funded research represents the most long-range Army view, with system applications
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often 20–30 years away. The goal of ARO funding research proposals through this BAA is to
pursue high-risk, high-payoff ideas in basic science. In this manner, ARO provides the Army
with a dynamic method for rapidly investing or divesting in research to ensure the realization
of foundational discoveries that will enable future Army capabilities. ARO has allocated
funding each year to carry out the Army’s Extramural Research Program to fund foundational
research proposals. Most of the ARO awards are executed primarily through grants and
cooperative agreements, but also can include procurement contracts and other funding
instruments. ARO also provides targeted opportunities, which are described in section 3 below.
In an effort to provide ARL’s research topics and related information in an easy to digest
format with search and filter options, ARL has published the following public website listing
all current ARL research topics: https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, the ARL
BAA topics website. Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse this website to
see the topics ARL is interested in.
To support ARL’s mission, an additional research topic for “Support to ARL Foundation
Research Competencies” can be found on the ARL BAA topics website. Under this research
topic, ARL will consider whitepapers and proposals that may not directly align to a topic
published by an ARL TPOC, but can demonstrate a strong alignment to ARL’s mission.
ARL’s research mission is executed within identified foundational research competencies that
provide the Army foundational expertise and specialized capabilities grounded in scientific
excellence and driven by unique Army challenges. ARL is always interested in innovative
research whitepapers and proposals outside of the published topics on the ARL BAA topic
website that demonstrate a strong alignment to ARL’s foundational research competencies and
potential to create discovery, innovation, and transition of technologies for Army
transformational overmatch. To learn more about ARL’s foundational research competencies
visit the ARL website at https://www.arl.army.mil/what-we-do#competencies/.
A proposal submitted under the “Support to ARL Foundation Research Competencies” topic
must clearly describe the research and objectives, and will be considered by ARL if it is
aligned to one or more of these foundational research competencies that support the ARL
mission. Applicants interested in submitting a proposal under this topic are strongly
encouraged to first make preliminary inquiries as to the potential alignment to an ARL
foundational research competency and funding availability for the type of research effort
contemplated to the listed TPOC on the ARL BAA topics website.
2. Army Research Directorate (ARD) Targeted Opportunities
ARD has no established targeted opportunities outside of the research topics considered for
funding proposals submitted under this BAA. Discussion with the cognizant ARD TPOC
identified for a given ARD research topic published on the ARL public website is strongly
recommended before submission of a whitepaper or proposal.
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3. Army Research Office (ARO) Targeted Opportunities
ARO has established several types of targeted opportunities to support ARO research topics,
based on applications submitted under this BAA. Information about the following
opportunities is included below:
• Single Investigator (SI) Award
• Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Award
• Early Career Program (ECP) Award
• Research Instrumentation (RI) Award
• Conference and Symposia Grant Award
Unless special eligibility requirements are listed, the eligibility criteria of Section II.C applies.
Also, see Section II.E.1 of this BAA for the evaluation criteria related to these opportunities.
NOTE: ARO is not limited to funding these targeted opportunities; however, they represent
most awards ARO is expected to make.
a. Single Investigator (SI) Award
i. Description. SI awards are the most common awards. The objective of the award is to attract
outstanding individuals to propose research projects related to the ARO research topics that
will result in scientific discoveries.
iii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC identified
for a given topic at the ARL BAA topics website is strongly recommended before submission
of a whitepaper or proposal. The proposal is submitted by the institution where the individual
is employed.
iv. Funding Level: ARO encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs for appropriate budget
levels depending on the scope of effort. ARO’s standard funding levels for SI awards would
support a budget for three years at a level commensurate with supporting a single investigator
and one or two graduate students or a post-doc for three years (to include facilities and
administrative [F&A] costs).
b. Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Award
i. Description. The objectives of the STIR awards are to support rapid, short-term
investigations to assess the merit of innovative new concepts in basic research. STIR awards
provide an excellent opportunity to showcase new concepts and explore new areas in basic
research. Historically, STIR awards have helped shape new directions in research for the
Army.
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ii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-
baa/. As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC
identified for a given topic is strongly recommended before submission of a whitepaper or
proposal for a STIR award.
iii. Funding Level. Proposals in the amount of $60,000 or less are sought for STIR
awards. Capital equipment cannot be purchased under a STIR Program award. Report
preparation costs must not exceed $100. A fee is not permitted under STIR Program awards as
they are awarded as grants. Due to the relatively small dollar amount and short-term nature of
these awards, applicants are encouraged to maximize the benefit derived from this funding by
prioritizing labor and employing other cost-saving measures in support of the STIR program
effort.
iv. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for STIR Awards.
Applicants should submit proposals with a Project Description (Technical Proposal) that is no
more than ten (10) pages long. No brochures or explanatory material should be submitted with
the proposal. Proposed research efforts must be "stand alone" and not predicated on the use of
any facilities other than those under the direct control of the applicant. Research must be
completed within nine (9) months of award.
c. Early Career Program (ECP) Award
i. Description. ECP awards are funded by the Army to support early career scientists and
engineers who show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. This
targeted opportunity is open to U.S. citizens, U.S. Nationals, or Lawful Permanent Residents of
the U.S. who have held a tenure-track position at a U.S. institution of higher education for
fewer than five years at the time of application. Faculty at an institution of higher education
which does not designate a faculty appointment as "tenure track" are eligible if that fact is so
indicated in the proposal, and the supporting letter from the institute states that the faculty
member submitting the proposal will be considered for a permanent appointment. The
objective of the ECP Award is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering;
enhance development of outstanding early career investigators; and increase opportunities for
early career investigators to pursue research in areas relevant to the Army.
ii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC identified
for a given topic is strongly recommended before submission of a whitepaper or proposal.
iii. Funding Level. ECP awards will not exceed $120,000 per year for 3 years.
iv. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for ECP Awards.
NOTE: The proposal is submitted by the institution where the individual is employed. The
proposal must include a supporting letter, both through official channels in the institution
8

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where the individual is employed. The proposal must follow the format set forth in Section
II.D.2 (Application and Submission Information) of this BAA. The supporting letter must be
from the individual's Department Chairperson, Dean, Supervisor, or other official who speaks
for the institution, and should address support for, and commitment to, the applicant. Strong
institution support for the applicant is essential. Evidence of this support can include the
applicant's salary, release time from administrative responsibilities, the purchase of equipment,
support for the applicant's graduate students, any cost sharing, any start-up funding, etc. The
proposal must support the institution’s views that the individual is an outstanding investigator,
and the institution is making a long-term commitment to the proposal and the research. Any
resulting award will be made to the institution, not to the investigator.
d. Research Instrumentation (RI) Award
i. Description. RI awards are designed to improve the capabilities of U.S. institutions of higher
education or a nonprofit whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research to conduct
research and educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense. Funds
provided in this award may be used to purchase instrumentation in support of this research or in
the development of new research capabilities.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. RI awards are open to U.S. institutions of higher
education and nonprofit organizations whose primary research is conducting scientific research
in accordance with 31 USC §6306.
iii. RI and Research Topics. The RI program may provide funding to purchase
instrumentation in support of ARO research topics listed on the ARL BAA topics website at
https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/ or in the development of new research
capabilities. It is highly recommended that potential applicants contact the appropriate ARO
TPOC identified for a topic that aligns to this instrumentation proposal. The ARO TPOCs’
names and contact information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics
website.
iv. Funding Level. ARO highly encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs of appropriate
budget levels prior to the submission of RI proposals.
v. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for RI Awards.
The request for instrumentation shall include the following elements:
(1) The “Project Abstract” is to describe the instrumentation requested and the research to be
supported by that instrumentation.
(2) The “Project Description (Technical Proposal)” is to describe how the proposed
instrumentation will: (i) establish new research capabilities, (ii) contribute to research currently
proposed to DoD, or (iii) enhance the quality of research currently being funded by ARL. It
will also include a description of how the proposed instrumentation will interface with or
upgrade other research facilities and instrumentation now available. Finally, a description will
be included of the amounts and sources of ongoing or proposed support for the research to be
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supported by the instrumentation.
(3) In the “Cost Proposal,” the budget is to address the instrumentation to be purchased, cost
per item, and total cost. Indicate the proposed source of the instrumentation and the name and
telephone number of a contact at that source. The budget should indicate the amount of funds
to be contributed by any other sources toward the purchase of the instrumentation. Note: Costs
associated with equipment/facility modifications are generally considered unallowable and
require the review and approval of the Grants Officer.
e. Conference and Symposia Grant Awards
i. Description. The Army supports conferences and symposia (as defined in the DoD
Travel Regulations) in areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research
or educational findings or to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new
research and educational techniques. The Army encourages the convening in the United
States of major international conferences, symposia, and assemblies of international
alliances.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. Notwithstanding the Army's authority to provide grant
support for such events DoD does not permit "co-sponsorship" (as defined in DoD 5500.07-R)
absent additional high-level staffing and approval. In other words, the conference grant support
identified in this BAA is not DoD sponsorship or co-sponsorship since ARL is neither an
organizer nor provider of any substantial logistical support for the conferences addressed in this
section. Funds provided cannot be used for payment to any federal government employee for
support, subsistence, or services in connection with the proposed conference or symposium.
iii. Connection with ARO Research Topics. The Army supports conferences and symposia in
areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research or educational findings or
to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new research and educational
techniques. It is highly recommended that potential applicants contact the appropriate TPOC
identified for a topic that aligns to the conference/symposia proposal. The ARO TPOCs’
names and contact information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics
website at https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
iv. Funding Level. ARO highly encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs of appropriate
budget levels prior to the submission of conference or symposia award applications.
v. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for Conference or Symposia Awards.
(1) Conference support proposals should be submitted a minimum of six (6) months prior to the
date of the conference. A proposal will not be funded if the conference date has already passed.
(2) The “Project Description (Technical Proposal)”, as discussed in for support of a conference
or symposium should include the following:
• A one page or less summary indicating the objectives of the project;
• The topics to be covered;
• The location and probable date(s) and why the conference is considered appropriate at the
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time specified;
• An explanation of how the conference will relate to the research interests of the Army and
how it will contribute to the enhancement and improvement of scientific, engineering,
and/or educational activities as outlined earlier in the research topic references in this
BAA and on the ARL website;
• The name of chairperson(s)/principal investigator (PI)(s) and his/her biographical
information;
• A list of proposed participants and the methods of announcement or invitation; and
(3) The “Cost Proposal” should include:
• Total project conference costs by major cost elements;
• Anticipated sources of conference income and amount from each source to document no
profit will accrue to the applicant;
• Anticipated use of funds requested; and
• A signed budget.
(End of Section)
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B. Federal Award Information
The ACC-APG RTP Division and ACC-APG Adelphi Contracting Division have the authority
to award a variety of instruments on behalf of ARL. Anticipated awards will be made in
the form of procurement contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, Technology
Investment Agreement (TIA), other transactions (OTs) for research, or OTs for
prototypes. The ACC-APG RTP Division and ACC-APG Adelphi Contracting Division will
select the type of instrument most appropriate for the effort proposed. Applicants should
familiarize themselves with these instrument types and the applicable regulations before
submitting a proposal. The Following are brief descriptions of the possible award
instruments:
1. Procurement Contract. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6303, which
reflects a relationship between the Federal Government and a state government, a local
government, or other entity/contractor when the principal purpose of the instrument is to
acquire property or services for the direct benefit or use of the Federal Government.
Contracts are primarily governed by the following regulations:
a. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
b. Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS)
c. Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (AFARS)
2. Grant. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6304, is used to enter into a
relationship:
a. The principal purpose of which is to transfer a thing of value to the recipient to carry
out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law or the United States,
rather than to acquire property or services for the Federal Government’s direct benefit
or use.
b. In which substantial involvement is not expected between the Federal Government and
the recipient when carrying out the activity contemplated by the grant.
c. No fee or profit is allowed.
3. Cooperative Agreement. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6305, is used to
enter into the same kind of relationship as a grant (see definition “grant”), except that
substantial involvement is expected between the Federal Government and the recipient
when carrying out the activity contemplated by the cooperative agreement. The term
does not include “cooperative research and development agreements” as defined in 15
U.S.C. 3710a. No fee or profit is allowed.
4. Technology Investment Agreement. An assistance instrument as described in 32 CFR
Part 37. A TIA may be a cooperative agreement or an Other Transaction for Research
under 10 U.S.C. 4021 both with provisions tailored for involving commercial firms or
research involving commercial application. To the maximum extent practicable, TIAs
shall provide for a 50/50 cost share between the Government and the applicant. No fee
or profit is allowed on TIAs.
5. Other Transaction for Research. A legal instrument, consistent with 10 U.S.C. 4021,
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which may be used for basic, applied, and advanced research projects. The research
covered under this instrument cannot be duplicative of research being conducted under an
existing DoD program. To the maximum extent practicable, OTs for research are to
provide for a 50/50 cost share between the Government and the applicant. An
applicant’s cost share may take the form of cash, independent research and development
(IR&D), foregone intellectual property rights, equipment, access to unique facilities,
and/or other means. Due to the extent of cost share, and the fact that an OT for research
does not qualify as a “funding agreement” as defined at 37 CFR 401.2(a), the intellectual
property provisions of this instrument can be negotiated to provide expanded protection
to an applicant’s intellectual property. No fee or profit is allowed on OTs for research.
Please refer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and
Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version 1.0 dated November 2018 for additional
information. This document, along with additional other transaction agreement (OTA)
resources, may be accessed at the following link:
https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/other-policy-areas.html
6. Other Transaction for Prototype or Production. A legal instrument, consistent with 10
U.S.C. 4022, which provides DoD the flexibility necessary to adopt and incorporate
business practices that reflect commercial industry standards and best practices into its
award instruments. OTs for prototypes or production are not FAR-based procurement
contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or OTs for Research. OTs for prototypes or
production have specific applications and conditions for use (see Appendix C of the
Other Transactions Guide linked below). The effort covered under an OT cannot be
duplicative of effort being conducted under an existing DoD program. Follow-on
production contracts and/or an OT may be awarded to a Prototype Other Transaction
Awardee, if applicable. Please refer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for
Acquisition and Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version 1.0 dated November 2018
for additional information. This document, along with other OTA resources, may be
accessed at the following link: https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/other-
policy-areas.html
7. Grants and cooperative agreements for institutions of higher education, nonprofit
organizations, foreign organizations, and foreign public entities are primarily governed
by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. 2 CFR Part 200
d. 2 CFR Part 1104
e. 32 CFR Parts 21, 22, 26, and 28
f. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
g. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
8. Grants and cooperative agreements for for-profit and nonprofit organizations exempted
from Subpart E—Cost Principles of 2 CFR Part 200, are primarily governed by the
following:
a. Federal statutes
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b. Federal regulations
c. 32 CFR Part 34 – Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with
For-Profit Organizations
d. 32 CFR Parts 21, 22, 26, and 28
e. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
f. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
9. OTs for Research are primarily governed by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. 32 CFR Part 37 – Technology Investment Agreements
d. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
e. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
f. Office of Secretary of Defense implementation guidance titled Other Transactions
(OT) Guide for Research Projects (November 2018, Version 1)
10. OTs for Prototypes or Production are primarily governed by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Office of Secretary of Defense implementation guidance titled Other Transactions
(OT) Guide for Prototype Projects (November 2018, Version 1)
11. The following websites may be accessed to obtain an electronic copy of the governing
regulations and terms and conditions:
a. FAR, DFARS, and AFARS: https://www.acquisition.gov
b. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): http://www.ecfr.gov
c. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions:
https://www.onr.navy.mil/en/work-with-us/manage-your-award/manage-grant-
award/grants-terms-conditions
d. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions:
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/#terms-and-conditions
(End of Section)
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C. Eligibility Information
1. Eligible Applicants
Unless noted in Section II.A.3 or as dictated by the award instrument type, eligible applicants
under this BAA include institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state and
local governments, foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and for-profit organizations
(i.e. large and small businesses). For ARO Targeted Opportunities, please see the specific
eligibility requirements in the II.A.3 ARO Targeted Opportunities section above. For specific
Other Transactions for Prototypes eligibility requirements, please see the “Other Transaction
for Prototype or Production” section within the II.B. Federal Award Information section.
2. Cost Sharing or Matching
Generally, there is no requirement for cost sharing, matching, or cost participation to be
eligible for award under this BAA. Cost sharing and matching is not an evaluation factor
used under this BAA. Exceptions may exist if the applicant is proposing the use of an OT for
research or prototype as an award instrument. Cost-sharing requirements may be found at 32
CFR Part 37 and in the DoD Other Transaction Guide for Prototype Projects
(https://www.dau.edu/pdfviewer/Source/Guidebooks/Other-Transactions-(OT)-Guide.pdf).
3. Other
Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) are subject to applicable
direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this solicitation in any capacity unless they
meet the following conditions. (1) FFRDCs must clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is
not otherwise available from the private sector. (2) FFRDCs must provide a letter, on official
letterhead from their sponsoring organization, that (a) cites the specific authority establishing
their eligibility to propose to Government solicitations and compete with industry, and (b)
certifies the FFRDC’s compliance with the associated FFRDC sponsor agreement’s terms and
conditions. These conditions are a requirement for FFRDCs proposing to be awardees or
subawardees.
University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) are eligible to submit proposals under this
BAA if their proposal contains a letter, on official letterhead, from their primary sponsor
concurring with the UARC’s proposal submission.
(End of Section)
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D. Application and Submission Information
1. Address to View Broad Agency Announcement
This BAA may be accessed via the following websites:
a. Grants.gov (www.grants.gov)
b. Contract Opportunities (sam.gov)
c. ARL website https://www.arl.army.mil/collaborate-with-us/opportunity/arl-baa/
Amendments to this BAA, if any, will be posted to these websites when they occur.
Supplemental information on topics, POCs, research areas, specific proposal rules and
requirements, and other relevant info may be disseminated through Special Notices posted
to the sam.gov Contract Opportunities website. Interested parties are encouraged to
periodically check these websites for updates and amendments.
Digital copies of submission forms can be downloaded from
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/. Paper copies of submission forms are
available upon request from the point of contact identified for a given topic.
The following information is for those wishing to respond to this BAA:
2. Content and Form of Application Submission
a. The Application Process Overview
Applicants are strongly encouraged to follow the below application process:
• Conduct a preliminary inquiry with an ARL TPOC
• Submit a Whitepaper to an ARL TPOC for review
• Submit a Full Proposal
All proposals for Assistance Instruments (Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Technology
Investment Agreements) must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov using the
Workspace system. Proposals for Procurement Contracts, OTs for Research that are not
Technology Investment Agreements, and OTs for Prototypes or Production may be submitted via
either Grants.gov or email to usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.baa@army.mil. See II.D Application
and Submission Information section of this BAA for information on the proposal submission
process.
b. Preliminary Inquiries*
Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to make a preliminary inquiry by first contacting
the ARL TPOC to discuss your ideas and the interests of ARL. ARL receives several hundred
research proposals annually and is able to provide support for only a limited number of the
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proposals received. ARL realizes the preparation of a research proposal often represents a
substantial investment of time and effort by the applicant. Therefore, in an attempt to minimize
this burden, ARL TPOCs are available to discuss the general need for the type of research
effort contemplated and availability of funding before an interested applicant expends
extensive effort in preparing a whitepaper or full proposal. The TPOC names, telephone
numbers, and email addresses are listed with each research Topic at the ARL BAA topics
website, https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, and they should be contacted, as
appropriate, prior to the submission of whitepapers or proposals.
*NOTE: The Government will not be obligated by any discussion that arises out of
preliminary inquiries.
c. Whitepaper Preparation and Submission
i. PURPOSE OF WHITEPAPERS:
Prospective proposers are strongly encouraged to submit whitepapers prior to the submission of
a complete, more detailed proposal. The purpose of whitepapers is to minimize the labor and
cost associated with the production of detailed proposals that have very little chance of being
selected for funding. Whitepapers are not full proposals and are meant to provide the ARL
TPOC with enough information to determine if there is interest on the part of ARL to receive a
full proposal.
ii. WHITEPAPER CONTENT:
Whitepapers do not have a prescribed format but are not expected to exceed five (5) total pages
and are encouraged to be submitted as a single portable document format (PDF) document. The
whitepaper should include at a minimum the title of the whitepaper, name of the individual and
organization submitting the whitepaper, the research topic name, topic identification (ID)
number, and the TPOC name against which the whitepaper is submitted. Whitepapers should
focus on describing objective and approach of the proposed research, including how it is
innovative, and how it could substantially increase the scientific state of the art. Whitepapers
should contain a brief cost estimate to understand a rough order of magnitude of the proposal
cost, and any biographical information to highlight applicant’s qualifications and experience.
Any proprietary data must be clearly marked. The applicant must also identify any
technical data or computer software contained in the whitepaper that is to be managed by
the Government with restrictions, limited rights in technical data and restricted rights in
computer software. In the absence of such identification, the Government will conclude
there are no limitations or restrictions on technical data or computer software included in
the whitepaper. Records or data bearing a restrictive legend may be included in the
whitepaper. It is the intent of the Army to treat all whitepapers as procurement sensitive
and to disclose their contents to Government employees or designated support contractors
only for the purpose of evaluation.
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iii. SUBMISSION OF WHITEPAPERS:
Whitepapers should be submitted via email to the TPOC identified in the topic proposed
against. Whitepapers submitted via email are encouraged to be submitted as a single PDF file
as an email attachment. If no TPOC is specifically listed, prospective applicants can submit
information and questions using the ARL’s website Contact Us page at
https://www.arl.army.mil/contact-us and selecting BAA Inquiry from the drop-down menu
for advice and assistance before preparing and submitting a whitepaper. In the contact form
subject line, include the phrase “BAA Whitepaper Submission,” and the research topic name
and topic ID number listed at the website.
iv. REVIEW OF WHITEPAPERS:
ARL TPOCs will receive and consider all whitepapers submitted and will provide a
response with either “encouraged to submit a proposal” or “not encouraged to submit a
proposal”.
d. Full Proposal Preparation and Submission
Proposals must be submitted in order for the applicant to be considered for funding.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit whitepapers (see instructions in II.D.2.c White
Paper Preparation and Submission section above) and received a recommendation from an
ARL TPOC to submit a proposal prior to submitting full proposals, however all proposals
submitted under the terms and conditions cited in this BAA will be reviewed regardless of the
recommendation received from the ARL TPOC, or lack of submission of a whitepaper.
i. COVER PAGE:
(1) A Cover Page is required. For contract proposals submitted by email, use ARO Form 51.
For all Assistance instruments and contract proposals submitted via Grants.gov, use the SF
424 (R&R) Form. Proposals will not be processed without either: (1) a signed Cover Page,
ARO Form 51, or (2) a SF 424 (R&R) Form.
(2) Should the project be carried out at a branch campus or other component of the
applicant, that branch campus or component should be identified in the space provided
(Block 11 on the ARO Form 51 and Block 12 on the SF 424 (R&R) Form).
(3) The title of the proposed project should be brief, scientifically representative, intelligible
to a scientifically-literate reader, and suitable for use in the public domain.
(4) The proposed duration for which support is requested should be consistent with the nature
and complexity of the proposed activity. For research topics listed at the ARL BAA topics
website, https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, applicants shall discuss the preferred
performance period with the TPOC.
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(5) Specification of a desired starting date for the project is important and helpful; however,
requested effective dates cannot be guaranteed.
(6) Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 7701, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996
[Section 31001(I)(1), Public Law 104-134] and implemented by 32 CFR 22.420(d), federal
agencies shall obtain each awardees’ Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). The TIN is being
obtained for purposes of collecting and reporting on any delinquent amounts that may arise out
of an awardees’ relationship with the Government.
(7) Applicants must provide their organization's Unique Entity Identifier (UIE) (formerly
Data Universal Number System (DUNS)). This number is a nine-digit number assigned
by D&B Information Services. See Section II.D.3 of this BAA for requirements pertaining
to the Unique Entity Identifier.
(8) Applicants must provide their assigned Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE)
Code. The CAGE Code is a 5-character code assigned and maintained by the Defense
Logistics Service Center (DLSC) to identify a commercial plant or establishment.
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ii. TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Use the following format for the Table of Contents. Forms are available at
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/
SECTION PAGE NUMBER
Table of Contents A-1
Statement of Disclosure Preference (Form 52 or 52A) B-1
Research and Related Other Project Information B-2
Project Abstract C-1
Project Description (Technical Proposal) D-1 - D-
Biographical Sketch E-1 - E-
Bibliography F-1 - F-
Current and Pending Support G-1 - G-
Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources H-1 - H-
Proposal Budget I-1 - I-
Contract Facilities Capital Cost of Money (DD Form 1861) J-1
Appendices K-
List Appendix Items:
This format applies to all proposals submitted via email and via Grants.gov. Applicants
should show the location of each section of the proposal, as well as major subdivisions of the
project description.
iii. STATEMENT OF DISCLOSURE PREFERENCE (FORM 52 OR 52A): Complete and
sign ARO Form 52 (Industrial Contractors) or ARO Form 52A (Educational and Nonprofit
Organizations).
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iv. RESEARCH AND RELATED OTHER PROJECT INFORMATION: Must be completed
and signed by all applicants.
v. PROJECT ABSTRACT:
(1) The project abstract shall be completed on the form entitled “Publicly Releasable Project
Abstract” found at the following website: https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/
(2) Unless otherwise instructed in this BAA, the project abstract shall include a concise
statement of work and basic approaches to be used in the proposed effort. The abstract should
include a statement of scientific objectives, methods to be employed, and the significance of the
proposed effort to the advancement of scientific knowledge.
(3) The abstract should be no longer than one (1) page (maximum 4,000 characters).
(4) The project abstract shall be marked by the applicant as publicly releasable. By
submission of the project abstract, the applicant confirms that the abstract is releasable to the
public. For a proposal that results in a grant award, the project abstract will be posted to a
searchable website available to the general public to meet the requirements of Section 8123
of the DoD Appropriations Act, 2015. The website address is
https://dodgrantawards.dtic.mil/grants.
vi. PROJECT DESCRIPTION (TECHNICAL PROPOSAL): The technical portion of
the proposal shall contain the following:
(1) A complete discussion stating the background and objectives of the proposed work, the
scientific approaches to be considered, the relationship to competing or related research, and
the level of effort to be employed. Include also the nature and extent of the anticipated results
and how they will significantly advance the scientific state-of-the-art. Also, if known, include
the manner in which the work will contribute to the accomplishment of the Army's mission.
Ensure the proposal identifies any scientific uncertainties and describes specific approaches for
the resolution or mitigation of the uncertainties.
(2) A brief description of your organization.
(3) The names of other federal, state, local agencies, or other parties receiving the proposal
and/or funding the proposed effort. If none, state so. Concurrent or later submission of the
proposal to other organizations will not prejudice its review by ARL if ARL is kept informed of
the situation.
(4) A statement regarding possible impact, if any, of the proposed effort on the environment,
considering as a minimum its effect upon water, atmosphere, natural resources, human
resources, and any other values.
(5) A statement regarding the use of Class I and Class II ozone- depleting substances. Ozone-
depleting substances are any substance designated as Class I by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), including but not limited to chlorofluorocarbons, halons, carbon tetrachloride,
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and methyl chloroform, and any substance designated as Class II by EPA, including but not
limited to hydrochlorofluorocarbons. See 40 CFR Part 82 for detailed information. If Class I
or II substances are to be utilized, a list shall be provided as part of the applicant's proposal. If
none, state so.
(6) The type of support, if any, requested by the applicant (e.g., facilities, equipment,
and materials).
vii. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
(1) This section shall contain the biographical sketches for key personnel only.
(a) Primary PI: The Primary PI provides a single or initial point of communication between
ARL and the awardee organization(s) about scientific matters. If not otherwise designated,
the first PI listed will serve as the Primary PI. This individual can be changed with
notification to ARL. ARL does not infer any additional scientific stature to this role among
collaborating investigators.
(b) Co-PIs: The individual(s) a research organization designates as having an appropriate
level of authority and responsibility for the proper conduct of the research and submission of
required reports to ARL. When an organization designates more than one PI, it identifies
them as individuals who share the authority and responsibility for leading and directing the
research, intellectually and logistically. ARL does not infer any distinction among multiple
PIs.
(2) The following information is required:
(a) Relevant experience and employment history including a description of any prior
Federal employment within one year preceding the date of proposal submission.
(b) List of up to five publications most closely related to the proposed project and up to
five other significant publications, including those being printed. Patents, copyrights, or
software systems developed may be substituted for publications.
(c) List of persons, other than those cited in the publications list, who have collaborated
on a project or a book, article, report or paper within the last four years. Include
pending publications and submissions. Otherwise, state "None."
(d) Names of each investigator's own graduate or post-graduate advisors and advisees.
NOTE: The information provided in (c) and (d) is used to help identify potential
conflicts or bias in the selection of reviewers.
(3) For the personnel categories of postdoctoral associates, other professionals, and students
(research assistants), the proposal may include information on exceptional qualifications of
these individuals that merit consideration in the evaluation of the proposal.
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(4) The biographical sketches are limited to three (3) pages per investigator and other
individuals that merit consideration.
viii. BIBLIOGRAPHY: A bibliography of pertinent literature is required. Citations must
be complete (including full name of author(s), title, and location in the literature).
ix. CURRENT AND PENDING SUPPORT:
This announcement requires all current and pending research support, as defined by Section 223
of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, must be disclosed at the time
of proposal submission, for all covered individuals. See Section F.2.b.x for additional
information on this requirement.
(1) All project support from whatever source must be listed. The list must include all projects
requiring a portion of the PI's and other key personnel's time, even if they receive no salary
support from the project(s).
(2) The information should include, as a minimum: (i) the project/proposal title and brief
description, (ii) the name and location of the organization or agency presently funding the work
or requested to fund such work, (iii) the award amount or annual dollar volume of the effort, (iv)
the period of performance, and (v) a breakdown of the time required of the PI and/or other key
personnel.
x. FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT, AND OTHER RESOURCES: The applicant should include
in the proposal a listing of facilities, equipment, and other resources already available to
perform the research proposed.
xi. PROPOSAL BUDGET (including DD Form 1861):
(1) Each proposal must contain a budget for each year of support requested and a cumulative
budget for the full term of requested support. Each budget year and the cumulative budget for
the full term must be documented on ARO Form 99. ARO Form 99 may be reproduced, but you
may not make substitutions in prescribed budget categories nor alter or rearrange the cost
categories as they appear on the form. The proposal may request funds under any of the
categories listed so long as the item is considered necessary to perform the proposed work and is
not precluded by applicable cost principles. In addition to the forms, the budget proposal should
include budget justification for each year.
(2) A signed summary budget page must be included. The documentation pages should be titled
"Budget Explanation Page" and numbered chronologically starting with the budget form. The
need for each item should be explained clearly.
(3) All cost data must be current and complete. Costs proposed must conform to the
following principles and procedures:
Institutions of Higher Education: 2 CFR Part 200
Nonprofit Organizations*: 2 CFR Part 200
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For-Profit/Commercial Organizations: FAR Part 31, DFARS Part 231, FAR Subsection
15.403-5, and DFARS Subsection 215.403-5.
*For those nonprofit organizations specifically exempt from the provisions of Subpart E of 2 CFR
Part 200 (see 2 CFR 200.401(c)), FAR Part 31 and DFARS Part 231 shall apply.
(4) Sample itemized budgets and the information they must include for a contract and for
grants and cooperative agreements can be found at Section II.H of this BAA (Other
Information). Before award of a cost-reimbursement type contract or assistance instrument it
must be established that an approved accounting system and financial management system
exist.
xii. APPENDICES: Some situations require that special information and supporting
documents be included in the proposal before funding can be approved. Such information and
documentation should be included by appendix to the proposal.
(1) To evaluate compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C.
A Section 1681 Et. Seq.), the Department of Defense is collecting certain demographic
and career information to be able to assess the success rates of women who are
proposed for key roles in applications in STEM disciplines. To enable this assessment,
each application must include the following forms completed as indicated.
(A) Research and Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) form:
The Degree Type and Degree Year fields on the Research and Related Senior/Key Person
Profile (Expanded) form will be used by DoD as the source for career information. In
addition to the required fields on the form, applicants must complete these two fields for all
individuals that are identified as having the project role of PD/PI or Co-PD/PI on the form.
Additional senior/key persons can be added by selecting the “Next Person” button.
(B) Research and Related Personal Data form:
This form will be used by DoD as the source of demographic information, such as gender,
race, ethnicity, and disability information for the Project Director/Principal Investigator and
all other persons identified as Co-Project Director(s)/Co-Principal Investigator(s). Each
application must include this form with the name fields of the Project Director/Principal
Investigator or any Co-Project Director(s)/Co-Principal Investigator(s) completed;
however, provision of the demographic information in the form is voluntary. If completing
the form for multiple individuals, each Co-Project Director/Co-Principal Investigator can
be added by selecting the “Next Person” button. The demographic information, if
provided, will be used for statistical purposed only and will not be made available to merit
reviewers. Applicants who do not wish to provide some or all of the information should
check or select the “Do not wish to provide” option.
(2) Data Management Plan: A data management plan is a document that describes which
data generated through the course of the proposed research will be shared and preserved,
how it will be done, or explains why data sharing or preservation is not possible or
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scientifically appropriate, or why the costs of sharing or preservation are incommensurate
with the value of doing so. See also: DoD Instruction 3200.12. In no more than 2 pages
set forth as a separate PDF document, discuss the following:
• The types of data, software, and other materials to be produced.
• How the data will be acquired.
• Time and location of data acquisition, if scientifically pertinent.
• How the data will be processed.
• The file formats and the naming conventions that will be used.
• A description of the quality assurance and quality control measures during
collection, analysis, and processing.
• A description of dataset origin when existing data resources are used.
• A description of the standards to be used for data and metadata format and
content.
• Appropriate timeframe for preservation.
• The plan may consider the balance between the relative value of data preservation
and other factors such as the associated cost and administrative burden. The plan
will provide a justification for such decisions.
• A statement that the data cannot be made available to the public when there are
national security or controlled unclassified information concerns (e.g., “This data
cannot be cleared for public release in accordance with the requirements in DoD
Directive 5230.09.”)
(3) With the application, the Applicant must provide the following “Privacy Act Statement”
consent form for each Covered Individual in the proposal. This form must also signed by
the Applicant as that Individual’s Sponsor.
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Privacy Act Statement
Army Futures Command or Department of the Army
Application for Federal Assistance
Authority: Government Paperwork Elimination Act (Pub. L. 105-277, 44 U.S.C. 3504); Executive Order 12372,
Intergovernmental review of Federal Programs (47 FR 30959); 42 U.S. Code § 6605 – Disclosure of funding
sources in applications for Federal research and development awards; Public Law 117-167, CHIPS and Science
Act; Public Law 116-92, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020; 5 U.S.C. 9101, Access to
Criminal History for National Security and Other Purposes 5 CFR §1320.8, Agency collection of information
Responsibility; 18 U.S.C. § 1001, False Statements, Concealment; E.O. 13478, Amendments to Executive Order
9397 Related to Federal Use of social Security Numbers; NSPM-33, National Security Presidential Memorandum
33 on National Security for United States Research and Development; DoD-D 5240.01, DoD Intelligence
Activities; DoD-I 5200.02, Department of Defense Personnel Security Program; Army Regulation 381-10, U.S.
Army Intelligence Activities
Purpose: The information collected may be used in processing, investigating, and maintaining records relevant to
Federal Assistance awarded by the Department of the Army. Records in these systems will be used to ensure
Army sponsored and/or awarded federal grants, assistance, contracts, and/or benefits are awarded to responsible
parties, entities, and individuals.
Routine Uses: To contractors, grantees, experts, consultants, students, and others performing or working on a
contract, service, grant, cooperative agreement, or other assignment for the Federal Government when necessary
to accomplish an agency function.
To the appropriate Federal, State, local, territorial, tribal, foreign, or international law enforcement authority or
other appropriate entity where a record, either alone or in conjunction with other information, indicates a
violation or potential violation of law, whether criminal, civil, or regulatory in nature.
DoD Blanket Routine Use (http://dpcld.defense.gov/privacy)
Effect of not providing information: Providing information to the Department of the Army is voluntary.
However, 42 U.S. Code § 6605, which imposes certain disclosure requirements in connection with Federal
research and development awards, provides various enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance. One such
mechanism, which the Department of the Army intends to pursue here, is rejection of such applications.
Proposal Title (or grants.gov number): ____________________________
Acknowledgment of consent:
Covered individual (Signature): ______________________________ Date: ___________
Covered individual (Name print): ______________________________
Institution’s Authorized Representative (Signature): _______________________ Date: ___________
Institution’s Authorized Representative (Name print): ______________________________
Institution Name: ________________________________
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e. General Information
i. Classified Submissions: Proposals containing classified information are not accepted under
this BAA. However, proposals may discuss the need to access or generate controlled
unclassified information (CUI) or classified information for the proposed work. Where an award
requires access to classified information, clause 52.204-2 will be included in the award, as well
as a DD254, if issued. When an award requires access to CUI, DFARS Clause 252.204-7012
will be included in the award, as well as additional ARL specific requirements as determined
necessary. For questions regarding the potential for access to classified information and/or
controlled unclassified information, please coordinate with the TPOC for that topic area prior to
whitepaper or proposal submission.
ii. Post-Employment Conflict of Interest: There are certain post-employment restrictions on
former federal employees, including special government employees (18 U.S.C. 207). If a
prospective applicant believes a conflict of interest may exist, the situation should be discussed
with the TPOC listed in the BAA for their topic of scientific research who will then coordinate
with appropriate ARL legal counsel prior to the applicant expending time and effort in preparing
a proposal.
iii. Statement of Disclosure Preference: In accordance with Section II.D.2.e.iii of this BAA,
Form 52 or 52A shall be completed stating your preference for release of information contained
in your proposal. Copies of these forms may be downloaded from the ARL web site at
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/.
NOTE: Submissions may be handled for administrative purposes by support contractors.
These support contractors are prohibited from submitting proposals under this BAA and are
bound by non-disclosure and/or conflict of interest requirements as deemed appropriate.
Applicants are cautioned, however, that portions of a submission may be subject to release
under terms of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, as amended.
iv. Equipment (see instrument-specific regulations provided in Section II.B of this BAA):
Normally, in accordance with 31 USC 6306, title to equipment or other tangible property
purchased with Government funds vests with nonprofit institutions of higher education or with
nonprofit organizations whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research if vesting will
facilitate scientific research performed for the Government. For-profit organizations are expected
to possess the necessary plant and equipment to conduct the proposed research. Deviations may
be made on a case-by-case basis to allow for-profit organizations to purchase equipment but
regulatory disposition instructions will be included in the award.
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f. Submission of Proposals
Requests for waiver of electronic submission requirements may be submitted via email to:
usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.baa@army.mil or regular mail:
Army Research Office
ATTN: FCDD-RLR (Proposal Processing)
P.O. Box 12211
RTP, NC 27709-2211
All required forms for proposals may be downloaded from the ARL website at
https://www.arl.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/.
All proposals for Assistance Instruments (Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and OTs) must be
submitted electronically through Grants.gov using the Workspace system. Proposals for
Contracts and OTs may be submitted via either Grants.gov or email. Proposals must be
submitted through the applicant’s organizational office having responsibility for
Government business relations. All signatures must be that of an official authorized to
commit the organization in business and financial affairs.
Proposal content requirements remain the same for both email and Grants.gov submission.
i. EMAIL SUBMISSION:
(1) Proposals requesting a Contract or OTs may be emailed directly to usarmy.rtp.devcom-
arl.mbx.baa@army.mil, do not email full proposals to the TPOC. Proposals for assistance
agreements cannot be sent via email, see below for submission of Assistance agreement
proposals through Grants.gov.
(2) The applicant must include with its proposal submission the representations required by Section
II.F.2.a.i of this BAA. The representations must include applicant POC information and be signed
by an authorized representative. Note: If the applicant’s online SAM Representations and
Certifications include its response to the representations, a hard copy representation is not required
with proposal submission.
(3) All forms requiring signature must be completed, printed, signed, and scanned into a PDF
document. All documents must be combined into a single PDF formatted file to be attached
to the email.
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ii. GRANTS.GOV SUBMISSION:
(1) Proposals requesting Assistance agreements must be submitted via Grants.gov; proposals
requesting a Contract or OT may be submitted either via Grants.gov or email (instructions
above).
(2) Grants.gov Registration must be accomplished prior to application submission in Grants.gov.
Each organization that desires to submit applications via Grants.Gov must complete a one-time
registration. There are several one-time actions your organization must complete in order to
submit applications through Grants.gov (e.g., obtain a Unique Entity Identifier, register with the
SAM, register with the credential provider, register with Grants.gov and obtain approval for an
authorized organization representative (AOR) to submit applications on behalf of the
organization). To register please see http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/organization-
registration.html
Please note the registration process for an Organization or an Individual can take between
three to five business days or as long as four weeks if all steps are not completed in a timely
manner.
Questions relating to the registration process, system requirements, how an application form
works, or the submittal process should be directed to Grants.gov at 1-800-518-4726 or
support@grants.gov.
NOTE: All web links referenced in this section are subject to change by Grants.gov and may not
be updated here.
(3) Specific forms are required for submission of a proposal. The forms are contained in the
Application Package available at http://www.grants.gov under the specific opportunity you are
submitting under. When viewing an opportunity, select the "Package” tab and then select
"View." A Grant Application Package and Application Instructions are available for this BAA
through the Grants.gov Apply portal under CFDA Number 12.431/Funding Opportunity Number
W911NF-23-S-0001. To apply, select “Apply” and then “Apply Now Using Workspace.”
*NOTE: Effective 31 December 2017, applicants must apply online at Grants.gov using the
application Workspace. For access to complete instructions on how to apply for opportunities
using Workspace refer to https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/applicants/workspace-
overview.html.
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The following documents are mandatory: (1) Application for Federal Assistance (R&R) (SF 424
(R&R)), and (4) Attachments form.
(4) The SF 424 (R&R) form is to be used as the cover page for all proposals submitted via
Grants.gov. The SF 424 (R&R) must be fully completed. AOR usernames and passwords serve
as “electronic signatures” when your organization submits applications through Grants.gov. By
using the SF 424 (R&R), proposers are providing the certification required by 32 CFR Part 28
regarding lobbying (see Section II.F.2.a.ii of this BAA). Block 11, “Descriptive Title of
Applicant’s Project,” must reference the research topic area being addressed in the effort by
identifying the specific paragraph from Section II.A of this BAA.
(5) The Attachments form must contain the documents outlined in Section II.D.2.e.ii entitled
“Table of Contents”. All documents must be combined into separate and single PDF formatted
files using the Table of Contents names. Include “W911NF-23-S-0001” in the title so the
proposal will be distinguished from other BAA submissions and upload each document to the
mandatory Attachments form.
(6) The applicant must include with its proposal submission the representations required by
Section II.F.2.a.ii of this BAA. The representations must include applicant POC information and
be signed by an authorized representative. Attach the representations document to an available
field within the Attachments form. Note: If the applicant’s online SAM Representations and
Certifications include its response to the representations, a hard copy representation is not
required with proposal submission.
(7) The Grants.gov User Guide at:
https://www.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm will assist
AORs in the application process. Remember that you must open and complete the Application
for Federal Assistance (R&R) (SF 424 (R&R)) first, as this form will automatically populate data
fields in other forms. If you encounter any problems, contact customer support at 1-800-518-
4726 or at support@grants.gov. If you forget your user name or password, follow the
instructions provided in the Credential Provider tutorial. Tutorials may be printed by right-
clicking on the tutorial and selecting “Print”.
(8) As it is possible for Grants.gov to reject the proposal during this process, it is strongly
recommended that proposals be uploaded at least two days before any established deadline in the
BAA so that they will not be received late and be ineligible for award consideration. It is also
recommended to start uploading proposals at least two days before the deadline to plan ahead for
any potential technical and/or input problems involving the applicant’s own equipment.
3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM)
a. Each applicant (unless the applicant is an individual or Federal awarding agency that is
exempt from those requirements under 2 CFR 25.110(b) or (c), or has an exemption approved
by the Federal awarding agency under 2 CFR 25.110(d)) is required to:
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i. Provide a valid unique entity identifier (formerly DUNS) in its application. Please
verify the accuracy of your Unique Entity Identifier (formerly DUNS) at the Dun and
Bradstreet (D&B) website http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform before registering with the
System for Award Management System (SAM).
ii. Be registered in SAM at https://www.sam.gov prior to submitting its application; and
iii. Maintain an active SAM registration with current information at all times during
which it has an active Federal award or an application or plan under consideration
by a Federal awarding agency.
b. The SAM obtains Legal Business Name, Doing Business Name (DBA), Physical Address, and
Postal Code/ Zip+4 data fields from D&B. If corrections are required, registrants will not be
able to enter/modify these fields in SAM; they will be pre-populated using D&B Unique Entity
Identifier record data. When D&B confirms the correction has been made, the registrant must
then re-visit sam.gov and click a “yes”' to D&B's changes. Only at this point will the D&B data
be accepted into the SAM record. Allow a minimum of two (2) business days for D&B to send
the modified data to SAM.
c. The Federal awarding agency may not make a Federal award to an applicant until the
applicant has complied with all applicable unique entity identifier and SAM requirements. If an
applicant has not fully complied with the requirements by the time the Federal awarding agency
is ready to make a Federal award, the Federal awarding agency may determine that the applicant
is not qualified to receive a Federal award and use that determination as a basis for making a
Federal award to another applicant.
4. Submission Dates and Times
a. Proposals
Proposals will be considered until and including the closing date of this announcement (see cover
page of this announcement for opening/closing dates). Proposals submitted after the closing date
will not be considered by the Government under this announcement.
b. Proposal Receipt Notices
i. Grants.gov: After a proposal is submitted to Grants.gov, the AOR will receive a series of three
emails from Grants.gov. The first two emails will be received within 24 to 48 hours after
submission. The first email will confirm time of receipt of the proposal by the Grants.gov system
and the second will indicate that the proposal has either been successfully validated by the system
prior to transmission to the grantor agency or has been rejected due to errors. A third email will
be received once the grantor agency has confirmed receipt of the proposal. Reference the
Grants.gov User Guide at
https://www.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm for
information on how to track your application package.
For the purposes of this BAA, an applicant’s proposal is not considered received by ARL until the
AOR receives email #3.
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ii. Email Submission: After a proposal is submitted to usarmy.rtp.devcom-
arl.mbx.baa@army.mil, the AOR will receive an email confirming time of receipt of the proposal
by the receiving agency. For the purposes of this BAA, an applicant’s proposal is not considered
received by the grantor agency until the AOR receives the email confirming receipt of the
proposal.
5. Intergovernmental Review
Not Applicable
6. Funding Restrictions
Other than the restrictions referenced in Section II.A.3, there are no other funding restrictions
associated with this BAA (e.g. direct costs, indirect costs, etc.).
7. Other Submission Requirements
a. Information to Be Requested from Successful Applicants: Applicants whose proposals are
accepted for funding will be contacted before award to provide additional information
required for award. The required information may include requests to clarify budget
explanations, representations, certifications, and some technical aspects.
b. For Contracts Only: Performance Work Statements (PWS). Prior to award the Contracting
Officer may request that the contractor submit a PWS for the effort to be performed, which
will be incorporated into the contract at the time of award.
(End of Section)
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E. Proposal Review Information
1. Evaluation Criteria
a. Proposals submitted against a BAA research topic and the ARO SI will be
evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
b. ARO Proposals submitted for STIR will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
c. ARO Proposals submitted for ECP will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
iv. Long-term commitment by the institution of higher education to the early
career investigator and the proposed research.
d. ARO Proposals submitted for RI will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
iv. The applicant’s capabilities, related experience, facilities, techniques, or
unique combinations of these, which are integral factors for achieving the
proposed objectives.
e. Proposals submitted for Conference Grants will be evaluated using the following
criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of proposed
conference/symposia activities.
ii. The potential contributions of the conference/symposia activities to the
Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
conference/symposia.
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2. Review and Selection Process
a. Upon receipt of a proposal, ARL staff will perform an initial review of its scientific merit and
potential contribution to the Army mission, and also determine if funds are expected to be
available for the effort. Proposals not considered having sufficient scientific merit or relevance to
the Army's needs, or those in areas for which funds are not expected to be available, may not
receive further review.
b. All proposals are treated as procurement sensitive and are disclosed only for the purpose of
evaluation. Proposals having sufficient scientific merit or relevance will be subject to a peer
review by highly qualified subject matter experts, both Government employees and non-
Government employees. While the applicant may restrict the evaluation to Government
employees, to do so may prevent review of the proposal by other qualified experts in the field of
research covered by the proposal. The applicant must indicate on the appropriate proposal form
(Form 52 or 52A) any limitation to be placed on disclosure of information contained in the
proposal.
c. Each proposal will be evaluated based on the evaluation criteria in Section II.E.1 of this BAA
rather than against other proposals for research in the same general area. Each evaluated
proposal will receive a recommendation of “select” or “do not select” as supported by the
evaluation.
d. Upon completion of an evaluation against the criteria in Section II.E.1, a proposal selected
for possible award will be analyzed for the realism and reasonableness of costs and funds
availability. Proposal costs must be determined reasonable and realistic before the Government
can make an award.
e. Army Research Risk Assessment. Each proposal with a recommendation to “select” in
accordance with II.E.2.c above, whose costs have been determined to be reasonable and
realistic in accordance with II.E.2.d above, for which funds are available, and where a grant or
cooperative agreement will be the award instrument type, will be subject to an Army Research
Risk Assessment prior to award.
i. The Army Research Risk Assessment Program. The Army Research Risk Assessment
Program (ARRP) is an adaptive risk management security program applied to Army-
funded research designed to help protect Army Science and Technology (S&T) by
identifying possible vectors of undue foreign influence.
In order to identify and mitigate undue foreign influence as required by federal law and
policy, the Army will perform a research risk assessment of each proposal selected
based on the criteria above for consideration of a fundamental research grant or
cooperative agreement award. ARRP risk assessments for these subject proposals will
be developed for all proposed Senior/Key personnel, (also referred to as “Covered
Individuals”). These risk assessments will be based on information disclosed in the
Standard Form (SF) 424, “Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded),” any of its
accompanying or referenced documents, publicly available information, and
information contained in internal Army databases. Nationality or citizenship is not a
factor in the risk assessment.
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ARRP has a risk matrix which identifies risk factors and resulting risk ratings. The
matrix generally looks at four factors, or risk areas: participation in foreign talent
programs; denied entity list affiliation or association (see
https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/the-denied-persons-list and
https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/policy-guidance/lists-of-parties-of-concern/entity-
list); funding sources to include conflict of interest or conflict of commitment, or
funding from a strategic competitor; and foreign influence showing a pattern or history
of affiliation, association, or collaboration with a foreign institution, person or entity
from a U.S. strategic competitor. The matrix is set forth below:
Identified Specific Actions of the Senior/Key Personnel
Rating
Foreign Talent Denied Entities Funding Foreign
Program Institutions
Indicators of Indicators of an Indicators of active Indicators of active
active (ongoing) active (ongoing) (ongoing) conflict of (ongoing) direct
participation or affiliation or past interest, conflict of affiliation,
HIGH sponsorship in a affiliation or commitment, or association or
strategic present pattern of direct collaboration with
competitor association with funding from a a foreign
Foreign Talent an entity on the strategic competitor institution, person,
Program U.S. Gov’t or country with or entity from a
denied entity or history of targeting strategic
person list or EO U.S. research or competitor
13959 or technology
subsequent
similar issuances
Indicators of past Indicators of past Indicators of any Indicators of a
participation in a association with history or history or pattern
Foreign Talent an entity nonconsecutive of association or
MODERATE Program with a identified in the pattern of, conflict of collaboration with
U.S. strategic U.S. Gov’t interest, conflict of foreign institution,
competitor, or denied entity or commitment, or person, or entity
country with a person list or EO funding from a from a strategic
history of 13959 or strategic competitor competitor or
targeting U.S. subsequent or country with country with
research or similar issuances history of targeting history of targeting
technology U.S. research or U.S. research or
technology technology
No participation No indicators of No indicators of past No indicators of an
in a Foreign past or current funding from a association or
LOW Talent Program association or strategic competitor collaboration with
affiliation with or country with a foreign
an entity on the history of targeting institution, person,
U.S. Gov’t U.S. research or or entity from a
denied entity or technology strategic
person list or EO competitor or
13959 or country with
subsequent history of targeting
similar issuances U.S. research or
technology
35

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• Affiliation is academic, professional, or institutional appointments or positions
with a foreign government-connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntary (including adjunct, visiting, honorary, or lectures/visits) where direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
• Association is academic, professional, or institutional appointments or positions
with a foreign government-connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntary (including adjunct, visiting, honorary, or lectures/visits) where no direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
• Collaboration is academic, professional, or institutional agreement to jointly
work together with a foreign government connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntarily, in an official or unofficial capacity. Co-authorship in research endeavors is an example of collaboration.
• Strategic competitors are those adversaries identified in the current year
Annual Threat Assessment report from Director of National Intelligence. The 2021 assessment was published on April 9, 2021 and can be found at https://www.dni.gov.
• Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment are defined in NSPM-33 and
in the CONOP as well as the ARRP Policy memorandum.
• Senior/Key Personnel are those who (a) contribute in a substantive, meaningful
way to the scientific development or execution of a research and development project proposed to be carried out with a research and development award from a Federal research agency; and (b) are designated as a covered individual by the Federal research agency concerned. ARRP risk ratings range from LOW to HIGH depending on the amount, type, and timing of foreign associations or affiliations that could constitute a foreign-influenced “Conflict of Interest” or “Conflict of Commitment,” as defined by National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33). Once the research risk assessments are performed, the Army risk acceptance authority has several courses of action available for consideration. These courses of action are as follows: Course of Action 1 - The Army risk acceptance authority may accept the risk rating that results from the risk assessment process and proceed with the award. This typically happens with proposals with risk ratings of “LOW” but could also happen with the other risk ratings. In Course of Action 1, the applicant will not be required to do anything related to the risk assessment process or the assigned risk rating. Course of Action 2 - The Army risk acceptance authority may accept the risk rating with some research protection requirements added to the grant or cooperative agreement award. This typically happens with proposals with risk ratings of “MODERATE” but 36

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could also happen with the other risk ratings. Also, typically, these added research
protection requirements could include, but be limited to the following in the grant or
cooperative agreement award:
o The University's Security Office shall provide the Principal Investigator and key
personnel related to this award training on foreign talent recruitment programs
and threat awareness and reporting requirements.
o The University shall disclose to the Army Research Laboratory Security Office
and Grants Officer all international travel, i.e., all international travel completed
as part of any university business, by the Principal Investigator and key personnel
related to this award instrument prior to travel.
o The University shall report to the Army Research Laboratory Security Office and
Grants Officer all inquiries by foreign operatives or suspected foreign operatives
into research associated with the award.
o The University is encouraged to utilize students without potential conflicts of
interest or conflicts of commitment as identified in U.S. National Security
Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-33).
Under Course of Action 2, the applicant will be asked to sign the grant or cooperative
agreement prior to award, confirming agreement to these added requirements. Should
the applicant not agree to these added research protection requirements, the Army risk
assessment authority may decide not to award.
Course of Action 3 - The Army risk acceptance authority is not willing to accept the
risk assigned as a result of the assessment process. In this case, the applicant will be
provided an opportunity to provide a risk mitigation plan. This typically happens with
proposals with risk ratings of “HIGH” but could also happen with the other risk ratings.
In Course of Action 3, the applicant will be informed of the risk rating assigned during
the risk assessment process as well as the block(s) on the matrix where the review
resulted in some type of finding that contributed to the assigned risk rating. Should the
applicant choose to not submit a risk mitigation plan, the Army risk assessment
authority may decide not to award. Should the applicant choose to submit a risk
mitigation plan, the Army will review such plan. As a result of this review, the Army
risk acceptance authority may then be willing to accept the risk assigned with the
mitigation plan and proceed with the award or the Army risk acceptance authority may
not be willing to accept the risk and may decide not to award. Further, should the risk
mitigation plan include proposal revisions that affect those aspects of the proposal
included in the review or selection process under SECTION II.E.2.c, the original
proposal evaluation will be reviewed and revised as appropriate based on the proposal
revisions.
ii. Actions Required by Applicants.
(1) By submission of this application and authorized signature on the SF 424
(R&R) Form, the Applicant agrees to comply with the following
requirements:
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• To certify that each covered individual who is listed on the application
has been made aware: (1) of all relevant disclosure requirements,
including the requirements of 42 U.S.C. § 6605; and (2) that false
representations may be subject to prosecution and liability pursuant to,
but not limited to, 18 U.S.C. §§287, 1001, 1031 and 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-
3733 and 3802. See National Science and Technology Council
Guidance for Implementing National Security Presidential
Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33) on National Security Strategy for United
States Government-Supported Research and Development (January
2022), at p. 7 (available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2022/01/010422-NSPM-33-Implementation-
Guidance.pdf).
• To establish and maintain an internal process or procedure to address
foreign talent programs, conflicts of commitment, conflicts of interest,
and research integrity.
• To exercise due diligence to identify Foreign Components or
participation by Senior/Key Personnel in Foreign Government Talent
Recruitment Programs and agree to share such information with the
Government upon request.
(2) With the application, the Applicant must provide a completed “Privacy Act
Statement” consent form for each Covered Individual that is also signed by
the Applicant as that Individual’s Sponsor. The “Privacy Act Statement”
form is included at SECTION II.D.2.d.xii (3) of this BAA.
(3) During the award period of performance:
• If, at any time, during performance of this award, the Recipient learns
that its Senior/Key Research Personnel (including any subawardee
personnel who receive this designation) are or are believed to be
participants in a Foreign Government Talent Program or have Foreign
Components with a strategic competitor or country with a history of
targeting U.S. technology for unauthorized transfer, the recipient will
notify the Government or Grants Officer within 5 business days of
awareness.
• This disclosure must include specific information as to the personnel
involved and the nature of the situation and relationship. The
Government will review this information and conduct any necessary
fact-finding or discussion with the Recipient. The Government’s
determination on disclosure may include acceptance, mitigation, or
termination of the award.
• Failure of the Recipient to reasonably exercise due diligence to discover
or ensure that neither it nor any of its Senior/Key Research Personnel
involved in the subject award are participating in a Foreign Government
Talent Program or have a Foreign Component with a strategic
38

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competitor or country with a history of targeting U.S. technology for
unauthorized transfer may result in the Government exercising remedies
in accordance with federal law and regulation.
• The provisions concerning this disclosure will be included in each
award.
• The Recipient will be required to flow down this provision to all sub
awardees who have personnel designated as Senior/Key Research
Personnel as a result of their involvement in the performance of the
research.
iii.Actions Required by Covered Individuals.
Federal law requires that all current and pending research support, as defined by 42 U.S.C. §6605,
must be disclosed at the time of proposal submission, for all covered individuals. The Government
may require an updated disclosure during the performance of any research project selected for
funding. The Government will require an updated disclosure whenever covered individuals are
added or identified as performing under the funded project. See definition of “Covered Individuals”
below.
Covered Individuals are also required to sign the “Privacy Act Statement” and provide such signed
statement to the applicant for submission with the proposal.
Any decision to accept a proposal for funding under this announcement will include full reliance on
the individual’s statements. Failure to report fully and completely all sources of project support and
outside positions and affiliations may be considered a material statement within the meaning of the
False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. 3729, and constitute a violation of Federal law.
iv.Privacy Act Compliance. All information collected and developed for the purpose of
conducting ARRP risk assessments will be maintained in accordance with the following
authorities:
• Office of Personnel Management (OPM) System of Records Notice (SORN) GOVT-1.
This SORN governs information collected from federal grantees for the purpose of
conducting a national security investigation or carrying out other lawful statutory,
administrative, or investigative purposes of the agency, to the extent the information is
relevant and necessary to the requesting agency’s decision.
• Department of the Army (DA) SORN A0381-20b-DAMI (Feb. 10, 2009, 74 F.R.
6596). This SORN applies to information contained in systems used by the Department
of the Army to develop ARRP risk assessments.
• 32 C.F.R. Appendix A to Part 310, Paragraph N: DoD Blanket Routine Uses. Pursuant
to this provision, a record from a system of records maintained by a Component may
be disclosed as a routine use outside the DoD or the U.S. Government for the purpose
of counterintelligence activities authorized by U.S. law or Executive order or for the
purpose of enforcing laws that protect the national security of the United States.
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v.Definitions
• Covered Individual. An individual who contributes in a substantive, meaningful way
to the scientific development or execution of a research and development project
proposed to be carried out with a research and development award from a Federal
research agency; and is designated as a covered individual by the Federal research
agency concerned. See 42 U.S.C. § 6605, Definitions. (For purposes of this BAA,
“covered individuals” are all Senior/Key Personnel.)
• Senior/Key Research Personnel. This term includes the Principal Investigator (PI) and
other individuals who contribute to the scientific development or execution of a project
in a substantive, measurable way, whether or not they receive salaries or compensation
under the award. These include individuals whose absence from the project would be
expected to impact the approved scope of the project. (For purposes of this BAA,
“Senior/Key Personnel” are all considered “covered individuals.”
• Foreign Associations and Affiliations. Association is defined as collaboration,
coordination or interrelation, professionally or personally, with a foreign government-
connected entity where no direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
Affiliation is defined as collaboration, coordination, or interrelation, professionally or
personally, with a foreign government-connected entity where direct monetary or non-
monetary reward is involved.
• Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Programs. In general, these programs include
any foreign-state-sponsored attempt to acquire U.S. scientific-funded research or
technology through foreign government-run or funded recruitment programs that target
scientists, engineers, academics, researchers, and entrepreneurs of all nationalities
working and educated in the U.S. Distinguishing features of a Foreign Government
Talent Recruitment Program may include:
• Compensation, either monetary or in-kind, provided by the foreign state to the
targeted individual in exchange for the individual transferring their knowledge
and expertise to the foreign country. In-kind compensation may include
honorific titles, career advancement opportunities, promised future
compensation or other types of remuneration or compensation.
• Recruitment, in this context, refers to the foreign-state-sponsor’s active
engagement in attracting the targeted individual to join the foreign-sponsored
program and transfer their knowledge and expertise to the foreign state. The
targeted individual may be employed and located in the U.S. or in the foreign
state.
• Contracts for participation in some programs that create conflicts of
commitment and/or conflicts of interest for researchers. These contracts include,
but are not limited to, requirements to attribute awards, patents, and projects to
the foreign institution, even if conducted under U.S. funding, to recruit or train
other talent recruitment plan members, circumventing merit-based processes,
and to replicate or transfer U.S.-funded work in another country.
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• Many, but not all, of these programs aim to incentivize the targeted individual to
physically relocate to the foreign state. Of particular concern are those programs
that allow for continued employment at U.S. research facilities or receipt of U.S.
Government research funding while concurrently receiving compensation from
the foreign state.
• Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Programs do not include research
agreements between the University and a foreign entity, unless that agreement
includes provisions that create situations of concern addressed elsewhere in this
section; agreements for the provision of goods or services by commercial
vendors; or invitations to attend or present at conferences.
• Conflict of Interest. A situation in which an individual, or the individual’s spouse or
dependent children, has a financial interest or financial relationship that could directly
and significantly affect the design, conduct, reporting, or funding of research.
• Conflict of Commitment. A situation in which an individual accepts or incurs
conflicting obligations between or among multiple employers or other entities.
Common conflicts of commitment involve conflicting commitments of time and effort,
including obligations to dedicate time in excess of institutional or funding agency
policies or commitments. Other types of conflicting obligations, including obligations
to improperly share information with, or withhold information from, an employer or
funding agency, can also threaten research security and integrity and are an element of
a broader concept of conflicts of commitment.
• Foreign Component. Performance of any significant scientific element or segment of a
program or project outside of the U.S., either by the University or by a researcher
employed by a foreign organization, whether or not U.S. government funds are
expended. Activities that would meet this definition include, but are not limited to:
involvement of human subjects or animals; extensive foreign travel by University
research program or project staff for the purpose of data collection, surveying,
sampling, and similar activities; collaborations with investigators at a foreign site
anticipated to result in co-authorship; use of facilities or instrumentation at a foreign
site; receipt of financial support or resources from a foreign entity; or any activity of
the University that may have an impact on U.S. foreign policy through involvement in
the affairs or environment of a foreign country.
• Strategic Competitor. A nation, or nation-state, that engages in diplomatic, economic
or technological rivalry with the United States where the fundamental strategic
interests of the U.S are under threat.
3. Recipient Qualification
a. Grant, Cooperative Agreement, and OT Proposals:
i. The Grants Officer is responsible for determining a recipient’s qualification prior to award.
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In general, a Grants Officer will award grants or cooperative agreements only to qualified
recipients that meet the standards at 32 CFR 22.415. To be qualified, a potential recipient
must:

Have the management capability and adequate financial and technical resources,

given those that would be made available through the grant or cooperative agreement, to
execute the program of activities envisioned under the grant or cooperative agreement;

Have a satisfactory record of executing such programs or activities (if a prior

recipient of an award);

Have a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics; and

Be otherwise qualified and eligible to receive a grant or cooperative agreement

under applicable laws and regulations.
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Applicants are requested to provide information with proposal submissions to assist the Grants
Officer’s evaluation of recipient qualification.
ii. In accordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance in parts 180 and
200 of Title 2, CFR, it is DoD policy that DoD Components must report and use integrity and
performance information in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information
System (FAPIIS), or any successor system designated by OMB, concerning grants, cooperative
agreements, and OTs for research as follows:
If the total Federal share will be greater than the simplified acquisition threshold on any Federal
award under a notice of funding opportunity (see 2 CFR 200.88 Simplified Acquisition
Threshold):

The Federal awarding agency, prior to making a Federal award with a total amount of

Federal share greater than the simplified acquisition threshold, will review and consider
any information about the applicant that is in the designated integrity and performance
system accessible through SAM (currently FAPIIS) (see 41 U.S.C. 2313);

An applicant, at its option, may review information in the designated integrity and

performance systems accessible through SAM and comment on any information about
itself that a Federal awarding agency previously entered and is currently in the designated
integrity and performance system accessible through SAM;

The Federal awarding agency will consider any comments by the applicant, in

addition to the other information in the designated integrity and performance system, in
making a judgment about the applicant's integrity, business ethics, and record of
performance under Federal awards when completing the review of risk posed by
applicants as described in 2 CFR 200.205 Federal awarding agency review of risk posed
by applicants.
b. Contract Proposals:
i. Contracts shall be awarded to responsible prospective contractors only. See FAR 9.104-1
for a listing of the general standards against which an applicant will be assessed to determine
responsibility.
Applicants are requested to provide information with proposal submission to assist the
Contracting Officer’s evaluation of responsibility.
ii. FAPIIS will be checked prior to making an award. The web address is: https://cpars.gov.
The applicant representing the entity may comment in this system on any information about
the entity that a federal government official entered. The information in FAPIIS will be used
in making a judgment about the entity’s integrity, business ethics, and record of performance
under Federal awards that may affect the official’s determination that the applicant is qualified
to receive an award.
(End of Section)
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F. Award Administration Information
1. Award Notices
Applicants whose proposals are recommended for award may be contacted by a Contract/Grant
Specialist to discuss additional information required for award. This may include
representations and certifications, revised budgets or budget explanations, certificate of current
cost or pricing data, subcontracting plan for small businesses, and/or other information as
applicable to the proposed award. The anticipated start date will be determined at that time.
The notification email is not an authorization to commit or expend funds. The Government is
not obligated to provide any funding until a Government Contracting/ Grants Officer signs the
award document.
The award document signed by the Government Contracting/Grants Officer is the official and
authorizing award instrument. The authorizing award instrument, signed by the Contracting/
Grants Officer, will be emailed to the PI and AOR.
2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements
a. Required Representations and Certifications:
i. Contract Proposals:
(1) Representations and certifications shall be completed by successful applicants prior to
award. FAR Online Representations and Certifications are to be completed through SAM at
https://www.sam.gov. As appropriate, DFARS and contract-specific certification packages will
be provided to the contractor for completion prior to award.
(2) FAR 52.203-18, PROHIBITION ON CONTRACTING WITH ENTITIES THAT
REQUIRE CERTAIN CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTS OR STATEMENTS—
REPRESENTATION (JAN 2017)
(a) Definition. As used in this provision--
“Internal confidentiality agreement or statement”, “subcontract”, and “subcontractor”, are
defined in the clause at 52.203-19, Prohibition on Requiring Certain Internal
Confidentiality Agreements or Statements.
(b) In accordance with section 743 of Division E, Title VII, of the Consolidated and
Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Pub. L. 113-235) and its successor
provisions in subsequent appropriations acts (and as extended in continuing resolutions),
Government agencies are not permitted to use funds appropriated (or otherwise made
available) for contracts with an entity that requires employees or subcontractors of such
entity seeking to report waste, fraud, or abuse to sign internal confidentiality agreements or
statements prohibiting or otherwise restricting such employees or subcontractors from
lawfully reporting such waste, fraud, or abuse to a designated investigative or law
44

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enforcement representative of a Federal department or agency authorized to receive such
information.
(c) The prohibition in paragraph (b) of this provision does not contravene requirements
applicable to SF 312, (Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement), Form 4414
(Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Agreement), or any other form
issued by a Federal department or agency governing the nondisclosure of classified
information.
(d) Representation. By submission of its offer, the applicant represents that it will not
require its employees or subcontractors to sign or comply with internal confidentiality
agreements or statements prohibiting or otherwise restricting such employees or
subcontractors from lawfully reporting waste, fraud, or abuse related to the performance of
a Government contract to a designated investigative or law enforcement representative of a
Federal department or agency authorized to receive such information (e.g., agency Office of
the Inspector General).
(3) FAR 52.204-26, COVERED TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT OR SERVICES-
REPRESENTATION (OCT 2020)
a) Definitions. As used in this provision, "covered telecommunications equipment or
services" and "reasonable inquiry" have the meaning provided in the clause 52.204-25,
Prohibition on Contracting for Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services
or Equipment.
(b) Procedures. The Offeror shall review the list of excluded parties in the System for Award
Management (SAM) ( https://www.sam.gov) for entities excluded from receiving federal
awards for "covered telecommunications equipment or services".
(c)(1) Representation. The Offeror represents that it [ ] does, [ ] does not provide covered
telecommunications equipment or services as a part of its offered products or services to the
Government in the performance of any contract, subcontract, or other contractual instrument.
(2) After conducting a reasonable inquiry for purposes of this representation, the offeror
represents that it [ ] does, [ ] does not use covered telecommunications equipment or services,
or any equipment, system, or service that uses covered telecommunications equipment or
services.
(4) FAR 52.209-11, REPRESENTATION BY CORPORATIONS REGARDING
DELINQUENT TAX LIABILITY OR A FELONY CONVICTION UNDER FEDERAL LAW
(FEB 2016)
(a) As required by sections 744 and 745 of Division E of the Consolidated and Further
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Pub. L 113-235), and similar provisions, if
contained in subsequent appropriations acts, the Government will not enter into a
contract with any corporation that--
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(1) Has any unpaid Federal tax liability that has been assessed, for which all judicial and
administrative remedies have been exhausted or have lapsed, and that is not being paid
in a timely manner pursuant to an agreement with the authority responsible for
collecting the tax liability, where the awarding agency is aware of the unpaid tax
liability, unless an agency has considered suspension or debarment of the corporation
and made a determination that suspension or debarment is not necessary to protect the
interests of the Government; or
(2) Was convicted of a felony criminal violation under any Federal law within the
preceding 24 months, where the awarding agency is aware of the conviction, unless an
agency has considered suspension or debarment of the corporation and made a
determination that this action is not necessary to protect the interests of the
Government.
(b) The applicant Offeror that—
(1) It is [ ] is not [ ] a corporation that has any unpaid Federal tax liability that has
been assessed, for which all judicial and administrative remedies have been
exhausted or have lapsed, and that is not being paid in a timely manner pursuant
to an agreement with the authority responsible for collecting the tax liability;
and
(2) It is [ ] is not [ ] a corporation that was convicted of a felony criminal violation
under a Federal law within the preceding 24 months.
ii. Grant and Cooperative Agreement Proposals:
(1) Grant awards greater than $100,000 require a certification of compliance with a national
policy mandate concerning lobbying. Statutes and Government-wide regulations require the
certification to be submitted prior to award. When submitting your grant through Grants.gov, by
completing blocks 18 and 19 of the SF 424 ( R&R) Form, the grant applicant is providing the
certification on lobbying required by 32 CFR Part 28; otherwise, a copy signed by the AOR
must be provided. Below is the required certification:
CERTIFICATION AT APPENDIX A TO 32 CFR PART 28 REGARDING
LOBBYING: Certification for Contracts, Grants, Loans, and Cooperative Agreements the
undersigned certifies, to the best of his or her knowledge and belief, that:
(1) No Federal appropriated funds have been paid or will be paid, by or on behalf of
the undersigned, to any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or
employee of an agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress,
or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with the awarding of any
Federal contract, the making of any Federal grant, the making of any Federal loan, the
entering into of any cooperative agreement, and the extension, continuation, renewal,
amendment, or modification of any Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative
agreement.
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All Topics Document for ARL BAA 19July2024

Current Research Topics for DEVCOM ARL BAA For Foundational Research
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Current Research Topics for the
DEVCOM ARL BAA For Foundational Research
W911NF-23-S-0001
Disclaimer
All current ARL research topics can be found at: https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunties/arl-baa.
Changes to these topics will be made using the website on an as needed basis. This document is
a printed copy of the current ARL research topics as of the noted print date. ARL maintains a
daily static snapshot of the ARL research topic website to ensure submissions are aligned with
listed research topics on the day of submission. The available Army Research Office (ARO)
topics are listed alphabetically followed by an alphabetical listing of the Army Research
Directorate (ARD) topics. Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse the ARL
research topic website and review the ARL BAA for instructions on submissions.
The DEVCOM ARL Broad Agency Announcement for Foundational Research,
W911NF-23-S-0001,
is available on https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/
Link to all current ARL research topics
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Available Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topics
The available Army Research Office (ARO) topics are listed in alphabetical order.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Advanced Learning-Enabled Intelligent Cyber Physical Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0032
TPOC: MaryAnne Fields, PhD - mary.a.fields22.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4350
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Mathematics and Statistics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber,
and Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Future Vertical Lift;Next Generation Combat Vehicle
Keywords: Intelligent Systems, Interaction, Assured Operations, Online learning, Robust
Intelligence, World Models, Memory Systems, Causality
Description:
Intelligent cyber physical systems play an increasingly important role in civilian and military
settings. With few exceptions, current intelligent systems are restricted to highly constrained
environments for short duration missions. Future systems will need to perform a variety of tasks
in complex, possibly contested, open worlds for extended periods of time. One important
characteristic of open worlds is that the intelligent system will encounter new contexts, activities,
and objects that will require it to adapt previously trained algorithms. Advanced capabilities in
learning, reasoning, interaction, and assured operations are essential to the development of
intelligent systems that can greatly enhance the Army's mobility, agility, lethality, and
survivability in future conflicts.
ON-LINE LEARNING THEORY, METHODOLOGY, AND TECHNIQUES
Over the past 50 years, machine learning has made great strides in classification, natural
language processing, and task learning. However, machine learning still lacks the rigor, agility,
and flexibility necessary to operate in complex, contested open worlds. This thrust focuses on
establishing a theoretical foundation for on-line or continuous machine learning. New learning
approaches will need to address both the dimensionality challenges and temporal characteristics
that may be evolving continuously. In addition, new techniques must address robustness to
enable the learning system to deal with novelty, noise, observation errors and potentially
malicious input that aim to disrupt learning. Innovative approaches to continuous learning will
allow systems to adapt to changing contexts and environments while maintaining previously
learned knowledge. Under this thrust, we investigate approaches that help the intelligent systems
deal with dynamic environments, devise new, transferable skills, and cope with unknown
situations.
While end-to-end learning may be important for certain applications, it may not be an effective
approach for the complex environments typical of most battlefields. Instead, there is a need for
compositional learning systems in which each component may learn primitive actions that are
later combined, and adapted, to solve complex long-horizon manipulation problems. Research is
needed to understand how to express and learn the preconditions and post-conditions for each of
the primitive actions. Linking elements from a library of primitives and adapting the ensemble to
solve an existing problem is also an outstanding issue. Automated curriculum learning in which
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the CPS devises its own learning strategy is an open research area. Important issues in this area
include generating sample task environments from observation, memory and simulation;
sequencing those task into an effective curriculum; and transferring the learning as the tasks
become more complex.
DECISION MAKING FOR THE OPEN WORLD
Long duration operations require CPSs to continually reason, make decisions, or take actions
with very limited knowledge of the pertinent events or objects that could impact those decisions.
In real world missions, systems often address multiple near-simultaneous tasks to accomplish
their objectives - on a battlefield, systems need to travel to a location while searching for
potential adversaries and sharing information with teammates. Architectures that draw from
psychological models for human decision making, such as Dual Process theory, may enable
CPSs to effectively distribute the processing for near-simultaneous reasoning tasks. Advances in
risk-aware online planning will enable autonomous systems to balance potentially conflicting
objectives and operate safely in poorly understood environments. CPSs also need to develop a
sense of "'causality" that discovers relationships between objects and events and allows the
system to incorporate temporal and spatial information into the reasoning processes.
Storing and accessing information is vital to long term mission. Not all pertinent information is
collected at the same time: new research in memory systems will enable cyber physical systems
to determine what information, in what form, it needs to store to support future actions that may
or may not relate to its current action. Memory systems are not simply information stores -
processes like reflection, abstraction, and learning enable CPSs to develop new information.
Retrieval mechanisms are very important - information is not useful unless the system can recall
it when it is needed. Research to understand effective memory structure and processes will
benefit from a collaboration with cognitive scientists to understand memory in biological
systems. New approaches are needed to address potential issues with memory systems such as
catastrophic or forgetting, limited storage capacity, and development of new methods to
efficiently use external knowledge stores.
INTERACTION
Future autonomous systems must interact physically with humans and other intelligent systems
operating in the same space, remotely with spatially distant entities, and virtually in cyberspace
with intelligent software agents. New research in human-robot interaction and robot-robot
teaming will enable humans and robots to share the same space and work together on complex
tasks. Research in Ad-hoc teamwork will enable entities (human and systems) to dynamically
join together to address a specific problem, then pursue separate tasks after the problem is
solved. In this type of teaming, there is no prior coordination between agents and we cannot
assume that the entities share the same types of learning algorithms or reward structures or that
they have prior agreements regarding action coordination and information sharing. Some of the
important research problems within ad-hoc teaming are: ensuring that actions are understandable
to fellow teammates; modeling the capabilities of team members; including humans in the
ad-hoc teams, and dynamically modeling the performance of both the team and the individuals.
Explicit Human-Robot interaction has been extensively explored throughout the last decade.
Implicit Human-Robot interaction, on the other hand, is relatively unexplored. In this case,
humans may not directly interact with an intelligent system but instead take actions that the
system could use as input. The human actions may be intentional, unintentional or even
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unconscious but they are a rich source of signals for learning or cooperative actions. These
implicit actions may also provide context information that could be used to adapt a previously
learned behavior to a new environment. Some important research topics in this area include:
identifying implicit signals, the value of implicit robot-human signals, and context-aware
interaction.
ASSURED OPERATIONS
Assured operations require a deep understanding of how a complex system composed of several
components, including mechanical systems, computational hardware, and software algorithms
operates as a coordinated system. In much the same way as the community is trying to
understand the behavior of neural networks, which are composed of layers of mathematical
functions, this topic seeks to understand how information and actions flow from the lowest levels
of the system to system level decisions and actions. Along those lines, new theory and principles
are needed to understand the impact of both gradual and abrupt changes at the component level
on the evolution of the entire system. Investigating modularity and compositionality will enable
the system to address the multiple near-simultaneous problems it is likely to encounter in long
term operations. New theories in information sharing in dynamic environments will lay the
foundation for accountability and provide clear criteria for component-level and global
input/output specification (in terms of computation, rate, semantics, ..) that can be used to: train a
learning component, optimize outputs of a planning component, and test individual and systems
level components. As these areas mature, they will provide a firm mathematical foundation for
systems-level research in learning-based design, performance guarantees, and robustness to
degraded components.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP)
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0022
TPOC: Meg Shea, PhD - margaret.e.shea6.civ@army.mil - 240-941-4880
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Network, Cyber, and Computational
Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Assured PNT;Long Range Precision Fires;Network/C3I
Keywords:
Description:
Topics of interest within Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP) include:
1. Quantum degenerate atomic gases, both Bose and Fermi, their excitations and properties,
including mixed species, mixed state, and molecular;
2. Quantum enhanced precision metrology;
3. Nonlinear processes;
4. Quantum systems in cavities;
5. Collective and many-body states of matter; and
6. Emerging areas.
There is an interest in emerging areas of AMO physics such as collective states of matter,
emergent lattices in quantum gases, non-equilibrium many body dynamics, advanced quantum
simulation, and metrology in non-ideal environments. Research efforts within the AMP fall
within two thrust areas: Advanced Quantum Capabilities and Novel Quantum Methods. It is
anticipated that research efforts within these areas will lead to applications including novel
materials, efficient computational platforms, and exquisite quantum sensors.
Advanced Quantum Many-body Dynamics
The focus of this thrust is the development and study of strongly correlated many-body systems.
The quantum simulator portion of the thrust seeks research on novel techniques and studies that
leverage our control and understanding of simple quantum mechanical systems to explore more
complex quantum effects and materials. The effort seeks the validation of many-body quantum
theories through the development of experimental tools including quantum gas microscopes,
atom-array experiments, synthetic gauge fields, mixed species, and novel interactions.
Complimenting this effort will be the inclusion of foundational investigations into quantum
mechanics, such as entanglement, many-body localization, collective modes, and entropy. To
take advantage of the precision inherent in future quantum devices, these systems will need to
connect to the classical world in such a manner that allows them to sample the signal of interest
while remaining robust to noisy environments. Consequently, studies of how the quantum
system interacts with classical world, and the quantum-to-classical boundary are also of interest.
Investigating how to maximize both the quality and quantity of entanglement within these
systems will be a priority. General issues of quantum coherence, quantum interference,
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entanglement growth, entanglement purity, and non-equilibrium phenomena, as well as
discovering new scientific opportunities are also of interest.
Novel Quantum Metrology
The AMP Program has a general interest in exploring fundamental AMP that may impact future
Army capabilities. This thrust is divided into two main areas: precision metrology beyond the
standard limit and harnessing collective many-body states to improve quantum sensing. The
Novel Quantum Metrology efforts will expand the foundations of quantum measurement into
new areas that seek to exploit entanglement, spin-squeezing, harnessing collective-spin states,
developing back-action avoidance measurements, and other areas that increase fundamental
precision through interactions, including cavities and Rydberg atoms. It is expected that research
in this thrust will complement efforts in the Advanced Quantum Many-body Dynamics thrust
and vice versa. For example, collective many body states could be studied in optical lattices or
quantum gas microscopes and foundational research of entanglement are anticipated to provide
new metrological capabilities in non-ideal environments.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Biochemistry
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0017
TPOC: Stephanie A. McElhinny, PhD - stephanie.a.mcelhinny.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4240
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Chemistry;Materials Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Sciences
of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: Biotechnology, Bioengineering, Biomaterials
Description:
This program emphasizes basic research focused on understanding and controlling the activity
and assembly of biomolecules. Scientific advances supported by this program are anticipated to
enable the development of novel systems, materials and processes that enhance Soldier
protection and performance. Overarching goals of the program are to provide the scientific
foundations to expand the chemical diversity accessible by biomolecules and to support
biological activity outside of the cellular environment, including integration of biological
systems with synthetic systems.
The Biomolecular Specificity and Regulation thrust is focused on novel approaches to engineer
the specificity and regulation of biomolecules, either via modulation of natural mechanisms or
via design of non-natural mechanisms. Approaches to expand the chemical diversity of
ligands/substrates that are recognized/accepted by biomolecules and/or the products of
biocatalytic reactions beyond elements and chemical bonds common to natural biological
systems are of particular interest. This includes both individual enzymatic reactions as well as
multi-step biocatalytic pathways. The goal of this thrust is to develop novel engineered
approaches to modulate and control biomolecular activity, with emphasis on expanding the
chemical diversity accessible by biomolecules and achieving biomolecular control in
non-cellular contexts.
The Biomolecular Assembly and Organization thrust is focused on understanding the molecular
interactions and design rules that govern self-assembly of biomolecules into both naturally
occurring biomolecular structures and non-natural human-designed architectures. This thrust
aims to elucidate fundamental understanding of sequence-structure-property relationships in
natural biomolecular assemblies, biomaterials, and biological composites to enable rational
design of biological and hybrid biological/abiological assemblies with tailored properties and
functions. Biomolecular assembly across length scales is of interest, including discrete
multi-protein complexes or nucleic acid structures, as well as hierarchical protein or nucleic acid
assemblies and biological composites. This thrust includes homogeneous assemblies utilizing a
single building block, as well as heterogeneous systems in which a mixture of different
biomolecules and/or non-biological species (e.g., minerals, synthetic polymers) self-assemble.
Of particular interest are approaches to expand the chemical diversity of biomolecular
architectures beyond elements and chemical bonds common to natural biological systems. This
research thrust also includes the design of self-assembled biomolecular or hybrid
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biological/abiological architectures that provide control over the chemical environment and
spatial organization necessary to support complex biomolecular function in non-cellular
contexts, including artificial cells and cell-free systems.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Biomathematics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0021
TPOC: Virginia B. Pasour, PhD - virginia.b.pasour.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4254
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Data Sciences and Informatics;Earth and Environmental
Sciences;Mathematics and Statistics;Network Science;Physics;Social Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems
Army Modernization Priorities: Soldier Lethality
Keywords: biomathematics, mathematical biology, theoretical ecology, theoretical
epidemiology, modeling
Description:
The introduction of Biomathematics as a separate area of basic research recognizes the
importance and specialized nature of quantitative methods, specifically mechanistic modeling, in
the biological sciences. Biology involves a large number of entities that interact with each other
and their environment in complex ways, and at multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Understanding how dynamics at different spatial scales come together to form a biological
system and understanding the dynamics of a system at intermediate timescales, as opposed to its
long term, asymptotic behavior, are critically important in biology, more so than in many other
fields.
This complexity makes biomathematics a highly interdisciplinary field that requires unique and
highly specialized mathematical competencies to quantify structure in these relationships. In fact,
progress in mathematical models of biological systems has traditionally been achieved by
making convenient simplifications; major advances in Biomathematics research continue to
require removing these assumptions (for example, stationarity, ergodicity and deterministic
nature) and finding ways to effectively model the essential complexity. Modeling techniques
currently utilized in the field range from agent-based approaches for determining the results of
individual behavior, whether those individuals be molecules, zooplankton, or humans, to
multi-compartmental modeling in physiology, epidemiology and neurobiology, to network
models involved in understanding ecosystem and human social dynamics, as well as
encompassing both deterministic and stochastic approaches. Research in control techniques is
also valuable for its potential application in militarily important areas such as bio warfare and
disease spread. Exciting new opportunities to advance the field are found in high risk attempts to
develop modeling techniques in areas of mathematics, such as algebra and topology, not
traditionally brought to bear on biological problems, advances in Bayesian statistics, a growing
recognition that the diffusion approximation is not necessarily adequate for many systems, and
the availability of large amounts of complex biological data.
The ultimate goal of the Biomathematics Program focuses on adapting existing mathematics and
creating new mathematical techniques to uncover fundamental relationships in biology, spanning
different biological systems as well as multiple spatial and temporal scales. One area of special
interest to the program is Neuromathematics, the mechanistic mathematical modeling of neural
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processes. Recent advances in neuroscience provide important foundations to begin
understanding how the brain works. Combined with experimental data, innovative mathematical
modeling provides an unparalleled opportunity to gain a revolutionary new understanding of
brain physiology, cognition (including sensory processing, attention, decision-making, etc.), and
neurological disease. With this new understanding, improved soldier performance, as well as
treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, and other brain-related
disorders suffered by the warfighter will be able to be achieved more effectively, efficiently, and
ethically than via experimentation alone.
Thrust areas of the Biomathematics Program are as follows:
Fundamental Laws of Biology
The field of physics has long been "'mathematized" so that fundamental principles such as
Newton's Laws are not considered the application of mathematics to physics but physics itself.
The field of biology is far behind physics in this respect; a similar process of mathematization is
a basic and high-risk goal of the ARO Biomathematics Program. The identification and
mathematical formulation of the fundamental principles of biological structure, function, and
development applying across systems and scales will not only revolutionize the field of biology
but will motivate the creation of new mathematics that will contribute in as-yet-unforeseen ways
to biology and the field of mathematics itself. For example, heterogeneity/stochasticity is
ubiquitous in biological systems; is heterogeneity necessary for tipping points that result in
diseased individuals and epidemics and if so, what is its role? More generally, is heterogeneity in
biological systems necessary for their functioning or a problem to be overcome, or is the answer
system/function dependent?
Multiscale Modeling/Inverse Problems
Biological systems function through diversity, with large scale function emerging from the
collective behavior of smaller scale heterogeneous elements. This "'forward" problem includes
creating mechanistic mathematical models at different biological scales and synchronizing their
connections from one level of organization to another, as well as an important sub problem, how
to represent the heterogeneity of individual elements and how much heterogeneity to include in
the model. For example, the currently increasing ability to generate large volumes of molecular
data provides a significant opportunity for biomathematical modelers to develop advanced
analytical procedures to elucidate the fundamental principles by which genes, proteins, cells,
etc., are integrated and function as systems through the use of innovative mathematical and
statistical techniques. The task is complicated by the fact that data collection methods are noisy,
many biological mechanisms are not well understood, and, somewhat ironically, large volumes
of data tend to obscure meaningful relationships. However, traditionally "'pure" mathematical
fields such as differential geometry, algebra and topology, integration of Bayesian statistical
methods with mathematical methods, and the new field of topological data analysis, among
others, show promise in approaching these problems. Solutions to these types of multiscale
problems will elucidate the connection, for example, of stem cells to tissue and organ
development or of disease processes within the human body to the behavior of epidemics.
The "'inverse" problem is just as important as the forward problem. From an understanding of
the overall behavior of a system, is it possible to determine the nature of the individual elements?
For example, from knowledge of cell signaling, can we go back and retrieve information about
the cell? Although inverse problems have been studied for a long time, significant progress has
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been elusive. This thrust area involves innovations in spatial and/or temporal modeling of
multi-level biological elements with the goal of achieving a deeper understanding of biological
systems and eventually connecting top-down (data-driven) and bottom-up (model-based)
approaches.
Hybrid Modeling
While the Biomathematics Program has primarily been concerned with developing and using
mathematical modeling techniques to understand the mechanisms behind biological system
function, future predictions about a system have typically been achieved through statistical
modeling using available data; these methods are limited by their ability to make trustworthy
predictions only under the same situations under which the data was collected. This thrust seeks
to develop new methods that will take advantage of the strengths of both types of modeling, still
allowing the hypothesis and testing of biological mechanism while also allowing prediction
under an expanded set of conditions. These new methods will facilitate the utilization of the
increasingly available data in many areas of biology to expand our ability to understand and
predict biological systems and may be furthered through the use and development of existing and
new data analysis techniques. For example, can we develop a mechanistic model to understand a
cell's ability to repair damage to its DNA by incorporating Machine Learning?
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Bionic Electronics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0069
TPOC: Albena Ivanisevic, PhD - albena.ivanisevic.civ@army.mil - (301) 580-3020
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Chemistry;Electronics;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: bioelectronics, biotronics, bionic
Description:
This research area focuses on the discovery and manipulation of phenomena and the creation of
new processes where electronics and biology overlap at the cellular / sub-cellular level. This
length scale is where the amplitudes of many types of energies (e.g., electrostatic, mechanical,
and chemical terms) converge, and correspondingly, where electronics can have fundamental
biological impacts and where leveraging electronics capabilities at the nanoscale can yield
unique new understanding of the cellular and intracellular processes.
New electronic structures and materials are now able to focus localized static electric and
magnetic fields and electromagnetic fields at the nanoscale, which presents the opportunity to
selectively address and manipulate the organelles and membranes making up the structure of the
cell. Moreover, cell constituents can have a frequency dependent response to mechanical and
electromagnetic excitation, resulting in unique electronically enabled and controlled biological
experiments. Molecular and subcellular events at the biological interfaces or surfaces are key to
downstream biological dynamics. The stimulation or manipulation of these events by electronic
means provides the opportunity for unique control and experimentation that are orthogonal to
existing biochemical or genetic approaches. Ion flow, which is fundamental to inter- and
intra-cellular signaling and process control, is susceptible to electromagnetic influence and
produces electromagnetic signatures of cellular processes. The dynamics of charged and
polarized cellular components also produces minute displacement currents, and can produce very
large field distributions in a confined nanoscale space (e.g., within a protein scaffold or across a
lipid bilayer); both of which are subject to electromagnetic probing and analysis. The different
geometries of organelles within a cell result in different electromagnetic signatures and
sensitivities which can be leveraged for selective control of cellular processes. Proteins play a
role in almost every cellular process. As extremely large and complex molecules, they should
have electromagnetic and mechanical responses that can be exploited for control. The skeletal
protein assemblies of the cell, in particular, may offer a highway for the introduction of electrical
currents or mechanical vibrations. Bio-chemical or genetic alteration of the interface of the cell
and its components can introduce new electromagnetic properties, for example a new capability
for photosynthesis in bacteria or new electromagnetic responses. Cellular engineering of
membranes, cellular organelles, and proteins by the introduction of nano-particles and
bio-molecules can introduce new sensitivities and new functionality. Opto-genetics is a
well-established procedure for interrogating cells. Early attempts at "'magneto-genetics" have
been controversial, however "'electro- or RF-genetics" may offer new opportunities. There may
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also be inherently non-trivial quantum mechanical mechanisms linked to biological behaviors,
such as navigation. Inherently quantum phenomena such as the tunneling of electrons and
protons play a critical role in many intracellular processes and can be modulated or manipulated
with nanoscale electric fields. This research area seeks understanding and control of inter- and
intra-cellular phenomena at the micro- and nano-scale. The program facilitates highly innovative
extensions of techniques based on the unique capabilities of electronics as well as totally new,
complementary methods, addressing the internal function and electrical processes within a living
entity. Biotronics seeks to accomplish this with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution
and with minimal disruption of "'normal" living cell function. The basic science questions being
addressed by the Biotronics program are geared to achieve a natural evolution into bionic
electronics. Through this evolution the goal is to us
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Complex Dynamics and Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0018
TPOC: Dean R. Culver, PhD - dean.r.culver.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4225
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Data Sciences and Informatics;Materials Science;Mathematics and
Statistics;Mechanics;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Energy
Sciences;Humans in Complex Systems;Mechanical Sciences;Military Information
Sciences;Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum
Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials;Terminal Effects;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Air and Missile Defense;Future Vertical
Lift;Network/C3I;Next Generation Combat Vehicle;Synthetic Training Environment
Keywords: nonlinear dynamics; mechanics; high dimensional; morphological computation;
chaos; embodied intelligence; hierarchical mechanics; heterogeneous systems; stochastic control;
stochastic learning
Description:
The Complex Dynamics and Systems program emphasizes fundamental understanding of the
dynamics, both physical and information theoretic, of nonlinear and nonconservative systems as
well as innovative scientific approaches for engineering and exploiting nonlinear and
nonequilibrium physical and information theoretic dynamics for a broad range of future
capabilities (e.g. novel energetic and entropic transduction, agile motion, and force generation).
The program seeks to understand how information, momentum, energy, and entropy flows and
transforms in nonlinear systems due to interactions with the system's surroundings or within the
system itself. Research efforts are not solely limited to descriptive understanding, however.
Central to the mission of the program is the additional emphasis on pushing beyond descriptive
understanding toward engineering and exploiting time-varying interactions, fluctuations, inertial
dynamics, phase space structures, modal interplay, practical control opportunities, and other
consequences of nonlinearity in novel ways to enable the generation of useful work, agile
motion, and engineered energetic and entropic transformations. Further information on the
current scientific thrust areas are detailed in the paragraphs that follow.
High-Dimensional Nonlinear Dynamics
Classical dynamics has produced limited fundamental insight and theoretical methods
concerning strongly nonlinear, high-dimensional, dissipative, and time-varying systems. For over
a century, qualitative geometric approaches in low-dimensions have dominated research in
dynamics. These approaches of reduced-order-modeling of high-dimensional dynamics are often
premised on empirical and statistical model fitting and are incapable of capturing the effects of
slowly growing instabilities and memory. The program seeks to develop novel theoretical and
experimental methods for understanding the physical and information dynamics of driven
dissipative continuous systems. It also seeks novel reduced-order-modeling methodologies
capable of retaining time-dependent and global nonlinearities. Novel research pertaining to the
analysis and fundamental physics of time-varying nonlinear systems and transient dynamics is a
high-priority.
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Embodied and Distributed Control, Sensing, and Actuation
This thrust develops deeper understanding, through supporting theory and experiment, of the role
of embodiment and dynamics on a physical system's capability to process information and
transform energy. Proposals emphasizing the mechanics and control of soft, continuous bodies
are encouraged along with novel experimental paradigms leveraging programmable printed
matter. Generally, this thrust strongly leverages advances in, and approaches from, sensory
biomechanics, neuromechanics, underactuated systems theory, and mechanical locomotion
dynamics to understand the motion of both articulated and continuum dynamical systems
operating in highly-dynamic environments. The scientific principles sought, however, are not
limited to biological movement and manipulation. Proposals are strongly encouraged that view
morphology in an abstract sense. For example, understanding morphology as a system's
symmetry, its confinement (e.g. chemical reactions), or its coupling topology.
Statistical Physics of Control and Learning
The program seeks to lay the foundations for an algorithmic theory of control and learning that
goes significantly beyond the state of-the-art in model predictive control and integrates novel
learning methodologies that are not mere variations of artificial neural networks and deep
learning. Additional goals of this program is to develop an experimentally tested theoretical
framework for controlling and creating new types of critical dynamics, phase transitions, and
universality classes by bringing together theory and physical principles in statistical dynamics
with control and dynamical systems theory (controlling statistical dynamics).
Topics of interest relating to this include: nonlinear control of distributions with non-Gaussian
uncertainty; non-Gaussian uncertainty representations; understanding relationships between
work absorption and dynamics in the presence of fluctuations leading to emergent prediction and
emergent centralization; steering multi-critical interacting dynamical systems toward desired
universal scaling behaviors; externally controlling the strength of stochastic fluctuations and
intrinsic noise in systems that are driven far from thermal equilibrium and display generic scale
invariance; and selectively targeting and stabilizing specific self-generated spatio-temporal
patterns in strongly fluctuating reaction-diffusion systems. Stochastic control at the microscale to
enable novel manipulation of the dynamics of synthetic and natural biomolecular machines is
also of interest.
Mechanics of Hierarchical and Heterogeneous Systems
Recent experimental, theoretical, and computational advancements have made it possible to
challenge macroscopic, continuum representations of inherently hierarchical systems like never
before - acknowledging that desirable macroscopic characteristics arise as a function of
architecture and interaction between scales cascading all the way down to the nanoscopic
environments within. This thrust in part seeks to develop reduced order and component-level
models of nano-scale mechanisms in order to identify principles of physical interaction in these
intricate (and in most cases only stochastically or empirically understood) systems. In addition to
understanding the capabilities of component and mechanism design at the nano-scale, the
program encourages the characterization of energy and information passing from one "'scale" to
the next, as well as sensing and control strategies that tap into hierarchical and complex systems
at different scales and locations.
Topics of interest include, but are certainly not limited to: magnetohydrodynamics; the control of
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plasmas; frontiers of dynamical systems theory exploring turbulence; modeling biochemical
mechanisms in order to identify design principles that exceed their capabilities; locomotion at
micro- and sub-micro-scales. The program highly encourages studies that approach these
problems from the perspective of hierarchical structures as assemblies of known base units rather
than continua whose emergent properties can be modeled by approximating the complexity of
the structure within.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Computational Mathematics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0034
TPOC: Radhakrishnan Balu, PhD - radhakrishnan.balu.civ@army.mil - (301) 394-4302
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Mathematics and Statistics;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Mechanical Sciences;Network, Cyber, and
Computational Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Assured PNT;Network/C3I
Keywords: Mathematical modeling, Scientific computation, Fractional order methods,
Mathematics of QIS, Atmospheric physics, Embedded simulation
Description:
The research strategy of this program is to focus on the following opportunities for crucial
discoveries: innovative methodologies for solving currently intractable problems that take
advantage of symmetry, conservation, and recurrence, that can adapt to both the evolving
solution and to the evolving run-time resource allocation of modern computer architectures;
novel algorithms that accommodate different mathematical models at different scales, interacting
subsystems, and coupling between models and scales; methods that incorporate nonlocality
through integral operators with advantageous representations. Research in this area will
ultimately lead to the development of new mathematical principles that enable faster and higher
fidelity computational methods, and new methods that will enable modeling of future problems.
Scientific computation is an essential component of scientific inquiry, complementing theory and
experiment, and is also an essential element of engineering in both design and in failure autopsy.
Simulations in support of inquiry, design, or autopsy often require expert knowledge in order to
select methods that are compatible with the assumptions of the scenario at hand, require
considerable skill to properly set up, require considerable time, memory, and storage on large
scale parallel/distributed/heterogeneous systems to compute, and require considerable skill and
effort to distill useful information from the massive data sets which result. Expert knowledge is
also required to quantitatively estimate solution accuracy and to estimate the time and effort
required to achieve a desired accuracy. Data has become ubiquitous and is potentially very
valuable in increasing solution accuracy and/or decreasing the effort required to solve, but
mathematically sound methods for incorporating data into accurate simulations are incomplete.
Simulations are not always timely, with results often not being available until after they are
needed, for example in calculating failure of New Orleans levees during Katrina and in revising
those estimates based on real time surge data.
The emphasis in the Computational Mathematics program is on mathematical research directed
towards developing capabilities in these and related areas. For problems that are not
time-limited, research areas of interest include but are not limited to the following:
Advances in Numerical Analysis. Novel methodologies are sought for solving currently
intractable problems. New ways of taking advantage of symmetry, conservation, and recurrence
are of interest, as are new ways of creating sparsity and new computational structures which can
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adapt to both the evolving solution and to the evolving run-time resource allocation of modern
computer architectures. Rigorous analysis is sought for each in order to enable error bounds,
error distribution, and error control.
Mathematics for Quantum Information Systems (QIS). New mathematical constructs and
understanding are sought in order to provide useful mathematical tools and language to others
working to advance QIS. QIS goes far beyond quantum computing (QC), with focus also on
quantum networking, quantum sensing, topological quantum computing, and topological phases
of matter. Advances are sought in factors of von Neumann algebras, type II and type III, that are
yet to be fully explored even after a century of studies from a QIS point of view. Topological
quantum information processing going beyond anyons and in 3+1 spacetime dimensions are of
interest. Exploration of noncommutative geometry from QIS point of view are important in
pushing the field. Advances are sought in the language for quantum field theory as a basis for
QIS and for the associated mathematical structures that are involved. New bases for QIS-based
chemical and biological systems are just beginning; language and representations for these
more-complex and messier-than-physics-based-systems are sought in order to enable new
mathematical models. The QIS of metamaterials-based systems is very different from other
systems, and new mathematics is sought that is capable of representing the unification of these
disparate QIS themes.
Fractional Order Methods. As an alternative to high order methods and other less-local
operators, fractional operators are another nonlocal operator that have proven to work well in
modeling and have the advantage of not enforcing dubious assumptions of smoothness,
especially at discontinuities and interfaces. However, the nonlocality of fractional operators also
typically introduces a significant increase in computational load. Advances in novel efficient
computational methods for these operators are of interest. Army systems often operate under
rapidly-changing unpredictable and adverse conditions. It is desirable for models to be
computationally simulated and fast enough to drive decision making, exercise control, and to
help avoid disaster. Such simulations need to be created, run, and interpreted in better than real
time. Research directed towards making this goal achievable is of interest, such as: Fast Methods
for Atmospheric Physics. Modeling and prediction of local and mid-range atmospheric physics
are a key part of the domain of operations. New exploratory efforts in fast algorithms for
atmospheric physics have been identified as an area where new computational methods could
make an important impact on problems of current and future Army interest. The emphasis of
these efforts is on mathematical methods which have some promise of wider application rather
than methods limited only to specific application areas.
Reduced Order Models. Full scale simulations are often not realizable in real time. In order to
investigate the behavior of systems under a variety of possible scenarios, many runs are required.
Reduced order models are one way to enable this. Possible methods to create these models
include adaptive simplification methods based on singular value decompositions and reduced
order numerics. To be useful, all such models should be equipped with reliable estimates of
accuracy.
Problem Solving Environments. To enable rapid decision making that is driven by simulation,
it is necessary to set up simulations very quickly and obtain results in an understandable format.
Matlab is one current tool for such a problem solving environment. What are other approaches?
Embedded Simulation. As algorithms become more efficient and computational devices shrink,
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it will become increasingly possible to use real-time simulation to drive control systems. New
methods which address this goal are welcome, especially those which permit user- controlled
and/or adaptively-controlled tradeoffs between speed and accuracy. Decision Making. One valid
criticism of numerical simulation is that it takes so long to set up, run, and post-process the
results that they cannot be used in a timely manner to guide decision making. Mathematical ideas
that help address this problem are of interest.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Condensed Matter Physics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0029
TPOC: Joe X. Qiu, PhD - joe.x.qiu.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4297
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Photonics,
Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities: Assured PNT;Network/C3I
Keywords: Solid-state physics; Crystal lattices; Correlated oxides
Description:
This program strives to drive research that looks beyond the current understanding of natural and
designed condensed matter, to lay a foundation for revolutionary electronic device concepts for
future generations of warfighters.
Strong Correlations and Novel Quantum Phases of Matter. Understanding, predicting, and
experimentally demonstrating novel phases of matter in strongly correlated solid state materials
will lay a foundation for new technology paradigms for applications ranging from information
processing to sensing to novel functional materials. Interest primarily involves strong
correlations of electrons, but those of other particles or excitations are not excluded. This thrust
is currently emphasizing endeavors to determine if material properties can be significantly
altered by dressing bosonic states within materials with engineered fluctuations of the vacuum.
Topologically Non-Trivial Phases in Condensed Matter. Topologically non-trivial states of
matter in solid state materials beyond the quantum Hall phases have shown a remarkable
opportunity to advance our understanding of physics and provide a foundation for novel device
concepts. This thrust emphasizes the interaction between magnetic order and topological states.
A deeper understanding of these interactions is necessary to determine if meaningful device
concepts can be built upon them. The thrust is also broadly interested in the discovery and
engineering of new non-trivial phases, verification of non-trivial topologies and phase transitions
between trivial and non-trivial topological states.
Unique Instrumentation Development. Advanced studies of SSP phenomena often require unique
experimental techniques with tools that are not readily available. The construction and
demonstration of new methods for probing and controlling unique quantum phenomena in solid
state materials is of particular interest.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Dynamical Influences on Social Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0102
TPOC: Gregory Ruark, PhD - gregory.a.ruark.civ@army.mil - (240) 890-3591
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Mathematics and Statistics;Social Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Humans in Complex Systems;Military
Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
The overall goal of this program is to enhance fundamental understanding of the interdependent,
reciprocal, and complex relationships across social systems accounting for environmental factors
needed to enhance future warfighters' performance across operational contexts. Performance is
traditionally bounded to a task where the ability to successfully execute actions and achieve
mission objectives is a result of training and leadership. This narrow focus on the task, however,
does not account for the critical factors in everyday interactions that impacts performance: the
social system that shapes the warfighters through shared norms, values, and expectations; lived
experiences that support inter- and intra-dependence; and exogenous variables that directly and
indirectly impact quality of life. A warfighter's social systems exists among other systems -
whether embedded within larger systems, parallel to, in competition to, and/or in opposition of -
that see reciprocal influence forces exchanged between them. These social systems transcend the
task or operational environment to include garrison, schools, deployments, and other institutions
to include those outside the military that co-exist with social systems, and in combination impact
the warfighters' capabilities development. Therefore, it is important to take a holistic approach
that accounts for the human, social, and environmental elements that interact and over time
shape development to understand and predict performance levels and variability within and
across missions.
The Dynamical Influences on Social Systems program supports fundamental research to
understand how to construct, maintain, and, as necessary, reconstruct social systems within and
across environments that promote the desired social behaviors necessary for effective
performance. Successful projects will develop new innovative theoretical, methodological, and
modeling approaches to understand scalable human behaviors within complex systems and
across environments. This program has three focal areas of interest. First, create the scientific
capability to identify and assess the influence of meaningful contextual factors that consciously
and unconsciously impact ongoing affective, cognitive, and behavioral processes within and
across individuals and collectives. Second, to enable the integration of the science of time (i.e.,
the experience and perception of time) to understand cascading effects beyond first and second
order effects on social systems. Third, to understand the impact of advanced technologies that
more closely mimic human characteristics and capabilities on the evolution of various social
systems.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Earth Materials and Processes
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0007
TPOC: Jamin M. Rager, PhD - jamin.m.rager.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4313
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Data Sciences and Informatics;Earth and Environmental Sciences;Mechanics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Humans in
Complex Systems;Mechanical Sciences;Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber, and
Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: geoscience, earth science, environmental, civil engineering, urban, built
environment, atmosphere, terrain
Description:
The Earth Materials and Processes program seeks to enable maneuver, communication and
situational awareness in all terrain through understanding and prediction of the physical and
mechanical properties and behaviors of rocks, soil, and man-made earth surfaces and their
interactions with their surrounding environment. The Program is especially interested in
interdisciplinary efforts that could be eligible for cross-discipline support. Topics for
consideration include but are not limited to the following:
Investigations on the transmission of information (e.g., seismic, acoustic, or radio frequency) in
challenging environments: Of special interest are urban, high-latitude, high-altitude, and forested
environments. Access to new field areas and high-resolution data collection and modeling
provide opportunities to differentiate sources and characterize terrain.
Research on fundamental processes within the built environment: How natural and artificial
surfaces (e.g., soil, sand, or concrete) store and conduct energy depending on their spatial
relationships, inherent material properties, and imparted features such as moisture storage and
evapotranspiration. Detailed characterization of these environments will enable prediction of
geophysical and environmental processes in diverse urban settings. Investigations that support
the development, integrity, and resilience of cyber-physical systems as related to environmental
sensing are of special interest.
Science to advance environmental security: These efforts must focus on the fundamental
knowledge that will inform new approaches and tools to predict and mitigate risks posed by
changing environments and extreme weather events and to ensure access to natural resources,
including strategic minerals. Note that (1) the Program focus is on the science required to enable
development of tools and products, not the development of the tools and products themselves,
and (2) proposals must target specific Army-relevant challenges rather than general topics (e.g.,
extreme weather, climate change, natural hazards, as broadly defined). A discussion with the
program manager is encouraged to determine if a topic sufficiently addresses an Army challenge.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Electrochemistry
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0025
TPOC: Matthew W. Glasscott, PhD - matthew.w.glasscott.civ@army.mil - (484) 883-5095
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Chemistry;Materials Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Energy Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: Electrochmistry, Redox, Chemistry, Transport, Electroactive
Description:
This Program supports fundamental electrochemical studies to understand and control the
physics and chemistry that govern electrochemical redox reactions and transport of species, and
how these are coupled with electrode, catalysis, electrolyte, and interface. Research includes
ionic conduction in electrolytes, electrocatalysis, interfacial electron transfer, transport through
coatings, surface films and polymer electrolytes, activation of carbon-hydrogen and
carbon-carbon bonds, and spectroscopic techniques that selectively probe electrode surfaces and
electrode-electrolyte interfaces. Novel electrochemical synthesis, investigations into the effect of
microenvironment on chemical reactivity, quantitative models of electrochemical systems, and
electrochemistry using excited electrons are also of interest. This Program is divided into two
research thrusts, although other areas of electrochemical research may be considered:
Reduction-oxidation (Redox) Chemistry and Electrocatalysis
The Redox Chemistry and Electrocatalysis thrust supports research to understand how material
and morphology affect electron transfer and electrocatalysis, to tailor electrodes and
electrocatalysts at a molecular level, and to discover new spectroscopic and electrochemical
techniques for probing surfaces and selected species on those surfaces.
Transport of Electroactive Species
The Transport of Electroactive Species thrust supports research to uncover the mechanisms of
transport through heterogeneous, charged environments such as polymers and electrolytes, to
design tailorable electrolytes based on new polymers and ionic liquids, and to explore new
methodologies and computational approaches to study the selective transport of species in
charged environments.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Electronic Sensing
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0027
TPOC: Tania M. Paskova, PhD - tania.m.paskova.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4334
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Electronics;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Future Vertical Lift;Long Range Precision Fires;Soldier
Lethality
Keywords:
Description:
This program focuses on basic research investigations leading to new electronic sensing science
that enable 100% situational awareness to include day/night, all weather, non-line-of-sight and
through natural and man-made obstructions for sensing of personnel, weapons, chemical and
biological threats. The Electronic Sensing (ES) program is currently emphasizing research
focused on materials development, including experimental, theoretical and computational studies
that design, create, and understand novel materials functionalities and device operation concepts
through advances in the fields of electronics, photonics, photoacoustics and piezo-phototronics to
enhance or enable new detection capabilities. This program is divided into two thrusts: (i) Novel
materials platforms and (ii) Advanced sensing concepts.
Novel materials platforms
This thrust seeks to push beyond the state of the art in conventional material systems, seeking
novel advanced material platforms with functionality beyond the established limits on
sensitivity. Research of interest is targeting fundamental understanding of nontraditional
materials and nanostructures of high quality enabling new phenomena and unique properties that
could lead to higher detectivity and ultrafast response at or near ambient temperature. This thrust
also supports research aimed at exploring the properties and capabilities of artificially engineered
materials platforms including, but not limited to: metamaterials; 2D vertical or lateral stacking;
azimuthally twisted mono/bilayers or chiral twisted nanowires, which can enable exotic
phenomena such as strong electron correlations, superconductivity or novel optically excited
quasiparticles such as moire excitons or trions, leading to enhanced energy transport toward the
quantum limits in efficiency. Engineered 3D photonic and artificially shaped 2D crystals into
increasingly complex 3D structures, benefitting from expansion into the additional dimension
that could allow enhanced interaction with light or enhanced chemical reactivity are also of
interest. Advances in these areas require deep understanding of mechanisms of interface
formation, new phenomena and properties arising from the unique integration of same or
dissimilar materials, calling for innovative theoretical and experimental methods.
Advanced sensing concepts
This thrust emphasizes research in design and development of tailored device architectures based
on different sensing concepts to achieve performance metrics surpassing current capabilities to
detect, recognize and identify targets and threats. The goal of this thrust is to develop new
engineered approaches to enhance the stimulus-response characteristics and improve the
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signal-to-noise ratio and conversion (transduction) of the signal to another form with higher
efficiency, while reducing all components of the noise (thermal, optical, mechanical, and
electrical) and thus enabling higher sensitivity, reliability and resilience to various environmental
factors. Of particular interest are research efforts exploring innovative hybrid architectures in
pursue of novel or multi-functionality, benefiting from various combinations of optical and
piezoelectric electromechanical resonances, nonlinear plasmonics, selective gating or field
modulation and tailored band structure when targeting different sensing modalities, such as
electro-optic, thermal, acoustic, chemical or biosensing. Other modalities and mixed concepts
that meet the Army needs for highly sensitive, fast, tunable, flexible or multimodal sensors are
also welcome. Advances in these areas require theory-guided experimental research paving the
way towards development of new generation detectors with enhanced multi-band, broad-band or
hyperspectral capabilities.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Environmental Chemistry
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0005
TPOC: Elizabeth (Liz) K. King-Doonan, PhD - elizabeth.k.king-doonan.civ@army.mil - (919)
549-4386
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Chemistry;Earth and Environmental Sciences
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Energy
Sciences;Humans in Complex Systems;Military Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: Environment, Chemistry, Fate, Transport, Climate, Arctic
Description:
The Environmental Chemistry Program seeks to support transformative research to enable
unprecedented detection, prediction, manipulation, and mitigation strategies in complex
environmental matrices. This is an interdisciplinary program that incorporates recent discoveries
in chemical, biological, and physical principles to enhance national security.
Current focus areas for this portfolio include, but are not limited to, the following:
Biogeochemical transport and transformation aims to elucidate and characterize novel
biogeochemical mechanisms that drive (or prevent) the release and/or transformation of
emerging compounds of concern within or across environmental reservoirs. Environmental
reservoirs of interest include the lithosphere (e.g., soils and sediments), biosphere (e.g., plants
and microbiome), hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
Environmental chemistry of the built environment supports research to understand the
biogeochemical interactions that are unique to built and urban environments. The reactions in
these environments are a function of the structure and partitioning of the compounds present, the
chemical and physical properties of the built/artificial materials, and the microenvironments that
form at the natural-built interface. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to)
environmental/biofilm formation on Army-relevant built materials, biological and chemical
transport in subterranean built environments, and contaminant transport and transformation
through diverse urban interfaces.
Environmental forensics strives to develop cutting-edge approaches to enable novel techniques
for detection, tracking, source partitioning, and prediction at military-relevant scales. Research
that leverages recent discoveries in other scientific fields such as biology, physics, network and
data science, and computational modeling are encouraged. Topics that focus on
instrument/sensor development and materials design are not supported.
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Environmental chemistry to inform environmental security characterizes how dynamic and
extreme weather events (e.g., fires, flooding, drought), or extreme environmental conditions
(e.g., temperature, relative humidity) alter the speciation, partitioning, transformation, and
recovery of biological and chemical compounds of interest, including critical resources.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Fluid Dynamics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0030
TPOC: Jack R. Edwards, PhD - jack.r.edwards36.civ@army.mil - 919-549-4235
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Mechanics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Future Vertical Lift;Long Range Precision Fires
Keywords: fluid, turbulence, dynamic stall,
Description:
Fluid dynamics plays a critical role in many Army operational capabilities. Accurate and
efficient prediction of the flow physics required for the design of future advanced capabilities
and improvements to the performance of existing systems is challenged by the nonlinear and
high-dimensional character of the governing equations. In addition, Army relevant platforms are
often dominated by flows with high degrees of unsteadiness, turbulence, and compressibility and
are characterized by multiple and widely separated spatio-temporal scales and geometrical
complexity of solid or flexible boundaries. The program seeks to support basic research
investigations of fundamental and novel flow physics underpinning future concepts and
capabilities for Army platforms.
The program seeks basic research proposals in the following three thrust areas:
Dynamics of Unsteady and Separated Flows
Efforts in this research area require novel and aggressive strategies for examination of the
interplay between disparate spatio-temporal scales, the inclusion of physically significant sources
of three dimensionality, and the characterization of the role of flow instabilities and nonlinear
interactions across a range of Mach and Reynolds numbers appropriate to Army aerial vehicle
and weapons systems. In all cases, the flow is characterized by a high degree of unsteadiness.
Criteria for identifying the signatures of unsteady separation and/or incipient separation are of
particular interest, as are diagnostics capable of real time measurements of such
signatures. Historical management of complexity has often resulted in scientific approaches that
lead to the elimination of potentially critical flow physics. Research efforts capable of gaining
deep understanding of highly complicated flows are likely to allow these critical physics to be
exploited.
Nonlinear Flow Interactions and Turbulence
Many Army relevant flows are governed by strong nonlinearities and are fundamentally
turbulent in nature. Historically, many analysis tools developed for linear dynamics have been
applied to gain understanding of flow behaviors. The practical usefulness of such techniques has
saturated; the ability to gain global understanding of the evolution of flows requires the
development and use of approaches that can deal directly with inherent nonlinearities. Operator
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theoretic methods are making great strides in tackling the perennial difficulties associated with
the Navier-Stokes equations. Our understanding of turbulent flows is also benefitting from new
approaches based in dynamical systems theory to build frameworks beyond the notions based on
Reynolds averaging and stochastic dynamics. By leveraging the existence of underlying
deterministic structures, significant advances in the ability to design systems capable of not just
dealing with turbulence but exploiting its dynamics may become possible. Modeling turbulent
flows near walls at high Reynolds is a continuing challenge for practical applications of
scale-resolving simulation methods. Creative numerical and theoretical constructs may benefit
from novel non-intrusive diagnostics that can accurately measure turbulent flow properties near
walls.
Dispersed-phase Interactions with Aerodynamic Surfaces
Understanding the dynamics of the interaction of dispersed phases (sand, dust, rain, frozen
precipitation) with aerodynamic surfaces is necessary to mitigate potential performance
degradations and to expand the range of applicability of Army aerospace systems. Accurate
prediction and description of dispersed-phase interactions within aerodynamic boundary layers,
with solid surfaces, and with other dispersed-phase components is needed for a better
understanding of the underlying flow physics. Advances in modeling and simulation strategies
capable of predicting near-surface dispersed phase and dense-phase effects are needed, as are
quantitative diagnostics capable of interrogating local flow phenomena that impact overall
aerodynamic performance.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Genetics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0035
TPOC: Micheline K. Strand, PhD - micheline.k.strand.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4343
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Soldier Lethality
Keywords: genetics, genetic variation, DNA barcoding, mitochondria, oxidative stress
Description:
The Genetics program supports fundamental basic research in genetics, molecular biology,
genomics, epigenetics, and systems biology in areas that are anticipated to enable improved
cognitive and physical performance capabilities, increase survivability, and enable new Army
capabilities in areas such as biomaterials, sensing and intelligence. This program emphasizes
innovative high-risk fundamental research in areas such as identification and characterization of
genetic variation, gene function, gene regulation, genetic interactions, gene pathways, gene
expression patterns, epigenetics, mitochondrial regulation and biogenesis, and nuclear and
mitochondrial DNA stability and instability. More specifically the Genetics program is currently
focused on the following questions: Can we advance our understanding of the factors that affect
mitochondrial integrity and oxidative stress? Can we further our understanding, characterization
and exploitation of genetic variation within and between species? Can we fully identify,
characterize and understand the relationships with and the effects of prokaryotes and fungi on
larger eukaryotes, including in eukaryotic organs traditionally considered to be sterile? How can
we exploit genetic pathways and genetic variation to protect soldiers and develop new Army
capabilities?
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Information Assurance
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0010
TPOC: Paul L. Yu, PhD - paul.l.yu.civ@army.mil - (240) 890-3589
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Network/C3I
Keywords: cyber defense, resiliency and robustness, trusted computing and communication,
wireless security
Description:
Information Assurance
The Information Assurance program establishes the scientific mathematical and information
processing foundations for achieving information and decision dominance under threat
conditions. Information provided to warfighters must be authentic, accurate, secure, reliable, and
timely. The research program seeks the development of foundational science to assure
information flows in autonomous cyber systems, protect their interactions with capable
adversaries, and understand how to apply and account for deception. Central to program efforts
is the resilience of complex systems in highly dynamic and congested environments that are
contested by capable adversaries.
Models and Metrics for Next Generation Systems
The program seeks foundational science to measure a complex system and provide
trustworthiness and robustness guarantees. Assurance principles and metrics are needed to help
define, develop, and evaluate future resilient systems and networks that can, with measurable
confidence, survive and recover from sophisticated attacks and intrusions. An enduring challenge
is the proactive discovery of exploits and vulnerabilities in cyber-physical systems, neural
networks, and other complex systems. Ideally, the subsequent mitigation process improves
resilience against future attacks. Deep understanding and accurate modeling of attacker-defender
interactions will also be important to improve future system development. In addition, some
areas of interest for improving warfighter performance include the development of
human-centric security and usability metrics, computational models for usable security in
stressful situations, and adaptive security protocols according to perceived threats.
Trusted Learning for Cyber Autonomy
Future Army autonomous systems, especially cyber-physical systems working alongside
soldiers, are subject to adversarial attacks during operations such as fault injection. While current
testing and verification techniques help assure system integrity prior to deployment, few of them
can help mitigate runtime risk or achieve automatic recovery after a compromise. Robustness
certification or domain adaptation at both the data processing layer and the information/decision
layer may lead to better mission sustainment and resiliency against adversarial manipulation and
exploits. Also lacking is the ability to adapt to changing operational environments, mission
requirements, and adversarial conditions. New research is sought to establish fundamental
principles for cyber autonomous system adaptation, including trusted cyber-domain learning,
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decision making, introspection, self-healing, and adaptation. Assurance of the autonomous
response for safety and correctness is critical for defense systems to maintain mission assurance.
Cyber Deception
Cyber deception is a proactive technique to degrade the adversary's effectiveness by
manipulating its cognitive state and decision process. Scientific understanding is required to
establish effective models for understanding and tracking the adversary's tactics, techniques, and
procedures (TTP) and quantify the effectiveness of deceptive maneuvers in steering the
adversary's decision processes. Deceptive cyber artifacts have been used to engage adversaries
but the dynamics between attackers and defenders, especially mental interactions, are not well
understood. Advanced methods are sought to understand adversaries through neutralized
engagements to inform effective deception schemes. Capable adversaries will also leverage
deceptive techniques in engaging with Army networks; it is critical to model deceptive
adversaries that attempt to mask their TTP, evade detection, and launch sophisticated attacks.
Trustworthy Tactical Communication
The program seeks direct guidance in the design of theory, protocols, and techniques that assure
delivery of trustworthy information over tactical wireless systems. Novel ideas in fundamental
research areas, such as information-theoretic security and game theory, may yield new
paradigms for physical layer security (ranging from confidentiality to authentication to
trustworthiness), fundamental bounds in trust management and data integrity in distributed
systems, and assured information delivery and dissemination in tactical environments. The
corresponding constructions stemming from such investigations represent a significant avenue
for improving trustworthiness of future tactical wireless communications.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Information Processing and Fusion
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0008
TPOC: John S. Hyatt, PhD - john.s.hyatt11.civ@army.mil - (240) 309-8380
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Mathematics and Statistics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
With ubiquitous data acquisition capabilities, effective data and information processing is of
critical importance to defense missions. The Information Processing and Fusion program is
concerned with the creation of innovative theories and algorithms for extracting actionable
intelligence from diverse, distributed multimodal data to support Army operations.
Foundations of Image and Multimodal Data Analysis
Innovative research is sought concerning: (1) novel representations of multimodal data to enable
the understanding of multimodal sensor data and contextual information, including nonstandard
data types beyond image and video; (2) detection, localization, and recognition of objects and
locations from image data with particular emphasis on provable performance guarantees; (3)
detection of events, actions, and activities to extract activity-based intelligence, especially when
no extensive training data is available; and (4) integrated approaches that enable semantic
descriptions of objects and events including relations. Learning and adaptation should enable the
representation at both low and high levels, where inputs from actual users of the systems are
used to improve the performance of the algorithms and the fidelity of models at all levels of the
modeling hierarchy. Of high interest are methods to exploit the structure of the data, capture its
intrinsic dimensionality, and extract information content of data, and which go beyond
correlative modeling to incorporate causality, symbolic reasoning, and physics. The development
of an "'information/complexity theory" and a "'learning theory" specific for remote sensing,
imaging data, and decision tasks is highly desirable.
Data and Information Fusion
Multimodal data acquisition systems are increasingly prevalent with disparate sensors and other
information sources, ranging in design from a finite number of locally grouped sensors to a very
large, geographically dispersed sensor network. This thrust seeks advanced mathematical
theories and approaches for integrating multimodal data and contextual information to provide
actionable intelligence. Of particular interest are systematic and unifying approaches for data and
information fusion from diverse sources with heterogeneous fidelities and timescales, varying
degrees of overlap, and differing levels of uncertainty. Scalable methods are needed for
efficiently handling vast amounts of data, as are methods for preserving data provenance and
identifying the key raw data used to generate fused representations or make predictions. Fusion
in networked environments addressing issues such as adaptive, distributed, and cooperative
fusion is emphasized. Theories and principles for performance analysis and guarantees at all
fusion levels to support robust, uncertainty-aware data and information fusion are important to
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ensure successful military operations.
Active and Collaborative Sensing
Modern sensing systems typically include multiple networked sensors with communication
capabilities where the whole network can be thought of as a meta-sensor that can be controlled,
in addition to each individual node having some controllable degrees of freedom such as
mobility for unmanned aerial/ground systems, pan-tilt-zoom for infrastructure sensors, or
waveform for agile radar. Depending on the task or query, it is desirable for the system to control
the data acquisition process to acquire the "'most informative data" for the specific task or query,
to minimize uncertainty, or to identify the type and deployment scheme of additional sensors
required. Consequently, of particular interest are methods that address the integration of
mobility, sensor-selection, modality selection, and active observation for real-time assessment
and improvements of sensing performance. Another research area of interest is
performance-driven active data collection, where a query is given to the system together with a
desired performance bound. Where the confidence in answering the query is insufficient, the
system should actively interrogate or control sensors to achieve the desired confidence. Such an
active learning and information-driven sensor control should include the user in the feedback
loop.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Knowledge Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0033
TPOC: Robert St. Amant - robert.a.stamant2.civ@army.mil - (240) 927-2060
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Economics;Mathematics and
Statistics;Network Science;Social Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Network/C3I;Next Generation Combat Vehicle;Synthetic
Training Environment
Keywords: Game Theory; Natural Language Processing; Decision Making; AI as software;
Problem Solving
Description:
The overall objective of the Knowledge Systems program is to augment human decision makers
(both commanders and Soldiers) with enhanced-embedded battlefield intelligence that will
provide them with the necessary situational awareness, reconnaissance, and decision making
tools to decisively defeat any future adversarial threats. While software agents will likely be the
decision aide, it turns out robots also need planning and decision tools and need to be able to
understand their human handlers/ colleagues. Given these objectives, it becomes necessary to
understand (a) fundamentals of what intelligence means in the context of autonomous systems
and how to build intelligent systems especially as it relates to interaction amongst a network of
humans and machines, and (b) foundational algorithmic issues in representation and reasoning
about networks inherent in societies and nature.
Information Networks
In order to model network effects it is necessary to algorithmically represent large networks and
reason about them. Unfortunately, information about networks is seldom complete - data
available might be missing crucial pieces of information, might have contradictory pieces of
information, or could be approximate (with associated notions of uncertainty). Representing and
reasoning about these networks requires advances in knowledge representation, graph and data
mining, natural language processing, algorithmic graph theory, machine learning, and
uncertainty quantification and reasoning. Examples include the emerging area of Graphons
which provide new tools for generating and reasoning about graphs that occur in practice
(satisfying power law distributions), but also provide new tools for Machine Learning. In
particular, a major goal of this thrust are tools and techniques that allow data driven approaches
to capturing latent relationships with powers to both explain and predict. Advances in this thrust
would not only lead to improved autonomous systems and algorithms, but also
enhanced-embedded battlefield intelligence with tools for creating necessary situational
awareness, reconnaissance, and decision making. Finally, it should be noted that algorithmic
notions of approximations, tight performance bounds, probabilistic guarantees, etc., would be
major concerns of the solution space.
Adversarial Reasoning
Development of appropriate mathematical tools to model and reason about societies and cultures,
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that brings together tools from Game Theory, Social Sciences and Knowledge Representation.
Research of interest includes, but is not limited to, Game Theory for security applications while
accounting for bounded rationality, development of Game Theory based on data regarding
cultural and adversarial groups, and Behavioral Game Theory that can explain intelligence in
groups and societies. In particular, the role of human biases in decision making and game theory
is of importance to this thrust of the program.
Natural Language Processing and Affective Computing
Inference algorithms work incredibly well when data is in a structured format. However, most
reports, email, and conversations are written out as text with information embedded in them.
This thrust seeks advances in purposeful Natural Language Processing at scale that can account
for context and mode-switches by bringing together statistical and logical methods. Indeed, when
combined with other signals, such as video signals, the inter-play of non-verbal and verbal/
textual communication provides rich contextual information, which, in turn, leads to accurate
information being gleaned from an interaction.
Engineering AI Systems
AI systems are insular, brittle, dependent on massive amounts of data, and with no avenues for
composition. While notions of type systems, effect systems, assume-guarantee assertions, and
procedural and process abstractions are all now available to describe and compose software
components, similar notions of modularity are critically needed for building AI systems from
small learning-based components. There are examples such as model-cards and data-sheets that
are now available, which along with notions of Probabilistic Programming could provide the
necessary basis. However, there are a number of problems, especially in the context of Deep
Neural Networks, that still need to be addressed. The necessary science required to address AI
safety - rigorous specifications for composition, run-time monitoring, self-healing, reasoning,
etc., are all of interest to this program.
Afore mentioned problems of interest deal with tools for producing robust AI
systems. However, the task of designing and building AI systems from scratch - from vague
definitions of problem to be solved - is still open. An enormous amount of insight and effort
may go into the process of turning an ambiguous description into a formal problem specification
amenable to an AI solution. What data sources are relevant? What structure can be identified in
the problem space? What makes one family of solution techniques better than another? Which
measures should be adopted for evaluating the quality of a solution? Research on problem
formulation and formalization can be found in the literature, with results in some specialized
areas such as concept learning for DNNs, general game playing, and historical work on
formalizing data analysis procedures. General solutions are lacking, however, which has a
bearing on current challenges in AI (e.g. under-specification for ML systems) and may
contribute to the relatively slow adoption of AI in some high-stakes domains (e.g. clinical
practice in medicine). The need is more than simply for automated tools to assist AI
developers. Rather, the scientific question to be answered concerns the extent to which the
informal process of problem formulation can be formalized.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Materials Design
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0012
TPOC: Evan L. Runnerstrom, PhD - evan.l.runnerstrom.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4259
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Chemistry;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Photonics,
Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities: Soldier Lethality
Keywords: self-assembly, soft materials, colloids, functional materials, metamaterials,
Description:
The overarching goal of the Materials Design program is to establish new smart materials
concepts by pursuing fundamental science that exploits multiple physical and chemical forces at
play during directed self-assembly to create stimuli-responsive, multifunctional materials with
designer geometries, hierarchical complexity, and the ability to dynamically switch among
configurations, thereby enabling the future Warfighter to adapt to any environment or situation.
Bottom-up materials science, functional materials, and soft matter are the unifying themes of the
Materials Design program. The program supports experimental, theoretical, and computational
advances to better design, create, understand, and manipulate novel functional materials from the
bottom up. The foundations established here support the realization of 3D metamaterials,
reconfigurable optics and electronics, bio-mimetic materials, and multi-functional materials that
dynamically respond to their environment.
The Science of Self-Assembly supports basic research into the multiple physical and chemical
forces at play during directed, bottom-up 3-D assembly into super-structures incorporating
multiple components. The goal is to design novel self-assembled materials that would be
impossible to create using top-down techniques. Self-assembling materials systems of interest
include: colloids; nanocrystals; liquid crystals; functional biomaterials and bio-hybrid materials;
and/or hybrids (e.g., polymeric composites) of these materials. Specific research interests
include: non-equilibrium and dissipative self-assembly; 3-D photonic crystals and structural
color; interactions between self-assembled materials and water; and non-traditional assembly
directing forces (e.g., turbulence).
Reconfigurable Materials supports the design and synthesis of soft matter capable of reversible
transformations. The goal is to elucidate the design rules for creating novel functional materials
with dynamic property contrast and/or emergent behavior and develop new methods to
"'program" materials with the ability to respond in specific ways to external stimuli.
Reconfigurable materials systems of interest include: bio-mimetic materials; liquid crystal
elastomers; colloidal metamaterials; 3D/4D metamaterials; and active matter. Specific research
interests include: 3D/4D printing of functional materials with molecular-scale precision;
materials that form reconfigurable networks; "'natural" (i.e., non-robotic) active matter capable
of autonomous collective behavior and/or computation, and, in particular, materials capable of
changing their shape, color, or texture.
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Computer-aided Materials Design seeks to leverage recent advances in machine learning,
artificial intelligence, computational materials science, and other numerical approaches to solve
difficult materials design problems, particularly those in soft matter, self-assembly, and
reconfigurable materials. Points of interest include inverse design of self-assembled materials;
data-driven design of heterogeneous hierarchical materials; and novel models or algorithms for
solving materials-specific problems. Specific research interests include: "'self-driving" materials
simulations; unified simulation approaches that bridge all time- and length-scales of interest; and
designing soft materials to perform AI/ML computations (e.g., physical artificial neural
networks).
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Mechanical Behavior of Materials
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0001
TPOC: Daniel P. Cole, PhD - daniel.p.cole.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4371
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Chemistry;Data Sciences and Informatics;Materials Science;Mathematics and
Statistics;Mechanics;Network Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Sciences of Extreme Materials;Terminal
Effects;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
This program focuses on basic research investigations that enable unprecedented mechanical
properties in advanced structural materials in order to ensure high performance under a variety of
extreme and highly variable operational conditions. Experimental, theoretical, and numerical
efforts are encouraged, particularly those that promote understanding of the underlying physical
mechanisms leading to extraordinary behaviors. Studies may focus on a variety of materials,
including: metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, and hybrid structures. Research efforts that
leverage recent discoveries in other scientific fields, such as Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics,
Network Science and Data Science, are also highly encouraged. These investigations are
expected to enable transformative capabilities for the Soldier in the areas of protection,
maneuver, and sustainability. Current focus areas for this portfolio include, but are not limited to,
the following:
Extreme Thermomechanical Behaviors. This thrust emphasizes foundational concepts that
enable structural materials with extraordinary combinations of ultrahigh temperature stability
and exceptional mechanical properties under non-equilibrium conditions, e.g. transient thermal
loads, high g-loading, and/or variable oxidizing environments. Areas of interest include:
Understanding, control, or confinement of deformation mechanisms; exploiting
interface/interphase interactions in heterogeneous materials; and concepts enabling materials to
undergo refinement under relevant conditions to enhance thermomechanical performance.
Disruptive Mechanical Responsiveness. This thrust focuses on structural materials with
unprecedented mechanical responsiveness when subject to complex loading environments, e.g.
severe and/or high strain rate events. Areas of interest include materials that actively respond to
dynamic loading environments and other external stimuli through rapid adaptation of shape,
topology, mechanical properties, and/or through the ability to intrinsically process information.
In addition, this thrust seeks concepts for manipulation of mechanical forces within materials at
specific spatial locations, particularly for the consideration of inelastic behaviors.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Microbiology
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0006
TPOC: Robert J. Kokoska, PhD - robert.j.kokoska2.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4342
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems;Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
This program supports basic research in fundamental microbiology that can help advance needs
in Soldier protection and performance. There are two primary research thrusts within this
program: (i) Microbial Survival Mechanisms in Challenging and Extreme Environments and (ii)
Analysis and Engineering of Microbial Communities.
The Microbial Survival Mechanisms in Challenging and Extreme Environments thrust focuses
on the study of the cellular and genetic mechanisms and responses that underlie bacterial,
archaeal and fungal survival in the face of environmental stress, as well as the ability of these
microbes to thrive under those conditions. These stressors include extremes in temperature, pH,
or salinity; the presence of toxins including metals and toxic organic molecules; oxidative stress;
and cellular starvation and the depletion of specific nutrients. Included here is the study of
microbial metabolism under conditions of slow growth and the transitions into and out of slow
growth phases. Research approaches can include fundamental studies of microbial physiology
and metabolism, cell biology, and molecular genetics that examine key cellular networks linked
to survival and environmental adaptation, microbial cell membrane structure, and the dissection
of relevant critical signal transduction pathways and other sense-and-respond mechanisms.
The Analysis and Engineering of Microbial Communities thrust supports basic research that
addresses the fundamental principles that drive the formation, proliferation, sustenance and
robustness of microbial communities through reductionist, systems-level, ecological and
evolutionary approaches. Bottom-up analysis of nutrient consumption, information exchange,
signaling interactions, spatial/temporal effects, structure-function relationships, and biosynthetic
output for single and multi-species communities within the context of planktonic and both native
and engineered biofilm architectures is considered. The use of these approaches for the analysis
of model microbial systems that address the biology of mammalian and environmental
microbiomes are welcome. Of joint interest with the ARO Biomathematics Program, research
efforts that advance the ability to work with biological data sets toward an understanding of
microbiological systems marked by ever-increasing complexity are encouraged.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Modeling of Complex Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0020
TPOC: Robert S. Martin, PhD - robert.s.martin163.civ@army.mil - (301) 580-7573
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Mathematics and Statistics;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber,
and Computational Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: data assimilation, inverse problems, model closure, geometric data analysis,
information theory, sparsity, data compression
Description:
The Modeling of Complex Systems Program is a program of fundamental mathematics-oriented
research directed at addressing the critical challenges resulting from the approximate nature of
models for complex real-world phenomena. While models have traditionally relied on tuned,
empirically justified approximations, this program seeks to rigorously explore the bounds of
model predictive power through the development of coupled nonlinear uncertainty propagation
methodologies and novel data assimilation techniques for the self-consistent integration of
observed data within constrained modeling frameworks. The program particularly seeks
modeling frameworks that can be adapted to span a variety of disciplines where first principle
descriptions are unknown, incomplete, or computationally infeasible. While required prediction
speed and accuracy are necessarily problem context dependent, typical applications ranging from
planning to design and anomaly prediction all require methods to balance accuracy,
computational performance, and data availability to efficiently inform decisions.
Although they break down into more specific research directions, the three thrust areas of
interest to the Modeling of Complex Systems Program are 1) Adaptive Surrogates and
Associated Closures 2) Dynamical Propagation of Uncertainty and Emergent Structures in Data
3) Integration of data with models for effective inference and validation methodologies.
1) Adaptive Surrogates and Associated Closures
This first program thrust focuses on methods for accelerating forward models while controlling
errors. Truncation and simplifying approximations are ubiquitous in models of complex
macroscopic phenomena. Adaptive models that are capable of scaling accuracy and uncertainty
within a problem specific context are critical for efficient allocation of computational resources
constrained by decision relevant timescales. Balancing these accuracy-cost tradeoffs is
particularly critical in outer-loop problems requiring many forward model queries as encountered
in design optimization, uncertainty quantification, model predictive control, and inverse
problems. While surrogates adaptively constructed or learned from regularities observed in
adjacent calculations and data have the potential to accelerate outer-loop search of
high-dimensional spaces, significant open research challenges remain in addressing how and
when such regularities justify their applicability between and beyond previously observed model
inputs. Related areas of potential interest include the relationship between memory, truncation,
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and closability, evidence of uniqueness in input output maps, hierarchical problem
decomposition and compression, randomized methods, and other transformations that convert
model representation into spaces where more efficient predictions can be performed.
2) Propagation of Uncertainty
The second thrust concerns the study of the evolution of model uncertainties resulting from
approximations introduced to facilitate computation. This area focuses on the dynamical growth
of initial state uncertainty as well as its interactions with modeling errors and other sources of
imperfect system knowledge such as incomplete system specification and uncertain open
boundary conditions. Methods to exploit the impact of nonlinear mixing and contraction towards
lower dimensional subspaces, when appropriate, are of particular interest, as is the propagation
of uncertainty across boundaries in decomposed system-of-system models. Methods that enable
efficient estimation of deterministic and stochastic probability flows in high dimensions as well
as into and on embedded manifolds with associated foundations for required regularizations are
of high interest. While full characterization of uncertainty distributions in very high dimension is
likely to remain practically infeasible, methods to characterize over approximated reduced
dimensional bounds for worst cases and typical cases, particularly in the context of high-cost
decision boundary constraints are of high interest.
3) Integration of Data with Models
This third thrust concerns the use of real-world data sources to improve and validate models.
While the prior thrusts are aimed at methods capable of estimating expected distributions of
potential model outcomes, this thrust focuses on the relationships between these expected
outcomes and actual observations. To the extent that uncertainty is expected to grow beyond
acceptable error bounds, this thrust is also concerned with the efficient acquisition and use of
data to refine state estimates and correct for model insufficiency in support of attaining
satisfactory accuracy and uncertainty levels. While verification, validation, and uncertainty
quantification are typically described in terms of problem specific "'quantities of interest" and
prescribed satisfactory error bounds, this thrust is also particularly concerned with when such
requirements are sufficient to provide an expectation of model uniqueness. Particularly in cases
of highly parameterized models such as overparameterized neural networks, mitigating potential
overfit in training to provide foundations for an expectation of future generalization is of critical
importance.
What features of problems underpin expectations for generalization and provide statistical
foundations for the acquisition of confidence in predicted outcomes? How can expectations for
repeatability be established such that data from anecdotally distinct sources can be transferred
and combined? Rather than introduced as modeling assumptions, how can properties such as
stationarity, exchangeability, or underlying causal mechanisms be discovered and confirmed to
high statistical confidence levels prior to or concurrent with their use? While these mechanisms
may be well established for many physical problems allowing high confidence in their
applicability, how can such confidence be established in complex and adaptive systems where
the link between first principles and application may be broken? Even in physical systems with
high expectations of repeatability, how can the anticipation of emergent large deviations from
under resolved problem uncertainties be analyzed and what are appropriate expectations for their
predicability? For which classes of systems and model requirements can continuous or
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potentially adversarial validation methodologies be designed to maximize information gain,
actively interrogate model validity bounds, or drive uncertainty out of system models? Research
that addresses any of these questions is relevant to the program.
Furthermore, due to the large approximation capacity of modern model classes, the modeling of
complex systems program is particularly interested in development of models capable of
synchronization with arbitrary permutations of mutually self-consistent independent system
observables under the influence of stochastic perturbation and control input in support of the
establishment of methods for constructing and validating computationally feasible predictive
digital twins.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Modern Optics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0009
TPOC: James A. Joseph, PhD - james.a.joseph30.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4213
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Network,
Cyber, and Computational Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
The objective of this program is to promote a deeper understanding of the properties of light and
the discovery of new optical effects that can improve Army capabilities. Most sensing and
communications systems depend on light in some way. This program seeks transformational
basic science discoveries in optical physics that are needed to enable dynamic control of light for
remote sensing, information routing, and energy transmission. In order to accomplish this goal,
the Modern Optics Program targets new or emerging phenomena related to quantum optics,
light-matter interactions, structured light and ultra-short pulse lasers.
Quantum Photonics. This thrust seeks to push beyond the state of the art in photonics and
integrated optical platforms, seeking novel functionality beyond classical limits on sensitivity,
accuracy, and stability. Research efforts may include studies addressing complexity and loss in
integrated optical systems, scalable realizations of multi-photon quantum states or quantum light
sources, and novel laser platforms to probe or manipulate quantum information in physical
qubits. Basic science understanding is needed to push integrated photonics into the quantum
regime which will be essential for next generation quantum technology.
Meta-Optics. This thrust looks for novel functionality enabled by optical metamaterials. In this
area, the conventional norms of classical optics will be broken. Examples include resolution
beyond the diffraction limit, super-lensing, as well as subwavelength control of optical fields.
Proposals related to non-Hermitian optics and the physics of exceptional points, where these
concepts are utilized to fabricate photonic structures with novel properties and sensors with
precision beyond the state of the art are sought. In general, any phenomena arising from optical
metamaterials that would benefit the Soldier and improve Army capabilities will be considered.
Extreme Light. This thrust focuses on extreme light, meaning the examination of optical fields in
extreme limits, such as shortest pulse and/or high intensity. General areas of study under this
thrust include, THz formation, broadband localized radiation, coherent control of atomic and
molecular energy states, plasma effects in materials, and relativistic plasma physics. Theoretical
and experimental research efforts are needed to push beyond the state of the art in ultrafast
science and to understand how extreme light interacts with matter.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Multi-Agent Network Control
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0031
TPOC: Derya Cansever, PhD - derya.h.cansever.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4282
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber,
and Computational Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Long Range Precision Fires;Network/C3I;Next Generation
Combat Vehicle
Keywords: Control, Reinforcement Learning, Quantum, Multi-Agent, Distributed, Data Driven,
Networked Systems
Description:
The objective of the Multi-Agent Network Control program is to establish the physical,
mathematical and information processing foundations for the control of complex dynamic
networks with possibly multiple controllers that may operate using different information sets.
The research program seeks the development of novel mathematical and computational methods
for the modeling and control of the collective behavior of large-scale networked systems
controlled by of heterogeneous agents which may or may not follow a common goal. Autonomy
is central to program efforts to support anticipated dynamics of the future battle space.
Requirements of such environments may include mobility, effective sensor coverage, efficient
information flow, responsiveness to support the military goals of information superiority,
dominant maneuver and precision engagement.
Distributed and Time-Varying Control of Networked Systems
Distributed control techniques play a major role in the analysis and synthesis of networked
systems. They have been successfully used in robotics for replicating self-organized behaviors
found in nature (e.g., bird flocking, fish schooling, and synchronization) and in developing
applications such as formation control, rendezvous, robot coordination, and distributed
estimation. Many dynamic systems are, or can be made time-varying, and they may be subject to
possibly abrupt transitions of the states, and hard to predict disturbances and external effects.
Innovative methods that incorporate, and even exploit time varying nature of distributed systems
for establishing their stability, robustness and optimality is of interest. Analysis and control of
networked non-linear systems where standard linearization methods are not satisfactorily
applicable is also sought. Potential use of techniques such as geometry, graph theory, topological
analysis and other innovative methods are encouraged.
Data Driven Control and Learning
Control of systems with unknown dynamics and methods to reduce their uncertainties has been
part of mainstream control systems research, examples of which include Reinforcement Learning
(RL), Adaptive Control, and in general data driven control. Reinforcement Learning is shown to
be closely related to Stochastic Dynamic Programming, which enabled successful leveraging of
significant body of research of the latter. However, data driven controls such as RL face
significant challenges, including computational complexity, very long convergence times, and
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lack of sufficiently rich training data. Hybrid approaches that properly incorporate prior or
learned models of the systems to be controlled into the problem formulation are emerging and
their furthering is encouraged in this program. Broadly, research to address fundamental issues in
data driven control is sought. Those include, but not limited to, efficient computation methods
that allow real-time operations without sacrificing precision, scalability, optimization algorithms
that address the occurrence of multiple local minima encountered in learning and developing
systematic methods for reliable transfer of learning from other experiments. Use and advancing
of control theoretical tools such as stability analysis, non-convex optimization, and other
innovative approaches to address these open problems is encouraged. New insights to RL
algorithms which may extend, modify, or replace standard Markovian formulations are desired.
Extensions of RL techniques to networked systems featuring multiple controllers with
applications to autonomy and coordination among interacting agents are sought. Innovative
research focused on adaptive control, and system identification techniques to reduce
uncertainties and facilitate optimal or near-optimal control is also in scope.
Control of Quantum Systems and novel applications of control theory
Innovative tools and methodology from control theory could provide new insights and
approaches to pave the path for solving some of the outstanding problems in quantum, such as
maintaining coherence and stability of Quantum Qubits and their entangled states. Capabilities
enabled by quantum computers are expected to surpass their classical counterparts in the future.
However, maintaining the desired state of qubits remains a fundamental problem encountered in
the realization of quantum computers and quantum networks. Adaptation of control theoretical
tools and approaches in enhancing the stability of coherence of qubits and reducing the impact of
noise in quantum gates and their operations could provide new research opportunities in the
control of networked quantum systems.
Researching and devising other applications of control theory in areas that are relevant to the
Army and that could advance the state of control theory itself is of interest. Among novel
applications of potential interest is the study of control functions acting on neural circuits that are
distributed in the brain. These interactions include synchronization, but their fundamental
principles and underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Modeling and analysis of these
phenomena could provide novel research opportunities in the control of networked systems.
Similarly, study of biological systems has unveiled control architectures that are not encountered
in industrial control systems. Understanding the principles, analyzing the effectiveness of such
naturally occurring control systems and their potential adaptation to the control of man-made
applications could be an area of fertile research.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Neurophysiology of Cognition
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0016
TPOC: Chou P. Hung, PhD - chou.p.hung.civ@army.mil - (240) 962-0229
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Mathematics
and Statistics;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
The Neurophysiology of Cognition program supports non medically oriented high-risk
high-reward basic research that will enable discovery of the appropriate molecular, cellular,
systems and behavioral-level codes underlying cognition and performance across multiple time
scales. An overarching goal of the program is to foster advances in a broad range of
experimental, computational and theoretical approaches applied to animal models and humans as
well as data. Inquiries are strongly encouraged for projects that include recent methodological
advances to assess and augment the nervous system (i.e., electrophysiological, imaging or
computational). Basic research opportunities are sought in two primary research thrusts within
this program: (i) Evolutionary and Revolutionary Interactions and (ii) Neural Computation.
Evolutionary and Revolutionary Interactions (with Real and Mixed Worlds)
The Evolutionary and Revolutionary Interactions thrust aims to understand evolutionary
neurophysiological processes that enable complex task performance in both unstructured and
structured real-world environments. Foundational research is encouraged to uncover biological
mechanisms and to concurrently develop efficient and adaptive computational and modeling
frameworks that abstract cognitive phenomena such as anticipatory sensing, automatic learning,
complex decision-making, and rapid adaptive action. How these neural phenomena translate
across teams of human and AI agents and span wider ranges of spatiotemporal scales and task
complexities is of particular importance. Experimental approaches building upon man-made
structured and mixed environments with increasingly complex, information-rich/poor/deceptive
and cooperative/competitive features will be most informative. Also, foundational research to
understand and improve cognitive performance and to avoid cognitive failures by understanding
(across neuromechanistic, glymphatic, and neurocomputational levels) sleep and mitigation of
cognitive fatigue due to physiological and environmental stressors is of high value.
Neural Computation, Information Coding, and Translation
The Neural Computation thrust is focused on broadening understanding of the mechanisms
employed by neural circuits and systems to generate desirable computations and to learn and
adapt from few examples. Research in this thrust can broadly address research in areas such as
studying aspects of multiscale information processing dynamics mediating computations among
neurons, glial cells and blood vessels as well as identifying how these circuits and circuit
architectures generate desirable computations over multiple timescales, discovering mechanisms
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for bidirectional control. Mathematical and computational frameworks are encouraged for
closed-loop prediction and control of neural dynamics and to translate across divergent
information types (e.g. differing in information capacity, throughput, modality, processing
architectures, levels of abstraction). Focus should be paid to uncovering fundamental principles
of neural system adaptations required to solve unstructured problems, infer expectations of
teammates and adversaries and of tasks and the environment, and estimating rewards for
complex decisions. Integrative approaches involving combinations of experimentation, theory
and mechanistic modeling are highly encouraged, for both biological and novel hybrid
living-nonliving frameworks.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Optoelectronics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0019
TPOC: Michael D. Gerhold, PhD - michael.d.gerhold.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4357
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Electronics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Energy
Sciences;Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences;Photonics,
Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities: Air and Missile Defense;Network/C3I;Next Generation
Combat Vehicle
Keywords: optoelectronics, photonics, semiconductor
Description:
Research in this subarea includes novel semiconductor structures, processing techniques, and
integrated optical components. The generation, guidance and control of UV through infrared
signals in semiconductor, dielectric, and metallic materials are of interest. The Army has
semiconductor laser research opportunities based on low dimensional semiconductor structures
(quantum dots, wells, wires, etc.) operating in the eye-safer (>1.4), 3-5, and 8-12 microns regions
for various applications, such as LIDAR, infrared countermeasures, and free space/integrated
data links. Components and sources in the UV/visible spectral ranges (particularly < 300 nm)
may be of interest as well. Research is necessary in semiconductor materials growth and device
processing to improve the efficiency and reliability of the output of devices at these wavelengths.
However, near infrared or wavelength agnostic device advances can be explored for potential
impact on various material systems and wavelengths of interest.
Research that leads to an increase in the data rate of optoelectronic structures is sought.
Interfacing of optoelectronic devices with electronic processors will be investigated for full
utilization of available bandwidth. Electro-optic components will be studied for use in guided
wave data links for interconnections and optoelectronic integration, all requirements for
high-speed full situational awareness. Optical interconnect components are needed in
guided-wave data links for computer interconnection and in free-space links for optical
switching and processing. For high-speed optical signal processing as well as potential for power
scaling, research on individual and 1 or 2-D arrays of surface or edge-emitting lasers is
necessary. Spectral and coherent beam combining approaches for integrated photonics need
more exploration. Research addressing efficient, novel optical components for high-speed
switching based on electro-optic materials, nanostructures, metamaterials or other regimes may
be of interest. Emitters and architectures for novel display and processing of battlefield imagery
are important.
Research on components and sub-elements of photonic circuits used in neuromorphic photonic
information processing and computation are of interest. Photonic processing within a photonic
integrated circuit (PIC) requires smaller and more energy efficient modulator devices on the
order of 5 microns and 1 femtojoule/bit. Modulation bandwidth of 10 Gb/s or more, and
insertion loss of 0.1 dB or less are needed to cascade modulators with less than 1 dB/cm total
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W911NF23S0001 Amendment 3

U.S. ARMY COMBAT CAPABILITIES
DEVELOPMENT COMMAND (DEVCOM)
ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY
BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
W911NF-23-S-0001-0003
21 November 2022 – 20 November 2027
ISSUED BY:
U.S. Army Contracting Command
Aberdeen Proving Ground
Research Triangle Park Division
P. O. Box 12211
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211

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Special Notes
1. Formatting of the Announcement
The following table provides an overview of the outline structure of this announcement:
I.
A.
1.
a.
i.
(1)
(a)
(i)
2. See Appendix 1 for a Table of Acronyms used in this announcement.
3. See Appendix 2 for a Schedule of Amendments. Applicants are encouraged to frequently
check grants.gov, sam.gov, and the ARL website (https://arl.devcom.army.mil/) for updates
and amendments to this BAA. Special Notices issued against this BAA will be posted to
sam.gov.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY 1
A. Required Overview Content 3
1. Agency Name 3
2. Research Opportunity Title 3
3. Announcement Type 3
4. Research Opportunity Number 3
5. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number 3
and Title
6. Response Dates 3
B. Additional Overview Information 4
II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING 5
OPPORTUNITY
A. Program Description 5
1. Foundational Research Topics of Interest 5
2. Army Research Directorate Targeted Opportunities 6
3. Army Research Office Targeted Opportunities 7
a. Single Investigator Award 7
b. Short-Term Innovative Research Award 7
c. Early Career Program Award 8
d. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and 9
Engineers
e. Research Instrumentation Award 10
f. Conference and Symposia Grant Award 11
g. Army Educational Outreach Program High School and 12
Undergraduate Internships
B. Federal Award Information 15
C. Eligibility Information 18
1. Eligible Applicants 18
2. Cost Sharing or Matching 18
3. Other 18
D. Application and Submission Information 19
1. Address to View Broad Agency Announcement 19
2. Content and Form of Application Submission 19
3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award 33
Management (SAM)
4. Submission Dates and Times 34
5. Intergovernmental Review 35
6. Funding Restrictions 35
7. Other Submission Requirements 35
E. Proposal Review Information 36
1. Evaluation Criteria 36
2. Review and Selection Process 38

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3. Recipient Qualification 46
F. Award Administration Information 48
1. Award Notices 48
2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements 48
a. Required Representations and Certifications 48
b. Policy Requirements 53
3. Reporting 58
G. Agency Contacts 59
H. Other Information 60
1. Contract Proposals 60
2. Grant and Cooperative Agreement Proposals 68
3. Other Transaction Proposals 71
4. Army Contract Writing System Transition Information 72
APPENDIX 1: TABLE OF ACRONYMS 74
APPENDIX 2: SCHEDULE OF AMENDMENTS 77

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I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
The purpose of this combined Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) under Federal Acquisition
Regulation (FAR) Part 35 and Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) under 2 Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR) 200.204 (henceforth referred to as “BAA”) is to solicit research
proposals for submission to the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command
(DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) for funding consideration.
Prior to this announcement, ARL announced two separate BAAs to support the mission: 1)
W911NF-17-S-0002 titled “Army Research Laboratory Army Research Office Broad Agency
Announcement for Fundamental Research”; and 2) W911NF-17-S-0003 titled “Army Research
Laboratory Broad Agency Announcement for Basic and Applied Scientific Research”. This
announcement succeeds BAA W911NF-17-S-0002 and BAA W911NF-17-S-0003 combining the
opportunities into a single announcement.
ARL’s mission as the Army’s foundational research laboratory is to Operationalize Science to
ensure overmatch in any future conflict. ARL’s foundational research mission spans basic
research (budget activity 6.1) and applied research (budget activity 6.2) as defined by 32 CFR
22.105 but may include advanced technology development (budget activity 6.3) and advanced
component development and prototypes (budget activity 6.4) when opportunities arise to directly
or indirectly help achieve ARL’s mission. ARL partners across the national security enterprise to
deliver fundamentally advantageous change that is rooted in the creation and exploitation of
scientific knowledge.
Whitepapers for initial concept reviews and full proposals are sought from institutions of higher
education, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, foreign organizations, foreign
public entities, and for-profit organizations (i.e. large and small businesses) for scientific research
that supports the ARL mission and the published ARL research topics of interest. Whitepapers
and full proposals are expected to be for cutting-edge innovative research that could produce
discoveries having a significant impact on enabling new and improved Army operational
capabilities and related technologies.
In an effort to provide ARL's research topics and related information in an easy to digest format
with search and filter options, ARL has published the following public website listing all current
ARL research topics: https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, hereafter referenced as
the ARL BAA topics website. Changes to these topics will be made using this website on an as
needed basis. A change to the ARL BAA topics website is not an amendment to this BAA and
will not be posted on https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/. A change to this document,
the BAA itself, is an amendment and will be posted on https://www.grants.gov/ and
https://sam.gov/. ARL will maintain a daily static snapshot of the ARL BAA topics website to
ensure submissions are aligned with listed research topics on the day of submission.
Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse the ARL BAA topics website for white
paper and proposal topics that ARL desires to explore. These specific research topics should be
viewed as suggestive, rather than limiting. ARL is always interested in considering other
innovative research concepts of relevance to the Army if those concepts align with ARL's mission.
Please see Section II, Detailed Information about the Funding Opportunity, for more information
1

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on the ARL research topics advertised through this BAA. Interested parties should also review
https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/ to obtain the latest version of the BAA for
whitepaper and proposal submission requirements.
To conserve valuable applicant and Government resources, and to facilitate determining whether a
proposed research idea meets the guidelines described herein, prospective applicants
contemplating submission of a whitepaper or proposal are strongly encouraged to contact an ARL
Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) to first discuss the concept. The TPOCs’ names and contact
information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics website.
After initial contact with an ARL TPOC, if an applicant elects to submit a whitepaper or proposal,
it should be prepared in accordance with the instructions contained in this BAA. Upon receipt, a
whitepaper will be reviewed by the ARL TPOC and a recommendation will be provided to the
applicant with either “encouraged to submit a proposal” or “not encouraged to submit a proposal”
based on the review and availability of funding. A whitepaper is not required to submit a proposal.
Proposals may be submitted at any time while this BAA is open.
The proposal submission guidelines differ for each legal instrument; therefore, applicants are
advised to follow the specific applicable guidelines listed in this BAA for the type of instrument
they are proposing. This BAA provides submission guidelines for proposals for FAR-based
procurement contracts, as well as assistance instruments and other transactions. Upon review of a
proposal, the government will advise applicants on the most appropriate instrument for the
proposed work.
In accordance with federal statutes, regulations, and Department of Defense and Army policies, no
person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from
participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or
activity receiving financial assistance from the Army.
Applicants submitting proposals are cautioned that only a Contracting Officer, Grants Officer, or
Agreements Officer can obligate the Government to any legal instrument involving federally
appropriated funds.
All administrative inquiries regarding this BAA shall be submitted via the ARL Contact Us
webpage: https://arl.devcom.army.mil/contact-us/. Scientific and technical questions should be
referred to the TPOCs listed with each topic on the ARL BAA topics website:
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/. Interested parties are encouraged to
periodically check any of the following websites for updates and amendments to this BAA:
https://www.grants.gov/, https://sam.gov/, or the ARL website BAA page at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
DR. PATRICK BAKER
Director
Army Research Laboratory
(End of Section)
2

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A. Required Overview Content
1. Agency Name
U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM
ARL)
Issuing Acquisition Office
U.S. Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground, Research Triangle Park (ACC-
APG-RTP) Division
2. Research Opportunity Title
ARL Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Foundational Research for 21 November 2022 – 20
November 2027
3. Announcement Type
Announcement
4. Research Opportunity Number
W911NF-23-S-0001 Amendment 3
5. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number and Title
12.431 – Basic Scientific Research
6. Response Dates
This BAA is a continuously open announcement valid throughout the period from the date of
issuance through 20 November 2027, unless announced otherwise. This announcement succeeds
BAA W911NF-17-S-0002 and W911NF-17-S-0003 (including all modifications) dated 1 April
2017.
(End of Section)
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B. Additional Overview Information
This publication constitutes a BAA for awards as contemplated in FAR 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016
as well as a merit-based, competitive procedure in accordance with the Department of Defense
Grant and Agreement Regulations (DoDGARS) at 32 CFR 22.315(a) and the Office of the
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version
2.0 dated July 2023.
This BAA document, and the online list of research topics found on the ARL BAA topics
website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, sets forth ARL’s research topics
of interest for whitepapers and proposals. This BAA is issued under FAR 6.102(d)(2), which
provides for the competitive selection of basic and applied research proposals, and 10 U.S.C.
4001, 10 U.S.C. 4021, and 10 U.S.C. 4022, which provide the authorities for issuing awards
under this announcement for basic and applied research. The definitions of basic and applied
research may be found at 32 CFR 22.105. This BAA also supports efforts under 10 U.S.C.
2192 as discussed in the Program Description.
Proposals submitted in response to this BAA and selected for award are considered to be the
result of full and open competition and in full compliance with the provision of Public Law 98-
369, “The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984” and subsequent amendments.
Use of a BAA to solicit for research and development is encouraged when:
1. The Government desires new and creative solutions to problem statements.
2. Using a conventional statement of work could result in unintentionally stifling ideas and
concepts given many possible approaches.
3. Fulfilling requirements for scientific study and experimentation directed toward advancing
the state-of-the-art or increasing knowledge or understanding rather than focusing on a
specific system or hardware solution.
4. The Government must be able to state its objectives in terms of areas of need or interest
rather than specific solutions or outcomes.
5. Meaningful proposals with varying technical/scientific approaches are reasonably
anticipated.
ARL reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals submitted in
response to this announcement. ARL will provide no funding for direct reimbursement of
whitepaper or proposal development costs and such costs are not considered an allowable direct
charge to any award resulting from this BAA or any other award. However, these costs may be
an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect costs specified in FAR 31.205-18
for FAR-based awards.
Whitepapers and technical and cost proposals (or any other material) submitted in response to this
BAA will not be returned to the applicant. It is the policy of the Government to treat all proposals
as sensitive, competitive information and to mark and disclose their contents only for the purposes
of evaluation.
An applicant may withdraw a proposal at any time before award by written notice or by email
sent to the Government TPOC identified for the topic in which the proposal was submitted.
(End of Section)
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II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
A. Program Description
1. Foundational Research Topics of Interest
ARL’s mission is to serve as the Army’s principal foundational research agency. ARL is
interested in all research proposals that can be shown to enable the future Army to deploy,
fight, and win decisively against any adversary, anytime, and anywhere, in a joint, multi-
domain, high-intensity conflict, while simultaneously deterring others and maintaining its
ability to conduct irregular warfare.
ARL comprises both the Army Research Directorate (ARD) and the Army Research Office
(ARO) whose programs execute research awards under this BAA. The ARD and ARO
missions are further defined below to help clarify the different opportunities and topic types
that may be found on ARL’s website.
ARL, through its ARD programs focuses on exploiting the most promising disruptive science
and technology through in-house research with eligible entities. ARD competitively selects
and funds innovative research concepts that can advance in-house research. ARD primarily
funds basic research proposals (budget activity 6.1) and applied research proposals (budget
activity 6.2) but may also select and fund advanced technology development (budget activity
6.3) and advanced component development and prototypes (budget activity 6.4) to exploit
ARL’s foundational research outcomes and directly or indirectly help achieve ARL’s mission.
The results of these research efforts are transitioned to the Army research and development
community, industry, or academia to further the technological superiority of our Soldiers,
Army, and nation. ARD-funded research represents a long-range Army view with system
applications often 10-20 years away. ARD does not invest in incremental modernization
improvements, but does invest in high-risk, high-payoff ideas in basic and applied science that
can advance the in-house research mission. Historically, most of the ARD awards are executed
as cooperative agreements but can include grants, procurement contracts, research other
transactions (OTs) and prototype OTs. For a description of ARD targeted opportunities, see
section 2 below.
ARL, through its ARO extramural research program, funds cutting-edge foundational research
that could result in innovations having a significant impact on enabling new and improved
Army operational capabilities and related technologies. ARO selects and funds eligible entities
conducting scientific studies and experimentation toward advancing the state of the art or
increasing basic knowledge and understanding across the sciences. ARO competitively selects
and funds basic research proposals across a broad range of scientific disciplines related to long-
term national security needs. ARO primarily funds basic research proposals (budget activity
6.1) but may also select and fund applied research proposals (budget activity 6.2). The results
of these research efforts are transitioned to the Army research and development community,
industry, or academia to further the technological superiority of our Soldiers, Army, and nation.
ARO-funded research represents the most long-range Army view, with system applications
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often 20–30 years away. The goal of ARO funding research proposals through this BAA is to
pursue high-risk, high-payoff ideas in basic science. In this manner, ARO provides the Army
with a dynamic method for rapidly investing or divesting in research to ensure the realization
of foundational discoveries that will enable future Army capabilities. ARO has allocated
funding each year to carry out the Army’s Extramural Research Program to fund foundational
research proposals. Most of the ARO awards are executed primarily through grants and
cooperative agreements, but also can include procurement contracts and other funding
instruments. ARO also provides targeted opportunities, which are described in section 3 below.
In an effort to provide ARL’s research topics and related information in an easy to digest
format with search and filter options, ARL has published the following public website listing
all current ARL research topics: https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, the ARL
BAA topics website. Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse this website to
see the topics ARL is interested in.
To support ARL’s mission, an additional research topic for “Support to ARL Foundation
Research Competencies” can be found on the ARL BAA topics website. Under this research
topic, ARL will consider whitepapers and proposals that may not directly align to a topic
published by an ARL TPOC, but can demonstrate a strong alignment to ARL’s mission.
ARL’s research mission is executed within identified foundational research competencies that
provide the Army foundational expertise and specialized capabilities grounded in scientific
excellence and driven by unique Army challenges. ARL is always interested in innovative
research whitepapers and proposals outside of the published topics on the ARL BAA topic
website that demonstrate a strong alignment to ARL’s foundational research competencies and
potential to create discovery, innovation, and transition of technologies for Army
transformational overmatch. To learn more about ARL’s foundational research competencies
visit the ARL website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/what-we-do/#competencies/.
A proposal submitted under the “Support to ARL Foundation Research Competencies” topic
must clearly describe the research and objectives, and will be considered by ARL if it is
aligned to one or more of these foundational research competencies that support the ARL
mission. Applicants interested in submitting a proposal under this topic are strongly
encouraged to first make preliminary inquiries as to the potential alignment to an ARL
foundational research competency and funding availability for the type of research effort
contemplated to the listed TPOC on the ARL BAA topics website.
2. Army Research Directorate (ARD) Targeted Opportunities
ARD has no established targeted opportunities outside of the research topics considered for
funding proposals submitted under this BAA. Discussion with the cognizant ARD TPOC
identified for a given ARD research topic published on the ARL public website is strongly
recommended before submission of a whitepaper or proposal.
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3. Army Research Office (ARO) Targeted Opportunities
ARO has established several types of targeted opportunities to support ARO research topics,
based on applications submitted under this BAA. Information about the following
opportunities is included below:
• Single Investigator (SI) Award
• Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Award
• Early Career Program (ECP) Award
• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
• Research Instrumentation (RI) Award
• Conference and Symposia Grant Award
• Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) High School and Undergraduate Internships
Unless special eligibility requirements are listed, the eligibility criteria of Section II.C applies.
Also, see Section II.E.1 of this BAA for the evaluation criteria related to these opportunities.
NOTE: ARO is not limited to funding these targeted opportunities; however, they represent
most awards ARO is expected to make.
a. Single Investigator (SI) Award
i. Description. SI awards are the most common awards. The objective of the award is to attract
outstanding individuals to propose research projects related to the ARO research topics that
will result in scientific discoveries.
iii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-
baa/. As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC
identified for a given topic at the ARL BAA topics website is strongly recommended before
submission of a whitepaper or proposal. The proposal is submitted by the institution where
the individual is employed.
iv. Funding Level: ARO encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs for appropriate budget
levels depending on the scope of effort. ARO’s standard funding levels for SI awards would
support a budget for three years at a level commensurate with supporting a single investigator
and one or two graduate students or a post-doc for three years (to include facilities and
administrative [F&A] costs).
b. Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Award
1. Description. The objectives of the STIR awards are to support rapid, short-term
investigations to assess the merit of innovative new concepts in basic research. STIR awards
provide an excellent opportunity to showcase new concepts and explore new areas in basic
research. Historically, STIR awards have helped shape new directions in research for the
Army.
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2. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-
baa/. As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC
identified for a given topic is strongly recommended before submission of a whitepaper or
proposal for a STIR award.
3. Funding Level. Proposals in the amount of $60,000 or less are sought for STIR
awards. Capital equipment cannot be purchased under a STIR Program award. Report
preparation costs must not exceed $100. A fee is not permitted under STIR Program awards as
they are awarded as grants. Due to the relatively small dollar amount and short-term nature of
these awards, applicants are encouraged to maximize the benefit derived from this funding by
prioritizing labor and employing other cost-saving measures in support of the STIR program
effort.
4. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for STIR Awards.
Applicants should submit proposals with a Project Description (Technical Proposal) that is no
more than ten (10) pages long. No brochures or explanatory material should be submitted with
the proposal. Proposed research efforts must be "stand alone" and not predicated on the use of
any facilities other than those under the direct control of the applicant. Research must be
completed within nine (9) months of award.
c. Early Career Program (ECP) Award
i. Description. ECP awards are funded by the Army to support early career scientists and
engineers who show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. This
targeted opportunity is open to U.S. citizens, U.S. Nationals, or Lawful Permanent Residents of
the U.S. who have held a tenure-track position at a U.S. institution of higher education for
fewer than five years at the time of application. Faculty at an institution of higher education
which does not designate a faculty appointment as "tenure track" are eligible if that fact is so
indicated in the proposal, and the supporting letter from the institute states that the faculty
member submitting the proposal will be considered for a permanent appointment. The
objective of the ECP Award is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering;
enhance development of outstanding early career investigators; and increase opportunities for
early career investigators to pursue research in areas relevant to the Army.
ii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-
baa/. As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC
identified for a given topic is strongly recommended before submission of a whitepaper or
proposal.
iii. Funding Level. ECP awards will not exceed $120,000 per year for 3 years.
iv. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for ECP Awards.
NOTE: The proposal is submitted by the institution where the individual is employed. The
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proposal must include a supporting letter, both through official channels in the institution
where the individual is employed. The proposal must follow the format set forth in Section
II.D.2 (Application and Submission Information) of this BAA. The supporting letter must be
from the individual's Department Chairperson, Dean, Supervisor, or other official who speaks
for the institution, and should address support for, and commitment to, the applicant. Strong
institution support for the applicant is essential. Evidence of this support can include the
applicant's salary, release time from administrative responsibilities, the purchase of equipment,
support for the applicant's graduate students, any cost sharing, any start-up funding, etc. The
proposal must support the institution’s views that the individual is an outstanding investigator,
and the institution is making a long-term commitment to the proposal and the research. Any
resulting award will be made to the institution, not to the investigator.
d. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) –
NOTE: PECASE PROPOSALS ARE BY INVITATION ONLY! NO UNINVITED
PROPOSALS WILL BE CONSIDERED.
i. Description. The Army participates in the PECASE Program, which is the highest honor
bestowed by the U.S. Government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their
independent careers. These awards are made in conjunction with the White House following
recommendations from participating agencies. Awardees must be U.S. citizens, national, or
permanent residents and must be in the beginning of their independent research careers.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. An individual may not directly apply for a PECASE
award. Instead, once a year, ARO technical program managers will nominate PECASE
candidates from eligible proposals and whitepapers received. Proposals or whitepapers not
selected for PECASE consideration will otherwise be considered for award under this
solicitation. A technical program manager will make the PECASE nomination based on strong
endorsement of external scientific reviewers and on the potential shown by the individual to
contribute to science and to the mission of the Army.
At the time of nomination, the PECASE candidate must be in the beginning of their
independent research career, which is generally defined as either: in the first five years since
receiving their first competitively awarded federal research funding (Note: This excludes funds
secured during graduate school or postdoctoral training/fellowship and funds secured for
training, fellowship, education, or career development); or, in the first five years of a tenure-
track or equivalent academic or federal research position.
iii. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions. Following nomination of a PECASE candidate,
the applicant will be invited to negotiate with ARO and to submit a revised PECASE proposal
in which the candidate will indicate how PECASE funding would augment their research. The
following supporting information at minimum is required in the PECASE proposal:
(1) Letters (non-federal government) of recommendation;
(2) Detailed scientific biographical information including a description of the candidate’s
leadership in the scientific community;
(3) Description of the proposed candidate’s publications (such as refereed journals, peer-
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reviewed conference papers, and books or book chapters; however, this is not an inclusive list);
(4) Description of the candidate’s presentations (such as invited talks and plenary
presentations; however, this is not an inclusive list);
(5) Summary of the candidate’s past research accomplishments;
(6) Summary of the candidate’s community outreach efforts; and
(7) Letters of commitment from institution(s) of higher education.
iv. Funding Level. Army PECASE awards are made in the form of grants for up to $200,000
per year for up to five years. Support under PECASE is limited to five years from date of
award. Upon completion of the PECASE award, an individual, through their institution of
higher
education, may apply and be considered for continued support in the areas identified earlier in
the research areas of this BAA.
TPOC: Contact the relevant TPOC identified for a topic that aligns with the individual’s
research. The ARO TPOCs’ names and contact information are listed within each topic
description on the ARL BAA topics website identified in the research topics of this BAA.
e. Research Instrumentation (RI) Award
i. Description. RI awards are designed to improve the capabilities of U.S. institutions of higher
education or a nonprofit whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research to conduct
research and educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense. Funds
provided in this award may be used to purchase instrumentation in support of this research or in
the development of new research capabilities.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. RI awards are open to U.S. institutions of higher
education and nonprofit organizations whose primary research is conducting scientific research
in accordance with 31 USC §6306.
iii. RI and Research Topics. The RI program may provide funding to purchase
instrumentation in support of ARO research topics listed on the ARL BAA topics website at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/ or in the development of new research
capabilities. It is highly recommended that potential applicants contact the appropriate ARO
TPOC identified for a topic that aligns to this instrumentation proposal. The ARO TPOCs’
names and contact information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics
website.
iv. Funding Level. ARO highly encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs of appropriate
budget levels prior to the submission of RI proposals.
v. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for RI Awards.
The request for instrumentation shall include the following elements:
(1) The “Project Abstract” is to describe the instrumentation requested and the research to be
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supported by that instrumentation.
(2) The “Project Description (Technical Proposal)” is to describe how the proposed
instrumentation will: (i) establish new research capabilities, (ii) contribute to research currently
proposed to DoD, or (iii) enhance the quality of research currently being funded by ARL. It
will also include a description of how the proposed instrumentation will interface with or
upgrade other research facilities and instrumentation now available. Finally, a description will
be included of the amounts and sources of ongoing or proposed support for the research to be
supported by the instrumentation.
(3) In the “Cost Proposal,” the budget is to address the instrumentation to be purchased, cost
per item, and total cost. Indicate the proposed source of the instrumentation and the name and
telephone number of a contact at that source. The budget should indicate the amount of funds
to be contributed by any other sources toward the purchase of the instrumentation. Note: Costs
associated with equipment/facility modifications are generally considered unallowable and
require the review and approval of the Grants Officer.
f. Conference and Symposia Grant Award
i. Description. The Army supports conferences and symposia (as defined in the DoD
Travel Regulations) in areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research
or educational findings or to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new
research and educational techniques. The Army encourages the convening in the United
States of major international conferences, symposia, and assemblies of international
alliances.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. Notwithstanding the Army's authority to provide grant
support for such events DoD does not permit "co-sponsorship" (as defined in DoD 5500.07-R)
absent additional high-level staffing and approval. In other words, the conference grant support
identified in this BAA is not DoD sponsorship or co-sponsorship since ARL is neither an
organizer nor provider of any substantial logistical support for the conferences addressed in this
section. Funds provided cannot be used for payment to any federal government employee for
support, subsistence, or services in connection with the proposed conference or symposium.
iii. Connection with ARO Research Topics. The Army supports conferences and symposia in
areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research or educational findings or
to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new research and educational
techniques. It is highly recommended that potential applicants contact the appropriate TPOC
identified for a topic that aligns to the conference/symposia proposal. The ARO TPOCs’
names and contact information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics
website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
iv. Funding Level. ARO highly encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs of appropriate
budget levels prior to the submission of conference or symposia award applications.
v. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for Conference or Symposia Awards.
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(1) Conference support proposals should be submitted a minimum of six (6) months prior to the
date of the conference. A proposal will not be funded if the conference date has already passed.
(2) The “Project Description (Technical Proposal)”, as discussed in for support of a conference
or symposium should include the following:
• A one page or less summary indicating the objectives of the project;
• The topics to be covered;
• The location and probable date(s) and why the conference is considered appropriate at the
time specified;
• An explanation of how the conference will relate to the research interests of the Army and
how it will contribute to the enhancement and improvement of scientific, engineering,
and/or educational activities as outlined earlier in the research topic references in this
BAA and on the ARL website;
• The name of chairperson(s)/principal investigator (PI)(s) and his/her biographical
information;
• A list of proposed participants and the methods of announcement or invitation; and
(3) The “Cost Proposal” should include:
• Total project conference costs by major cost elements;
• Anticipated sources of conference income and amount from each source to document no
profit will accrue to the applicant;
• Anticipated use of funds requested; and
• A signed budget.
g. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) High School and Undergraduate
Internships
i. Description. 10 USC 2192 provides authority for the Army to support educational programs in
science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. The High School internships funds the Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) internship of promising rising high school juniors
and seniors to work in a university structured research environment under the direction of sponsored
principal investigators (PIs) serving as mentors. The Undergraduate internships provides similar
opportunities for undergraduate students. Only existing awards to institutions of higher education
will be considered for these internships. High School and Undergraduate participants must be U.S.
citizens or have permanent resident status. Funding support for these internships will be
accomplished as a modification to single investigator research grants, Multidisciplinary University
Research Initiative (MURIs), University-Affiliated Research Contracts (UARCs), and other
cooperative agreements managed by the Army that have at least 12 months period of performance
remaining from the date of an internship proposal submission. AEOP Internships program goals are
to:
1. Provide authentic science and engineering research experience to high school students
interested in pursuing STEM, and undergraduate students pursuing science and engineering
majors;
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2. Introduce students to the Army’s interest and investment in science and engineering research and
the associated educational opportunities available to students through the Army’s Educational
Outreach Program (AEOP) and DoD;
3. Provide students with experience in developing and presenting scientific research;
4. Provide students with experience to develop an independent research program in preparation for
research fellowships, graduate school, and careers in science and engineering research;
5. Provide opportunities for the student to benefit from the expertise of a scientist or engineer as a
mentor for professional and academic development purposes; and
6. Develop student’s skills and background to prepare them for competitive entry to science and
engineering undergraduate programs.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. The AEOP internships are designed as modification to
existing awards and limited funding is available annually for PIs interested in supporting an
internship. Funds provided by this program should be billed concurrently with work on the
base award to ensure prompt expenditure. Due to the brief duration of the internships and
limited funding we make every effort to maximize the number of student internship
opportunities.
iii. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for AEOP High School and Undergraduate Internships.
To be considered for an internship modification, PIs should submit a short proposal (see instructions
below) that clearly articulates the meaningful research that the student will conduct in support of the
award, along with the strategy for PI mentorship and facilitation of follow-on opportunities (e.g.,
university attendance, participation in other AEOP opportunities and other research experiences,
etc). PIs must determine what aspect(s) of their current research program the student will be
working on, desired deliverables, and anticipated research outcomes based on the AEOP internships
program goals set forth above. PIs should describe who within their organization will be
responsible for day-to-day mentoring of the students (e.g. PI, research associate, graduate student,
etc.). If direct supervision of students will be someone other than the PI, the mentor’s resume or
curriculum vitae (CV) must be provided. The proposal should identify the expected gains for the
student and the organization for High School and Undergraduate participation in terms of technical
skills, scientific reasoning in specific domains, or publication opportunities. Follow-on
opportunities and relationships for students within the organization are encouraged and should be
outlined in the proposal.
Proposals should include provisions to pay High School students a stipend equivalent to
approximately $15 per hour and Undergraduate students a stipend equivalent to approximately $20
per hour; not to exceed 300 hours total per student. High School and Undergraduate students are
not considered university employees whose hours must be tracked and therefore stipends are not
required to be paid as an hourly wage but can be paid as a lump sum or divided as partial payments,
at the recipient’s discretion. With the exception of UARC and MURI awards, proposals should
generally be limited to two students per PI, although up to four students will be considered under a
single investigator if the proposal demonstrates sufficient senior research staffing to ensure effective
student guidance and mentoring. Proposals for UARC and MURI awards can include up to 6
students. Student stipends must be listed under “participant support costs” on ARO Form 99 as
described in Section II.H.2.e of this BAA.
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If more than one student is proposed by a PI, there must be a near equal mix of High School and
Undergraduate students. A proposal should not be for multiple Undergraduate students unless
approved by ARO. The institution of higher education must describe in its proposal how it will
ensure the protection of minors through provision of a safe working environment.
(1) Describing an Outreach Strategy and Student Application Process. A primary objective of
the AEOP internship is to expose new students to research opportunities in a research
laboratory. Thus, PIs must describe a plan to attract and engage students not related to the
PI (family member) or already working with the PI, laboratory, or research project. The
proposal shall also include a short description (3 to 5 sentences) of the project, its relation to
the award research and specific student requirements (GPA, letters of recommendation,
dates of the internship, etc.). For approved proposals, the project description and
requirements submitted by the PI will be placed on the AEOP website and used in addition
to the PIs outreach strategy to attract applicants. All student applications for the AEOP
Internship programs must be collected through the AEOP student application portal
(www.usaeop.com). After initial AEOP eligibility screening, applications will be forward
to the PI for evaluation and final candidate(s) selection. PIs must include in the proposal a
plan to conduct local outreach to promote awareness of the opportunity among
students/schools, and then direct them to the AEOP website to apply. AEOP Internships is
a commuter program and PIs are encouraged to perform outreach to students who are able
to commute daily. PIs and mentors must also complete a brief registration annually on the
AEOP website and complete two 21st Century Skills Assessment for each student
participant during the internship. Web links will be emailed to the PI before the start of the
internship. At the conclusion of the internship, student participants are required to develop a
brief (one-page) abstract of their work to be included in an AEOP program booklet. PIs
shall review and approve these abstracts before submission to ARO via an AEOP portal.
(2) Timeline. Consistent with the BAA, proposals for this targeted opportunity are accepted on
a rolling basis. PIs interested in receiving AEOP Internships funding should submit
proposals no later than (NLT) August 31 of the prior year to provide sufficient time for
proposal review, award processing, and student outreach/recruitment. For example, to
receive funding for use in summer 2025, proposals should be submitted by August 31,
2024. PIs will be notified of proposal evaluation results by mid-November and the student
application website will open no later than the first week of January through February.
(3) Additional Proposal Details. Proposals should not exceed three pages (excluding
supplemental information (budget, CVs, etc.) in length and must be submitted through
www.grants.gov utilizing solicitation number W911NF-23-S-0001. Complete forms
Standard Form (SF) 424, ARO Form 99 (clearly distinguishing high school students from
undergraduates) and upload the proposal as an attachment. Please include the title of the
research project, the grant number, and the specific number of High School and
Undergraduate opportunities requested on the first page of the proposal.
POC for this Targeted Opportunity: Ms. Ivory Chaney, usarmy.rtp.ccdc-arl.mbx.hsap-urap@army.mil,
(919) 549- 4323
(End of Section)
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B. Federal Award Information
The ACC-APG RTP Division and ACC-APG Adelphi Contracting Division have the authority
to award a variety of instruments on behalf of ARL. Anticipated awards will be made in
the form of procurement contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, , other transactions
(OTs) for research, or OTs for prototypes. The ACC-APG RTP Division and ACC-APG
Adelphi Contracting Division will select the type of instrument most appropriate for the
effort proposed. Applicants should familiarize themselves with these instrument types and
the applicable regulations before submitting a proposal. The Following are brief descriptions
of the possible award instruments:
1. Procurement Contract. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6303, which
reflects a relationship between the Federal Government and a state government, a local
government, or other entity/contractor when the principal purpose of the instrument is to
acquire property or services for the direct benefit or use of the Federal Government.
Contracts are primarily governed by the following regulations:
a. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
b. Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS)
c. Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (AFARS)
2. Grant. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6304, is used to enter into a
relationship:
a. The principal purpose of which is to transfer a thing of value to the recipient to carry
out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law or the United States,
rather than to acquire property or services for the Federal Government’s direct benefit
or use.
b. In which substantial involvement is not expected between the Federal Government and
the recipient when carrying out the activity contemplated by the grant.
c. No fee or profit is allowed.
3. Cooperative Agreement. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6305, is used to
enter into the same kind of relationship as a grant (see definition “grant”), except that
substantial involvement is expected between the Federal Government and the recipient
when carrying out the activity contemplated by the cooperative agreement. The term
does not include “cooperative research and development agreements” as defined in 15
U.S.C. 3710a. No fee or profit is allowed.
4. Other Transaction for Research. A legal instrument, consistent with 10 U.S.C. 4021,
which may be used for basic, applied, and advanced research projects. The research
covered under this instrument cannot be duplicative of research being conducted under an
existing DoD program. To the maximum extent practicable, OTs for research are to
provide for a 50/50 cost share between the Government and the applicant. An
applicant’s cost share may take the form of cash, independent research and development
(IR&D), foregone intellectual property rights, equipment, access to unique facilities,
and/or other means. Due to the extent of cost share, and the fact that an OT for research
does not qualify as a “funding agreement” as defined at 37 CFR 401.2(a), the intellectual
property provisions of this instrument can be negotiated to provide expanded protection
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to an applicant’s intellectual property. No fee or profit is allowed on OTs for research.
Please refer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and
Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version 2.0 dated July 2023 for additional
information. This document, along with additional other transaction agreement (OTA)
resources, may be accessed at the following link:
https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/other-policy-areas.html
5. Other Transaction for Prototype or Production. A legal instrument, consistent with 10
U.S.C. 4022, which provides DoD the flexibility necessary to adopt and incorporate
business practices that reflect commercial industry standards and best practices into its
award instruments. OTs for prototypes or production are not FAR-based procurement
contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or OTs for Research. OTs for prototypes or
production have specific applications and conditions for use (see Appendix C of the
Other Transactions Guide linked below). The effort covered under an OT cannot be
duplicative of effort being conducted under an existing DoD program. Follow-on
production contracts and/or an OT may be awarded to a Prototype Other Transaction
Awardee, if applicable. Please refer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for
Acquisition and Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version 2.0 dated July 2023 for
additional information. This document, along with other OTA resources, may be
accessed at the following link: https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/other-
policy-areas.html
6. Grants and cooperative agreements for institutions of higher education, nonprofit
organizations, foreign organizations, and foreign public entities are primarily governed
by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. 2 CFR Part 200
d. 2 CFR Part 1104
e. 32 CFR Parts 21, 22, 26, and 28
f. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
g. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
7. Grants and cooperative agreements for for-profit and nonprofit organizations exempted
from Subpart E—Cost Principles of 2 CFR Part 200, are primarily governed by the
following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. 32 CFR Part 34 – Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with
For-Profit Organizations
d. 32 CFR Parts 21, 22, 26, and 28
e. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
f. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
8. OTs for Research are primarily governed by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
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c. Office of Secretary of Defense implementation guidance titled Other Transactions
(OT) Guide for Research Projects (July 2023, Version 2)
d. Guide to Research Other Transactions under 10 U.S.C. 4021 issued by the Office
of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering
9. OTs for Prototypes or Production are primarily governed by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. Office of Secretary of Defense implementation guidance titled Other Transactions
(OT) Guide for Prototype Projects (July 2023, Version 2)
10. The following websites may be accessed to obtain an electronic copy of the governing
regulations and terms and conditions:
a. FAR, DFARS, and AFARS: https://www.acquisition.gov
b. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): http://www.ecfr.gov
c. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions:
https://www.nre.navy.mil/work-with-us/manage-your-award/manage-grant-
award/grants-terms-conditions
d. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions:
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/#terms-and-
conditions
(End of Section)
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C. Eligibility Information
1. Eligible Applicants
Unless noted in Section II.A.3 or as dictated by the award instrument type, eligible applicants
under this BAA include institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state and
local governments, foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and for-profit organizations
(i.e. large and small businesses). For ARO Targeted Opportunities, please see the specific
eligibility requirements in the II.A.3 ARO Targeted Opportunities section above. For specific
Other Transactions for Prototypes eligibility requirements, please see the “Other Transaction
for Prototype or Production” section within the II.B. Federal Award Information section.
2. Cost Sharing or Matching
Generally, there is no requirement for cost sharing, matching, or cost participation to be
eligible for award under this BAA. Cost sharing and matching is not an evaluation factor
used under this BAA. Exceptions may exist if the applicant is proposing the use of an OT for
research or prototype as an award instrument. Cost-sharing requirements may be found
within the specified Other Transactions regulations and Other Transaction Guides referenced
in this BAA.
In addition, if cost sharing is proposed on a grant or cooperative agreement proposal
submitted by a nonprofit or institution of higher education, the award will be subject to the
restrictions at 2 CFR 200.306. If cost sharing is proposed on a contract proposal, the award
will be subject to the restrictions at FAR 35.003
3. Other
Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) are subject to applicable
direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this solicitation in any capacity unless they
meet the following conditions. (1) FFRDCs must clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is
not otherwise available from the private sector. (2) FFRDCs must provide a letter, on official
letterhead from their sponsoring organization, that (a) cites the specific authority establishing
their eligibility to propose to Government solicitations and compete with industry, and (b)
certifies the FFRDC’s compliance with the associated FFRDC sponsor agreement’s terms and
conditions. These conditions are a requirement for FFRDCs proposing to be awardees or
subawardees.
University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) are eligible to submit proposals under this
BAA if their proposal contains a letter, on official letterhead, from their primary sponsor
concurring with the UARC’s proposal submission.
(End of Section)
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D. Application and Submission Information
1. Address to View Broad Agency Announcement
This BAA may be accessed via the following websites:
a. Grants.gov (www.grants.gov)
b. Contract Opportunities (sam.gov)
c. ARL website https://arl.devcom.army.mil/collaborate-with-us/opportunity/arl-baa/
Amendments to this BAA, if any, will be posted to these websites when they occur.
Supplemental information on topics, POCs, research areas, specific proposal rules and
requirements, and other relevant info may be disseminated through Special Notices posted
to the sam.gov Contract Opportunities website. Interested parties are encouraged to
periodically check these websites for updates and amendments.
Digital copies of submission forms can be downloaded from
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/. Paper copies of submission forms
are available upon request from the point of contact identified for a given topic.
The following information is for those wishing to respond to this BAA:
2. Content and Form of Application Submission
a. The Application Process Overview
Applicants are strongly encouraged to follow the below application process:
• Conduct a preliminary inquiry with an ARL TPOC
• Submit a Whitepaper to an ARL TPOC for review
• Submit a Full Proposal
All proposals for Assistance Instruments (Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Technology
Investment Agreements) must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov using the
Workspace system. Proposals for Procurement Contracts, OTs for Research that are not
Technology Investment Agreements, and OTs for Prototypes or Production may be submitted via
either Grants.gov or email to usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.baa@army.mil. See II.D Application
and Submission Information section of this BAA for information on the proposal submission
process.
b. Preliminary Inquiries*
Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to make a preliminary inquiry by first contacting
the ARL TPOC to discuss your ideas and the interests of ARL. ARL receives several hundred
research proposals annually and is able to provide support for only a limited number of the
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proposals received. ARL realizes the preparation of a research proposal often represents a
substantial investment of time and effort by the applicant. Therefore, in an attempt to minimize
this burden, ARL TPOCs are available to discuss the general need for the type of research
effort contemplated and availability of funding before an interested applicant expends
extensive effort in preparing a whitepaper or full proposal. The TPOC names, telephone
numbers, and email addresses are listed with each research Topic at the ARL BAA topics
website, https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/ , and they should be contacted, as
appropriate, prior to the submission of whitepapers or proposals.
*NOTE: The Government will not be obligated by any discussion that arises out of
preliminary inquiries.
c. Whitepaper Preparation and Submission
i. PURPOSE OF WHITEPAPERS:
Prospective proposers are strongly encouraged to submit whitepapers prior to the submission of
a complete, more detailed proposal. The purpose of whitepapers is to minimize the labor and
cost associated with the production of detailed proposals that have very little chance of being
selected for funding. Whitepapers are not full proposals and are meant to provide the ARL
TPOC with enough information to determine if there is interest on the part of ARL to receive a
full proposal.
ii. WHITEPAPER CONTENT:
Whitepapers do not have a prescribed format but are not expected to exceed five (5) total pages
and are encouraged to be submitted as a single portable document format (PDF) document. The
whitepaper should include at a minimum the title of the whitepaper, name of the individual and
organization submitting the whitepaper, the research topic name, topic identification (ID)
number, and the TPOC name against which the whitepaper is submitted. Whitepapers should
focus on describing objective and approach of the proposed research, including how it is
innovative, and how it could substantially increase the scientific state of the art. Whitepapers
should contain a brief cost estimate to understand a rough order of magnitude of the proposal
cost, and any biographical information to highlight applicant’s qualifications and experience.
Any proprietary data must be clearly marked. The applicant must also identify any
technical data or computer software contained in the whitepaper that is to be managed by
the Government with restrictions, limited rights in technical data and restricted rights in
computer software. In the absence of such identification, the Government will conclude
there are no limitations or restrictions on technical data or computer software included in
the whitepaper. Records or data bearing a restrictive legend may be included in the
whitepaper. It is the intent of the Army to treat all whitepapers as procurement sensitive
and to disclose their contents to Government employees or designated support contractors
only for the purpose of evaluation.
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iii. SUBMISSION OF WHITEPAPERS:
Whitepapers should be submitted via email to the TPOC identified in the topic proposed
against. Whitepapers submitted via email are encouraged to be submitted as a single PDF file
as an email attachment. If no TPOC is specifically listed, prospective applicants can submit
information and questions using the ARL’s website Contact Us page at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/contact-us/ and selecting BAA Inquiry from the drop-down
menu for advice and assistance before preparing and submitting a whitepaper. In the
contact form subject line, include the phrase “BAA Whitepaper Submission,” and the
research topic name and topic ID number listed at the website.
iv. REVIEW OF WHITEPAPERS:
ARL TPOCs will receive and consider all whitepapers submitted and will provide a
response with either “encouraged to submit a proposal” or “not encouraged to submit a
proposal”.
d. Full Proposal Preparation and Submission
Proposals must be submitted in order for the applicant to be considered for funding.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit whitepapers (see instructions in II.D.2.c White
Paper Preparation and Submission section above) and received a recommendation from an
ARL TPOC to submit a proposal prior to submitting full proposals, however all proposals
submitted under the terms and conditions cited in this BAA will be reviewed regardless of the
recommendation received from the ARL TPOC, or lack of submission of a whitepaper.
i. COVER PAGE:
(1) A Cover Page is required. For contract proposals submitted by email, use ARO Form 51.
For all Assistance instruments and contract proposals submitted via Grants.gov, use the SF
424 (R&R) Form. Proposals will not be processed without either: (1) a signed Cover Page,
ARO Form 51, or (2) a SF 424 (R&R) Form.
(2) Should the project be carried out at a branch campus or other component of the
applicant, that branch campus or component should be identified in the space provided
(Block 11 on the ARO Form 51 and Block 12 on the SF 424 (R&R) Form).
(3) The title of the proposed project should be brief, scientifically representative, intelligible
to a scientifically-literate reader, and suitable for use in the public domain.
(4) The proposed duration for which support is requested should be consistent with the nature
and complexity of the proposed activity. For research topics listed at the ARL BAA topics
website, https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, applicants shall discuss the
preferred performance period with the TPOC.
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(5) Specification of a desired starting date for the project is important and helpful; however,
requested effective dates cannot be guaranteed.
(6) Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 7701, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996
[Section 31001(I)(1), Public Law 104-134] and implemented by 32 CFR 22.420(d), federal
agencies shall obtain each awardees’ Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). The TIN is being
obtained for purposes of collecting and reporting on any delinquent amounts that may arise out
of an awardees’ relationship with the Government.
(7) Applicants must provide their organization's Unique Entity Identifier (UIE) (formerly
Data Universal Number System (DUNS)). This number is a nine-digit number assigned
by D&B Information Services. See Section II.D.3 of this BAA for requirements pertaining
to the Unique Entity Identifier.
(8) Applicants must provide their assigned Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE)
Code. The CAGE Code is a 5-character code assigned and maintained by the Defense
Logistics Service Center (DLSC) to identify a commercial plant or establishment.
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ii. TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Use the following format for the Table of Contents. Forms are available at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/
SECTION PAGE NUMBER
Table of Contents A-1
Statement of Disclosure Preference (Form 52 or 52A) B-1
Research and Related Other Project Information B-2
Project Abstract C-1
Project Description (Technical Proposal) D-1 - D-
Biographical Sketch E-1 - E-
Bibliography F-1 - F-
Current and Pending Support G-1 - G-
Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources H-1 - H-
Proposal Budget I-1 - I-
Contract Facilities Capital Cost of Money (DD Form 1861) J-1
Appendices K-
List Appendix Items:
This format applies to all proposals submitted via email and via Grants.gov. Applicants
should show the location of each section of the proposal, as well as major subdivisions of the
project description.
iii. STATEMENT OF DISCLOSURE PREFERENCE (FORM 52 OR 52A): Complete and
sign ARO Form 52 (Industrial Contractors) or ARO Form 52A (Educational and Nonprofit
Organizations).
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iv. RESEARCH AND RELATED OTHER PROJECT INFORMATION: Must be completed
and signed by all applicants.
v. PROJECT ABSTRACT:
(1) The project abstract shall be completed on the form entitled “Publicly Releasable Project
Abstract” found at the following website: https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/
(2) Unless otherwise instructed in this BAA, the project abstract shall include a concise
statement of work and basic approaches to be used in the proposed effort. The abstract should
include a statement of scientific objectives, methods to be employed, and the significance of the
proposed effort to the advancement of scientific knowledge.
(3) The abstract should be no longer than one (1) page (maximum 4,000 characters).
(4) The project abstract shall be marked by the applicant as publicly releasable. By
submission of the project abstract, the applicant confirms that the abstract is releasable to the
public. For a proposal that results in a grant award, the project abstract will be posted to a
searchable website available to the general public to meet the requirements of Section 8123
of the DoD Appropriations Act, 2015. The website address is https://www.dtic.mil/.
vi. PROJECT DESCRIPTION (TECHNICAL PROPOSAL): The technical portion of
the proposal shall contain the following:
(1) A complete discussion stating the background and objectives of the proposed work, the
scientific approaches to be considered, the relationship to competing or related research, and
the level of effort to be employed. Include also the nature and extent of the anticipated results
and how they will significantly advance the scientific state-of-the-art. Also, if known, include
the manner in which the work will contribute to the accomplishment of the Army's mission.
Ensure the proposal identifies any scientific uncertainties and describes specific approaches for
the resolution or mitigation of the uncertainties.
(2) A brief description of your organization.
(3) The names of other federal, state, local agencies, or other parties receiving the proposal
and/or funding the proposed effort. If none, state so. Concurrent or later submission of the
proposal to other organizations will not prejudice its review by ARL if ARL is kept informed of
the situation.
(4) A statement regarding possible impact, if any, of the proposed effort on the environment,
considering as a minimum its effect upon water, atmosphere, natural resources, human
resources, and any other values.
(5) A statement regarding the use of Class I and Class II ozone- depleting substances. Ozone-
depleting substances are any substance designated as Class I by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), including but not limited to chlorofluorocarbons, halons, carbon tetrachloride,
24

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and methyl chloroform, and any substance designated as Class II by EPA, including but not
limited to hydrochlorofluorocarbons. See 40 CFR Part 82 for detailed information. If Class I
or II substances are to be utilized, a list shall be provided as part of the applicant's proposal. If
none, state so.
(6) The type of support, if any, requested by the applicant (e.g., facilities, equipment,
and materials).
vii. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
(1) This section shall contain the biographical sketches for key personnel only.
(a) Primary PI: The Primary PI provides a single or initial point of communication between
ARL and the awardee organization(s) about scientific matters. If not otherwise designated,
the first PI listed will serve as the Primary PI. This individual can be changed with
notification to ARL. ARL does not infer any additional scientific stature to this role among
collaborating investigators.
(b) Co-PIs: The individual(s) a research organization designates as having an appropriate
level of authority and responsibility for the proper conduct of the research and submission of
required reports to ARL. When an organization designates more than one PI, it identifies
them as individuals who share the authority and responsibility for leading and directing the
research, intellectually and logistically. ARL does not infer any distinction among multiple
PIs.
(2) The following information is required:
(a) Relevant experience and employment history including a description of any prior
Federal employment within one year preceding the date of proposal submission.
(b) List of up to five publications most closely related to the proposed project and up to
five other significant publications, including those being printed. Patents, copyrights, or
software systems developed may be substituted for publications.
(c) List of persons, other than those cited in the publications list, who have collaborated
on a project or a book, article, report or paper within the last four years. Include
pending publications and submissions. Otherwise, state "None."
(d) Names of each investigator's own graduate or post-graduate advisors and advisees.
NOTE: The information provided in (c) and (d) is used to help identify potential
conflicts or bias in the selection of reviewers.
(3) For the personnel categories of postdoctoral associates, other professionals, and students
(research assistants), the proposal may include information on exceptional qualifications of
these individuals that merit consideration in the evaluation of the proposal.
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(4) The biographical sketches are limited to three (3) pages per investigator and other
individuals that merit consideration.
viii. BIBLIOGRAPHY: A bibliography of pertinent literature is required. Citations must
be complete (including full name of author(s), title, and location in the literature).
ix. CURRENT AND PENDING SUPPORT:
This announcement requires all current and pending research support, as defined by Section 223
of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, must be disclosed at the time
of proposal submission, for all covered individuals. See Section F.2.b.x for additional
information on this requirement.
(1) All project support from whatever source must be listed. The list must include all projects
requiring a portion of the PI's and other key personnel's time, even if they receive no salary
support from the project(s).
(2) The information should include, as a minimum: (i) the project/proposal title and brief
description, (ii) the name and location of the organization or agency presently funding the work
or requested to fund such work, (iii) the award amount or annual dollar volume of the effort, (iv)
the period of performance, and (v) a breakdown of the time required of the PI and/or other key
personnel.
x. FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT, AND OTHER RESOURCES: The applicant should include
in the proposal a listing of facilities, equipment, and other resources already available to
perform the research proposed.
xi. PROPOSAL BUDGET (including DD Form 1861):
(1) Each proposal must contain a budget for each year of support requested and a cumulative
budget for the full term of requested support. Each budget year and the cumulative budget for
the full term must be documented on ARO Form 99. ARO Form 99 may be reproduced, but you
may not make substitutions in prescribed budget categories nor alter or rearrange the cost
categories as they appear on the form. The proposal may request funds under any of the
categories listed so long as the item is considered necessary to perform the proposed work and is
not precluded by applicable cost principles. In addition to the forms, the budget proposal should
include budget justification for each year.
(2) A signed summary budget page must be included. The documentation pages should be titled
"Budget Explanation Page" and numbered chronologically starting with the budget form. The
need for each item should be explained clearly.
(3) All cost data must be current and complete. Costs proposed must conform to the
following principles and procedures:
Institutions of Higher Education: 2 CFR Part 200
Nonprofit Organizations*: 2 CFR Part 200
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For-Profit/Commercial Organizations: FAR Part 31, DFARS Part 231, FAR Subsection
15.403-5, and DFARS Subsection 215.403-5.
*For those nonprofit organizations specifically exempt from the provisions of Subpart E of 2 CFR
Part 200 (see 2 CFR 200.401(c)), FAR Part 31 and DFARS Part 231 shall apply.
(4) Sample itemized budgets and the information they must include for a contract and for
grants and cooperative agreements can be found at Section II.H of this BAA (Other
Information). Before award of a cost-reimbursement type contract or assistance instrument it
must be established that an approved accounting system and financial management system
exist.
xii. APPENDICES: Some situations require that special information and supporting
documents be included in the proposal before funding can be approved. Such information and
documentation should be included by appendix to the proposal.
(1) To evaluate compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C.
A Section 1681 Et. Seq.), the Department of Defense is collecting certain demographic
and career information to be able to assess the success rates of women who are
proposed for key roles in applications in STEM disciplines. To enable this assessment,
each application must include the following forms completed as indicated.
(A) Research and Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) form:
The Degree Type and Degree Year fields on the Research and Related Senior/Key Person
Profile (Expanded) form will be used by DoD as the source for career information. In
addition to the required fields on the form, applicants must complete these two fields for all
individuals that are identified as having the project role of PD/PI or Co-PD/PI on the form.
Additional senior/key persons can be added by selecting the “Next Person” button.
(B) Research and Related Personal Data form:
This form will be used by DoD as the source of demographic information, such as gender,
race, ethnicity, and disability information for the Project Director/Principal Investigator and
all other persons identified as Co-Project Director(s)/Co-Principal Investigator(s). Each
application must include this form with the name fields of the Project Director/Principal
Investigator or any Co-Project Director(s)/Co-Principal Investigator(s) completed;
however, provision of the demographic information in the form is voluntary. If completing
the form for multiple individuals, each Co-Project Director/Co-Principal Investigator can
be added by selecting the “Next Person” button. The demographic information, if
provided, will be used for statistical purposed only and will not be made available to merit
reviewers. Applicants who do not wish to provide some or all of the information should
check or select the “Do not wish to provide” option.
(2) Data Management Plan: A data management plan is a document that describes which
data generated through the course of the proposed research will be shared and preserved,
how it will be done, or explains why data sharing or preservation is not possible or
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scientifically appropriate, or why the costs of sharing or preservation are incommensurate
with the value of doing so. See also: DoD Instruction 3200.12. In no more than 2 pages
set forth as a separate PDF document, discuss the following:
• The types of data, software, and other materials to be produced.
• How the data will be acquired.
• Time and location of data acquisition, if scientifically pertinent.
• How the data will be processed.
• The file formats and the naming conventions that will be used.
• A description of the quality assurance and quality control measures during
collection, analysis, and processing.
• A description of dataset origin when existing data resources are used.
• A description of the standards to be used for data and metadata format and
content.
• Appropriate timeframe for preservation.
• The plan may consider the balance between the relative value of data preservation
and other factors such as the associated cost and administrative burden. The plan
will provide a justification for such decisions.
• A statement that the data cannot be made available to the public when there are
national security or controlled unclassified information concerns (e.g., “This data
cannot be cleared for public release in accordance with the requirements in DoD
Directive 5230.09.”)
(3) With the application, the Applicant must provide the following “Privacy Act Statement”
consent form for each Covered Individual in the proposal. This form must also be signed
by the Applicant as that Individual’s Sponsor.
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Privacy Act Statement
Army Futures Command or Department of the Army
Application for Federal Assistance
Authority: Government Paperwork Elimination Act (Pub. L. 105-277, 44 U.S.C. 3504); Executive Order 12372,
Intergovernmental review of Federal Programs (47 FR 30959); 42 U.S. Code § 6605 – Disclosure of funding
sources in applications for Federal research and development awards; Public Law 117-167, CHIPS and Science
Act; Public Law 116-92, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020; 5 U.S.C. 9101, Access to
Criminal History for National Security and Other Purposes 5 CFR §1320.8, Agency collection of information
Responsibility; 18 U.S.C. § 1001, False Statements, Concealment; E.O. 13478, Amendments to Executive Order
9397 Related to Federal Use of social Security Numbers; NSPM-33, National Security Presidential Memorandum
33 on National Security for United States Research and Development; DoD-D 5240.01, DoD Intelligence
Activities; DoD-I 5200.02, Department of Defense Personnel Security Program; Army Regulation 381-10, U.S.
Army Intelligence Activities
Purpose: The information collected may be used in processing, investigating, and maintaining records relevant to
Federal Assistance awarded by the Department of the Army. Records in these systems will be used to ensure
Army sponsored and/or awarded federal grants, assistance, contracts, and/or benefits are awarded to responsible
parties, entities, and individuals.
Routine Uses: To contractors, grantees, experts, consultants, students, and others performing or working on a
contract, service, grant, cooperative agreement, or other assignment for the Federal Government when necessary
to accomplish an agency function.
To the appropriate Federal, State, local, territorial, tribal, foreign, or international law enforcement authority or
other appropriate entity where a record, either alone or in conjunction with other information, indicates a
violation or potential violation of law, whether criminal, civil, or regulatory in nature.
DoD Blanket Routine Use (http://dpcld.defense.gov/privacy)
Effect of not providing information: Providing information to the Department of the Army is voluntary.
However, 42 U.S. Code § 6605, which imposes certain disclosure requirements in connection with Federal
research and development awards, provides various enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance. One such
mechanism, which the Department of the Army intends to pursue here, is rejection of such applications.
Proposal Title (or grants.gov number): ____________________________
Acknowledgment of consent:
Covered individual (Signature): ______________________________ Date: ___________
Covered individual (Name print): ______________________________
Institution’s Authorized Representative (Signature): _______________________ Date: ___________
Institution’s Authorized Representative (Name print): ______________________________
Institution Name: ________________________________
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e. General Information
i. Classified Submissions: Proposals containing classified information are not accepted under
this BAA. However, proposals may discuss the need to access or generate controlled
unclassified information (CUI) or classified information for the proposed work. Where an award
requires access to classified information, clause 52.204-2 will be included in the award, as well
as a DD254, if issued. When an award requires access to CUI, DFARS Clause 252.204-7012
will be included in the award, as well as additional ARL specific requirements as determined
necessary. For questions regarding the potential for access to classified information and/or
controlled unclassified information, please coordinate with the TPOC for that topic area prior to
whitepaper or proposal submission.
ii. Post-Employment Conflict of Interest: There are certain post-employment restrictions on
former federal employees, including special government employees (18 U.S.C. 207). If a
prospective applicant believes a conflict of interest may exist, the situation should be discussed
with the TPOC listed in the BAA for their topic of scientific research who will then coordinate
with appropriate ARL legal counsel prior to the applicant expending time and effort in preparing
a proposal.
iii. Statement of Disclosure Preference: In accordance with Section II.D.2.e.iii of this BAA,
Form 52 or 52A shall be completed stating your preference for release of information contained
in your proposal. Copies of these forms may be downloaded from the ARL web site at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/.
NOTE: Submissions may be handled for administrative purposes by support contractors.
These support contractors are prohibited from submitting proposals under this BAA and are
bound by non-disclosure and/or conflict of interest requirements as deemed appropriate.
Applicants are cautioned, however, that portions of a submission may be subject to release
under terms of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, as amended.
iv. Equipment (see instrument-specific regulations provided in Section II.B of this BAA):
Normally, in accordance with 31 USC 6306, title to equipment or other tangible property
purchased with Government funds vests with nonprofit institutions of higher education or with
nonprofit organizations whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research if vesting will
facilitate scientific research performed for the Government. For-profit organizations are expected
to possess the necessary plant and equipment to conduct the proposed research. Deviations may
be made on a case-by-case basis to allow for-profit organizations to purchase equipment but
regulatory disposition instructions will be included in the award.
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f. Submission of Proposals
Requests for waiver of electronic submission requirements may be submitted via email to:
usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.baa@army.mil or regular mail:
Army Research Office
ATTN: FCDD-RLR (Proposal Processing)
P.O. Box 12211
RTP, NC 27709-2211
All required forms for proposals may be downloaded from the ARL website at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/.
All proposals for Assistance Instruments (Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and OTs) must be
submitted electronically through Grants.gov using the Workspace system. Proposals for
Contracts and OTs may be submitted via either Grants.gov or email. Proposals must be
submitted through the applicant’s organizational office having responsibility for
Government business relations. All signatures must be that of an official authorized to
commit the organization in business and financial affairs.
Proposal content requirements remain the same for both email and Grants.gov submission.
i. EMAIL SUBMISSION:
(1) Proposals requesting a Contract or OTs may be emailed directly to usarmy.rtp.devcom-
arl.mbx.baa@army.mil, do not email full proposals to the TPOC. Proposals for assistance
agreements cannot be sent via email, see below for submission of Assistance agreement
proposals through Grants.gov.
(2) The applicant must include with its proposal submission the representations required by Section
II.F.2.a.i of this BAA. The representations must include applicant POC information and be signed
by an authorized representative. Note: If the applicant’s online SAM Representations and
Certifications include its response to the representations, a hard copy representation is not required
with proposal submission.
(3) All forms requiring signature must be completed, printed, signed, and scanned into a PDF
document. All documents must be combined into a single PDF formatted file to be attached
to the email.
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ii. GRANTS.GOV SUBMISSION:
(1) Proposals requesting Assistance agreements must be submitted via Grants.gov; proposals
requesting a Contract or OT may be submitted either via Grants.gov or email (instructions
above).
(2) Grants.gov Registration must be accomplished prior to application submission in Grants.gov.
Each organization that desires to submit applications via Grants.Gov must complete a one-time
registration. There are several one-time actions your organization must complete in order to
submit applications through Grants.gov (e.g., obtain a Unique Entity Identifier, register with the
SAM, register with the credential provider, register with Grants.gov and obtain approval for an
authorized organization representative (AOR) to submit applications on behalf of the
organization). To register please see https://www.grants.gov/applicants/applicant-registration
Please note the registration process for an Organization or an Individual can take between
three to five business days or as long as four weeks if all steps are not completed in a timely
manner.
Questions relating to the registration process, system requirements, how an application form
works, or the submittal process should be directed to Grants.gov at 1-800-518-4726 or
support@grants.gov.
NOTE: All web links referenced in this section are subject to change by Grants.gov and may not
be updated here.
(3) Specific forms are required for submission of a proposal. The forms are contained in the
Application Package available at http://www.grants.gov under the specific opportunity you are
submitting under. When viewing an opportunity, select the "Package” tab and then select
"View." A Grant Application Package and Application Instructions are available for this BAA
through the Grants.gov Apply portal under CFDA Number 12.431/Funding Opportunity Number
W911NF-23-S-0001. To apply, select “Apply” and then “Apply Now Using Workspace.”
*NOTE: Effective 31 December 2017, applicants must apply online at Grants.gov using the
application Workspace. For access to complete instructions on how to apply for opportunities
using Workspace refer to https://www.grants.gov/applicants/workspace-overview.
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The following documents are mandatory: (1) Application for Federal Assistance (R&R) (SF 424
(R&R)), and (4) Attachments form.
(4) The SF 424 (R&R) form is to be used as the cover page for all proposals submitted via
Grants.gov. The SF 424 (R&R) must be fully completed. AOR usernames and passwords serve
as “electronic signatures” when your organization submits applications through Grants.gov. By
using the SF 424 (R&R), proposers are providing the certification required by 32 CFR Part 28
regarding lobbying (see Section II.F.2.a.ii of this BAA). Block 11, “Descriptive Title of
Applicant’s Project,” must reference the research topic area being addressed in the effort by
identifying the specific paragraph from Section II.A of this BAA.
(5) The Attachments form must contain the documents outlined in Section II.D.2.e.ii entitled
“Table of Contents”. All documents must be combined into separate and single PDF formatted
files using the Table of Contents names. Include “W911NF-23-S-0001” in the title so the
proposal will be distinguished from other BAA submissions and upload each document to the
mandatory Attachments form.
(6) The applicant must include with its proposal submission the representations required by
Section II.F.2.a.ii of this BAA. The representations must include applicant POC information and
be signed by an authorized representative. Attach the representations document to an available
field within the Attachments form. Note: If the applicant’s online SAM Representations and
Certifications include its response to the representations, a hard copy representation is not
required with proposal submission.
(7) The Grants.gov User Guide at:
https://www.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm will assist
AORs in the application process. Remember that you must open and complete the Application
for Federal Assistance (R&R) (SF 424 (R&R)) first, as this form will automatically populate data
fields in other forms. If you encounter any problems, contact customer support at 1-800-518-
4726 or at support@grants.gov. If you forget your username or password, follow the
instructions provided in the Credential Provider tutorial. Tutorials may be printed by right-
clicking on the tutorial and selecting “Print”.
(8) As it is possible for Grants.gov to reject the proposal during this process, it is strongly
recommended that proposals be uploaded at least two days before any established deadline in the
BAA so that they will not be received late and be ineligible for award consideration. It is also
recommended to start uploading proposals at least two days before the deadline to plan ahead for
any potential technical and/or input problems involving the applicant’s own equipment.
3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM)
a. Each applicant (unless the applicant is an individual or Federal awarding agency that is
exempt from those requirements under 2 CFR 25.110(b) or (c), or has an exemption approved
by the Federal awarding agency under 2 CFR 25.110(d)) is required to:
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i. Provide a valid unique entity identifier (formerly DUNS) in its application. Please
verify the accuracy of your Unique Entity Identifier (formerly DUNS) at the Dun and
Bradstreet (D&B) website http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform before registering with the
System for Award Management System (SAM).
ii. Be registered in SAM at https://www.sam.gov prior to submitting its application; and
iii. Maintain an active SAM registration with current information at all times during
which it has an active Federal award or an application or plan under consideration
by a Federal awarding agency.
b. The SAM obtains Legal Business Name, Doing Business Name (DBA), Physical Address, and
Postal Code/ Zip+4 data fields from D&B. If corrections are required, registrants will not be
able to enter/modify these fields in SAM; they will be pre-populated using D&B Unique Entity
Identifier record data. When D&B confirms the correction has been made, the registrant must
then re-visit sam.gov and click a “yes”' to D&B's changes. Only at this point will the D&B data
be accepted into the SAM record. Allow a minimum of two (2) business days for D&B to send
the modified data to SAM.
c. The Federal awarding agency may not make a Federal award to an applicant until the
applicant has complied with all applicable unique entity identifier and SAM requirements. If an
applicant has not fully complied with the requirements by the time the Federal awarding agency
is ready to make a Federal award, the Federal awarding agency may determine that the applicant
is not qualified to receive a Federal award and use that determination as a basis for making a
Federal award to another applicant.
4. Submission Dates and Times
a. Proposals
Proposals will be considered until and including the closing date of this announcement (see cover
page of this announcement for opening/closing dates). Proposals submitted after the closing date
will not be considered by the Government under this announcement.
b. Proposal Receipt Notices
i. Grants.gov: After a proposal is submitted to Grants.gov, the AOR will receive a series of three
emails from Grants.gov. The first two emails will be received within 24 to 48 hours after
submission. The first email will confirm time of receipt of the proposal by the Grants.gov system
and the second will indicate that the proposal has either been successfully validated by the system
prior to transmission to the grantor agency or has been rejected due to errors. A third email will
be received once the grantor agency has confirmed receipt of the proposal. Reference the
Grants.gov User Guide at
https://www.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm for
information on how to track your application package.
For the purposes of this BAA, an applicant’s proposal is not considered received by ARL until the
AOR receives email #3.
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ii. Email Submission: After a proposal is submitted to usarmy.rtp.devcom-
arl.mbx.baa@army.mil, the AOR will receive an email confirming time of receipt of the proposal
by the receiving agency. For the purposes of this BAA, an applicant’s proposal is not considered
received by the grantor agency until the AOR receives the email confirming receipt of the
proposal.
5. Intergovernmental Review
Not Applicable
6. Funding Restrictions
Other than the restrictions referenced in Section II.A.3, there are no other funding restrictions
associated with this BAA (e.g. direct costs, indirect costs, etc.).
7. Other Submission Requirements
a. Information to Be Requested from Successful Applicants: Applicants whose proposals are
accepted for funding will be contacted before award to provide additional information
required for award. The required information may include requests to clarify budget
explanations, representations, certifications, and some technical aspects.
b. For Contracts Only: Performance Work Statements (PWS). Prior to award the Contracting
Officer may request that the contractor submit a PWS for the effort to be performed, which
will be incorporated into the contract at the time of award.
c. Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI): In accordance with the Federal Acquisition
Regulations (FAR) Subpart 9.5, Organizational and Consultant Conflicts of Interest (OCI)
and 2 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §200.112, there is the potential for the Applicant to
have an OCI if the Applicant has a pending or current Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA)
agreement with ARL. The Applicant will need to identify and address mitigation measures
for an OCI due to the IPA agreement as part of their submission under this BAA. Failure to
include an OCI plan may result in the proposal being rejected for consideration of funding.
(End of Section)
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E. Proposal Review Information
1. Evaluation Criteria
a. Proposals submitted against a BAA research topic and the ARO SI will be
evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
b. ARO Proposals submitted for STIR will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
c. ARO Proposals submitted for ECP will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
iv. Long-term commitment by the institution of higher education to the early
career investigator and the proposed research.
d. ARO Proposals packages invited for PECASE will be evaluated by external scientific
reviewers and by an Army PECASE Evaluation Committee using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. Scientific Leadership.
iii. Publications.
iv. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
v. Presentations.
vi. Commitment letters from institutions of higher education.
vii. Community Outreach.
e. ARO Proposals submitted for RI will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
iv. The applicant’s capabilities, related experience, facilities, techniques, or
unique combinations of these, which are integral factors for achieving the
proposed objectives.
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f. Proposals submitted for Conference Grants will be evaluated using the following
criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of proposed
conference/symposia activities.
ii. The potential contributions of the conference/symposia activities to the
Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
conference/symposia.
g. Proposals submitted in response to the AEOP High School and Undergraduate
Internships program will be evaluated using the criteria listed below (in descending
order of importance):
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. Educational merit to include the proposed student research, mentorship strategy,
anticipated outcomes for the student and applicant, student qualifications, and
number of proposed students.
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2. Review and Selection Process
a. Upon receipt of a proposal, ARL staff will perform an initial review of its scientific merit and
potential contribution to the Army mission, and also determine if funds are expected to be
available for the effort. Proposals not considered having sufficient scientific merit or relevance to
the Army's needs, or those in areas for which funds are not expected to be available, may not
receive further review.
b. All proposals are treated as procurement sensitive and are disclosed only for the purpose of
evaluation. Proposals having sufficient scientific merit or relevance will be subject to a peer
review by highly qualified subject matter experts, both Government employees and non-
Government employees. While the applicant may restrict the evaluation to Government
employees, to do so may prevent review of the proposal by other qualified experts in the field of
research covered by the proposal. The applicant must indicate on the appropriate proposal form
(Form 52 or 52A) any limitation to be placed on disclosure of information contained in the
proposal.
c. Each proposal will be evaluated based on the evaluation criteria in Section II.E.1 of this BAA
rather than against other proposals for research in the same general area. Each evaluated
proposal will receive a recommendation of “select” or “do not select” as supported by the
evaluation.
d. Upon completion of an evaluation against the criteria in Section II.E.1, a proposal selected
for possible award will be analyzed for the realism and reasonableness of costs and funds
availability. Proposal costs must be determined reasonable and realistic before the Government
can make an award.
e. Army Research Risk Assessment. Each proposal with a recommendation to “select” in
accordance with II.E.2.c above, whose costs have been determined to be reasonable and
realistic in accordance with II.E.2.d above, for which funds are available, and where a grant or
cooperative agreement will be the award instrument type, will be subject to an Army Research
Risk Assessment prior to award.
i. The Army Research Risk Assessment Program. The Army Research Risk Assessment
Program (ARRP) is an adaptive risk management security program applied to Army-
funded research designed to help protect Army Science and Technology (S&T) by
identifying possible vectors of undue foreign influence.
In order to identify and mitigate undue foreign influence as required by federal law and
policy, the Army will perform a research risk assessment of each proposal selected
based on the criteria above for consideration of a fundamental research grant or
cooperative agreement award. ARRP risk assessments for these subject proposals will
be developed for all proposed Senior/Key personnel, (also referred to as “Covered
Individuals”). These risk assessments will be based on information disclosed in the
Standard Form (SF) 424, “Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded),” any of its
accompanying or referenced documents, publicly available information, and
information contained in internal Army databases. Nationality or citizenship is not a
factor in the risk assessment.
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ARRP has a risk matrix which identifies risk factors and resulting risk ratings. The
matrix generally looks at four factors, or risk areas: participation in foreign talent
programs; denied entity list affiliation or association (see
https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/the-denied-persons-list and
https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/policy-guidance/lists-of-parties-of-concern/entity-
list); funding sources to include conflict of interest or conflict of commitment, or
funding from a strategic competitor; and foreign influence showing a pattern or history
of affiliation, association, or collaboration with a foreign institution, person or entity
from a U.S. strategic competitor. The matrix is set forth below:
Identified Specific Actions of the Senior/Key Personnel
Rating
Foreign Talent Denied Entities Funding Foreign
Program Institutions
Indicators of Indicators of an Indicators of active Indicators of active
active (ongoing) active (ongoing) (ongoing) conflict of (ongoing) direct
participation or affiliation or past interest, conflict of affiliation,
HIGH sponsorship in a affiliation or commitment, or association or
strategic present pattern of direct collaboration with
competitor association with funding from a a foreign
Foreign Talent an entity on the strategic competitor institution, person,
Program U.S. Gov’t or country with or entity from a
denied entity or history of targeting strategic
person list or EO U.S. research or competitor
13959 or technology
subsequent
similar issuances
Indicators of past Indicators of past Indicators of any Indicators of a
participation in a association with history or history or pattern
Foreign Talent an entity nonconsecutive of association or
MODERATE Program with a identified in the pattern of, conflict of collaboration with
U.S. strategic U.S. Gov’t interest, conflict of foreign institution,
competitor, or denied entity or commitment, or person, or entity
country with a person list or EO funding from a from a strategic
history of 13959 or strategic competitor competitor or
targeting U.S. subsequent or country with country with
research or similar issuances history of targeting history of targeting
technology U.S. research or U.S. research or
technology technology
No participation No indicators of No indicators of past No indicators of an
in a Foreign past or current funding from a association or
LOW Talent Program association or strategic competitor collaboration with
affiliation with or country with a foreign
an entity on the history of targeting institution, person,
U.S. Gov’t U.S. research or or entity from a
denied entity or technology strategic
person list or EO competitor or
13959 or country with
subsequent history of targeting
similar issuances U.S. research or
technology
39

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• Affiliation is academic, professional, or institutional appointments or positions
with a foreign government-connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntary (including adjunct, visiting, honorary, or lectures/visits) where direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
• Association is academic, professional, or institutional appointments or positions
with a foreign government-connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntary (including adjunct, visiting, honorary, or lectures/visits) where no direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
• Collaboration is academic, professional, or institutional agreement to jointly
work together with a foreign government- connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntarily, in an official or unofficial capacity. Co-authorship in research endeavors is an example of collaboration.
• Strategic competitors are those adversaries identified in the current year
Annual Threat Assessment report from Director of National Intelligence. The 2021 assessment was published on April 9, 2021 and can be found at https://www.dni.gov.
• Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment are defined in NSPM-33 and
in the CONOP as well as the AFC ARRP Policy memorandum.
• Senior/Key Personnel are those who (a) contribute in a substantive, meaningful
way to the scientific development or execution of a research and development project proposed to be carried out with a research and development award from a Federal research agency; and (b) are designated as a covered individual by the Federal research agency concerned. ARRP risk ratings range from LOW to HIGH depending on the amount, type, and timing of foreign associations or affiliations that could constitute a foreign-influenced “Conflict of Interest” or “Conflict of Commitment,” as defined by National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33). Once the research risk assessments are performed, the Army risk acceptance authority has several courses of action available for consideration. These courses of action are as follows: Course of Action 1 - The Army risk acceptance authority may accept the risk rating that results from the risk assessment process and proceed with the award. This typically happens with proposals with risk ratings of “LOW” but could also happen with the other risk ratings. In Course of Action 1, the applicant will not be required to do anything related to the risk assessment process or the assigned risk rating. Course of Action 2 - The Army risk acceptance authority may accept the risk rating with some research protection requirements added to the grant or cooperative agreement award. This typically happens with proposals with risk ratings of “MODERATE” but 40

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could also happen with the other risk ratings. Also, typically, these added research
protection requirements could include, but be limited to the following in the grant or
cooperative agreement award:
The University's Security Office shall provide the Principal Investigator and key
o
personnel related to this award training on foreign talent recruitment programs
and threat awareness and reporting requirements.
The University shall disclose to the Army Research Laboratory Security Office
o
and Grants Officer all international travel, i.e., all international travel completed
as part of any university business, by the Principal Investigator and key personnel
related to this award instrument prior to travel.
The University shall report to the Army Research Laboratory Security Office and
o
Grants Officer all inquiries by foreign operatives or suspected foreign operatives
into research associated with the award.
The University is encouraged to utilize students without potential conflicts of
o
interest or conflicts of commitment as identified in U.S. National Security
Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-33).
Under Course of Action 2, the applicant will be asked to sign the grant or cooperative
agreement prior to award, confirming agreement to these added requirements. Should
the applicant not agree to these added research protection requirements, the Army risk
assessment authority may decide not to award.
Course of Action 3 - The Army risk acceptance authority is not willing to accept the
risk assigned as a result of the assessment process. In this case, the applicant will be
provided an opportunity to provide a risk mitigation plan. This typically happens with
proposals with risk ratings of “HIGH” but could also happen with the other risk ratings.
In Course of Action 3, the applicant will be informed of the risk rating assigned during
the risk assessment process as well as the block(s) on the matrix where the review
resulted in some type of finding that contributed to the assigned risk rating. Should the
applicant choose to not submit a risk mitigation plan, the Army risk assessment
authority may decide not to award. Should the applicant choose to submit a risk
mitigation plan, the Army will review such plan. As a result of this review, the Army
risk acceptance authority may then be willing to accept the risk assigned with the
mitigation plan and proceed with the award or the Army risk acceptance authority may
not be willing to accept the risk and may decide not to award. Further, should the risk
mitigation plan include proposal revisions that affect those aspects of the proposal
included in the review or selection process under SECTION II.E.2.c, the original
proposal evaluation will be reviewed and revised as appropriate based on the proposal
revisions.
ii. Actions Required by Applicants.
(1) By submission of this application and authorized signature on the SF 424
(R&R) Form, the Applicant agrees to comply with the following
requirements:
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• To certify that each covered individual who is listed on the application
has been made aware: (1) of all relevant disclosure requirements,
including the requirements of 42 U.S.C. § 6605; and (2) that false
representations may be subject to prosecution and liability pursuant to,
but not limited to, 18 U.S.C. §§287, 1001, 1031 and 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-
3733 and 3802. See National Science and Technology Council
Guidance for Implementing National Security Presidential
Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33) on National Security Strategy for United
States Government-Supported Research and Development (January
2022), at p. 7 (available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2022/01/010422-NSPM-33-Implementation-
Guidance.pdf).
• To establish and maintain an internal process or procedure to address
foreign talent programs, conflicts of commitment, conflicts of interest,
and research integrity.
• To exercise due diligence to identify Foreign Components or
participation by Senior/Key Personnel in Foreign Government Talent
Recruitment Programs and agree to share such information with the
Government upon request.
(2) With the application, the Applicant must provide a completed “Privacy Act
Statement” consent form for each Covered Individual that is also signed by
the Applicant as that Individual’s Sponsor. The “Privacy Act Statement”
form is included at SECTION II.D.2.d.xii (3) of this BAA.
(3) During the award period of performance:
• If, at any time, during performance of this award, the Recipient learns
that its Senior/Key Research Personnel (including any subawardee
personnel who receive this designation) are or are believed to be
participants in a Foreign Government Talent Program or have Foreign
Components with a strategic competitor or country with a history of
targeting U.S. technology for unauthorized transfer, the recipient will
notify the Government or Grants Officer within 5 business days of
awareness.
• This disclosure must include specific information as to the personnel
involved and the nature of the situation and relationship. The
Government will review this information and conduct any necessary
fact-finding or discussion with the Recipient. The Government’s
determination on disclosure may include acceptance, mitigation, or
termination of the award.
• Failure of the Recipient to reasonably exercise due diligence to discover
or ensure that neither it nor any of its Senior/Key Research Personnel
involved in the subject award are participating in a Foreign Government
Talent Program or have a Foreign Component with a strategic
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competitor or country with a history of targeting U.S. technology for
unauthorized transfer may result in the Government exercising remedies
in accordance with federal law and regulation.
• The provisions concerning this disclosure will be included in each
award.
• The Recipient will be required to flow down this provision to all sub
awardees who have personnel designated as Senior/Key Research
Personnel as a result of their involvement in the performance of the
research.
iii.Actions Required by Covered Individuals.
Federal law requires that all current and pending research support, as defined by 42 U.S.C.
§6605, must be disclosed at the time of proposal submission, for all covered individuals.
The Government may require an updated disclosure during the performance of any research
project selected for funding. The Government will require an updated disclosure whenever
covered individuals are added or identified as performing under the funded project. See
definition of “Covered Individuals” below.
Covered Individuals are also required to sign the “Privacy Act Statement” and provide such
signed statement to the applicant for submission with the proposal.
Any decision to accept a proposal for funding under this announcement will include full
reliance on the individual’s statements. Failure to report fully and completely all sources of
project support and outside positions and affiliations may be considered a material statement
within the meaning of the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. 3729, and constitute a violation of
Federal law.
iv.Privacy Act Compliance. All information collected and developed for the purpose of
conducting ARRP risk assessments will be maintained in accordance with the following
authorities:
• Office of Personnel Management (OPM) System of Records Notice (SORN) GOVT-1.
This SORN governs information collected from federal grantees for the purpose of
conducting a national security investigation or carrying out other lawful statutory,
administrative, or investigative purposes of the agency, to the extent the information is
relevant and necessary to the requesting agency’s decision.
• Department of the Army (DA) SORN A0381-20b-DAMI (Feb. 10, 2009, 74 F.R.
6596). This SORN applies to information contained in systems used by the Department
of the Army to develop ARRP risk assessments.
• 32 C.F.R. Appendix A to Part 310, Paragraph N: DoD Blanket Routine Uses. Pursuant
to this provision, a record from a system of records maintained by a Component may
be disclosed as a routine use outside the DoD or the U.S. Government for the purpose
of counterintelligence activities authorized by U.S. law or Executive order or for the
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purpose of enforcing laws that protect the national security of the United States.
v.Definitions
• Covered Individual. An individual who contributes in a substantive, meaningful way
to the scientific development or execution of a research and development project
proposed to be carried out with a research and development award from a Federal
research agency; and is designated as a covered individual by the Federal research
agency concerned. See 42 U.S.C. § 6605, Definitions. (For purposes of this BAA,
“covered individuals” are all Senior/Key Personnel.)
• Senior/Key Research Personnel. This term includes the Principal Investigator (PI) and
other individuals who contribute to the scientific development or execution of a project
in a substantive, measurable way, whether or not they receive salaries or compensation
under the award. These include individuals whose absence from the project would be
expected to impact the approved scope of the project. (For purposes of this BAA,
“Senior/Key Personnel” are all considered “covered individuals.”
• Foreign Associations and Affiliations. Association is defined as collaboration,
coordination or interrelation, professionally or personally, with a foreign government-
connected entity where no direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
Affiliation is defined as collaboration, coordination, or interrelation, professionally or
personally, with a foreign government-connected entity where direct monetary or non-
monetary reward is involved.
• Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Programs. In general, these programs include
any foreign-state-sponsored attempt to acquire U.S. scientific-funded research or
technology through foreign government-run or funded recruitment programs that target
scientists, engineers, academics, researchers, and entrepreneurs of all nationalities
working and educated in the U.S. Distinguishing features of a Foreign Government
Talent Recruitment Program may include:
• Compensation, either monetary or in-kind, provided by the foreign state to the
targeted individual in exchange for the individual transferring their knowledge
and expertise to the foreign country. In-kind compensation may include
honorific titles, career advancement opportunities, promised future
compensation or other types of remuneration or compensation.
• Recruitment, in this context, refers to the foreign-state-sponsor’s active
engagement in attracting the targeted individual to join the foreign-sponsored
program and transfer their knowledge and expertise to the foreign state. The
targeted individual may be employed and located in the U.S. or in the foreign
state.
• Contracts for participation in some programs that create conflicts of
commitment and/or conflicts of interest for researchers. These contracts include,
but are not limited to, requirements to attribute awards, patents, and projects to
the foreign institution, even if conducted under U.S. funding, to recruit or train
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other talent recruitment plan members, circumventing merit-based processes,
and to replicate or transfer U.S.-funded work in another country.
• Many, but not all, of these programs aim to incentivize the targeted individual to
physically relocate to the foreign state. Of particular concern are those programs
that allow for continued employment at U.S. research facilities or receipt of U.S.
Government research funding while concurrently receiving compensation from
the foreign state.
• Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Programs do not include research
agreements between the University and a foreign entity, unless that agreement
includes provisions that create situations of concern addressed elsewhere in this
section; agreements for the provision of goods or services by commercial
vendors; or invitations to attend or present at conferences.
• Conflict of Interest. A situation in which an individual, or the individual’s spouse or
dependent children, has a financial interest or financial relationship that could directly
and significantly affect the design, conduct, reporting, or funding of research.
• Conflict of Commitment. A situation in which an individual accepts or incurs
conflicting obligations between or among multiple employers or other entities.
Common conflicts of commitment involve conflicting commitments of time and effort,
including obligations to dedicate time in excess of institutional or funding agency
policies or commitments. Other types of conflicting obligations, including obligations
to improperly share information with, or withhold information from, an employer or
funding agency, can also threaten research security and integrity and are an element of
a broader concept of conflicts of commitment.
• Foreign Component. Performance of any significant scientific element or segment of a
program or project outside of the U.S., either by the University or by a researcher
employed by a foreign organization, whether or not U.S. government funds are
expended. Activities that would meet this definition include, but are not limited to:
involvement of human subjects or animals; extensive foreign travel by University
research program or project staff for the purpose of data collection, surveying,
sampling, and similar activities; collaborations with investigators at a foreign site
anticipated to result in co-authorship; use of facilities or instrumentation at a foreign
site; receipt of financial support or resources from a foreign entity; or any activity of
the University that may have an impact on U.S. foreign policy through involvement in
the affairs or environment of a foreign country.
• Strategic Competitor. A nation, or nation-state, that engages in diplomatic, economic
or technological rivalry with the United States where the fundamental strategic
interests of the U.S are under threat.
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3. Recipient Qualification
a. Grant, and Cooperative Agreement, Proposals:
i. The Grants Officer is responsible for determining a recipient’s qualification prior to award.
In general, a Grants Officer will award grants or cooperative agreements only to qualified
recipients that meet the standards at 32 CFR 22.415. To be qualified, a potential recipient
must:

Have the management capability and adequate financial and technical resources,

given those that would be made available through the grant or cooperative agreement, to
execute the program of activities envisioned under the grant or cooperative agreement;

Have a satisfactory record of executing such programs or activities (if a prior

recipient of an award);

Have a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics; and

Be otherwise qualified and eligible to receive a grant or cooperative agreement

under applicable laws and regulations.
Applicants are requested to provide information with proposal submissions to assist the Grants
Officer’s evaluation of recipient qualification.
ii. In accordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance in parts 180 and
200 of Title 2, CFR, it is DoD policy that DoD Components must report and use integrity and
performance information in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information
System (FAPIIS), or any successor system designated by OMB, concerning grants, cooperative
agreements, and OTs for research as follows:
If the total Federal share will be greater than the simplified acquisition threshold on any Federal
award under a notice of funding opportunity (see 2 CFR 200.88 Simplified Acquisition
Threshold):

The Federal awarding agency, prior to making a Federal award with a total amount of

Federal share greater than the simplified acquisition threshold, will review and consider
any information about the applicant that is in the designated integrity and performance
system accessible through SAM (currently FAPIIS) (see 41 U.S.C. 2313);

An applicant, at its option, may review information in the designated integrity and

performance systems accessible through SAM and comment on any information about
itself that a Federal awarding agency previously entered and is currently in the designated
integrity and performance system accessible through SAM;

The Federal awarding agency will consider any comments by the applicant, in

addition to the other information in the designated integrity and performance system, in
making a judgment about the applicant's integrity, business ethics, and record of
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Current Topics 9 DEC 2024

Current Research Topics for DEVCOM ARL BAA For Foundational Research
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Current Research Topics for the
DEVCOM ARL BAA For Foundational Research
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Disclaimer
All current ARL research topics can be found at: https://www.arl.army.mil/opportunties/arl-baa.
Changes to these topics will be made using the website on an as needed basis. This document is
a printed copy of the current ARL research topics as of the noted print date. ARL maintains a
daily static snapshot of the ARL research topic website to ensure submissions are aligned with
listed research topics on the day of submission. The available Army Research Office (ARO)
topics are listed alphabetically followed by an alphabetical listing of the Army Research
Directorate (ARD) topics. Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse the ARL
research topic website and review the ARL BAA for instructions on submissions.
The DEVCOM ARL Broad Agency Announcement for Foundational Research,
W911NF-23-S-0001,
is available on https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/
Link to all current ARL research topics
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Available Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topics
The available Army Research Office (ARO) topics are listed in alphabetical order.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Advanced Learning-Enabled Intelligent Cyber Physical Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0032
TPOC: MaryAnne Fields, PhD - mary.a.fields22.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4350
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Mathematics and Statistics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber,
and Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Future Vertical Lift;Next Generation Combat Vehicle
Keywords: Intelligent Systems, Interaction, Assured Operations, Online learning, Robust
Intelligence, World Models, Memory Systems, Causality
Description:
Intelligent cyber physical systems play an increasingly important role in civilian and military
settings. With few exceptions, current intelligent systems are restricted to highly constrained
environments for short duration missions. Future systems will need to perform a variety of tasks
in complex, possibly contested, open worlds for extended periods of time. One important
characteristic of open worlds is that the intelligent system will encounter new contexts, activities,
and objects that will require it to adapt previously trained algorithms. Advanced capabilities in
learning, reasoning, interaction, and assured operations are essential to the development of
intelligent systems that can greatly enhance the Army's mobility, agility, lethality, and
survivability in future conflicts.
ON-LINE LEARNING THEORY, METHODOLOGY, AND TECHNIQUES
Over the past 50 years, machine learning has made great strides in classification, natural
language processing, and task learning. However, machine learning still lacks the rigor, agility,
and flexibility necessary to operate in complex, contested open worlds. This thrust focuses on
establishing a theoretical foundation for on-line or continuous machine learning. New learning
approaches will need to address both the dimensionality challenges and temporal characteristics
that may be evolving continuously. In addition, new techniques must address robustness to
enable the learning system to deal with novelty, noise, observation errors and potentially
malicious input that aim to disrupt learning. Innovative approaches to continuous learning will
allow systems to adapt to changing contexts and environments while maintaining previously
learned knowledge. Under this thrust, we investigate approaches that help the intelligent systems
deal with dynamic environments, devise new, transferable skills, and cope with unknown
situations.
While end-to-end learning may be important for certain applications, it may not be an effective
approach for the complex environments typical of most battlefields. Instead, there is a need for
compositional learning systems in which each component may learn primitive actions that are
later combined, and adapted, to solve complex long-horizon manipulation problems. Research is
needed to understand how to express and learn the preconditions and post-conditions for each of
the primitive actions. Linking elements from a library of primitives and adapting the ensemble to
solve an existing problem is also an outstanding issue. Automated curriculum learning in which
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the CPS devises its own learning strategy is an open research area. Important issues in this area
include generating sample task environments from observation, memory and simulation;
sequencing those task into an effective curriculum; and transferring the learning as the tasks
become more complex.
DECISION MAKING FOR THE OPEN WORLD
Long duration operations require CPSs to continually reason, make decisions, or take actions
with very limited knowledge of the pertinent events or objects that could impact those decisions.
In real world missions, systems often address multiple near-simultaneous tasks to accomplish
their objectives - on a battlefield, systems need to travel to a location while searching for
potential adversaries and sharing information with teammates. Architectures that draw from
psychological models for human decision making, such as Dual Process theory, may enable
CPSs to effectively distribute the processing for near-simultaneous reasoning tasks. Advances in
risk-aware online planning will enable autonomous systems to balance potentially conflicting
objectives and operate safely in poorly understood environments. CPSs also need to develop a
sense of "'causality" that discovers relationships between objects and events and allows the
system to incorporate temporal and spatial information into the reasoning processes.
Storing and accessing information is vital to long term mission. Not all pertinent information is
collected at the same time: new research in memory systems will enable cyber physical systems
to determine what information, in what form, it needs to store to support future actions that may
or may not relate to its current action. Memory systems are not simply information stores -
processes like reflection, abstraction, and learning enable CPSs to develop new information.
Retrieval mechanisms are very important - information is not useful unless the system can recall
it when it is needed. Research to understand effective memory structure and processes will
benefit from a collaboration with cognitive scientists to understand memory in biological
systems. New approaches are needed to address potential issues with memory systems such as
catastrophic or forgetting, limited storage capacity, and development of new methods to
efficiently use external knowledge stores.
INTERACTION
Future autonomous systems must interact physically with humans and other intelligent systems
operating in the same space, remotely with spatially distant entities, and virtually in cyberspace
with intelligent software agents. New research in human-robot interaction and robot-robot
teaming will enable humans and robots to share the same space and work together on complex
tasks. Research in Ad-hoc teamwork will enable entities (human and systems) to dynamically
join together to address a specific problem, then pursue separate tasks after the problem is
solved. In this type of teaming, there is no prior coordination between agents and we cannot
assume that the entities share the same types of learning algorithms or reward structures or that
they have prior agreements regarding action coordination and information sharing. Some of the
important research problems within ad-hoc teaming are: ensuring that actions are understandable
to fellow teammates; modeling the capabilities of team members; including humans in the
ad-hoc teams, and dynamically modeling the performance of both the team and the individuals.
Explicit Human-Robot interaction has been extensively explored throughout the last decade.
Implicit Human-Robot interaction, on the other hand, is relatively unexplored. In this case,
humans may not directly interact with an intelligent system but instead take actions that the
system could use as input. The human actions may be intentional, unintentional or even
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unconscious but they are a rich source of signals for learning or cooperative actions. These
implicit actions may also provide context information that could be used to adapt a previously
learned behavior to a new environment. Some important research topics in this area include:
identifying implicit signals, the value of implicit robot-human signals, and context-aware
interaction.
ASSURED OPERATIONS
Assured operations require a deep understanding of how a complex system composed of several
components, including mechanical systems, computational hardware, and software algorithms
operates as a coordinated system. In much the same way as the community is trying to
understand the behavior of neural networks, which are composed of layers of mathematical
functions, this topic seeks to understand how information and actions flow from the lowest levels
of the system to system level decisions and actions. Along those lines, new theory and principles
are needed to understand the impact of both gradual and abrupt changes at the component level
on the evolution of the entire system. Investigating modularity and compositionality will enable
the system to address the multiple near-simultaneous problems it is likely to encounter in long
term operations. New theories in information sharing in dynamic environments will lay the
foundation for accountability and provide clear criteria for component-level and global
input/output specification (in terms of computation, rate, semantics, ..) that can be used to: train a
learning component, optimize outputs of a planning component, and test individual and systems
level components. As these areas mature, they will provide a firm mathematical foundation for
systems-level research in learning-based design, performance guarantees, and robustness to
degraded components.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP)
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0022
TPOC: Margaret E Shea, PhD - margaret.e.shea6.civ@army.mil
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Network, Cyber, and Computational
Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Assured PNT;Long Range Precision Fires;Network/C3I
Keywords:
Description:
Topics of interest within Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP) include:
1. Quantum degenerate atomic gases, both Bose and Fermi, their excitations and properties,
including mixed species, mixed state, and molecular;
2. Quantum enhanced precision metrology;
3. Nonlinear processes;
4. Quantum systems in cavities;
5. Collective and many-body states of matter; and
6. Emerging areas.
There is an interest in emerging areas of AMO physics such as collective states of matter,
emergent lattices in quantum gases, non-equilibrium many body dynamics, advanced quantum
simulation, and metrology in non-ideal environments. Research efforts within the AMP fall
within two thrust areas: Advanced Quantum Capabilities and Novel Quantum Methods. It is
anticipated that research efforts within these areas will lead to applications including novel
materials, efficient computational platforms, and exquisite quantum sensors.
Advanced Quantum Many-body Dynamics
The focus of this thrust is the development and study of strongly correlated many-body systems.
The quantum simulator portion of the thrust seeks research on novel techniques and studies that
leverage our control and understanding of simple quantum mechanical systems to explore more
complex quantum effects and materials. The effort seeks the validation of many-body quantum
theories through the development of experimental tools including quantum gas microscopes,
atom-array experiments, synthetic gauge fields, mixed species, and novel interactions.
Complimenting this effort will be the inclusion of foundational investigations into quantum
mechanics, such as entanglement, many-body localization, collective modes, and entropy. To
take advantage of the precision inherent in future quantum devices, these systems will need to
connect to the classical world in such a manner that allows them to sample the signal of interest
while remaining robust to noisy environments. Consequently, studies of how the quantum
system interacts with classical world, and the quantum-to-classical boundary are also of interest.
Investigating how to maximize both the quality and quantity of entanglement within these
systems will be a priority. General issues of quantum coherence, quantum interference,
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entanglement growth, entanglement purity, and non-equilibrium phenomena, as well as
discovering new scientific opportunities are also of interest.
Novel Quantum Metrology
The AMP Program has a general interest in exploring fundamental AMP that may impact future
Army capabilities. This thrust is divided into two main areas: precision metrology beyond the
standard limit and harnessing collective many-body states to improve quantum sensing. The
Novel Quantum Metrology efforts will expand the foundations of quantum measurement into
new areas that seek to exploit entanglement, spin-squeezing, harnessing collective-spin states,
developing back-action avoidance measurements, and other areas that increase fundamental
precision through interactions, including cavities and Rydberg atoms. It is expected that research
in this thrust will complement efforts in the Advanced Quantum Many-body Dynamics thrust
and vice versa. For example, collective many body states could be studied in optical lattices or
quantum gas microscopes and foundational research of entanglement are anticipated to provide
new metrological capabilities in non-ideal environments.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Biochemistry
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0017
TPOC: Stephanie A McElhinny, PhD - stephanie.a.mcelhinny.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4240
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Chemistry;Materials Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Sciences
of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: Biotechnology, Bioengineering, Biomaterials
Description:
This program emphasizes basic research focused on understanding and controlling the activity
and assembly of biomolecules. Scientific advances supported by this program are anticipated to
enable the development of novel systems, materials and processes that enhance Soldier
protection and performance. Overarching goals of the program are to provide the scientific
foundations to expand the chemical diversity accessible by biomolecules and to support
biological activity outside of the cellular environment, including integration of biological
systems with synthetic systems.
The Biomolecular Specificity and Regulation thrust is focused on novel approaches to engineer
the specificity and regulation of biomolecules, either via modulation of natural mechanisms or
via design of non-natural mechanisms. Approaches to expand the chemical diversity of
ligands/substrates that are recognized/accepted by biomolecules and/or the products of
biocatalytic reactions beyond elements and chemical bonds common to natural biological
systems are of particular interest. This includes both individual enzymatic reactions as well as
multi-step biocatalytic pathways. The goal of this thrust is to develop novel engineered
approaches to modulate and control biomolecular activity, with emphasis on expanding the
chemical diversity accessible by biomolecules and achieving biomolecular control in
non-cellular contexts.
The Biomolecular Assembly and Organization thrust is focused on understanding the molecular
interactions and design rules that govern self-assembly of biomolecules into both naturally
occurring biomolecular structures and non-natural human-designed architectures. This thrust
aims to elucidate fundamental understanding of sequence-structure-property relationships in
natural biomolecular assemblies, biomaterials, and biological composites to enable rational
design of biological and hybrid biological/abiological assemblies with tailored properties and
functions. Biomolecular assembly across length scales is of interest, including discrete
multi-protein complexes or nucleic acid structures, as well as hierarchical protein or nucleic acid
assemblies and biological composites. This thrust includes homogeneous assemblies utilizing a
single building block, as well as heterogeneous systems in which a mixture of different
biomolecules and/or non-biological species (e.g., minerals, synthetic polymers) self-assemble.
Of particular interest are approaches to expand the chemical diversity of biomolecular
architectures beyond elements and chemical bonds common to natural biological systems. This
research thrust also includes the design of self-assembled biomolecular or hybrid
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biological/abiological architectures that provide control over the chemical environment and
spatial organization necessary to support complex biomolecular function in non-cellular
contexts, including artificial cells and cell-free systems.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Biogeochemistry
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0005
TPOC: Elizabeth K. King-Doonan, PhD - elizabeth.k.king-doonan.civ@army.mil - (919)
549-4386
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Chemistry;Earth and Environmental Sciences
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Energy
Sciences;Humans in Complex Systems;Military Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: Environment, Chemistry, Fate, Transport, Climate, Arctic
Description:
The Biogeochemistry program seeks to support transformative research to enable unprecedented
detection, prediction, manipulation, and mitigation strategies in complex environmental matrices.
This is an interdisciplinary program that incorporates recent discoveries in chemical, biological,
and physical principles to enhance national security.
Current focus areas for this portfolio include, but are not limited to, the following:
Transport and transformation aims to elucidate and characterize novel biogeochemical
mechanisms that drive (or prevent) the release and/or transformation of chemical and biological
compounds of Army relevance within or across environmental reservoirs. Environmental
reservoirs of interest include the lithosphere (e.g., soils and sediments), biosphere (e.g., plants
and microbiome), hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
Biogeochemistry and the built environment supports research to understand the
biogeochemical interactions that are unique to built and urban environments. The reactions in
these environments are a function of the structure and partitioning of the compounds present, the
chemical and physical properties of the built/artificial materials, and the microenvironments that
form at the natural-built interface. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to)
environmental/biofilm formation on Army-relevant built materials, biological and chemical
transport in subterranean environments, and transport and transformation of chemical and
biological compounds through diverse urban interfaces.
Environmental forensics strives to develop cutting-edge approaches to enable novel techniques
for detection, tracking, source partitioning, and prediction of molecules of interest at
military-relevant scales. Research that leverages recent discoveries in other scientific fields such
as biochemistry, physics, network and data science, and computational modeling are encouraged.
Topics that focus on instrument/sensor development and materials design are not supported.
Biogeochemistry to inform national security characterizes the role of biogeochemistry on
resource competition (e.g., critical resource recovery), environmental security (e.g., permafrost
degradation), and stability (e.g., water availability).
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Biomathematics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0021
TPOC: Virginia B. Pasour, PhD - virginia.b.pasour.civ@army.mil - (919) 602-8348
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Data Sciences and Informatics;Earth and Environmental
Sciences;Mathematics and Statistics;Network Science;Physics;Social Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems
Army Modernization Priorities: Soldier Lethality
Keywords: biomathematics, mathematical biology, theoretical ecology, theoretical
epidemiology, modeling
Description:
The introduction of Biomathematics as a separate area of basic research recognizes the
importance and specialized nature of quantitative methods, specifically mechanistic modeling, in
the biological sciences. Biology involves a large number of entities that interact with each other
and their environment in complex ways, and at multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Understanding how dynamics at different spatial scales come together to form a biological
system and understanding the dynamics of a system at intermediate timescales, as opposed to its
long term, asymptotic behavior, are critically important in biology, more so than in many other
fields.
This complexity makes biomathematics a highly interdisciplinary field that requires unique and
highly specialized mathematical competencies to quantify structure in these relationships. In fact,
progress in mathematical models of biological systems has traditionally been achieved by
making convenient simplifications; major advances in Biomathematics research continue to
require removing these assumptions (for example, stationarity, ergodicity and deterministic
nature) and finding ways to effectively model the essential complexity. Modeling techniques
currently utilized in the field range from agent-based approaches for determining the results of
individual behavior, whether those individuals be molecules, zooplankton, or humans, to
multi-compartmental modeling in physiology, epidemiology and neurobiology, to network
models involved in understanding ecosystem and human social dynamics, as well as
encompassing both deterministic and stochastic approaches. Research in control techniques is
also valuable for its potential application in militarily important areas such as bio warfare and
disease spread. Exciting new opportunities to advance the field are found in high risk attempts to
develop modeling techniques in areas of mathematics, such as algebra and topology, not
traditionally brought to bear on biological problems, advances in Bayesian statistics, a growing
recognition that the diffusion approximation is not necessarily adequate for many systems, and
the availability of large amounts of complex biological data.
The ultimate goal of the Biomathematics Program focuses on adapting existing mathematics and
creating new mathematical techniques to uncover fundamental relationships in biology, spanning
different biological systems as well as multiple spatial and temporal scales. One area of special
interest to the program is Neuromathematics, the mechanistic mathematical modeling of neural
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processes. Recent advances in neuroscience provide important foundations to begin
understanding how the brain works. Combined with experimental data, innovative mathematical
modeling provides an unparalleled opportunity to gain a revolutionary new understanding of
brain physiology, cognition (including sensory processing, attention, decision-making, etc.), and
neurological disease. With this new understanding, improved soldier performance, as well as
treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, and other brain-related
disorders suffered by the warfighter will be able to be achieved more effectively, efficiently, and
ethically than via experimentation alone.
Thrust areas of the Biomathematics Program are as follows:
Fundamental Laws of Biology
The field of physics has long been "'mathematized" so that fundamental principles such as
Newton's Laws are not considered the application of mathematics to physics but physics itself.
The field of biology is far behind physics in this respect; a similar process of mathematization is
a basic and high-risk goal of the ARO Biomathematics Program. The identification and
mathematical formulation of the fundamental principles of biological structure, function, and
development applying across systems and scales will not only revolutionize the field of biology
but will motivate the creation of new mathematics that will contribute in as-yet-unforeseen ways
to biology and the field of mathematics itself. For example, heterogeneity/stochasticity is
ubiquitous in biological systems; is heterogeneity necessary for tipping points that result in
diseased individuals and epidemics and if so, what is its role? More generally, is heterogeneity in
biological systems necessary for their functioning or a problem to be overcome, or is the answer
system/function dependent?
Multiscale Modeling/Inverse Problems
Biological systems function through diversity, with large scale function emerging from the
collective behavior of smaller scale heterogeneous elements. This "'forward" problem includes
creating mechanistic mathematical models at different biological scales and synchronizing their
connections from one level of organization to another, as well as an important sub problem, how
to represent the heterogeneity of individual elements and how much heterogeneity to include in
the model. For example, the currently increasing ability to generate large volumes of molecular
data provides a significant opportunity for biomathematical modelers to develop advanced
analytical procedures to elucidate the fundamental principles by which genes, proteins, cells,
etc., are integrated and function as systems through the use of innovative mathematical and
statistical techniques. The task is complicated by the fact that data collection methods are noisy,
many biological mechanisms are not well understood, and, somewhat ironically, large volumes
of data tend to obscure meaningful relationships. However, traditionally "'pure" mathematical
fields such as differential geometry, algebra and topology, integration of Bayesian statistical
methods with mathematical methods, and the new field of topological data analysis, among
others, show promise in approaching these problems. Solutions to these types of multiscale
problems will elucidate the connection, for example, of stem cells to tissue and organ
development or of disease processes within the human body to the behavior of epidemics.
The "'inverse" problem is just as important as the forward problem. From an understanding of
the overall behavior of a system, is it possible to determine the nature of the individual elements?
For example, from knowledge of cell signaling, can we go back and retrieve information about
the cell? Although inverse problems have been studied for a long time, significant progress has
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been elusive. This thrust area involves innovations in spatial and/or temporal modeling of
multi-level biological elements with the goal of achieving a deeper understanding of biological
systems and eventually connecting top-down (data-driven) and bottom-up (model-based)
approaches.
Hybrid Modeling
While the Biomathematics Program has primarily been concerned with developing and using
mathematical modeling techniques to understand the mechanisms behind biological system
function, future predictions about a system have typically been achieved through statistical
modeling using available data; these methods are limited by their ability to make trustworthy
predictions only under the same situations under which the data was collected. This thrust seeks
to develop new methods that will take advantage of the strengths of both types of modeling, still
allowing the hypothesis and testing of biological mechanism while also allowing prediction
under an expanded set of conditions. These new methods will facilitate the utilization of the
increasingly available data in many areas of biology to expand our ability to understand and
predict biological systems and may be furthered through the use and development of existing and
new data analysis techniques. For example, can we develop a mechanistic model to understand a
cell's ability to repair damage to its DNA by incorporating Machine Learning?
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Bionic Electronics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0069
TPOC: Albena NMN Ivanisevic, PhD - albena.ivanisevic.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4314
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Chemistry;Electronics;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: bioelectronics, biotronics, bionic
Description:
This research area focuses on the discovery and manipulation of phenomena and the creation of
new processes where electronics and biology overlap at the cellular / sub-cellular level. This
length scale is where the amplitudes of many types of energies (e.g., electrostatic, mechanical,
and chemical terms) converge, and correspondingly, where electronics can have fundamental
biological impacts and where leveraging electronics capabilities at the nanoscale can yield
unique new understanding of the cellular and intracellular processes.
New electronic structures and materials are now able to focus localized static electric and
magnetic fields and electromagnetic fields at the nanoscale, which presents the opportunity to
selectively address and manipulate the organelles and membranes making up the structure of the
cell. Moreover, cell constituents can have a frequency dependent response to mechanical and
electromagnetic excitation, resulting in unique electronically enabled and controlled biological
experiments. Molecular and subcellular events at the biological interfaces or surfaces are key to
downstream biological dynamics. The stimulation or manipulation of these events by electronic
means provides the opportunity for unique control and experimentation that are orthogonal to
existing biochemical or genetic approaches. Ion flow, which is fundamental to inter- and
intra-cellular signaling and process control, is susceptible to electromagnetic influence and
produces electromagnetic signatures of cellular processes. The dynamics of charged and
polarized cellular components also produces minute displacement currents, and can produce very
large field distributions in a confined nanoscale space (e.g., within a protein scaffold or across a
lipid bilayer); both of which are subject to electromagnetic probing and analysis. The different
geometries of organelles within a cell result in different electromagnetic signatures and
sensitivities which can be leveraged for selective control of cellular processes. Proteins play a
role in almost every cellular process. As extremely large and complex molecules, they should
have electromagnetic and mechanical responses that can be exploited for control. The skeletal
protein assemblies of the cell, in particular, may offer a highway for the introduction of electrical
currents or mechanical vibrations. Bio-chemical or genetic alteration of the interface of the cell
and its components can introduce new electromagnetic properties, for example a new capability
for photosynthesis in bacteria or new electromagnetic responses. Cellular engineering of
membranes, cellular organelles, and proteins by the introduction of nano-particles and
bio-molecules can introduce new sensitivities and new functionality. Opto-genetics is a
well-established procedure for interrogating cells. Early attempts at "'magneto-genetics" have
been controversial, however "'electro- or RF-genetics" may offer new opportunities. There may
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also be inherently non-trivial quantum mechanical mechanisms linked to biological behaviors,
such as navigation. Inherently quantum phenomena such as the tunneling of electrons and
protons play a critical role in many intracellular processes and can be modulated or manipulated
with nanoscale electric fields. This research area seeks understanding and control of inter- and
intra-cellular phenomena at the micro- and nano-scale. The program facilitates highly innovative
extensions of techniques based on the unique capabilities of electronics as well as totally new,
complementary methods, addressing the internal function and electrical processes within a living
entity. Biotronics seeks to accomplish this with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution
and with minimal disruption of "'normal" living cell function. The basic science questions being
addressed by the Biotronics program are geared to achieve a natural evolution into bionic
electronics. Through this evolution the goal is to us
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Complex Dynamics and Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0018
TPOC: Dean R Culver, PhD - dean.r.culver.civ@army.mil - (412) 680-2591
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Data Sciences and Informatics;Materials Science;Mathematics and
Statistics;Mechanics;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Energy
Sciences;Humans in Complex Systems;Mechanical Sciences;Military Information
Sciences;Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum
Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials;Terminal Effects;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Air and Missile Defense;Future Vertical
Lift;Network/C3I;Next Generation Combat Vehicle;Synthetic Training Environment
Keywords: nonlinear dynamics; mechanics; high dimensional; morphological computation;
chaos; embodied intelligence; hierarchical mechanics; heterogeneous systems; stochastic control;
stochastic learning
Description:
The Complex Dynamics and Systems program emphasizes fundamental understanding of the
dynamics, both physical and information theoretic, of nonlinear and nonconservative systems as
well as innovative scientific approaches for engineering and exploiting nonlinear and
nonequilibrium physical and information theoretic dynamics for a broad range of future
capabilities (e.g. novel energetic and entropic transduction, agile motion, and force generation).
The program seeks to understand how information, momentum, energy, and entropy flows and
transforms in nonlinear systems due to interactions with the system's surroundings or within the
system itself. Research efforts are not solely limited to descriptive understanding, however.
Central to the mission of the program is the additional emphasis on pushing beyond descriptive
understanding toward engineering and exploiting time-varying interactions, fluctuations, inertial
dynamics, phase space structures, modal interplay, practical control opportunities, and other
consequences of nonlinearity in novel ways to enable the generation of useful work, agile
motion, and engineered energetic and entropic transformations. Further information on the
current scientific thrust areas are detailed in the paragraphs that follow.
High-Dimensional Nonlinear Dynamics
Classical dynamics has produced limited fundamental insight and theoretical methods
concerning strongly nonlinear, high-dimensional, dissipative, and time-varying systems. For over
a century, qualitative geometric approaches in low-dimensions have dominated research in
dynamics. These approaches of reduced-order-modeling of high-dimensional dynamics are often
premised on empirical and statistical model fitting and are incapable of capturing the effects of
slowly growing instabilities and memory. The program seeks to develop novel theoretical and
experimental methods for understanding the physical and information dynamics of driven
dissipative continuous systems. It also seeks novel reduced-order-modeling methodologies
capable of retaining time-dependent and global nonlinearities. Novel research pertaining to the
analysis and fundamental physics of time-varying nonlinear systems and transient dynamics is a
high-priority.
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Embodied and Distributed Control, Sensing, and Actuation
This thrust develops deeper understanding, through supporting theory and experiment, of the role
of embodiment and dynamics on a physical system's capability to process information and
transform energy. Proposals emphasizing the mechanics and control of soft, continuous bodies
are encouraged along with novel experimental paradigms leveraging programmable printed
matter. Generally, this thrust strongly leverages advances in, and approaches from, sensory
biomechanics, neuromechanics, underactuated systems theory, and mechanical locomotion
dynamics to understand the motion of both articulated and continuum dynamical systems
operating in highly-dynamic environments. The scientific principles sought, however, are not
limited to biological movement and manipulation. Proposals are strongly encouraged that view
morphology in an abstract sense. For example, understanding morphology as a system's
symmetry, its confinement (e.g. chemical reactions), or its coupling topology.
Statistical Physics of Control and Learning
The program seeks to lay the foundations for an algorithmic theory of control and learning that
goes significantly beyond the state of-the-art in model predictive control and integrates novel
learning methodologies that are not mere variations of artificial neural networks and deep
learning. Additional goals of this program is to develop an experimentally tested theoretical
framework for controlling and creating new types of critical dynamics, phase transitions, and
universality classes by bringing together theory and physical principles in statistical dynamics
with control and dynamical systems theory (controlling statistical dynamics).
Topics of interest relating to this include: nonlinear control of distributions with non-Gaussian
uncertainty; non-Gaussian uncertainty representations; understanding relationships between
work absorption and dynamics in the presence of fluctuations leading to emergent prediction and
emergent centralization; steering multi-critical interacting dynamical systems toward desired
universal scaling behaviors; externally controlling the strength of stochastic fluctuations and
intrinsic noise in systems that are driven far from thermal equilibrium and display generic scale
invariance; and selectively targeting and stabilizing specific self-generated spatio-temporal
patterns in strongly fluctuating reaction-diffusion systems. Stochastic control at the microscale to
enable novel manipulation of the dynamics of synthetic and natural biomolecular machines is
also of interest.
Mechanics of Hierarchical and Heterogeneous Systems
Recent experimental, theoretical, and computational advancements have made it possible to
challenge macroscopic, continuum representations of inherently hierarchical systems like never
before - acknowledging that desirable macroscopic characteristics arise as a function of
architecture and interaction between scales cascading all the way down to the nanoscopic
environments within. This thrust in part seeks to develop reduced order and component-level
models of nano-scale mechanisms in order to identify principles of physical interaction in these
intricate (and in most cases only stochastically or empirically understood) systems. In addition to
understanding the capabilities of component and mechanism design at the nano-scale, the
program encourages the characterization of energy and information passing from one "'scale" to
the next, as well as sensing and control strategies that tap into hierarchical and complex systems
at different scales and locations.
Topics of interest include, but are certainly not limited to: magnetohydrodynamics; the control of
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plasmas; frontiers of dynamical systems theory exploring turbulence; modeling biochemical
mechanisms in order to identify design principles that exceed their capabilities; locomotion at
micro- and sub-micro-scales. The program highly encourages studies that approach these
problems from the perspective of hierarchical structures as assemblies of known base units rather
than continua whose emergent properties can be modeled by approximating the complexity of
the structure within.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Computational Mathematics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0034
TPOC: Radhakrishnan Balu, PhD - radhakrishnan.balu.civ@army.mil - (301) 394-4302
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Mathematics and Statistics;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Mechanical Sciences;Network, Cyber, and
Computational Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Assured PNT;Network/C3I
Keywords: Mathematical modeling, Scientific computation, Fractional order methods,
Mathematics of QIS, Atmospheric physics, Embedded simulation
Description:
The research strategy of this program is to focus on the following opportunities for crucial
discoveries: innovative methodologies for solving currently intractable problems that take
advantage of symmetry, conservation, and recurrence, that can adapt to both the evolving
solution and to the evolving run-time resource allocation of modern computer architectures;
novel algorithms that accommodate different mathematical models at different scales, interacting
subsystems, and coupling between models and scales; methods that incorporate nonlocality
through integral operators with advantageous representations. Research in this area will
ultimately lead to the development of new mathematical principles that enable faster and higher
fidelity computational methods, and new methods that will enable modeling of future problems.
Scientific computation is an essential component of scientific inquiry, complementing theory and
experiment, and is also an essential element of engineering in both design and in failure autopsy.
Simulations in support of inquiry, design, or autopsy often require expert knowledge in order to
select methods that are compatible with the assumptions of the scenario at hand, require
considerable skill to properly set up, require considerable time, memory, and storage on large
scale parallel/distributed/heterogeneous systems to compute, and require considerable skill and
effort to distill useful information from the massive data sets which result. Expert knowledge is
also required to quantitatively estimate solution accuracy and to estimate the time and effort
required to achieve a desired accuracy. Data has become ubiquitous and is potentially very
valuable in increasing solution accuracy and/or decreasing the effort required to solve, but
mathematically sound methods for incorporating data into accurate simulations are incomplete.
Simulations are not always timely, with results often not being available until after they are
needed, for example in calculating failure of New Orleans levees during Katrina and in revising
those estimates based on real time surge data.
The emphasis in the Computational Mathematics program is on mathematical research directed
towards developing capabilities in these and related areas. For problems that are not
time-limited, research areas of interest include but are not limited to the following:
Advances in Numerical Analysis. Novel methodologies are sought for solving currently
intractable problems. New ways of taking advantage of symmetry, conservation, and recurrence
are of interest, as are new ways of creating sparsity and new computational structures which can
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adapt to both the evolving solution and to the evolving run-time resource allocation of modern
computer architectures. Rigorous analysis is sought for each in order to enable error bounds,
error distribution, and error control.
Mathematics for Quantum Information Systems (QIS). New mathematical constructs and
understanding are sought in order to provide useful mathematical tools and language to others
working to advance QIS. QIS goes far beyond quantum computing (QC), with focus also on
quantum networking, quantum sensing, topological quantum computing, and topological phases
of matter. Advances are sought in factors of von Neumann algebras, type II and type III, that are
yet to be fully explored even after a century of studies from a QIS point of view. Topological
quantum information processing going beyond anyons and in 3+1 spacetime dimensions are of
interest. Exploration of noncommutative geometry from QIS point of view are important in
pushing the field. Advances are sought in the language for quantum field theory as a basis for
QIS and for the associated mathematical structures that are involved. New bases for QIS-based
chemical and biological systems are just beginning; language and representations for these
more-complex and messier-than-physics-based-systems are sought in order to enable new
mathematical models. The QIS of metamaterials-based systems is very different from other
systems, and new mathematics is sought that is capable of representing the unification of these
disparate QIS themes.
Fractional Order Methods. As an alternative to high order methods and other less-local
operators, fractional operators are another nonlocal operator that have proven to work well in
modeling and have the advantage of not enforcing dubious assumptions of smoothness,
especially at discontinuities and interfaces. However, the nonlocality of fractional operators also
typically introduces a significant increase in computational load. Advances in novel efficient
computational methods for these operators are of interest. Army systems often operate under
rapidly-changing unpredictable and adverse conditions. It is desirable for models to be
computationally simulated and fast enough to drive decision making, exercise control, and to
help avoid disaster. Such simulations need to be created, run, and interpreted in better than real
time. Research directed towards making this goal achievable is of interest, such as: Fast Methods
for Atmospheric Physics. Modeling and prediction of local and mid-range atmospheric physics
are a key part of the domain of operations. New exploratory efforts in fast algorithms for
atmospheric physics have been identified as an area where new computational methods could
make an important impact on problems of current and future Army interest. The emphasis of
these efforts is on mathematical methods which have some promise of wider application rather
than methods limited only to specific application areas.
Reduced Order Models. Full scale simulations are often not realizable in real time. In order to
investigate the behavior of systems under a variety of possible scenarios, many runs are required.
Reduced order models are one way to enable this. Possible methods to create these models
include adaptive simplification methods based on singular value decompositions and reduced
order numerics. To be useful, all such models should be equipped with reliable estimates of
accuracy.
Problem Solving Environments. To enable rapid decision making that is driven by simulation,
it is necessary to set up simulations very quickly and obtain results in an understandable format.
Matlab is one current tool for such a problem solving environment. What are other approaches?
Embedded Simulation. As algorithms become more efficient and computational devices shrink,
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it will become increasingly possible to use real-time simulation to drive control systems. New
methods which address this goal are welcome, especially those which permit user- controlled
and/or adaptively-controlled tradeoffs between speed and accuracy. Decision Making. One valid
criticism of numerical simulation is that it takes so long to set up, run, and post-process the
results that they cannot be used in a timely manner to guide decision making. Mathematical ideas
that help address this problem are of interest.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Dynamical Influences on Social Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0102
TPOC: Gregory Ruark, PhD - gregory.a.ruark.civ@army.mil - (240) 890-3591
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Mathematics and Statistics;Social Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Humans in Complex Systems;Military
Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
The overall goal of this program is to enhance fundamental understanding of the interdependent,
reciprocal, and complex relationships across social systems accounting for environmental factors
needed to enhance future warfighters' performance across operational contexts. Performance is
traditionally bounded to a task where the ability to successfully execute actions and achieve
mission objectives is a result of training and leadership. This narrow focus on the task, however,
does not account for the critical factors in everyday interactions that impacts performance: the
social system that shapes the warfighters through shared norms, values, and expectations; lived
experiences that support inter- and intra-dependence; and exogenous variables that directly and
indirectly impact quality of life. A warfighter's social systems exists among other systems -
whether embedded within larger systems, parallel to, in competition to, and/or in opposition of -
that see reciprocal influence forces exchanged between them. These social systems transcend the
task or operational environment to include garrison, schools, deployments, and other institutions
to include those outside the military that co-exist with social systems, and in combination impact
the warfighters' capabilities development. Therefore, it is important to take a holistic approach
that accounts for the human, social, and environmental elements that interact and over time
shape development to understand and predict performance levels and variability within and
across missions.
The Dynamical Influences on Social Systems program supports fundamental research to
understand how to construct, maintain, and, as necessary, reconstruct social systems within and
across environments that promote the desired social behaviors necessary for effective
performance. Successful projects will develop new innovative theoretical, methodological, and
modeling approaches to understand scalable human behaviors within complex systems and
across environments. This program has three focal areas of interest. First, create the scientific
capability to identify and assess the influence of meaningful contextual factors that consciously
and unconsciously impact ongoing affective, cognitive, and behavioral processes within and
across individuals and collectives. Second, to enable the integration of the science of time (i.e.,
the experience and perception of time) to understand cascading effects beyond first and second
order effects on social systems. Third, to understand the impact of advanced technologies that
more closely mimic human characteristics and capabilities on the evolution of various social
systems.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Earth Materials and Processes
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0007
TPOC: Joshua Boschelli, PhD - joshua.d.boschelli.civ@army.mil
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Data Sciences and Informatics;Earth and Environmental Sciences;Mechanics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Humans in
Complex Systems;Mechanical Sciences;Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber, and
Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: geoscience, earth science, environmental, civil engineering, urban, built
environment, atmosphere, terrain
Description:
The Earth Materials and Processes program seeks to enable maneuver, communication and
situational awareness in all terrain through understanding and prediction of the physical and
mechanical properties and behaviors of rocks, soil, and man-made earth surfaces and their
interactions with their surrounding environment. The Program is especially interested in
interdisciplinary efforts that could be eligible for cross-discipline support. Topics for
consideration include but are not limited to the following:
Investigations on the transmission of information (e.g., seismic, acoustic, or radio frequency) in
challenging environments: Of special interest are urban, high-latitude, high-altitude, and forested
environments. Access to new field areas and high-resolution data collection and modeling
provide opportunities to differentiate sources and characterize terrain.
Research on fundamental processes within the built environment: How natural and artificial
surfaces (e.g., soil, sand, or concrete) store and conduct energy depending on their spatial
relationships, inherent material properties, and imparted features such as moisture storage and
evapotranspiration. Detailed characterization of these environments will enable prediction of
geophysical and environmental processes in diverse urban settings. Investigations that support
the development, integrity, and resilience of cyber-physical systems as related to environmental
sensing are of special interest.
Science to advance environmental security: These efforts must focus on the fundamental
knowledge that will inform new approaches and tools to predict and mitigate risks posed by
changing environments and extreme weather events and to ensure access to natural resources,
including strategic minerals. Note that (1) the Program focus is on the science required to enable
development of tools and products, not the development of the tools and products themselves,
and (2) proposals must target specific Army-relevant challenges rather than general topics (e.g.,
extreme weather, climate change, natural hazards, as broadly defined). A discussion with the
program manager is encouraged to determine if a topic sufficiently addresses an Army challenge.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Electrochemistry
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0025
TPOC: Matthew W. Glasscott, PhD - matthew.w.glasscott.civ@army.mil - (484) 883-5095
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Chemistry;Materials Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Energy Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: Electrochmistry, Redox, Chemistry, Transport, Electroactive
Description:
This Program supports fundamental electrochemical studies to understand and control the
physics and chemistry that govern electrochemical redox reactions and transport of species, and
how these are coupled with electrode, catalysis, electrolyte, and interface. Research includes
ionic conduction in electrolytes, electrocatalysis, interfacial electron transfer, transport through
coatings, surface films and polymer electrolytes, activation of carbon-hydrogen and
carbon-carbon bonds, and spectroscopic techniques that selectively probe electrode surfaces and
electrode-electrolyte interfaces. Novel electrochemical synthesis, investigations into the effect of
microenvironment on chemical reactivity, quantitative models of electrochemical systems, and
electrochemistry using excited electrons are also of interest. This Program is divided into two
research thrusts, although other areas of electrochemical research may be considered:
Reduction-oxidation (Redox) Chemistry and Electrocatalysis
The Redox Chemistry and Electrocatalysis thrust supports research to understand how material
and morphology affect electron transfer and electrocatalysis, to tailor electrodes and
electrocatalysts at a molecular level, and to discover new spectroscopic and electrochemical
techniques for probing surfaces and selected species on those surfaces.
Transport of Electroactive Species
The Transport of Electroactive Species thrust supports research to uncover the mechanisms of
transport through heterogeneous, charged environments such as polymers and electrolytes, to
design tailorable electrolytes based on new polymers and ionic liquids, and to explore new
methodologies and computational approaches to study the selective transport of species in
charged environments.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Electronic Sensing
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0027
TPOC: Tania M Paskova, PhD - tania.m.paskova.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4334
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Electronics;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Future Vertical Lift;Long Range Precision Fires;Soldier
Lethality
Keywords:
Description:
This program focuses on basic research investigations leading to new electronic sensing science
that enable 100% situational awareness to include day/night, all weather, non-line-of-sight and
through natural and man-made obstructions for sensing of personnel, weapons, chemical and
biological threats. The Electronic Sensing (ES) program is currently emphasizing research
focused on materials development, including experimental, theoretical and computational studies
that design, create, and understand novel materials functionalities and device operation concepts
through advances in the fields of electronics, photonics, photoacoustics and piezo-phototronics to
enhance or enable new detection capabilities. This program is divided into two thrusts: (i) Novel
materials platforms and (ii) Advanced sensing concepts.
Novel materials platforms
This thrust seeks to push beyond the state of the art in conventional material systems, seeking
novel advanced material platforms with functionality beyond the established limits on
sensitivity. Research of interest is targeting fundamental understanding of nontraditional
materials and nanostructures of high quality enabling new phenomena and unique properties that
could lead to higher detectivity and ultrafast response at or near ambient temperature. This thrust
also supports research aimed at exploring the properties and capabilities of artificially engineered
materials platforms including, but not limited to: metamaterials; 2D vertical or lateral stacking;
azimuthally twisted mono/bilayers or chiral twisted nanowires, which can enable exotic
phenomena such as strong electron correlations, superconductivity or novel optically excited
quasiparticles such as moire excitons or trions, leading to enhanced energy transport toward the
quantum limits in efficiency. Engineered 3D photonic and artificially shaped 2D crystals into
increasingly complex 3D structures, benefitting from expansion into the additional dimension
that could allow enhanced interaction with light or enhanced chemical reactivity are also of
interest. Advances in these areas require deep understanding of mechanisms of interface
formation, new phenomena and properties arising from the unique integration of same or
dissimilar materials, calling for innovative theoretical and experimental methods.
Advanced sensing concepts
This thrust emphasizes research in design and development of tailored device architectures based
on different sensing concepts to achieve performance metrics surpassing current capabilities to
detect, recognize and identify targets and threats. The goal of this thrust is to develop new
engineered approaches to enhance the stimulus-response characteristics and improve the
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signal-to-noise ratio and conversion (transduction) of the signal to another form with higher
efficiency, while reducing all components of the noise (thermal, optical, mechanical, and
electrical) and thus enabling higher sensitivity, reliability and resilience to various environmental
factors. Of particular interest are research efforts exploring innovative hybrid architectures in
pursue of novel or multi-functionality, benefiting from various combinations of optical and
piezoelectric electromechanical resonances, nonlinear plasmonics, selective gating or field
modulation and tailored band structure when targeting different sensing modalities, such as
electro-optic, thermal, acoustic, chemical or biosensing. Other modalities and mixed concepts
that meet the Army needs for highly sensitive, fast, tunable, flexible or multimodal sensors are
also welcome. Advances in these areas require theory-guided experimental research paving the
way towards development of new generation detectors with enhanced multi-band, broad-band or
hyperspectral capabilities.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Fluid Dynamics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0030
TPOC: Jack R. Edwards - jack.r.edwards36.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4235
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Mechanics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Future Vertical Lift;Long Range Precision Fires
Keywords: fluid, turbulence, dynamic stall,
Description:
Fluid dynamics plays a critical role in many Army operational capabilities. Accurate and
efficient prediction of the flow physics required for the design of future advanced capabilities
and improvements to the performance of existing systems is challenged by the nonlinear and
high-dimensional character of the governing equations. In addition, Army relevant platforms are
often dominated by flows with high degrees of unsteadiness, turbulence, and compressibility and
are characterized by multiple and widely separated spatio-temporal scales and geometrical
complexity of solid or flexible boundaries. The program seeks to support basic research
investigations of fundamental and novel flow physics underpinning future concepts and
capabilities for Army platforms.
The program seeks basic research proposals in the following three thrust areas:
Dynamics of Unsteady and Separated Flows
Efforts in this research area require novel and aggressive strategies for examination of the
interplay between disparate spatio-temporal scales, the inclusion of physically significant sources
of three dimensionality, and the characterization of the role of flow instabilities and nonlinear
interactions across a range of Mach and Reynolds numbers appropriate to Army aerial vehicle
and weapons systems. In all cases, the flow is characterized by a high degree of unsteadiness.
Criteria for identifying the signatures of unsteady separation and/or incipient separation are of
particular interest, as are diagnostics capable of real time measurements of such
signatures. Historical management of complexity has often resulted in scientific approaches that
lead to the elimination of potentially critical flow physics. Research efforts capable of gaining
deep understanding of highly complicated flows are likely to allow these critical physics to be
exploited.
Nonlinear Flow Interactions and Turbulence
Many Army relevant flows are governed by strong nonlinearities and are fundamentally
turbulent in nature. Historically, many analysis tools developed for linear dynamics have been
applied to gain understanding of flow behaviors. The practical usefulness of such techniques has
saturated; the ability to gain global understanding of the evolution of flows requires the
development and use of approaches that can deal directly with inherent nonlinearities. Operator
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theoretic methods are making great strides in tackling the perennial difficulties associated with
the Navier-Stokes equations. Our understanding of turbulent flows is also benefitting from new
approaches based in dynamical systems theory to build frameworks beyond the notions based on
Reynolds averaging and stochastic dynamics. By leveraging the existence of underlying
deterministic structures, significant advances in the ability to design systems capable of not just
dealing with turbulence but exploiting its dynamics may become possible. Modeling turbulent
flows near walls at high Reynolds is a continuing challenge for practical applications of
scale-resolving simulation methods. Creative numerical and theoretical constructs may benefit
from novel non-intrusive diagnostics that can accurately measure turbulent flow properties near
walls.
Dispersed-phase Interactions with Aerodynamic Surfaces
Understanding the dynamics of the interaction of dispersed phases (sand, dust, rain, frozen
precipitation) with aerodynamic surfaces is necessary to mitigate potential performance
degradations and to expand the range of applicability of Army aerospace systems. Accurate
prediction and description of dispersed-phase interactions within aerodynamic boundary layers,
with solid surfaces, and with other dispersed-phase components is needed for a better
understanding of the underlying flow physics. Advances in modeling and simulation strategies
capable of predicting near-surface dispersed phase and dense-phase effects are needed, as are
quantitative diagnostics capable of interrogating local flow phenomena that impact overall
aerodynamic performance.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Genetics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0035
TPOC: Micheline K. Strand, PhD - micheline.k.strand.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4343
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Soldier Lethality
Keywords: genetics, genetic variation, DNA barcoding, mitochondria, oxidative stress
Description:
The Genetics program supports fundamental basic research in genetics, molecular biology,
genomics, epigenetics, and systems biology in areas that are anticipated to enable improved
cognitive and physical performance capabilities, increase survivability, and enable new Army
capabilities in areas such as biomaterials, sensing and intelligence. This program emphasizes
innovative high-risk fundamental research in areas such as identification and characterization of
genetic variation, gene function, gene regulation, genetic interactions, gene pathways, gene
expression patterns, epigenetics, mitochondrial regulation and biogenesis, and nuclear and
mitochondrial DNA stability and instability. More specifically the Genetics program is currently
focused on the following questions: Can we advance our understanding of the factors that affect
mitochondrial integrity and oxidative stress? Can we further our understanding, characterization
and exploitation of genetic variation within and between species? Can we fully identify,
characterize and understand the relationships with and the effects of prokaryotes and fungi on
larger eukaryotes, including in eukaryotic organs traditionally considered to be sterile? How can
we exploit genetic pathways and genetic variation to protect soldiers and develop new Army
capabilities?
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Information Assurance
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0010
TPOC: Paul L Yu - paul.l.yu.civ@army.mil - (240) 890-3589
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Network/C3I
Keywords: cyber defense, resiliency and robustness, trusted computing and communication,
wireless security
Description:
Information Assurance
The Information Assurance program establishes the scientific mathematical and information
processing foundations for achieving information and decision dominance under threat
conditions. Information provided to warfighters must be authentic, accurate, secure, reliable, and
timely. The research program seeks the development of foundational science to assure
information flows in autonomous cyber systems, protect their interactions with capable
adversaries, and understand how to apply and account for deception. Central to program efforts
is the resilience of complex systems in highly dynamic and congested environments that are
contested by capable adversaries.
Models and Metrics for Next Generation Systems
The program seeks foundational science to measure a complex system and provide
trustworthiness and robustness guarantees. Assurance principles and metrics are needed to help
define, develop, and evaluate future resilient systems and networks that can, with measurable
confidence, survive and recover from sophisticated attacks and intrusions. An enduring challenge
is the proactive discovery of exploits and vulnerabilities in cyber-physical systems, neural
networks, and other complex systems. Ideally, the subsequent mitigation process improves
resilience against future attacks. Deep understanding and accurate modeling of attacker-defender
interactions will also be important to improve future system development. In addition, some
areas of interest for improving warfighter performance include the development of
human-centric security and usability metrics, computational models for usable security in
stressful situations, and adaptive security protocols according to perceived threats.
Trusted Learning for Cyber Autonomy
Future Army autonomous systems, especially cyber-physical systems working alongside
soldiers, are subject to adversarial attacks during operations such as fault injection. While current
testing and verification techniques help assure system integrity prior to deployment, few of them
can help mitigate runtime risk or achieve automatic recovery after a compromise. Robustness
certification or domain adaptation at both the data processing layer and the information/decision
layer may lead to better mission sustainment and resiliency against adversarial manipulation and
exploits. Also lacking is the ability to adapt to changing operational environments, mission
requirements, and adversarial conditions. New research is sought to establish fundamental
principles for cyber autonomous system adaptation, including trusted cyber-domain learning,
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decision making, introspection, self-healing, and adaptation. Assurance of the autonomous
response for safety and correctness is critical for defense systems to maintain mission assurance.
Cyber Deception
Cyber deception is a proactive technique to degrade the adversary's effectiveness by
manipulating its cognitive state and decision process. Scientific understanding is required to
establish effective models for understanding and tracking the adversary's tactics, techniques, and
procedures (TTP) and quantify the effectiveness of deceptive maneuvers in steering the
adversary's decision processes. Deceptive cyber artifacts have been used to engage adversaries
but the dynamics between attackers and defenders, especially mental interactions, are not well
understood. Advanced methods are sought to understand adversaries through neutralized
engagements to inform effective deception schemes. Capable adversaries will also leverage
deceptive techniques in engaging with Army networks; it is critical to model deceptive
adversaries that attempt to mask their TTP, evade detection, and launch sophisticated attacks.
Trustworthy Tactical Communication
The program seeks direct guidance in the design of theory, protocols, and techniques that assure
delivery of trustworthy information over tactical wireless systems. Novel ideas in fundamental
research areas, such as information-theoretic security and game theory, may yield new
paradigms for physical layer security (ranging from confidentiality to authentication to
trustworthiness), fundamental bounds in trust management and data integrity in distributed
systems, and assured information delivery and dissemination in tactical environments. The
corresponding constructions stemming from such investigations represent a significant avenue
for improving trustworthiness of future tactical wireless communications.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Information Processing and Fusion
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0008
TPOC: John S. Hyatt, PhD - john.s.hyatt11.civ@army.mil - (240) 309-8380
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Mathematics and Statistics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
With ubiquitous data acquisition capabilities, effective data and information processing is of
critical importance to defense missions. The Information Processing and Fusion program is
concerned with the creation of innovative theories and algorithms for extracting actionable
intelligence from diverse, distributed multimodal data to support Army operations.
Foundations of Image and Multimodal Data Analysis
Innovative research is sought concerning: (1) novel representations of multimodal data to enable
the understanding of multimodal sensor data and contextual information, including nonstandard
data types beyond image and video; (2) detection, localization, and recognition of objects and
locations from image data with particular emphasis on provable performance guarantees; (3)
detection of events, actions, and activities to extract activity-based intelligence, especially when
no extensive training data is available; and (4) integrated approaches that enable semantic
descriptions of objects and events including relations. Learning and adaptation should enable the
representation at both low and high levels, where inputs from actual users of the systems are
used to improve the performance of the algorithms and the fidelity of models at all levels of the
modeling hierarchy. Of high interest are methods to exploit the structure of the data, capture its
intrinsic dimensionality, and extract information content of data, and which go beyond
correlative modeling to incorporate causality, symbolic reasoning, and physics. The development
of an "'information/complexity theory" and a "'learning theory" specific for remote sensing,
imaging data, and decision tasks is highly desirable.
Data and Information Fusion
Multimodal data acquisition systems are increasingly prevalent with disparate sensors and other
information sources, ranging in design from a finite number of locally grouped sensors to a very
large, geographically dispersed sensor network. This thrust seeks advanced mathematical
theories and approaches for integrating multimodal data and contextual information to provide
actionable intelligence. Of particular interest are systematic and unifying approaches for data and
information fusion from diverse sources with heterogeneous fidelities and timescales, varying
degrees of overlap, and differing levels of uncertainty. Scalable methods are needed for
efficiently handling vast amounts of data, as are methods for preserving data provenance and
identifying the key raw data used to generate fused representations or make predictions. Fusion
in networked environments addressing issues such as adaptive, distributed, and cooperative
fusion is emphasized. Theories and principles for performance analysis and guarantees at all
fusion levels to support robust, uncertainty-aware data and information fusion are important to
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ensure successful military operations.
Active and Collaborative Sensing
Modern sensing systems typically include multiple networked sensors with communication
capabilities where the whole network can be thought of as a meta-sensor that can be controlled,
in addition to each individual node having some controllable degrees of freedom such as
mobility for unmanned aerial/ground systems, pan-tilt-zoom for infrastructure sensors, or
waveform for agile radar. Depending on the task or query, it is desirable for the system to control
the data acquisition process to acquire the "'most informative data" for the specific task or query,
to minimize uncertainty, or to identify the type and deployment scheme of additional sensors
required. Consequently, of particular interest are methods that address the integration of
mobility, sensor-selection, modality selection, and active observation for real-time assessment
and improvements of sensing performance. Another research area of interest is
performance-driven active data collection, where a query is given to the system together with a
desired performance bound. Where the confidence in answering the query is insufficient, the
system should actively interrogate or control sensors to achieve the desired confidence. Such an
active learning and information-driven sensor control should include the user in the feedback
loop.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Knowledge Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0033
TPOC: Robert St Amant, PhD - robert.a.stamant2.civ@army.mil - (410) 306-0073
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Economics;Mathematics and
Statistics;Network Science;Social Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Network/C3I;Next Generation Combat Vehicle;Synthetic
Training Environment
Keywords: Game Theory; Natural Language Processing; Decision Making; AI as software;
Problem Solving
Description:
The overall objective of the Knowledge Systems program is to augment human decision makers
(both commanders and Soldiers) with enhanced-embedded battlefield intelligence that will
provide them with the necessary situational awareness, reconnaissance, and decision making
tools to decisively defeat any future adversarial threats. While software agents will likely be the
decision aide, it turns out robots also need planning and decision tools and need to be able to
understand their human handlers/ colleagues. Given these objectives, it becomes necessary to
understand (a) fundamentals of what intelligence means in the context of autonomous systems
and how to build intelligent systems especially as it relates to interaction amongst a network of
humans and machines, and (b) foundational algorithmic issues in representation and reasoning
about networks inherent in societies and nature.
Information Networks
In order to model network effects it is necessary to algorithmically represent large networks and
reason about them. Unfortunately, information about networks is seldom complete - data
available might be missing crucial pieces of information, might have contradictory pieces of
information, or could be approximate (with associated notions of uncertainty). Representing and
reasoning about these networks requires advances in knowledge representation, graph and data
mining, natural language processing, algorithmic graph theory, machine learning, and
uncertainty quantification and reasoning. Examples include the emerging area of Graphons
which provide new tools for generating and reasoning about graphs that occur in practice
(satisfying power law distributions), but also provide new tools for Machine Learning. In
particular, a major goal of this thrust are tools and techniques that allow data driven approaches
to capturing latent relationships with powers to both explain and predict. Advances in this thrust
would not only lead to improved autonomous systems and algorithms, but also
enhanced-embedded battlefield intelligence with tools for creating necessary situational
awareness, reconnaissance, and decision making. Finally, it should be noted that algorithmic
notions of approximations, tight performance bounds, probabilistic guarantees, etc., would be
major concerns of the solution space.
Adversarial Reasoning
Development of appropriate mathematical tools to model and reason about societies and cultures,
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that brings together tools from Game Theory, Social Sciences and Knowledge Representation.
Research of interest includes, but is not limited to, Game Theory for security applications while
accounting for bounded rationality, development of Game Theory based on data regarding
cultural and adversarial groups, and Behavioral Game Theory that can explain intelligence in
groups and societies. In particular, the role of human biases in decision making and game theory
is of importance to this thrust of the program.
Natural Language Processing and Affective Computing
Inference algorithms work incredibly well when data is in a structured format. However, most
reports, email, and conversations are written out as text with information embedded in them.
This thrust seeks advances in purposeful Natural Language Processing at scale that can account
for context and mode-switches by bringing together statistical and logical methods. Indeed, when
combined with other signals, such as video signals, the inter-play of non-verbal and verbal/
textual communication provides rich contextual information, which, in turn, leads to accurate
information being gleaned from an interaction.
Engineering AI Systems
AI systems are insular, brittle, dependent on massive amounts of data, and with no avenues for
composition. While notions of type systems, effect systems, assume-guarantee assertions, and
procedural and process abstractions are all now available to describe and compose software
components, similar notions of modularity are critically needed for building AI systems from
small learning-based components. There are examples such as model-cards and data-sheets that
are now available, which along with notions of Probabilistic Programming could provide the
necessary basis. However, there are a number of problems, especially in the context of Deep
Neural Networks, that still need to be addressed. The necessary science required to address AI
safety - rigorous specifications for composition, run-time monitoring, self-healing, reasoning,
etc., are all of interest to this program.
Afore mentioned problems of interest deal with tools for producing robust AI
systems. However, the task of designing and building AI systems from scratch - from vague
definitions of problem to be solved - is still open. An enormous amount of insight and effort
may go into the process of turning an ambiguous description into a formal problem specification
amenable to an AI solution. What data sources are relevant? What structure can be identified in
the problem space? What makes one family of solution techniques better than another? Which
measures should be adopted for evaluating the quality of a solution? Research on problem
formulation and formalization can be found in the literature, with results in some specialized
areas such as concept learning for DNNs, general game playing, and historical work on
formalizing data analysis procedures. General solutions are lacking, however, which has a
bearing on current challenges in AI (e.g. under-specification for ML systems) and may
contribute to the relatively slow adoption of AI in some high-stakes domains (e.g. clinical
practice in medicine). The need is more than simply for automated tools to assist AI
developers. Rather, the scientific question to be answered concerns the extent to which the
informal process of problem formulation can be formalized.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Materials Design
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0012
TPOC: Evan L Runnerstrom, PhD - evan.l.runnerstrom.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4259
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Chemistry;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Photonics,
Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities: Soldier Lethality
Keywords: self-assembly, soft materials, colloids, functional materials, metamaterials,
Description:
The overarching goal of the Materials Design program is to establish new smart materials
concepts by pursuing fundamental science that exploits multiple physical and chemical forces at
play during directed self-assembly to create stimuli-responsive, multifunctional materials with
designer geometries, hierarchical complexity, and the ability to dynamically switch among
configurations, thereby enabling the future Warfighter to adapt to any environment or situation.
Bottom-up materials science, functional materials, and soft matter are the unifying themes of the
Materials Design program. The program supports experimental, theoretical, and computational
advances to better design, create, understand, and manipulate novel functional materials from the
bottom up. The foundations established here support the realization of 3D metamaterials,
reconfigurable optics and electronics, bio-mimetic materials, and multi-functional materials that
dynamically respond to their environment.
The Science of Self-Assembly supports basic research into the multiple physical and chemical
forces at play during directed, bottom-up 3-D assembly into super-structures incorporating
multiple components. The goal is to design novel self-assembled materials that would be
impossible to create using top-down techniques. Self-assembling materials systems of interest
include: colloids; nanocrystals; liquid crystals; functional biomaterials and bio-hybrid materials;
and/or hybrids (e.g., polymeric composites) of these materials. Specific research interests
include: non-equilibrium and dissipative self-assembly; 3-D photonic crystals and structural
color; interactions between self-assembled materials and water; and non-traditional assembly
directing forces (e.g., turbulence).
Reconfigurable Materials supports the design and synthesis of soft matter capable of reversible
transformations. The goal is to elucidate the design rules for creating novel functional materials
with dynamic property contrast and/or emergent behavior and develop new methods to
"'program" materials with the ability to respond in specific ways to external stimuli.
Reconfigurable materials systems of interest include: bio-mimetic materials; liquid crystal
elastomers; colloidal metamaterials; 3D/4D metamaterials; and active matter. Specific research
interests include: 3D/4D printing of functional materials with molecular-scale precision;
materials that form reconfigurable networks; "'natural" (i.e., non-robotic) active matter capable
of autonomous collective behavior and/or computation, and, in particular, materials capable of
changing their shape, color, or texture.
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Computer-aided Materials Design seeks to leverage recent advances in machine learning,
artificial intelligence, computational materials science, and other numerical approaches to solve
difficult materials design problems, particularly those in soft matter, self-assembly, and
reconfigurable materials. Points of interest include inverse design of self-assembled materials;
data-driven design of heterogeneous hierarchical materials; and novel models or algorithms for
solving materials-specific problems. Specific research interests include: "'self-driving" materials
simulations; unified simulation approaches that bridge all time- and length-scales of interest; and
designing soft materials to perform AI/ML computations (e.g., physical artificial neural
networks).
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Mechanical Behavior of Materials
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0001
TPOC: Daniel P Cole, PhD - daniel.p.cole.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4371
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Chemistry;Data Sciences and Informatics;Materials Science;Mathematics and
Statistics;Mechanics;Network Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Sciences of Extreme Materials;Terminal
Effects;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
This program focuses on basic research investigations that enable unprecedented mechanical
properties in advanced structural materials in order to ensure high performance under a variety of
extreme and highly variable operational conditions. Experimental, theoretical, and numerical
efforts are encouraged, particularly those that promote understanding of the underlying physical
mechanisms leading to extraordinary behaviors. Studies may focus on a variety of materials,
including: metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, and hybrid structures. Research efforts that
leverage recent discoveries in other scientific fields, such as Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics,
Network Science and Data Science, are also highly encouraged. These investigations are
expected to enable transformative capabilities for the Soldier in the areas of protection,
maneuver, and sustainability. Current focus areas for this portfolio include, but are not limited to,
the following:
Extreme Thermomechanical Behaviors. This thrust emphasizes foundational concepts that
enable structural materials with extraordinary combinations of ultrahigh temperature stability
and exceptional mechanical properties under non-equilibrium conditions, e.g. transient thermal
loads, high g-loading, and/or variable oxidizing environments. Areas of interest include:
Understanding, control, or confinement of deformation mechanisms; exploiting
interface/interphase interactions in heterogeneous materials; and concepts enabling materials to
undergo refinement under relevant conditions to enhance thermomechanical performance.
Disruptive Mechanical Responsiveness. This thrust focuses on structural materials with
unprecedented mechanical responsiveness when subject to complex loading environments, e.g.
severe and/or high strain rate events. Areas of interest include materials that actively respond to
dynamic loading environments and other external stimuli through rapid adaptation of shape,
topology, mechanical properties, and/or through the ability to intrinsically process information.
In addition, this thrust seeks concepts for manipulation of mechanical forces within materials at
specific spatial locations, particularly for the consideration of inelastic behaviors.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Microbiology
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0006
TPOC: Robert J. Kokoska, PhD - robert.j.kokoska2.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4342
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems;Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
This program supports basic research in fundamental microbiology that can help advance needs
in Soldier protection and performance. There are two primary research thrusts within this
program: (i) Microbial Survival Mechanisms in Challenging and Extreme Environments and (ii)
Analysis and Engineering of Microbial Communities.
The Microbial Survival Mechanisms in Challenging and Extreme Environments thrust focuses
on the study of the cellular and genetic mechanisms and responses that underlie bacterial,
archaeal and fungal survival in the face of environmental stress, as well as the ability of these
microbes to thrive under those conditions. These stressors include extremes in temperature, pH,
or salinity; the presence of toxins including metals and toxic organic molecules; oxidative stress;
and cellular starvation and the depletion of specific nutrients. Included here is the study of
microbial metabolism under conditions of slow growth and the transitions into and out of slow
growth phases. Research approaches can include fundamental studies of microbial physiology
and metabolism, cell biology, and molecular genetics that examine key cellular networks linked
to survival and environmental adaptation, microbial cell membrane structure, and the dissection
of relevant critical signal transduction pathways and other sense-and-respond mechanisms.
The Analysis and Engineering of Microbial Communities thrust supports basic research that
addresses the fundamental principles that drive the formation, proliferation, sustenance and
robustness of microbial communities through reductionist, systems-level, ecological and
evolutionary approaches. Bottom-up analysis of nutrient consumption, information exchange,
signaling interactions, spatial/temporal effects, structure-function relationships, and biosynthetic
output for single and multi-species communities within the context of planktonic and both native
and engineered biofilm architectures is considered. The use of these approaches for the analysis
of model microbial systems that address the biology of mammalian and environmental
microbiomes are welcome. Of joint interest with the ARO Biomathematics Program, research
efforts that advance the ability to work with biological data sets toward an understanding of
microbiological systems marked by ever-increasing complexity are encouraged.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Modeling of Complex Systems
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0020
TPOC: Robert S. Martin, PhD - robert.s.martin163.civ@army.mil - (619) 752-0696
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Mathematics and Statistics;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber,
and Computational Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: data assimilation, inverse problems, model closure, geometric data analysis,
information theory, sparsity, data compression
Description:
The Modeling of Complex Systems Program is a program of fundamental mathematics-oriented
research directed at addressing the critical challenges resulting from the approximate nature of
models for complex real-world phenomena. While models have traditionally relied on tuned,
empirically justified approximations, this program seeks to rigorously explore the bounds of
model predictive power through the development of coupled nonlinear uncertainty propagation
methodologies and novel data assimilation techniques for the self-consistent integration of
observed data within constrained modeling frameworks. The program particularly seeks
modeling frameworks that can be adapted to span a variety of disciplines where first principle
descriptions are unknown, incomplete, or computationally infeasible. While required prediction
speed and accuracy are necessarily problem context dependent, typical applications ranging from
planning to design and anomaly prediction all require methods to balance accuracy,
computational performance, and data availability to efficiently inform decisions.
Although they break down into more specific research directions, the three thrust areas of
interest to the Modeling of Complex Systems Program are 1) Adaptive Surrogates and
Associated Closures 2) Dynamical Propagation of Uncertainty and Emergent Structures in Data
3) Integration of data with models for effective inference and validation methodologies.
1) Adaptive Surrogates and Associated Closures
This first program thrust focuses on methods for accelerating forward models while controlling
errors. Truncation and simplifying approximations are ubiquitous in models of complex
macroscopic phenomena. Adaptive models that are capable of scaling accuracy and uncertainty
within a problem specific context are critical for efficient allocation of computational resources
constrained by decision relevant timescales. Balancing these accuracy-cost tradeoffs is
particularly critical in outer-loop problems requiring many forward model queries as encountered
in design optimization, uncertainty quantification, model predictive control, and inverse
problems. While surrogates adaptively constructed or learned from regularities observed in
adjacent calculations and data have the potential to accelerate outer-loop search of
high-dimensional spaces, significant open research challenges remain in addressing how and
when such regularities justify their applicability between and beyond previously observed model
inputs. Related areas of potential interest include the relationship between memory, truncation,
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and closability, evidence of uniqueness in input output maps, hierarchical problem
decomposition and compression, randomized methods, and other transformations that convert
model representation into spaces where more efficient predictions can be performed.
2) Propagation of Uncertainty
The second thrust concerns the study of the evolution of model uncertainties resulting from
approximations introduced to facilitate computation. This area focuses on the dynamical growth
of initial state uncertainty as well as its interactions with modeling errors and other sources of
imperfect system knowledge such as incomplete system specification and uncertain open
boundary conditions. Methods to exploit the impact of nonlinear mixing and contraction towards
lower dimensional subspaces, when appropriate, are of particular interest, as is the propagation
of uncertainty across boundaries in decomposed system-of-system models. Methods that enable
efficient estimation of deterministic and stochastic probability flows in high dimensions as well
as into and on embedded manifolds with associated foundations for required regularizations are
of high interest. While full characterization of uncertainty distributions in very high dimension is
likely to remain practically infeasible, methods to characterize over approximated reduced
dimensional bounds for worst cases and typical cases, particularly in the context of high-cost
decision boundary constraints are of high interest.
3) Integration of Data with Models
This third thrust concerns the use of real-world data sources to improve and validate models.
While the prior thrusts are aimed at methods capable of estimating expected distributions of
potential model outcomes, this thrust focuses on the relationships between these expected
outcomes and actual observations. To the extent that uncertainty is expected to grow beyond
acceptable error bounds, this thrust is also concerned with the efficient acquisition and use of
data to refine state estimates and correct for model insufficiency in support of attaining
satisfactory accuracy and uncertainty levels. While verification, validation, and uncertainty
quantification are typically described in terms of problem specific "'quantities of interest" and
prescribed satisfactory error bounds, this thrust is also particularly concerned with when such
requirements are sufficient to provide an expectation of model uniqueness. Particularly in cases
of highly parameterized models such as overparameterized neural networks, mitigating potential
overfit in training to provide foundations for an expectation of future generalization is of critical
importance.
What features of problems underpin expectations for generalization and provide statistical
foundations for the acquisition of confidence in predicted outcomes? How can expectations for
repeatability be established such that data from anecdotally distinct sources can be transferred
and combined? Rather than introduced as modeling assumptions, how can properties such as
stationarity, exchangeability, or underlying causal mechanisms be discovered and confirmed to
high statistical confidence levels prior to or concurrent with their use? While these mechanisms
may be well established for many physical problems allowing high confidence in their
applicability, how can such confidence be established in complex and adaptive systems where
the link between first principles and application may be broken? Even in physical systems with
high expectations of repeatability, how can the anticipation of emergent large deviations from
under resolved problem uncertainties be analyzed and what are appropriate expectations for their
predicability? For which classes of systems and model requirements can continuous or
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potentially adversarial validation methodologies be designed to maximize information gain,
actively interrogate model validity bounds, or drive uncertainty out of system models? Research
that addresses any of these questions is relevant to the program.
Furthermore, due to the large approximation capacity of modern model classes, the modeling of
complex systems program is particularly interested in development of models capable of
synchronization with arbitrary permutations of mutually self-consistent independent system
observables under the influence of stochastic perturbation and control input in support of the
establishment of methods for constructing and validating computationally feasible predictive
digital twins.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Modern Optics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0009
TPOC: James A. Joseph, PhD - james.a.joseph30.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4213
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Network,
Cyber, and Computational Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
The objective of this program is to promote a deeper understanding of the properties of light and
the discovery of new optical effects that can improve Army capabilities. Most sensing and
communications systems depend on light in some way. This program seeks transformational
basic science discoveries in optical physics that are needed to enable dynamic control of light for
remote sensing, information routing, and energy transmission. In order to accomplish this goal,
the Modern Optics Program targets new or emerging phenomena related to quantum optics,
light-matter interactions, structured light and ultra-short pulse lasers.
Quantum Photonics. This thrust seeks to push beyond the state of the art in photonics and
integrated optical platforms, seeking novel functionality beyond classical limits on sensitivity,
accuracy, and stability. Research efforts may include studies addressing complexity and loss in
integrated optical systems, scalable realizations of multi-photon quantum states or quantum light
sources, and novel laser platforms to probe or manipulate quantum information in physical
qubits. Basic science understanding is needed to push integrated photonics into the quantum
regime which will be essential for next generation quantum technology.
Meta-Optics. This thrust looks for novel functionality enabled by optical metamaterials. In this
area, the conventional norms of classical optics will be broken. Examples include resolution
beyond the diffraction limit, super-lensing, as well as subwavelength control of optical fields.
Proposals related to non-Hermitian optics and the physics of exceptional points, where these
concepts are utilized to fabricate photonic structures with novel properties and sensors with
precision beyond the state of the art are sought. In general, any phenomena arising from optical
metamaterials that would benefit the Soldier and improve Army capabilities will be considered.
Extreme Light. This thrust focuses on extreme light, meaning the examination of optical fields in
extreme limits, such as shortest pulse and/or high intensity. General areas of study under this
thrust include, THz formation, broadband localized radiation, coherent control of atomic and
molecular energy states, plasma effects in materials, and relativistic plasma physics. Theoretical
and experimental research efforts are needed to push beyond the state of the art in ultrafast
science and to understand how extreme light interacts with matter.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Multi-Agent Network Control
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0031
TPOC: Derya Cansever, PhD - derya.h.cansever.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4282
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber,
and Computational Sciences;Weapons Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities: Long Range Precision Fires;Network/C3I;Next Generation
Combat Vehicle
Keywords: Control, Reinforcement Learning, Quantum, Multi-Agent, Distributed, Data Driven,
Networked Systems
Description:
The objective of the Multi-Agent Network Control program is to establish the physical,
mathematical and information processing foundations for the control of complex dynamic
networks with possibly multiple controllers that may operate using different information sets.
The research program seeks the development of novel mathematical and computational methods
for the modeling and control of the collective behavior of large-scale networked systems
controlled by of heterogeneous agents which may or may not follow a common goal. Autonomy
is central to program efforts to support anticipated dynamics of the future battle space.
Requirements of such environments may include mobility, effective sensor coverage, efficient
information flow, responsiveness to support the military goals of information superiority,
dominant maneuver and precision engagement.
Distributed and Time-Varying Control of Networked Systems
Distributed control techniques play a major role in the analysis and synthesis of networked
systems. They have been successfully used in robotics for replicating self-organized behaviors
found in nature (e.g., bird flocking, fish schooling, and synchronization) and in developing
applications such as formation control, rendezvous, robot coordination, and distributed
estimation. Many dynamic systems are, or can be made time-varying, and they may be subject to
possibly abrupt transitions of the states, and hard to predict disturbances and external effects.
Innovative methods that incorporate, and even exploit time varying nature of distributed systems
for establishing their stability, robustness and optimality is of interest. Analysis and control of
networked non-linear systems where standard linearization methods are not satisfactorily
applicable is also sought. Potential use of techniques such as geometry, graph theory, topological
analysis and other innovative methods are encouraged.
Data Driven Control and Learning
Control of systems with unknown dynamics and methods to reduce their uncertainties has been
part of mainstream control systems research, examples of which include Reinforcement Learning
(RL), Adaptive Control, and in general data driven control. Reinforcement Learning is shown to
be closely related to Stochastic Dynamic Programming, which enabled successful leveraging of
significant body of research of the latter. However, data driven controls such as RL face
significant challenges, including computational complexity, very long convergence times, and
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lack of sufficiently rich training data. Hybrid approaches that properly incorporate prior or
learned models of the systems to be controlled into the problem formulation are emerging and
their furthering is encouraged in this program. Broadly, research to address fundamental issues in
data driven control is sought. Those include, but not limited to, efficient computation methods
that allow real-time operations without sacrificing precision, scalability, optimization algorithms
that address the occurrence of multiple local minima encountered in learning and developing
systematic methods for reliable transfer of learning from other experiments. Use and advancing
of control theoretical tools such as stability analysis, non-convex optimization, and other
innovative approaches to address these open problems is encouraged. New insights to RL
algorithms which may extend, modify, or replace standard Markovian formulations are desired.
Extensions of RL techniques to networked systems featuring multiple controllers with
applications to autonomy and coordination among interacting agents are sought. Innovative
research focused on adaptive control, and system identification techniques to reduce
uncertainties and facilitate optimal or near-optimal control is also in scope.
Control of Quantum Systems and novel applications of control theory
Innovative tools and methodology from control theory could provide new insights and
approaches to pave the path for solving some of the outstanding problems in quantum, such as
maintaining coherence and stability of Quantum Qubits and their entangled states. Capabilities
enabled by quantum computers are expected to surpass their classical counterparts in the future.
However, maintaining the desired state of qubits remains a fundamental problem encountered in
the realization of quantum computers and quantum networks. Adaptation of control theoretical
tools and approaches in enhancing the stability of coherence of qubits and reducing the impact of
noise in quantum gates and their operations could provide new research opportunities in the
control of networked quantum systems.
Researching and devising other applications of control theory in areas that are relevant to the
Army and that could advance the state of control theory itself is of interest. Among novel
applications of potential interest is the study of control functions acting on neural circuits that are
distributed in the brain. These interactions include synchronization, but their fundamental
principles and underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Modeling and analysis of these
phenomena could provide novel research opportunities in the control of networked systems.
Similarly, study of biological systems has unveiled control architectures that are not encountered
in industrial control systems. Understanding the principles, analyzing the effectiveness of such
naturally occurring control systems and their potential adaptation to the control of man-made
applications could be an area of fertile research.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Neurophysiology of Cognition
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0016
TPOC: Chou P. Hung, PhD - chou.p.hung.civ@army.mil - (240) 962-0229
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Biological Sciences;Computer Science;Data Sciences and Informatics;Mathematics
and Statistics;Network Science
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences;Humans
in Complex Systems
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords:
Description:
The Neurophysiology of Cognition program supports non medically oriented high-risk
high-reward basic research that will enable discovery of the appropriate molecular, cellular,
systems and behavioral-level codes underlying cognition and performance across multiple time
scales. An overarching goal of the program is to foster advances in a broad range of
experimental, computational and theoretical approaches applied to animal models and humans as
well as data. Inquiries are strongly encouraged for projects that include recent methodological
advances to assess and augment the nervous system (i.e., electrophysiological, imaging or
computational). Basic research opportunities are sought in two primary research thrusts within
this program: (i) Evolutionary and Revolutionary Interactions and (ii) Neural Computation.
Evolutionary and Revolutionary Interactions (with Real and Mixed Worlds)
The Evolutionary and Revolutionary Interactions thrust aims to understand evolutionary
neurophysiological processes that enable complex task performance in both unstructured and
structured real-world environments. Foundational research is encouraged to uncover biological
mechanisms and to concurrently develop efficient and adaptive computational and modeling
frameworks that abstract cognitive phenomena such as anticipatory sensing, automatic learning,
complex decision-making, and rapid adaptive action. How these neural phenomena translate
across teams of human and AI agents and span wider ranges of spatiotemporal scales and task
complexities is of particular importance. Experimental approaches building upon man-made
structured and mixed environments with increasingly complex, information-rich/poor/deceptive
and cooperative/competitive features will be most informative. Also, foundational research to
understand and improve cognitive performance and to avoid cognitive failures by understanding
(across neuromechanistic, glymphatic, and neurocomputational levels) sleep and mitigation of
cognitive fatigue due to physiological and environmental stressors is of high value.
Neural Computation, Information Coding, and Translation
The Neural Computation thrust is focused on broadening understanding of the mechanisms
employed by neural circuits and systems to generate desirable computations and to learn and
adapt from few examples. Research in this thrust can broadly address research in areas such as
studying aspects of multiscale information processing dynamics mediating computations among
neurons, glial cells and blood vessels as well as identifying how these circuits and circuit
architectures generate desirable computations over multiple timescales, discovering mechanisms
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for bidirectional control. Mathematical and computational frameworks are encouraged for
closed-loop prediction and control of neural dynamics and to translate across divergent
information types (e.g. differing in information capacity, throughput, modality, processing
architectures, levels of abstraction). Focus should be paid to uncovering fundamental principles
of neural system adaptations required to solve unstructured problems, infer expectations of
teammates and adversaries and of tasks and the environment, and estimating rewards for
complex decisions. Integrative approaches involving combinations of experimentation, theory
and mechanistic modeling are highly encouraged, for both biological and novel hybrid
living-nonliving frameworks.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Optoelectronics
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0019
TPOC: Michael D. Gerhold, PhD - michael.d.gerhold.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4357
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Electronics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Energy
Sciences;Military Information Sciences;Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences;Photonics,
Electronics, and Quantum Sciences;Sciences of Extreme Materials
Army Modernization Priorities: Air and Missile Defense;Network/C3I;Next Generation
Combat Vehicle
Keywords: optoelectronics, photonics, semiconductor
Description:
Research in this subarea includes novel semiconductor structures, processing techniques, and
integrated optical components. The generation, guidance and control of UV through infrared
signals in semiconductor, dielectric, and metallic materials are of interest. The Army has
semiconductor laser research opportunities based on low dimensional semiconductor structures
(quantum dots, wells, wires, etc.) operating in the eye-safer (>1.4), 3-5, and 8-12 microns regions
for various applications, such as LIDAR, infrared countermeasures, and free space/integrated
data links. Components and sources in the UV/visible spectral ranges (particularly < 300 nm)
may be of interest as well. Research is necessary in semiconductor materials growth and device
processing to improve the efficiency and reliability of the output of devices at these wavelengths.
However, near infrared or wavelength agnostic device advances can be explored for potential
impact on various material systems and wavelengths of interest.
Research that leads to an increase in the data rate of optoelectronic structures is sought.
Interfacing of optoelectronic devices with electronic processors will be investigated for full
utilization of available bandwidth. Electro-optic components will be studied for use in guided
wave data links for interconnections and optoelectronic integration, all requirements for
high-speed full situational awareness. Optical interconnect components are needed in
guided-wave data links for computer interconnection and in free-space links for optical
switching and processing. For high-speed optical signal processing as well as potential for power
scaling, research on individual and 1 or 2-D arrays of surface or edge-emitting lasers is
necessary. Spectral and coherent beam combining approaches for integrated photonics need
more exploration. Research addressing efficient, novel optical components for high-speed
switching based on electro-optic materials, nanostructures, metamaterials or other regimes may
be of interest. Emitters and architectures for novel display and processing of battlefield imagery
are important.
Research on components and sub-elements of photonic circuits used in neuromorphic photonic
information processing and computation are of interest. Photonic processing within a photonic
integrated circuit (PIC) requires smaller and more energy efficient modulator devices on the
order of 5 microns and 1 femtojoule/bit. Modulation bandwidth of 10 Gb/s or more, and
insertion loss of 0.1 dB or less are needed to cascade modulators with less than 1 dB/cm total
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loss. Modulation and bit resolutions of 12 bits or more and floating-point calculations will be
required for PIC processor implementations. Other advances leading to enhanced analog
computing performance regimes including energy efficient and high-speed photodetectors and
light sources (most likely coherent) are sought. Exploration of ideas leading to enhanced use of
photonic interactions in both 2D and 3D architectures that take advantage of photonic degrees of
freedom (wavelength, polarization, spatial modes, etc.) will be considered. While quantum
communications and quantum integrated photonics are not focused upon per se, low bit energy
signals (photon count < 500) may be considered. Such research could impact single photon,
quantum optics regimes due to similar signal to noise considerations.
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Army Research Office (ARO) Research Topic
Title: Physical Properties of Materials
Announcement ID: ARL-BAA-0003
TPOC: Joe X. Z. Qiu, PhD - joe.x.qiu.civ@army.mil - (919) 549-4297
ARL Office: Army Research Office (ARO)
Discipline: Chemistry;Electronics;Materials Science;Physics
ARL Foundational Research Competencies: Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences;Energy
Sciences;Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences
Army Modernization Priorities:
Keywords: Novel functional materials discovery, materials characterization techniques,
materials defects
Description:
The Physical Properties of Materials program seeks to discover novel functional materials and
elucidate fundamental mechanisms responsible for achieving extraordinary electronic,
photonic/optical, magnetic and thermal properties in materials to enable future innovative Army
applications. There are mainly three focus areas in this program:
Novel Functional Materials Discovery area supports the discovery of novel functional materials
with unique compositions and/or structures to realize unique physical properties. Examples of
materials include oxides, nitrides, carbides, chalcogenides, super-lattices, free-standing low
dimensional (0D, 1D, 2D organic / inorganic) materials, hetero-structures, polymers,
organic-inorganic hybrids, co-crystals, etc. Basic research ideas in the areas such as synthesis
(thin films as well as bulk materials), modeling, and influence of external stimuli such as light,
magnetic field etc. to determine unprecedented functional properties (semiconducting,
superconducting, ferroelectric/multiferroic, photonic, magnetic, thermal etc.) are encouraged.
Science & Engineering of Crystal Imperfections area explores the influence (either positive or
negative) of various crystalline imperfections (e.g., point, line, area, volume defects etc.) on the
physical properties (electronic, optical, magnetic, and thermal) in functional materials. Basic
research ideas in the areas such as elucidation of different mechanisms of
incorporation/elimination of the defects during thin film growth/bulk materials processing of
materials, characterization of novel defects, and influence of them on the extraordinary
functional properties of the materials etc. are encouraged.
Novel materials characterization techniques: Development of novel characterization techniques
to determine composition- structure- defects- stimuli- property relationships in functional
materials.
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[Document continues — 74 more pages]

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W911NF23S0001 Amendment 4

U.S. ARMY COMBAT CAPABILITIES
DEVELOPMENT COMMAND (DEVCOM)
ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY
BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
W911NF-23-S-0001-0004
21 November 2022 – 20 November 2027
ISSUED BY:
U.S. Army Contracting Command
Aberdeen Proving Ground
Research Triangle Park Division
P. O. Box 12211
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211

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Special Notes
1. Formatting of the Announcement
The following table provides an overview of the outline structure of this announcement:
I.
A.
1.
a.
i.
(1)
(a)
(i)
2. See Appendix 1 for a Table of Acronyms used in this announcement.
3. See Appendix 2 for a Schedule of Amendments. Applicants are encouraged to frequently
check grants.gov, sam.gov, and the ARL website (https://arl.devcom.army.mil/) for updates
and amendments to this BAA. Special Notices issued against this BAA will be posted to
sam.gov.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY 1
A. Required Overview Content 3
1. Agency Name 3
2. Research Opportunity Title 3
3. Announcement Type 3
4. Research Opportunity Number 3
5. Assistance Listing Number and Title 3
6. Response Dates 3
B. Additional Overview Information 4
II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING 5
OPPORTUNITY
A. Program Description 5
1. Foundational Research Topics of Interest 5
2. Army Research Directorate Targeted Opportunities 6
3. Army Research Office Targeted Opportunities 7
a. Single Investigator Award 7
b. Short-Term Innovative Research Award 7
c. Early Career Program Award 8
d. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and 9
Engineers
e. Research Instrumentation Award 10
f. Conference and Symposia Grant Award 11
g. Army Educational Outreach Program High School and 12
Undergraduate Internships
h. Visiting Scientist Program (VSP) 15
B. Federal Award Information 16
C. Eligibility Information 19
1. Eligible Applicants 19
2. Cost Sharing or Matching 19
3. Other 19
D. Application and Submission Information 20
1. Address to View Broad Agency Announcement 20
2. Content and Form of Application Submission 20
3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award 34
Management (SAM)
4. Submission Dates and Times 35
5. Intergovernmental Review 36
6. Funding Restrictions 36
7. Other Submission Requirements 36
E. Proposal Review Information 37
1. Evaluation Criteria 37
2. Review and Selection Process 39

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3. Recipient Qualification 47
F. Award Administration Information 49
1. Award Notices 49
2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements 49
a. Required Representations and Certifications 49
b. Policy Requirements 54
3. Reporting 59
G. Agency Contacts 60
H. Other Information 61
1. Contract Proposals 61
2. Grant and Cooperative Agreement Proposals 69
3. Other Transaction Proposals 72
4. Army Contract Writing System Transition Information 73
APPENDIX 1: TABLE OF ACRONYMS 75
APPENDIX 2: SCHEDULE OF AMENDMENTS 78

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I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
The purpose of this combined Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) under Federal Acquisition
Regulation (FAR) Part 35 and Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) under 2 Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR) 200.204 (henceforth referred to as “BAA”) is to solicit research
proposals for submission to the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command
(DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) for funding consideration.
Prior to this announcement, ARL announced two separate BAAs to support the mission: 1)
W911NF-17-S-0002 titled “Army Research Laboratory Army Research Office Broad Agency
Announcement for Fundamental Research”; and 2) W911NF-17-S-0003 titled “Army Research
Laboratory Broad Agency Announcement for Basic and Applied Scientific Research”. This
announcement succeeds BAA W911NF-17-S-0002 and BAA W911NF-17-S-0003 combining the
opportunities into a single announcement.
ARL’s mission as the Army’s foundational research laboratory is to Operationalize Science to
ensure overmatch in any future conflict. ARL’s foundational research mission spans basic
research (budget activity 6.1) and applied research (budget activity 6.2) as defined by 32 CFR
22.105 but may include advanced technology development (budget activity 6.3) and advanced
component development and prototypes (budget activity 6.4) when opportunities arise to directly
or indirectly help achieve ARL’s mission. ARL partners across the national security enterprise to
deliver fundamentally advantageous change that is rooted in the creation and exploitation of
scientific knowledge.
Whitepapers for initial concept reviews and full proposals are sought from institutions of higher
education, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, foreign organizations, foreign
public entities, and for-profit organizations (i.e. large and small businesses) for scientific research
that supports the ARL mission and the published ARL research topics of interest. Whitepapers
and full proposals are expected to be for cutting-edge innovative research that could produce
discoveries having a significant impact on enabling new and improved Army operational
capabilities and related technologies.
In an effort to provide ARL's research topics and related information in an easy to digest format
with search and filter options, ARL has published the following public website listing all current
ARL research topics: https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, hereafter referenced as
the ARL BAA topics website. Changes to these topics will be made using this website on an as
needed basis. A change to the ARL BAA topics website is not an amendment to this BAA and
will not be posted on https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/. A change to this document,
the BAA itself, is an amendment and will be posted on https://www.grants.gov/ and
https://sam.gov/. ARL will maintain a daily static snapshot of the ARL BAA topics website to
ensure submissions are aligned with listed research topics on the day of submission.
Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse the ARL BAA topics website for white
paper and proposal topics that ARL desires to explore. These specific research topics should be
viewed as suggestive, rather than limiting. ARL is always interested in considering other
innovative research concepts of relevance to the Army if those concepts align with ARL's mission.
Please see Section II, Detailed Information about the Funding Opportunity, for more information
1

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on the ARL research topics advertised through this BAA. Interested parties should also review
https://www.grants.gov/ and https://sam.gov/ to obtain the latest version of the BAA for
whitepaper and proposal submission requirements.
To conserve valuable applicant and Government resources, and to facilitate determining whether a
proposed research idea meets the guidelines described herein, prospective applicants
contemplating submission of a whitepaper or proposal are strongly encouraged to contact an ARL
Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) to first discuss the concept. The TPOCs’ names and contact
information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics website.
After initial contact with an ARL TPOC, if an applicant elects to submit a whitepaper or proposal,
it should be prepared in accordance with the instructions contained in this BAA. Upon receipt, a
whitepaper will be reviewed by the ARL TPOC and a recommendation will be provided to the
applicant with either “encouraged to submit a proposal” or “not encouraged to submit a proposal”
based on the review and availability of funding. A whitepaper is not required to submit a proposal.
Proposals may be submitted at any time while this BAA is open.
The proposal submission guidelines differ for each legal instrument; therefore, applicants are
advised to follow the specific applicable guidelines listed in this BAA for the type of instrument
they are proposing. This BAA provides submission guidelines for proposals for FAR-based
procurement contracts, as well as assistance instruments and other transactions. Upon review of a
proposal, the government will advise applicants on the most appropriate instrument for the
proposed work.
In accordance with federal statutes, regulations, and Department of Defense and Army policies, no
person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from
participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or
activity receiving financial assistance from the Army.
Applicants submitting proposals are cautioned that only a Contracting Officer, Grants Officer, or
Agreements Officer can obligate the Government to any legal instrument involving federally
appropriated funds.
All administrative inquiries regarding this BAA shall be submitted via the ARL Contact Us
webpage: https://arl.devcom.army.mil/contact-us/. Scientific and technical questions should be
referred to the TPOCs listed with each topic on the ARL BAA topics website:
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/. Interested parties are encouraged to
periodically check any of the following websites for updates and amendments to this BAA:
https://www.grants.gov/, https://sam.gov/, or the ARL website BAA page at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
DR. PATRICK BAKER
Director
Army Research Laboratory
(End of Section)
2

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A. Required Overview Content
1. Agency Name
U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM
ARL)
Issuing Acquisition Office
U.S. Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground, Research Triangle Park (ACC-
APG-RTP) Division
2. Research Opportunity Title
ARL Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Foundational Research for 21 November 2022 – 20
November 2027
3. Announcement Type
Announcement
4. Research Opportunity Number
W911NF-23-S-0001 Amendment 4
5. Assistance Listing Number and Title
12.431 – Basic Scientific Research
6. Response Dates
This BAA is a continuously open announcement valid throughout the period from the date of
issuance through 20 November 2027, unless announced otherwise. This announcement succeeds
BAA W911NF-17-S-0002 and W911NF-17-S-0003 (including all modifications) dated 1 April
2017.
(End of Section)
3

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B. Additional Overview Information
This publication constitutes a BAA for awards as contemplated in FAR 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016
as well as a merit-based, competitive procedure in accordance with the Department of Defense
Grant and Agreement Regulations (DoDGARS) at 32 CFR 22.315(a) and the Office of the
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version
2.0 dated July 2023.
This BAA document, and the online list of research topics found on the ARL BAA topics
website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, sets forth ARL’s research topics
of interest for whitepapers and proposals. This BAA is issued under FAR 6.102(d)(2), which
provides for the competitive selection of basic and applied research proposals, and 10 U.S.C.
4001, 10 U.S.C. 4021, and 10 U.S.C. 4022, which provide the authorities for issuing awards
under this announcement for basic and applied research. The definitions of basic and applied
research may be found at 32 CFR 22.105. This BAA also supports efforts under 10 U.S.C.
2192 as discussed in the Program Description.
Proposals submitted in response to this BAA and selected for award are considered to be the
result of full and open competition and in full compliance with the provision of Public Law 98-
369, “The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984” and subsequent amendments.
Use of a BAA to solicit for research and development is encouraged when:
1. The Government desires new and creative solutions to problem statements.
2. Using a conventional statement of work could result in unintentionally stifling ideas and
concepts given many possible approaches.
3. Fulfilling requirements for scientific study and experimentation directed toward advancing
the state-of-the-art or increasing knowledge or understanding rather than focusing on a
specific system or hardware solution.
4. The Government must be able to state its objectives in terms of areas of need or interest
rather than specific solutions or outcomes.
5. Meaningful proposals with varying technical/scientific approaches are reasonably
anticipated.
ARL reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals submitted in
response to this announcement. ARL will provide no funding for direct reimbursement of
whitepaper or proposal development costs and such costs are not considered an allowable direct
charge to any award resulting from this BAA or any other award. However, these costs may be
an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect costs specified in FAR 31.205-18
for FAR-based awards.
Whitepapers and technical and cost proposals (or any other material) submitted in response to this
BAA will not be returned to the applicant. It is the policy of the Government to treat all proposals
as sensitive, competitive information and to mark and disclose their contents only for the purposes
of evaluation.
An applicant may withdraw a proposal at any time before award by written notice or by email
sent to the Government TPOC identified for the topic in which the proposal was submitted.
(End of Section)
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II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
A. Program Description
1. Foundational Research Topics of Interest
ARL’s mission is to serve as the Army’s principal foundational research agency. ARL is
interested in all research proposals that can be shown to enable the future Army to deploy,
fight, and win decisively against any adversary, anytime, and anywhere, in a joint, multi-
domain, high-intensity conflict, while simultaneously deterring others and maintaining its
ability to conduct irregular warfare.
ARL comprises both the Army Research Directorate (ARD) and the Army Research Office
(ARO) whose programs execute research awards under this BAA. The ARD and ARO
missions are further defined below to help clarify the different opportunities and topic types
that may be found on ARL’s website.
ARL, through its ARD programs focuses on exploiting the most promising disruptive science
and technology through in-house research with eligible entities. ARD competitively selects
and funds innovative research concepts that can advance in-house research. ARD primarily
funds basic research proposals (budget activity 6.1) and applied research proposals (budget
activity 6.2) but may also select and fund advanced technology development (budget activity
6.3) and advanced component development and prototypes (budget activity 6.4) to exploit
ARL’s foundational research outcomes and directly or indirectly help achieve ARL’s mission.
The results of these research efforts are transitioned to the Army research and development
community, industry, or academia to further the technological superiority of our Soldiers,
Army, and nation. ARD-funded research represents a long-range Army view with system
applications often 10-20 years away. ARD does not invest in incremental modernization
improvements, but does invest in high-risk, high-payoff ideas in basic and applied science that
can advance the in-house research mission. Historically, most of the ARD awards are executed
as cooperative agreements but can include grants, procurement contracts, research other
transactions (OTs) and prototype OTs. For a description of ARD targeted opportunities, see
section 2 below.
ARL, through its ARO extramural research program, funds cutting-edge foundational research
that could result in innovations having a significant impact on enabling new and improved
Army operational capabilities and related technologies. ARO selects and funds eligible entities
conducting scientific studies and experimentation toward advancing the state of the art or
increasing basic knowledge and understanding across the sciences. ARO competitively selects
and funds basic research proposals across a broad range of scientific disciplines related to long-
term national security needs. ARO primarily funds basic research proposals (budget activity
6.1) but may also select and fund applied research proposals (budget activity 6.2). The results
of these research efforts are transitioned to the Army research and development community,
industry, or academia to further the technological superiority of our Soldiers, Army, and nation.
ARO-funded research represents the most long-range Army view, with system applications
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often 20–30 years away. The goal of ARO funding research proposals through this BAA is to
pursue high-risk, high-payoff ideas in basic science. In this manner, ARO provides the Army
with a dynamic method for rapidly investing or divesting in research to ensure the realization
of foundational discoveries that will enable future Army capabilities. ARO has allocated
funding each year to carry out the Army’s Extramural Research Program to fund foundational
research proposals. Most of the ARO awards are executed primarily through grants and
cooperative agreements, but also can include procurement contracts and other funding
instruments. ARO also provides targeted opportunities, which are described in section 3 below.
In an effort to provide ARL’s research topics and related information in an easy to digest
format with search and filter options, ARL has published the following public website listing
all current ARL research topics: https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, the ARL
BAA topics website. Interested parties are encouraged to continually browse this website to
see the topics ARL is interested in.
To support ARL’s mission, an additional research topic for “Support to ARL Foundation
Research Competencies” can be found on the ARL BAA topics website. Under this research
topic, ARL will consider whitepapers and proposals that may not directly align to a topic
published by an ARL TPOC, but can demonstrate a strong alignment to ARL’s mission.
ARL’s research mission is executed within identified foundational research competencies that
provide the Army foundational expertise and specialized capabilities grounded in scientific
excellence and driven by unique Army challenges. ARL is always interested in innovative
research whitepapers and proposals outside of the published topics on the ARL BAA topic
website that demonstrate a strong alignment to ARL’s foundational research competencies and
potential to create discovery, innovation, and transition of technologies for Army
transformational overmatch. To learn more about ARL’s foundational research competencies
visit the ARL website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/what-we-do/#competencies/.
A proposal submitted under the “Support to ARL Foundation Research Competencies” topic
must clearly describe the research and objectives, and will be considered by ARL if it is
aligned to one or more of these foundational research competencies that support the ARL
mission. Applicants interested in submitting a proposal under this topic are strongly
encouraged to first make preliminary inquiries as to the potential alignment to an ARL
foundational research competency and funding availability for the type of research effort
contemplated to the listed TPOC on the ARL BAA topics website.
2. Army Research Directorate (ARD) Targeted Opportunities
ARD has no established targeted opportunities outside of the research topics considered for
funding proposals submitted under this BAA. Discussion with the cognizant ARD TPOC
identified for a given ARD research topic published on the ARL public website is strongly
recommended before submission of a whitepaper or proposal.
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3. Army Research Office (ARO) Targeted Opportunities
ARO has established several types of targeted opportunities to support ARO research topics,
based on applications submitted under this BAA. Information about the following
opportunities is included below:
 Single Investigator (SI) Award
 Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Award
 Early Career Program (ECP) Award
 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
 Research Instrumentation (RI) Award
 Conference and Symposia Grant Award
 Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) High School and Undergraduate Internships
 Visiting Scientist Program (VSP)
Unless special eligibility requirements are listed, the eligibility criteria of Section II.C applies.
Also, see Section II.E.1 of this BAA for the evaluation criteria related to these opportunities.
NOTE: ARO is not limited to funding these targeted opportunities; however, they represent
most awards ARO is expected to make.
a. Single Investigator (SI) Award
i. Description. SI awards are the most common awards. The objective of the award is to attract
outstanding individuals to propose research projects related to the ARO research topics that
will result in scientific discoveries.
iii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-
baa/. As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC
identified for a given topic at the ARL BAA topics website is strongly recommended before
submission of a whitepaper or proposal. The proposal is submitted by the institution where
the individual is employed.
iv. Funding Level: ARO encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs for appropriate budget
levels depending on the scope of effort. ARO’s standard funding levels for SI awards would
support a budget for three years at a level commensurate with supporting a single investigator
and one or two graduate students or a post-doc for three years (to include facilities and
administrative [F&A] costs).
b. Short-Term Innovative Research (STIR) Award
Description. The objectives of the STIR awards are to support rapid, short-term
investigations to assess the merit of innovative new concepts in basic research. STIR awards
provide an excellent opportunity to showcase new concepts and explore new areas in basic
research. Historically, STIR awards have helped shape new directions in research for the
Army.
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1. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-
baa/. As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC
identified for a given topic is strongly recommended before submission of a whitepaper or
proposal for a STIR award.
2. Funding Level. Proposals in the amount of $60,000 or less are sought for STIR
awards. Capital equipment cannot be purchased under a STIR Program award. Report
preparation costs must not exceed $100. A fee is not permitted under STIR Program awards as
they are awarded as grants. Due to the relatively small dollar amount and short-term nature of
these awards, applicants are encouraged to maximize the benefit derived from this funding by
prioritizing labor and employing other cost-saving measures in support of the STIR program
effort.
3. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for STIR Awards.
Applicants should submit proposals with a Project Description (Technical Proposal) that is no
more than ten (10) pages long. No brochures or explanatory material should be submitted with
the proposal. Proposed research efforts must be "stand alone" and not predicated on the use of
any facilities other than those under the direct control of the applicant. Research must be
completed within nine (9) months of award.
c. Early Career Program (ECP) Award
i. Description. ECP awards are funded by the Army to support early career scientists and
engineers who show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. This
targeted opportunity is open to U.S. citizens, U.S. Nationals, or Lawful Permanent Residents of
the U.S. who have held a tenure-track position at a U.S. institution of higher education for
fewer than five years at the time of application. Faculty at an institution of higher education
which does not designate a faculty appointment as "tenure track" are eligible if that fact is so
indicated in the proposal, and the supporting letter from the institute states that the faculty
member submitting the proposal will be considered for a permanent appointment. The
objective of the ECP Award is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering;
enhance development of outstanding early career investigators; and increase opportunities for
early career investigators to pursue research in areas relevant to the Army.
ii. Research Sought. Proposals are sought for research that supports the ARO research topics
identified on the ARL BAA topics website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-
baa/. As is the case for all other award types, discussions with the cognizant ARO TPOC
identified for a given topic is strongly recommended before submission of a whitepaper or
proposal.
iii. Funding Level. ECP awards will not exceed $120,000 per year for 3 years.
iv. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for ECP Awards.
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NOTE: The proposal is submitted by the institution where the individual is employed. The
proposal must include a supporting letter, both through official channels in the institution
where the individual is employed. The proposal must follow the format set forth in Section
II.D.2 (Application and Submission Information) of this BAA. The supporting letter must be
from the individual's Department Chairperson, Dean, Supervisor, or other official who speaks
for the institution, and should address support for, and commitment to, the applicant. Strong
institution support for the applicant is essential. Evidence of this support can include the
applicant's salary, release time from administrative responsibilities, the purchase of equipment,
support for the applicant's graduate students, any cost sharing, any start-up funding, etc. The
proposal must support the institution’s views that the individual is an outstanding investigator,
and the institution is making a long-term commitment to the proposal and the research. Any
resulting award will be made to the institution, not to the investigator.
d. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) –
NOTE: PECASE PROPOSALS ARE BY INVITATION ONLY! NO UNINVITED
PROPOSALS WILL BE CONSIDERED.
i. Description. The Army participates in the PECASE Program, which is the highest honor
bestowed by the U.S. Government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their
independent careers. These awards are made in conjunction with the White House following
recommendations from participating agencies. Awardees must be U.S. citizens, national, or
permanent residents and must be in the beginning of their independent research careers.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. An individual may not directly apply for a PECASE
award. Instead, once a year, ARO technical program managers will nominate PECASE
candidates from eligible proposals and whitepapers received. Proposals or whitepapers not
selected for PECASE consideration will otherwise be considered for award under this
solicitation. A technical program manager will make the PECASE nomination based on strong
endorsement of external scientific reviewers and on the potential shown by the individual to
contribute to science and to the mission of the Army.
At the time of nomination, the PECASE candidate must be in the beginning of their
independent research career, which is generally defined as either: in the first five years since
receiving their first competitively awarded federal research funding (Note: This excludes funds
secured during graduate school or postdoctoral training/fellowship and funds secured for
training, fellowship, education, or career development); or, in the first five years of a tenure-
track or equivalent academic or federal research position.
iii. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions. Following nomination of a PECASE candidate,
the applicant will be invited to negotiate with ARO and to submit a revised PECASE proposal
in which the candidate will indicate how PECASE funding would augment their research. The
following supporting information at minimum is required in the PECASE proposal:
(1) Letters (non-federal government) of recommendation;
(2) Detailed scientific biographical information including a description of the candidate’s
leadership in the scientific community;
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(3) Description of the proposed candidate’s publications (such as refereed journals, peer-
reviewed conference papers, and books or book chapters; however, this is not an inclusive list);
(4) Description of the candidate’s presentations (such as invited talks and plenary
presentations; however, this is not an inclusive list);
(5) Summary of the candidate’s past research accomplishments;
(6) Summary of the candidate’s community outreach efforts; and
(7) Letters of commitment from institution(s) of higher education.
iv. Funding Level. Army PECASE awards are made in the form of grants for up to $200,000
per year for up to five years. Support under PECASE is limited to five years from date of
award. Upon completion of the PECASE award, an individual, through their institution of
higher
education, may apply and be considered for continued support in the areas identified earlier in
the research areas of this BAA.
TPOC: Contact the relevant TPOC identified for a topic that aligns with the individual’s
research. The ARO TPOCs’ names and contact information are listed within each topic
description on the ARL BAA topics website identified in the research topics of this BAA.
e. Research Instrumentation (RI) Award
i. Description. RI awards are designed to improve the capabilities of U.S. institutions of higher
education or a nonprofit whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research to conduct
research and educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense. Funds
provided in this award may be used to purchase instrumentation in support of this research or in
the development of new research capabilities.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. RI awards are open to U.S. institutions of higher
education and nonprofit organizations whose primary research is conducting scientific research
in accordance with 31 USC §6306.
iii. RI and Research Topics. The RI program may provide funding to purchase
instrumentation in support of ARO research topics listed on the ARL BAA topics website at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/ or in the development of new research
capabilities. It is highly recommended that potential applicants contact the appropriate ARO
TPOC identified for a topic that aligns to this instrumentation proposal. The ARO TPOCs’
names and contact information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics
website.
iv. Funding Level. ARO highly encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs of appropriate
budget levels prior to the submission of RI proposals.
v. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for RI Awards.
The request for instrumentation shall include the following elements:
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(1) The “Project Abstract” is to describe the instrumentation requested and the research to be
supported by that instrumentation.
(2) The “Project Description (Technical Proposal)” is to describe how the proposed
instrumentation will: (i) establish new research capabilities, (ii) contribute to research currently
proposed to DoD, or (iii) enhance the quality of research currently being funded by ARL. It
will also include a description of how the proposed instrumentation will interface with or
upgrade other research facilities and instrumentation now available. Finally, a description will
be included of the amounts and sources of ongoing or proposed support for the research to be
supported by the instrumentation.
(3) In the “Cost Proposal,” the budget is to address the instrumentation to be purchased, cost
per item, and total cost. Indicate the proposed source of the instrumentation and the name and
telephone number of a contact at that source. The budget should indicate the amount of funds
to be contributed by any other sources toward the purchase of the instrumentation. Note: Costs
associated with equipment/facility modifications are generally considered unallowable and
require the review and approval of the Grants Officer.
f. Conference and Symposia Grant Award
i. Description. The Army supports conferences and symposia (as defined in the DoD
Travel Regulations) in areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research
or educational findings or to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new
research and educational techniques. The Army encourages the convening in the United
States of major international conferences, symposia, and assemblies of international
alliances.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. Notwithstanding the Army's authority to provide grant
support for such events DoD does not permit "co-sponsorship" (as defined in DoD 5500.07-R)
absent additional high-level staffing and approval. In other words, the conference grant support
identified in this BAA is not DoD sponsorship or co-sponsorship since ARL is neither an
organizer nor provider of any substantial logistical support for the conferences addressed in this
section. Funds provided cannot be used for payment to any federal government employee for
support, subsistence, or services in connection with the proposed conference or symposium.
iii. Connection with ARO Research Topics. The Army supports conferences and symposia in
areas of science that bring experts together to discuss recent research or educational findings or
to expose other researchers or advanced graduate students to new research and educational
techniques. It is highly recommended that potential applicants contact the appropriate TPOC
identified for a topic that aligns to the conference/symposia proposal. The ARO TPOCs’
names and contact information are listed within each topic description on the ARL BAA topics
website at https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/.
iv. Funding Level. ARO highly encourages discussions with ARO TPOCs of appropriate
budget levels prior to the submission of conference or symposia award applications.
v. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for Conference or Symposia Awards.
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(1) Conference support proposals should be submitted a minimum of six (6) months prior to the
date of the conference. A proposal will not be funded if the conference date has already passed.
(2) The “Project Description (Technical Proposal)”, as discussed in for support of a conference
or symposium should include the following:
 A one page or less summary indicating the objectives of the project;
 The topics to be covered;
 The location and probable date(s) and why the conference is considered appropriate at the
time specified;
 An explanation of how the conference will relate to the research interests of the Army and
how it will contribute to the enhancement and improvement of scientific, engineering,
and/or educational activities as outlined earlier in the research topic references in this
BAA and on the ARL website;
 The name of chairperson(s)/principal investigator (PI)(s) and his/her biographical
information;
 A list of proposed participants and the methods of announcement or invitation; and
(3) The “Cost Proposal” should include:
 Total project conference costs by major cost elements;
 Anticipated sources of conference income and amount from each source to document no
profit will accrue to the applicant;
 Anticipated use of funds requested; and
 A signed budget.
g. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) High School and Undergraduate
Internships
i. Description. 10 USC 2192 provides authority for the Army to support educational programs in
science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. The High School internships funds the Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) internship of promising rising high school juniors
and seniors to work in a university structured research environment under the direction of sponsored
principal investigators (PIs) serving as mentors. The Undergraduate internships provides similar
opportunities for undergraduate students. Only existing awards to institutions of higher education
will be considered for these internships. High School and Undergraduate participants must be U.S.
citizens or have permanent resident status. Funding support for these internships will be
accomplished as a modification to single investigator research grants, Multidisciplinary University
Research Initiative (MURIs), University-Affiliated Research Contracts (UARCs), and other
cooperative agreements managed by the Army that have at least 12 months period of performance
remaining from the date of an internship proposal submission. AEOP Internships program goals are
to:
1. Provide authentic science and engineering research experience to high school students
interested in pursuing STEM, and undergraduate students pursuing science and engineering
majors;
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2. Introduce students to the Army’s interest and investment in science and engineering research and
the associated educational opportunities available to students through the Army’s Educational
Outreach Program (AEOP) and DoD;
3. Provide students with experience in developing and presenting scientific research;
4. Provide students with experience to develop an independent research program in preparation for
research fellowships, graduate school, and careers in science and engineering research;
5. Provide opportunities for the student to benefit from the expertise of a scientist or engineer as a
mentor for professional and academic development purposes; and
6. Develop student’s skills and background to prepare them for competitive entry to science and
engineering undergraduate programs.
ii. Special Eligibility Requirements. The AEOP internships are designed as modification to
existing awards and limited funding is available annually for PIs interested in supporting an
internship. Funds provided by this program should be billed concurrently with work on the
base award to ensure prompt expenditure. Due to the brief duration of the internships and
limited funding we make every effort to maximize the number of student internship
opportunities.
iii. Special Proposal Preparation Instructions for AEOP High School and Undergraduate Internships.
To be considered for an internship modification, PIs should submit a short proposal (see instructions
below) that clearly articulates the meaningful research that the student will conduct in support of the
award, along with the strategy for PI mentorship and facilitation of follow-on opportunities (e.g.,
university attendance, participation in other AEOP opportunities and other research experiences,
etc). PIs must determine what aspect(s) of their current research program the student will be
working on, desired deliverables, and anticipated research outcomes based on the AEOP internships
program goals set forth above. PIs should describe who within their organization will be
responsible for day-to-day mentoring of the students (e.g. PI, research associate, graduate student,
etc.). If direct supervision of students will be someone other than the PI, the mentor’s resume or
curriculum vitae (CV) must be provided. The proposal should identify the expected gains for the
student and the organization for High School and Undergraduate participation in terms of technical
skills, scientific reasoning in specific domains, or publication opportunities. Follow-on
opportunities and relationships for students within the organization are encouraged and should be
outlined in the proposal.
Proposals should include provisions to pay High School students a stipend equivalent to
approximately $15 per hour and Undergraduate students a stipend equivalent to approximately $20
per hour; not to exceed 300 hours total per student. High School and Undergraduate students are
not considered university employees whose hours must be tracked and therefore stipends are not
required to be paid as an hourly wage but can be paid as a lump sum or divided as partial payments,
at the recipient’s discretion. With the exception of UARC and MURI awards, proposals should
generally be limited to two students per PI, although up to four students will be considered under a
single investigator if the proposal demonstrates sufficient senior research staffing to ensure effective
student guidance and mentoring. Proposals for UARC and MURI awards can include up to 6
students. Student stipends must be listed under “participant support costs” on ARO Form 99 as
described in Section II.H.2.e of this BAA.
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If more than one student is proposed by a PI, there must be a near equal mix of High School and
Undergraduate students. A proposal should not be for multiple Undergraduate students unless
approved by ARO. The institution of higher education must describe in its proposal how it will
ensure the protection of minors through provision of a safe working environment.
(1) Describing an Outreach Strategy and Student Application Process. A primary objective of
the AEOP internship is to expose new students to research opportunities in a research
laboratory. Thus, PIs must describe a plan to attract and engage students not related to the
PI (family member) or already working with the PI, laboratory, or research project. The
proposal shall also include a short description (3 to 5 sentences) of the project, its relation to
the award research and specific student requirements (GPA, letters of recommendation,
dates of the internship, etc.). For approved proposals, the project description and
requirements submitted by the PI will be placed on the AEOP website and used in addition
to the PIs outreach strategy to attract applicants. All student applications for the AEOP
Internship programs must be collected through the AEOP student application portal
(www.usaeop.com). After initial AEOP eligibility screening, applications will be forward
to the PI for evaluation and final candidate(s) selection. PIs must include in the proposal a
plan to conduct local outreach to promote awareness of the opportunity among
students/schools, and then direct them to the AEOP website to apply. AEOP Internships is
a commuter program and PIs are encouraged to perform outreach to students who are able
to commute daily. PIs and mentors must also complete a brief registration annually on the
AEOP website and complete two 21st Century Skills Assessment for each student
participant during the internship. Web links will be emailed to the PI before the start of the
internship. At the conclusion of the internship, student participants are required to develop a
brief (one-page) abstract of their work to be included in an AEOP program booklet. PIs
shall review and approve these abstracts before submission to ARO via an AEOP portal.
(2) Timeline. Consistent with the BAA, proposals for this targeted opportunity are accepted on
a rolling basis. PIs interested in receiving AEOP Internships funding should submit
proposals no later than (NLT) August 31 of the prior year to provide sufficient time for
proposal review, award processing, and student outreach/recruitment. For example, to
receive funding for use in summer 2025, proposals should be submitted by August 31,
2024. PIs will be notified of proposal evaluation results by mid-November and the student
application website will open no later than the first week of January through February.
(3) Additional Proposal Details. Proposals should not exceed three pages (excluding
supplemental information (budget, CVs, etc.) in length and must be submitted through
www.grants.gov utilizing solicitation number W911NF-23-S-0001. Complete forms
Standard Form (SF) 424, ARO Form 99 (clearly distinguishing high school students from
undergraduates) and upload the proposal as an attachment. Please include the title of the
research project, the grant number, and the specific number of High School and
Undergraduate opportunities requested on the first page of the proposal.
POC for this Targeted Opportunity: Ms. Ivory Chaney, usarmy.rtp.ccdc-arl.mbx.hsap-urap@army.mil,
(919) 549- 4323
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h. Visting Scientist Program (VSP)
The VSP supports short-term travel opportunities for foreign/ international scientists to the
United States and to international conferences to socialize new S&T ideas or findings with
the Army that support advancing basic research through collaboration.
POC for this Targeted Opportunity: RDECOM International Technology Center,
US.Army.Grants@army.mil
(End of Section)
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B. Federal Award Information
The ACC-APG RTP Division and ACC-APG Adelphi Contracting Division have the authority
to award a variety of instruments on behalf of ARL. Anticipated awards will be made in
the form of procurement contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, , other transactions
(OTs) for research, or OTs for prototypes. The ACC-APG RTP Division and ACC-APG
Adelphi Contracting Division will select the type of instrument most appropriate for the
effort proposed. Applicants should familiarize themselves with these instrument types and
the applicable regulations before submitting a proposal. The Following are brief descriptions
of the possible award instruments:
1. Procurement Contract. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6303, which
reflects a relationship between the Federal Government and a state government, a local
government, or other entity/contractor when the principal purpose of the instrument is to
acquire property or services for the direct benefit or use of the Federal Government.
Contracts are primarily governed by the following regulations:
a. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
b. Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS)
c. Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (AFARS)
2. Grant. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6304, is used to enter into a
relationship:
a. The principal purpose of which is to transfer a thing of value to the recipient to carry
out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law or the United States,
rather than to acquire property or services for the Federal Government’s direct benefit
or use.
b. In which substantial involvement is not expected between the Federal Government and
the recipient when carrying out the activity contemplated by the grant.
c. No fee or profit is allowed.
3. Cooperative Agreement. A legal instrument, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6305, is used to
enter into the same kind of relationship as a grant (see definition “grant”), except that
substantial involvement is expected between the Federal Government and the recipient
when carrying out the activity contemplated by the cooperative agreement. The term
does not include “cooperative research and development agreements” as defined in 15
U.S.C. 3710a. No fee or profit is allowed.
4. Other Transaction for Research. A legal instrument, consistent with 10 U.S.C. 4021,
which may be used for basic, applied, and advanced research projects. The research
covered under this instrument cannot be duplicative of research being conducted under an
existing DoD program. To the maximum extent practicable, OTs for research are to
provide for a 50/50 cost share between the Government and the applicant. An
applicant’s cost share may take the form of cash, independent research and development
(IR&D), foregone intellectual property rights, equipment, access to unique facilities,
and/or other means. Due to the extent of cost share, and the fact that an OT for research
does not qualify as a “funding agreement” as defined at 37 CFR 401.2(a), the intellectual
property provisions of this instrument can be negotiated to provide expanded protection
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to an applicant’s intellectual property. No fee or profit is allowed on OTs for research.
Please refer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and
Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version 2.0 dated July 2023 for additional
information. This document, along with additional other transaction agreement (OTA)
resources, may be accessed at the following link:
https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/other-policy-areas.html
5. Other Transaction for Prototype or Production. A legal instrument, consistent with 10
U.S.C. 4022, which provides DoD the flexibility necessary to adopt and incorporate
business practices that reflect commercial industry standards and best practices into its
award instruments. OTs for prototypes or production are not FAR-based procurement
contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or OTs for Research. OTs for prototypes or
production have specific applications and conditions for use (see Appendix C of the
Other Transactions Guide linked below). The effort covered under an OT cannot be
duplicative of effort being conducted under an existing DoD program. Follow-on
production contracts and/or an OT may be awarded to a Prototype Other Transaction
Awardee, if applicable. Please refer to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for
Acquisition and Sustainment Other Transaction Guide version 2.0 dated July 2023 for
additional information. This document, along with other OTA resources, may be
accessed at the following link: https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/other-
policy-areas.html
6. Grants and cooperative agreements for institutions of higher education, nonprofit
organizations, foreign organizations, and foreign public entities are primarily governed
by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. 2 CFR Part 200
d. 2 CFR Part 1104
e. 32 CFR Parts 21, 22, 26, and 28
f. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
g. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
7. Grants and cooperative agreements for for-profit and nonprofit organizations exempted
from Subpart E—Cost Principles of 2 CFR Part 200, are primarily governed by the
following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. 32 CFR Part 34 – Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with
For-Profit Organizations
d. 32 CFR Parts 21, 22, 26, and 28
e. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions
f. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions
8. OTs for Research are primarily governed by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
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c. Office of Secretary of Defense implementation guidance titled Other Transactions
(OT) Guide for Research Projects (July 2023, Version 2)
d. Guide to Research Other Transactions under 10 U.S.C. 4021 issued by the Office
of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering
9. OTs for Prototypes or Production are primarily governed by the following:
a. Federal statutes
b. Federal regulations
c. Office of Secretary of Defense implementation guidance titled Other Transactions
(OT) Guide for Prototype Projects (July 2023, Version 2)
10. The following websites may be accessed to obtain an electronic copy of the governing
regulations and terms and conditions:
a. FAR, DFARS, and AFARS: https://www.acquisition.gov
b. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): http://www.ecfr.gov
c. DoD Research and Development General Terms and Conditions:
https://www.nre.navy.mil/work-with-us/manage-your-award/manage-grant-
award/grants-terms-conditions
d. Agency-specific Research Terms and Conditions:
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/#terms-and-
conditions
(End of Section)
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C. Eligibility Information
1. Eligible Applicants
Unless noted in Section II.A.3 or as dictated by the award instrument type, eligible applicants
under this BAA include institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state and
local governments, foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and for-profit organizations
(i.e. large and small businesses). For ARO Targeted Opportunities, please see the specific
eligibility requirements in the II.A.3 ARO Targeted Opportunities section above. For specific
Other Transactions for Prototypes eligibility requirements, please see the “Other Transaction
for Prototype or Production” section within the II.B. Federal Award Information section.
2. Cost Sharing or Matching
Generally, there is no requirement for cost sharing, matching, or cost participation to be
eligible for award under this BAA. Cost sharing and matching is not an evaluation factor
used under this BAA. Exceptions may exist if the applicant is proposing the use of an OT for
research or prototype as an award instrument. Cost-sharing requirements may be found
within the specified Other Transactions regulations and Other Transaction Guides referenced
in this BAA.
In addition, if cost sharing is proposed on a grant or cooperative agreement proposal
submitted by a nonprofit or institution of higher education, the award will be subject to the
restrictions at 2 CFR 200.306. If cost sharing is proposed on a contract proposal, the award
will be subject to the restrictions at FAR 35.003
3. Other
Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) are subject to applicable
direct competition limitations and cannot propose to this solicitation in any capacity unless they
meet the following conditions. (1) FFRDCs must clearly demonstrate that the proposed work is
not otherwise available from the private sector. (2) FFRDCs must provide a letter, on official
letterhead from their sponsoring organization, that (a) cites the specific authority establishing
their eligibility to propose to Government solicitations and compete with industry, and (b)
certifies the FFRDC’s compliance with the associated FFRDC sponsor agreement’s terms and
conditions. These conditions are a requirement for FFRDCs proposing to be awardees or
subawardees.
University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) are eligible to submit proposals under this
BAA if their proposal contains a letter, on official letterhead, from their primary sponsor
concurring with the UARC’s proposal submission.
(End of Section)
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D. Application and Submission Information
1. Address to View Broad Agency Announcement
This BAA may be accessed via the following websites:
a. Grants.gov (www.grants.gov)
b. Contract Opportunities (sam.gov)
c. ARL website https://arl.devcom.army.mil/collaborate-with-us/opportunity/arl-baa/
Amendments to this BAA, if any, will be posted to these websites when they occur.
Supplemental information on topics, POCs, research areas, specific proposal rules and
requirements, and other relevant info may be disseminated through Special Notices posted
to the sam.gov Contract Opportunities website. Interested parties are encouraged to
periodically check these websites for updates and amendments.
Digital copies of submission forms can be downloaded from
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/. Paper copies of submission forms
are available upon request from the point of contact identified for a given topic.
The following information is for those wishing to respond to this BAA:
2. Content and Form of Application Submission
a. The Application Process Overview
Applicants are strongly encouraged to follow the below application process:
 Conduct a preliminary inquiry with an ARL TPOC
 Submit a Whitepaper to an ARL TPOC for review
 Submit a Full Proposal
All proposals for Assistance Instruments (Grants, Cooperative Agreements) must be submitted
electronically through Grants.gov using the Workspace system. Proposals for Procurement
Contracts, OTs for Research , and OTs for Prototypes or Production may be submitted via either
Grants.gov or email to usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.baa@army.mil. See II.D Application and
Submission Information section of this BAA for information on the proposal submission
process.
b. Preliminary Inquiries*
Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to make a preliminary inquiry by first contacting
the ARL TPOC to discuss your ideas and the interests of ARL. ARL receives several hundred
research proposals annually and is able to provide support for only a limited number of the
proposals received. ARL realizes the preparation of a research proposal often represents a
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substantial investment of time and effort by the applicant. Therefore, in an attempt to minimize
this burden, ARL TPOCs are available to discuss the general need for the type of research
effort contemplated and availability of funding before an interested applicant expends
extensive effort in preparing a whitepaper or full proposal. The TPOC names, telephone
numbers, and email addresses are listed with each research Topic at the ARL BAA topics
website, https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/ , and they should be contacted, as
appropriate, prior to the submission of whitepapers or proposals.
*NOTE: The Government will not be obligated by any discussion that arises out of
preliminary inquiries.
c. Whitepaper Preparation and Submission
i. PURPOSE OF WHITEPAPERS:
Prospective proposers are strongly encouraged to submit whitepapers prior to the submission of
a complete, more detailed proposal. The purpose of whitepapers is to minimize the labor and
cost associated with the production of detailed proposals that have very little chance of being
selected for funding. Whitepapers are not full proposals and are meant to provide the ARL
TPOC with enough information to determine if there is interest on the part of ARL to receive a
full proposal.
ii. WHITEPAPER CONTENT:
Whitepapers do not have a prescribed format but are not expected to exceed five (5) total pages
and are encouraged to be submitted as a single portable document format (PDF) document. The
whitepaper should include at a minimum the title of the whitepaper, name of the individual and
organization submitting the whitepaper, the research topic name, topic identification (ID)
number, and the TPOC name against which the whitepaper is submitted. Whitepapers should
focus on describing objective and approach of the proposed research, including how it is
innovative, and how it could substantially increase the scientific state of the art. Whitepapers
should contain a brief cost estimate to understand a rough order of magnitude of the proposal
cost, and any biographical information to highlight applicant’s qualifications and experience.
Any proprietary data must be clearly marked. The applicant must also identify any
technical data or computer software contained in the whitepaper that is to be managed by
the Government with restrictions, limited rights in technical data and restricted rights in
computer software. In the absence of such identification, the Government will conclude
there are no limitations or restrictions on technical data or computer software included in
the whitepaper. Records or data bearing a restrictive legend may be included in the
whitepaper. It is the intent of the Army to treat all whitepapers as procurement sensitive
and to disclose their contents to Government employees or designated support contractors
only for the purpose of evaluation.
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iii. SUBMISSION OF WHITEPAPERS:
Whitepapers should be submitted via email to the TPOC identified in the topic proposed
against. Whitepapers submitted via email are encouraged to be submitted as a single PDF file
as an email attachment. If no TPOC is specifically listed, prospective applicants can submit
information and questions using the ARL’s website Contact Us page at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/contact-us/ and selecting BAA Inquiry from the drop-down
menu for advice and assistance before preparing and submitting a whitepaper. In the
contact form subject line, include the phrase “BAA Whitepaper Submission,” and the
research topic name and topic ID number listed at the website.
iv. REVIEW OF WHITEPAPERS:
ARL TPOCs will receive and consider all whitepapers submitted and will provide a
response with either “encouraged to submit a proposal” or “not encouraged to submit a
proposal”.
d. Full Proposal Preparation and Submission
Proposals must be submitted in order for the applicant to be considered for funding.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit whitepapers (see instructions in II.D.2.c White
Paper Preparation and Submission section above) and received a recommendation from an
ARL TPOC to submit a proposal prior to submitting full proposals, however all proposals
submitted under the terms and conditions cited in this BAA will be reviewed regardless of the
recommendation received from the ARL TPOC, or lack of submission of a whitepaper.
i. COVER PAGE:
(1) A Cover Page is required. For contract proposals submitted by email, use ARO Form 51.
For all Assistance instruments and contract proposals submitted via Grants.gov, use the SF
424 (R&R) Form. Proposals will not be processed without either: (1) a signed Cover Page,
ARO Form 51, or (2) a SF 424 (R&R) Form.
(2) Should the project be carried out at a branch campus or other component of the
applicant, that branch campus or component should be identified in the space provided
(Block 11 on the ARO Form 51 and Block 12 on the SF 424 (R&R) Form).
(3) The title of the proposed project should be brief, scientifically representative, intelligible
to a scientifically-literate reader, and suitable for use in the public domain.
(4) The proposed duration for which support is requested should be consistent with the nature
and complexity of the proposed activity. For research topics listed at the ARL BAA topics
website, https://arl.devcom.army.mil/opportunities/arl-baa/, applicants shall discuss the
preferred performance period with the TPOC.
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(5) Specification of a desired starting date for the project is important and helpful; however,
requested effective dates cannot be guaranteed.
(6) Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 7701, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996
[Section 31001(I)(1), Public Law 104-134] and implemented by 32 CFR 22.420(d), federal
agencies shall obtain each awardees’ Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). The TIN is being
obtained for purposes of collecting and reporting on any delinquent amounts that may arise out
of an awardees’ relationship with the Government.
(7) Applicants must provide their organization's Unique Entity Identifier (UIE) (formerly
Data Universal Number System (DUNS)). This number is a nine-digit number assigned
by D&B Information Services. See Section II.D.3 of this BAA for requirements pertaining
to the Unique Entity Identifier.
(8) Applicants must provide their assigned Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE)
Code. The CAGE Code is a 5-character code assigned and maintained by the Defense
Logistics Service Center (DLSC) to identify a commercial plant or establishment.
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ii. TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Use the following format for the Table of Contents. Forms are available at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/
SECTION PAGE NUMBER
Table of Contents A-1
Statement of Disclosure Preference (Form 52 or 52A) B-1
Research and Related Other Project Information B-2
Project Abstract C-1
Project Description (Technical Proposal) D-1 - D-
Biographical Sketch E-1 - E-
Bibliography F-1 - F-
Current and Pending Support G-1 - G-
Facilities, Equipment, and Other Resources H-1 - H-
Proposal Budget I-1 - I-
Contract Facilities Capital Cost of Money (DD Form 1861) J-1
Appendices K-
List Appendix Items:
This format applies to all proposals submitted via email and via Grants.gov. Applicants
should show the location of each section of the proposal, as well as major subdivisions of the
project description.
iii. STATEMENT OF DISCLOSURE PREFERENCE (FORM 52 OR 52A): Complete and
sign ARO Form 52 (Industrial Contractors) or ARO Form 52A (Educational and Nonprofit
Organizations).
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iv. RESEARCH AND RELATED OTHER PROJECT INFORMATION: Must be completed
and signed by all applicants.
v. PROJECT ABSTRACT:
(1) The project abstract shall be completed on the form entitled “Publicly Releasable Project
Abstract” found at the following website: https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/
(2) Unless otherwise instructed in this BAA, the project abstract shall include a concise
statement of work and basic approaches to be used in the proposed effort. The abstract should
include a statement of scientific objectives, methods to be employed, and the significance of the
proposed effort to the advancement of scientific knowledge.
(3) The abstract should be no longer than one (1) page (maximum 4,000 characters).
(4) The project abstract shall be marked by the applicant as publicly releasable. By
submission of the project abstract, the applicant confirms that the abstract is releasable to the
public. For a proposal that results in a grant award, the project abstract will be posted to a
searchable website available to the general public to meet the requirements of Section 8123
of the DoD Appropriations Act, 2015. The website address is https://www.dtic.mil/.
vi. PROJECT DESCRIPTION (TECHNICAL PROPOSAL): The technical portion of
the proposal shall contain the following:
(1) A complete discussion stating the background and objectives of the proposed work, the
scientific approaches to be considered, the relationship to competing or related research, and
the level of effort to be employed. Include also the nature and extent of the anticipated results
and how they will significantly advance the scientific state-of-the-art. Also, if known, include
the manner in which the work will contribute to the accomplishment of the Army's mission.
Ensure the proposal identifies any scientific uncertainties and describes specific approaches for
the resolution or mitigation of the uncertainties.
(2) A brief description of your organization.
(3) The names of other federal, state, local agencies, or other parties receiving the proposal
and/or funding the proposed effort. If none, state so. Concurrent or later submission of the
proposal to other organizations will not prejudice its review by ARL if ARL is kept informed of
the situation.
(4) A statement regarding possible impact, if any, of the proposed effort on the environment,
considering as a minimum its effect upon water, atmosphere, natural resources, human
resources, and any other values.
(5) A statement regarding the use of Class I and Class II ozone- depleting substances. Ozone-
depleting substances are any substance designated as Class I by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), including but not limited to chlorofluorocarbons, halons, carbon tetrachloride,
25

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and methyl chloroform, and any substance designated as Class II by EPA, including but not
limited to hydrochlorofluorocarbons. See 40 CFR Part 82 for detailed information. If Class I
or II substances are to be utilized, a list shall be provided as part of the applicant's proposal. If
none, state so.
(6) The type of support, if any, requested by the applicant (e.g., facilities, equipment,
and materials).
vii. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
(1) This section shall contain the biographical sketches for key personnel only.
(a) Primary PI: The Primary PI provides a single or initial point of communication between
ARL and the awardee organization(s) about scientific matters. If not otherwise designated,
the first PI listed will serve as the Primary PI. This individual can be changed with
notification to ARL. ARL does not infer any additional scientific stature to this role among
collaborating investigators.
(b) Co-PIs: The individual(s) a research organization designates as having an appropriate
level of authority and responsibility for the proper conduct of the research and submission of
required reports to ARL. When an organization designates more than one PI, it identifies
them as individuals who share the authority and responsibility for leading and directing the
research, intellectually and logistically. ARL does not infer any distinction among multiple
PIs.
(2) The following information is required:
(a) Relevant experience and employment history including a description of any prior
Federal employment within one year preceding the date of proposal submission.
(b) List of up to five publications most closely related to the proposed project and up to
five other significant publications, including those being printed. Patents, copyrights, or
software systems developed may be substituted for publications.
(c) List of persons, other than those cited in the publications list, who have collaborated
on a project or a book, article, report or paper within the last four years. Include
pending publications and submissions. Otherwise, state "None."
(d) Names of each investigator's own graduate or post-graduate advisors and advisees.
NOTE: The information provided in (c) and (d) is used to help identify potential
conflicts or bias in the selection of reviewers.
(3) For the personnel categories of postdoctoral associates, other professionals, and students
(research assistants), the proposal may include information on exceptional qualifications of
these individuals that merit consideration in the evaluation of the proposal.
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(4) The biographical sketches are limited to three (3) pages per investigator and other
individuals that merit consideration.
viii. BIBLIOGRAPHY: A bibliography of pertinent literature is required. Citations must
be complete (including full name of author(s), title, and location in the literature).
ix. CURRENT AND PENDING SUPPORT:
This announcement requires all current and pending research support, as defined by Section 223
of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, must be disclosed at the time
of proposal submission, for all covered individuals. See Section F.2.b.x for additional
information on this requirement.
(1) All project support from whatever source must be listed. The list must include all projects
requiring a portion of the PI's and other key personnel's time, even if they receive no salary
support from the project(s).
(2) The information should include, as a minimum: (i) the project/proposal title and brief
description, (ii) the name and location of the organization or agency presently funding the work
or requested to fund such work, (iii) the award amount or annual dollar volume of the effort, (iv)
the period of performance, and (v) a breakdown of the time required of the PI and/or other key
personnel.
x. FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT, AND OTHER RESOURCES: The applicant should include
in the proposal a listing of facilities, equipment, and other resources already available to
perform the research proposed.
xi. PROPOSAL BUDGET (including DD Form 1861):
(1) Each proposal must contain a budget for each year of support requested and a cumulative
budget for the full term of requested support. Each budget year and the cumulative budget for
the full term must be documented on ARO Form 99. ARO Form 99 may be reproduced, but you
may not make substitutions in prescribed budget categories nor alter or rearrange the cost
categories as they appear on the form. The proposal may request funds under any of the
categories listed so long as the item is considered necessary to perform the proposed work and is
not precluded by applicable cost principles. In addition to the forms, the budget proposal should
include budget justification for each year.
(2) A signed summary budget page must be included. The documentation pages should be titled
"Budget Explanation Page" and numbered chronologically starting with the budget form. The
need for each item should be explained clearly.
(3) All cost data must be current and complete. Costs proposed must conform to the
following principles and procedures:
Institutions of Higher Education: 2 CFR Part 200
Nonprofit Organizations*: 2 CFR Part 200
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For-Profit/Commercial Organizations: FAR Part 31, DFARS Part 231, FAR Subsection
15.403-5, and DFARS Subsection 215.403-5.
*For those nonprofit organizations specifically exempt from the provisions of Subpart E of 2 CFR
Part 200 (see 2 CFR 200.401(c)), FAR Part 31 and DFARS Part 231 shall apply.
(4) Sample itemized budgets and the information they must include for a contract and for
grants and cooperative agreements can be found at Section II.H of this BAA (Other
Information). Before award of a cost-reimbursement type contract or assistance instrument it
must be established that an approved accounting system and financial management system
exist.
xii. APPENDICES: Some situations require that special information and supporting
documents be included in the proposal before funding can be approved. Such information and
documentation should be included by appendix to the proposal.
(1) To evaluate compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C.
A Section 1681 Et. Seq.), the Department of Defense is collecting certain demographic
and career information to be able to assess the success rates of women who are
proposed for key roles in applications in STEM disciplines. To enable this assessment,
each application must include the following forms completed as indicated.
(A) Research and Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) form:
The Degree Type and Degree Year fields on the Research and Related Senior/Key Person
Profile (Expanded) form will be used by DoD as the source for career information. In
addition to the required fields on the form, applicants must complete these two fields for all
individuals that are identified as having the project role of PD/PI or Co-PD/PI on the form.
Additional senior/key persons can be added by selecting the “Next Person” button.
(B) Research and Related Personal Data form:
This form will be used by DoD as the source of demographic information, such as gender,
race, ethnicity, and disability information for the Project Director/Principal Investigator and
all other persons identified as Co-Project Director(s)/Co-Principal Investigator(s). Each
application must include this form with the name fields of the Project Director/Principal
Investigator or any Co-Project Director(s)/Co-Principal Investigator(s) completed;
however, provision of the demographic information in the form is voluntary. If completing
the form for multiple individuals, each Co-Project Director/Co-Principal Investigator can
be added by selecting the “Next Person” button. The demographic information, if
provided, will be used for statistical purposed only and will not be made available to merit
reviewers. Applicants who do not wish to provide some or all of the information should
check or select the “Do not wish to provide” option.
(2) Data Management Plan: A data management plan is a document that describes which
data generated through the course of the proposed research will be shared and preserved,
how it will be done, or explains why data sharing or preservation is not possible or
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scientifically appropriate, or why the costs of sharing or preservation are incommensurate
with the value of doing so. See also: DoD Instruction 3200.12. In no more than 2 pages
set forth as a separate PDF document, discuss the following:
 The types of data, software, and other materials to be produced.
 How the data will be acquired.
 Time and location of data acquisition, if scientifically pertinent.
 How the data will be processed.
 The file formats and the naming conventions that will be used.
 A description of the quality assurance and quality control measures during
collection, analysis, and processing.
 A description of dataset origin when existing data resources are used.
 A description of the standards to be used for data and metadata format and
content.
 Appropriate timeframe for preservation.
 The plan may consider the balance between the relative value of data preservation
and other factors such as the associated cost and administrative burden. The plan
will provide a justification for such decisions.
 A statement that the data cannot be made available to the public when there are
national security or controlled unclassified information concerns (e.g., “This data
cannot be cleared for public release in accordance with the requirements in DoD
Directive 5230.09.”)
(3) With the application, the Applicant must provide the following “Privacy Act Statement”
consent form for each Covered Individual in the proposal. This form must also be signed
by the Applicant as that Individual’s Sponsor.
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Privacy Act Statement
Army Futures Command or Department of the Army
Application for Federal Assistance
Authority: Government Paperwork Elimination Act (Pub. L. 105-277, 44 U.S.C. 3504); Executive Order 12372,
Intergovernmental review of Federal Programs (47 FR 30959); 42 U.S. Code § 6605 – Disclosure of funding
sources in applications for Federal research and development awards; Public Law 117-167, CHIPS and Science
Act; Public Law 116-92, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020; 5 U.S.C. 9101, Access to
Criminal History for National Security and Other Purposes 5 CFR §1320.8, Agency collection of information
Responsibility; 18 U.S.C. § 1001, False Statements, Concealment; E.O. 13478, Amendments to Executive Order
9397 Related to Federal Use of social Security Numbers; NSPM-33, National Security Presidential Memorandum
33 on National Security for United States Research and Development; DoD-D 5240.01, DoD Intelligence
Activities; DoD-I 5200.02, Department of Defense Personnel Security Program; Army Regulation 381-10, U.S.
Army Intelligence Activities
Purpose: The information collected may be used in processing, investigating, and maintaining records relevant to
Federal Assistance awarded by the Department of the Army. Records in these systems will be used to ensure
Army sponsored and/or awarded federal grants, assistance, contracts, and/or benefits are awarded to responsible
parties, entities, and individuals.
Routine Uses: To contractors, grantees, experts, consultants, students, and others performing or working on a
contract, service, grant, cooperative agreement, or other assignment for the Federal Government when necessary
to accomplish an agency function.
To the appropriate Federal, State, local, territorial, tribal, foreign, or international law enforcement authority or
other appropriate entity where a record, either alone or in conjunction with other information, indicates a
violation or potential violation of law, whether criminal, civil, or regulatory in nature.
DoD Blanket Routine Use (http://dpcld.defense.gov/privacy)
Effect of not providing information: Providing information to the Department of the Army is voluntary.
However, 42 U.S. Code § 6605, which imposes certain disclosure requirements in connection with Federal
research and development awards, provides various enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance. One such
mechanism, which the Department of the Army intends to pursue here, is rejection of such applications.
Proposal Title (or grants.gov number): ____________________________
Acknowledgment of consent:
Covered individual (Signature): ______________________________ Date: ___________
Covered individual (Name print): ______________________________
Institution’s Authorized Representative (Signature): _______________________ Date: ___________
Institution’s Authorized Representative (Name print): ______________________________
Institution Name: ________________________________
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e. General Information
i. Classified Submissions: Proposals containing classified information are not accepted under
this BAA. However, proposals may discuss the need to access or generate controlled
unclassified information (CUI) or classified information for the proposed work. Where an award
requires access to classified information, clause 52.204-2 will be included in the award, as well
as a DD254, if issued. When an award requires access to CUI, DFARS Clause 252.204-7012
will be included in the award, as well as additional ARL specific requirements as determined
necessary. For questions regarding the potential for access to classified information and/or
controlled unclassified information, please coordinate with the TPOC for that topic area prior to
whitepaper or proposal submission.
ii. Post-Employment Conflict of Interest: There are certain post-employment restrictions on
former federal employees, including special government employees (18 U.S.C. 207). If a
prospective applicant believes a conflict of interest may exist, the situation should be discussed
with the TPOC listed in the BAA for their topic of scientific research who will then coordinate
with appropriate ARL legal counsel prior to the applicant expending time and effort in preparing
a proposal.
iii. Statement of Disclosure Preference: In accordance with Section II.D.2.e.iii of this BAA,
Form 52 or 52A shall be completed stating your preference for release of information contained
in your proposal. Copies of these forms may be downloaded from the ARL web site at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/.
NOTE: Submissions may be handled for administrative purposes by support contractors.
These support contractors are prohibited from submitting proposals under this BAA and are
bound by non-disclosure and/or conflict of interest requirements as deemed appropriate.
Applicants are cautioned, however, that portions of a submission may be subject to release
under terms of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, as amended.
iv. Equipment (see instrument-specific regulations provided in Section II.B of this BAA):
Normally, in accordance with 31 USC 6306, title to equipment or other tangible property
purchased with Government funds vests with nonprofit institutions of higher education or with
nonprofit organizations whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research if vesting will
facilitate scientific research performed for the Government. For-profit organizations are expected
to possess the necessary plant and equipment to conduct the proposed research. Deviations may
be made on a case-by-case basis to allow for-profit organizations to purchase equipment but
regulatory disposition instructions will be included in the award.
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f. Submission of Proposals
Requests for waiver of electronic submission requirements may be submitted via email to:
usarmy.rtp.devcom-arl.mbx.baa@army.mil or regular mail:
Army Research Office
ATTN: FCDD-RLR (Proposal Processing)
P.O. Box 12211
RTP, NC 27709-2211
All required forms for proposals may be downloaded from the ARL website at
https://arl.devcom.army.mil/resources/baa-forms/.
All proposals for Assistance Instruments (Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and OTs) must be
submitted electronically through Grants.gov using the Workspace system. Proposals for
Contracts and OTs may be submitted via either Grants.gov or email. Proposals must be
submitted through the applicant’s organizational office having responsibility for
Government business relations. All signatures must be that of an official authorized to
commit the organization in business and financial affairs.
Proposal content requirements remain the same for both email and Grants.gov submission.
i. EMAIL SUBMISSION:
(1) Proposals requesting a Contract or OTs may be emailed directly to usarmy.rtp.devcom-
arl.mbx.baa@army.mil, do not email full proposals to the TPOC. Proposals for assistance
agreements cannot be sent via email, see below for submission of Assistance agreement
proposals through Grants.gov.
(2) The applicant must include with its proposal submission the representations required by Section
II.F.2.a.i of this BAA. The representations must include applicant POC information and be signed
by an authorized representative. Note: If the applicant’s online SAM Representations and
Certifications include its response to the representations, a hard copy representation is not required
with proposal submission.
(3) All forms requiring signature must be completed, printed, signed, and scanned into a PDF
document. All documents must be combined into a single PDF formatted file to be attached
to the email.
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ii. GRANTS.GOV SUBMISSION:
(1) Proposals requesting Assistance agreements must be submitted via Grants.gov; proposals
requesting a Contract or OT may be submitted either via Grants.gov or email (instructions
above).
(2) Grants.gov Registration must be accomplished prior to application submission in Grants.gov.
Each organization that desires to submit applications via Grants.Gov must complete a one-time
registration. There are several one-time actions your organization must complete in order to
submit applications through Grants.gov (e.g., obtain a Unique Entity Identifier, register with the
SAM, register with the credential provider, register with Grants.gov and obtain approval for an
authorized organization representative (AOR) to submit applications on behalf of the
organization). To register please see https://www.grants.gov/applicants/applicant-registration
Please note the registration process for an Organization or an Individual can take between
three to five business days or as long as four weeks if all steps are not completed in a timely
manner.
Questions relating to the registration process, system requirements, how an application form
works, or the submittal process should be directed to Grants.gov at 1-800-518-4726 or
support@grants.gov.
NOTE: All web links referenced in this section are subject to change by Grants.gov and may not
be updated here.
(3) Specific forms are required for submission of a proposal. The forms are contained in the
Application Package available at http://www.grants.gov under the specific opportunity you are
submitting under. When viewing an opportunity, select the "Package” tab and then select
"View." A Grant Application Package and Application Instructions are available for this BAA
through the Grants.gov Apply portal under Assistance Listing Number 12.431/Funding
Opportunity Number W911NF-23-S-0001. To apply, select “Apply” and then “Apply Now
Using Workspace.”
*NOTE: Effective 31 December 2017, applicants must apply online at Grants.gov using the
application Workspace. For access to complete instructions on how to apply for opportunities
using Workspace refer to https://www.grants.gov/applicants/workspace-overview.
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The following documents are mandatory: (1) Application for Federal Assistance (R&R) (SF 424
(R&R)), and (4) Attachments form.
(4) The SF 424 (R&R) form is to be used as the cover page for all proposals submitted via
Grants.gov. The SF 424 (R&R) must be fully completed. AOR usernames and passwords serve
as “electronic signatures” when your organization submits applications through Grants.gov. By
using the SF 424 (R&R), proposers are providing the certification required by 32 CFR Part 28
regarding lobbying (see Section II.F.2.a.ii of this BAA). Block 11, “Descriptive Title of
Applicant’s Project,” must reference the research topic area being addressed in the effort by
identifying the specific paragraph from Section II.A of this BAA.
(5) The Attachments form must contain the documents outlined in Section II.D.2.e.ii entitled
“Table of Contents”. All documents must be combined into separate and single PDF formatted
files using the Table of Contents names. Include “W911NF-23-S-0001” in the title so the
proposal will be distinguished from other BAA submissions and upload each document to the
mandatory Attachments form.
(6) The applicant must include with its proposal submission the representations required by
Section II.F.2.a.ii of this BAA. The representations must include applicant POC information and
be signed by an authorized representative. Attach the representations document to an available
field within the Attachments form. Note: If the applicant’s online SAM Representations and
Certifications include its response to the representations, a hard copy representation is not
required with proposal submission.
(7) The Grants.gov User Guide at:
https://www.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm will assist
AORs in the application process. Remember that you must open and complete the Application
for Federal Assistance (R&R) (SF 424 (R&R)) first, as this form will automatically populate data
fields in other forms. If you encounter any problems, contact customer support at 1-800-518-
4726 or at support@grants.gov. If you forget your username or password, follow the
instructions provided in the Credential Provider tutorial. Tutorials may be printed by right-
clicking on the tutorial and selecting “Print”.
(8) As it is possible for Grants.gov to reject the proposal during this process, it is strongly
recommended that proposals be uploaded at least two days before any established deadline in the
BAA so that they will not be received late and be ineligible for award consideration. It is also
recommended to start uploading proposals at least two days before the deadline to plan ahead for
any potential technical and/or input problems involving the applicant’s own equipment.
3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management (SAM)
a. Each applicant (unless the applicant is an individual or Federal awarding agency that is
exempt from those requirements under 2 CFR 25.110(b) or (c), or has an exemption approved
by the Federal awarding agency under 2 CFR 25.110(d)) is required to:
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i. Provide a valid unique entity identifier (formerly DUNS) in its application. Please
verify the accuracy of your Unique Entity Identifier (formerly DUNS) at the Dun and
Bradstreet (D&B) website http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform before registering with the
System for Award Management System (SAM).
ii. Be registered in SAM at https://www.sam.gov prior to submitting its application; and
iii. Maintain an active SAM registration with current information at all times during
which it has an active Federal award or an application or plan under consideration
by a Federal awarding agency.
b. The SAM obtains Legal Business Name, Doing Business Name (DBA), Physical Address, and
Postal Code/ Zip+4 data fields from D&B. If corrections are required, registrants will not be
able to enter/modify these fields in SAM; they will be pre-populated using D&B Unique Entity
Identifier record data. When D&B confirms the correction has been made, the registrant must
then re-visit sam.gov and click a “yes”' to D&B's changes. Only at this point will the D&B data
be accepted into the SAM record. Allow a minimum of two (2) business days for D&B to send
the modified data to SAM.
c. The Federal awarding agency may not make a Federal award to an applicant until the
applicant has complied with all applicable unique entity identifier and SAM requirements. If an
applicant has not fully complied with the requirements by the time the Federal awarding agency
is ready to make a Federal award, the Federal awarding agency may determine that the applicant
is not qualified to receive a Federal award and use that determination as a basis for making a
Federal award to another applicant.
4. Submission Dates and Times
a. Proposals
Proposals will be considered until and including the closing date of this announcement (see cover
page of this announcement for opening/closing dates). Proposals submitted after the closing date
will not be considered by the Government under this announcement.
b. Proposal Receipt Notices
i. Grants.gov: After a proposal is submitted to Grants.gov, the AOR will receive a series of three
emails from Grants.gov. The first two emails will be received within 24 to 48 hours after
submission. The first email will confirm time of receipt of the proposal by the Grants.gov system
and the second will indicate that the proposal has either been successfully validated by the system
prior to transmission to the grantor agency or has been rejected due to errors. A third email will
be received once the grantor agency has confirmed receipt of the proposal. Reference the
Grants.gov User Guide at
https://www.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm for
information on how to track your application package.
For the purposes of this BAA, an applicant’s proposal is not considered received by ARL until the
AOR receives email #3.
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ii. Email Submission: After a proposal is submitted to usarmy.rtp.devcom-
arl.mbx.baa@army.mil, the AOR will receive an email confirming time of receipt of the proposal
by the receiving agency. For the purposes of this BAA, an applicant’s proposal is not considered
received by the grantor agency until the AOR receives the email confirming receipt of the
proposal.
5. Intergovernmental Review
Not Applicable
6. Funding Restrictions
Other than the restrictions referenced in Section II.A.3, there are no other funding restrictions
associated with this BAA (e.g. direct costs, indirect costs, etc.).
7. Other Submission Requirements
a. Information to Be Requested from Successful Applicants: Applicants whose proposals are
accepted for funding will be contacted before award to provide additional information
required for award. The required information may include requests to clarify budget
explanations, representations, certifications, and some technical aspects.
b. For Contracts Only: Performance Work Statements (PWS). Prior to award the Contracting
Officer may request that the contractor submit a PWS for the effort to be performed, which
will be incorporated into the contract at the time of award.
c. Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI): In accordance with the Federal Acquisition
Regulations (FAR) Subpart 9.5, Organizational and Consultant Conflicts of Interest (OCI)
and 2 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §200.112, there is the potential for the Applicant to
have an OCI if the Applicant has a pending or current Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA)
agreement with ARL. The Applicant will need to identify and address mitigation measures
for an OCI due to the IPA agreement as part of their submission under this BAA. Failure to
include an OCI plan may result in the proposal being rejected for consideration of funding.
(End of Section)
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E. Proposal Review Information
1. Evaluation Criteria
a. Proposals submitted against a BAA research topic and the ARO SI will be
evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
b. ARO Proposals submitted for STIR will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
c. ARO Proposals submitted for ECP will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
iv. Long-term commitment by the institution of higher education to the early
career investigator and the proposed research.
d. ARO Proposals packages invited for PECASE will be evaluated by external scientific
reviewers and by an Army PECASE Evaluation Committee using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. Scientific Leadership.
iii. Publications.
iv. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
v. Presentations.
vi. Commitment letters from institutions of higher education.
vii. Community Outreach.
e. ARO Proposals submitted for RI will be evaluated using the following criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
proposed objectives.
iv. The applicant’s capabilities, related experience, facilities, techniques, or
unique combinations of these, which are integral factors for achieving the
proposed objectives.
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f. Proposals submitted for Conference Grants will be evaluated using the following
criteria:
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of proposed
conference/symposia activities.
ii. The potential contributions of the conference/symposia activities to the
Army mission.
iii. The qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team
leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the
conference/symposia.
g. Proposals submitted in response to the AEOP High School and Undergraduate
Internships program will be evaluated using the criteria listed below (in descending
order of importance):
i. The overall scientific and/or technical merits of the proposal.
ii. The potential contributions of the effort to the Army mission.
iii. Educational merit to include the proposed student research, mentorship strategy,
anticipated outcomes for the student and applicant, student qualifications, and
number of proposed students.
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2. Review and Selection Process
a. Upon receipt of a proposal, ARL staff will perform an initial review of its scientific merit and
potential contribution to the Army mission, and also determine if funds are expected to be
available for the effort. Proposals not considered having sufficient scientific merit or relevance to
the Army's needs, or those in areas for which funds are not expected to be available, may not
receive further review.
b. All proposals are treated as procurement sensitive and are disclosed only for the purpose of
evaluation. Proposals having sufficient scientific merit or relevance will be subject to a peer
review by highly qualified subject matter experts, both Government employees and non-
Government employees. While the applicant may restrict the evaluation to Government
employees, to do so may prevent review of the proposal by other qualified experts in the field of
research covered by the proposal. The applicant must indicate on the appropriate proposal form
(Form 52 or 52A) any limitation to be placed on disclosure of information contained in the
proposal.
c. Each proposal will be evaluated based on the evaluation criteria in Section II.E.1 of this BAA
rather than against other proposals for research in the same general area. Each evaluated
proposal will receive a recommendation of “select” or “do not select” as supported by the
evaluation.
d. Upon completion of an evaluation against the criteria in Section II.E.1, a proposal selected
for possible award will be analyzed for the realism and reasonableness of costs and funds
availability. Proposal costs must be determined reasonable and realistic before the Government
can make an award.
e. Army Research Risk Assessment. Each proposal with a recommendation to “select” in
accordance with II.E.2.c above, whose costs have been determined to be reasonable and
realistic in accordance with II.E.2.d above, for which funds are available, and where a grant or
cooperative agreement will be the award instrument type, will be subject to an Army Research
Risk Assessment prior to award.
i. The Army Research Risk Assessment Program. The Army Research Risk Assessment
Program (ARRP) is an adaptive risk management security program applied to Army-
funded research designed to help protect Army Science and Technology (S&T) by
identifying possible vectors of undue foreign influence.
In order to identify and mitigate undue foreign influence as required by federal law and
policy, the Army will perform a research risk assessment of each proposal selected
based on the criteria above for consideration of a fundamental research grant or
cooperative agreement award. ARRP risk assessments for these subject proposals will
be developed for all proposed Senior/Key personnel, (also referred to as “Covered
Individuals”). These risk assessments will be based on information disclosed in the
Standard Form (SF) 424, “Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded),” any of its
accompanying or referenced documents, publicly available information, and
information contained in internal Army databases. Nationality or citizenship is not a
factor in the risk assessment.
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ARRP has a risk matrix which identifies risk factors and resulting risk ratings. The
matrix generally looks at four factors, or risk areas: participation in foreign talent
programs; denied entity list affiliation or association (see
https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/the-denied-persons-list and
https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/policy-guidance/lists-of-parties-of-concern/entity-
list); funding sources to include conflict of interest or conflict of commitment, or
funding from a strategic competitor; and foreign influence showing a pattern or history
of affiliation, association, or collaboration with a foreign institution, person or entity
from a U.S. strategic competitor. The matrix is set forth below:
Identified Specific Actions of the Senior/Key Personnel
Rating
Foreign Talent Denied Entities Funding Foreign
Program Institutions
Indicators of Indicators of an Indicators of active Indicators of active
active (ongoing) active (ongoing) (ongoing) conflict of (ongoing) direct
participation or affiliation or past interest, conflict of affiliation,
HIGH sponsorship in a affiliation or commitment, or association or
strategic present pattern of direct collaboration with
competitor association with funding from a a foreign
Foreign Talent an entity on the strategic competitor institution, person,
Program U.S. Gov’t or country with or entity from a
denied entity or history of targeting strategic
person list or EO U.S. research or competitor
13959 or technology
subsequent
similar issuances
Indicators of past Indicators of past Indicators of any Indicators of a
participation in a association with history or history or pattern
Foreign Talent an entity nonconsecutive of association or
MODERATE Program with a identified in the pattern of, conflict of collaboration with
U.S. strategic U.S. Gov’t interest, conflict of foreign institution,
competitor, or denied entity or commitment, or person, or entity
country with a person list or EO funding from a from a strategic
history of 13959 or strategic competitor competitor or
targeting U.S. subsequent or country with country with
research or similar issuances history of targeting history of targeting
technology U.S. research or U.S. research or
technology technology
No participation No indicators of No indicators of past No indicators of an
in a Foreign past or current funding from a association or
LOW Talent Program association or strategic competitor collaboration with
affiliation with or country with a foreign
an entity on the history of targeting institution, person,
U.S. Gov’t U.S. research or or entity from a
denied entity or technology strategic
person list or EO competitor or
13959 or country with
subsequent history of targeting
similar issuances U.S. research or
technology
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• Affiliation is academic, professional, or institutional appointments or positions
with a foreign government-connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntary (including adjunct, visiting, honorary, or lectures/visits) where direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
• Association is academic, professional, or institutional appointments or positions
with a foreign government-connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntary (including adjunct, visiting, honorary, or lectures/visits) where no direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
• Collaboration is academic, professional, or institutional agreement to jointly
work together with a foreign government- connected entity, whether full-time, part-time, or voluntarily, in an official or unofficial capacity. Co-authorship in research endeavors is an example of collaboration.
• Strategic competitors are those adversaries identified in the current year
Annual Threat Assessment report from Director of National Intelligence. The 2021 assessment was published on April 9, 2021 and can be found at https://www.dni.gov.
• Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment are defined in NSPM-33 and
in the CONOP as well as the AFC ARRP Policy memorandum.
• Senior/Key Personnel are those who (a) contribute in a substantive, meaningful
way to the scientific development or execution of a research and development project proposed to be carried out with a research and development award from a Federal research agency; and (b) are designated as a covered individual by the Federal research agency concerned. ARRP risk ratings range from LOW to HIGH depending on the amount, type, and timing of foreign associations or affiliations that could constitute a foreign-influenced “Conflict of Interest” or “Conflict of Commitment,” as defined by National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33). Once the research risk assessments are performed, the Army risk acceptance authority has several courses of action available for consideration. These courses of action are as follows: Course of Action 1 - The Army risk acceptance authority may accept the risk rating that results from the risk assessment process and proceed with the award. This typically happens with proposals with risk ratings of “LOW” but could also happen with the other risk ratings. In Course of Action 1, the applicant will not be required to do anything related to the risk assessment process or the assigned risk rating. Course of Action 2 - The Army risk acceptance authority may accept the risk rating with some research protection requirements added to the grant or cooperative agreement award. This typically happens with proposals with risk ratings of “MODERATE” but 41

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could also happen with the other risk ratings. Also, typically, these added research
protection requirements could include, but be limited to the following in the grant or
cooperative agreement award:
o The University's Security Office shall provide the Principal Investigator and key
personnel related to this award training on foreign talent recruitment programs
and threat awareness and reporting requirements.
o The University shall disclose to the Army Research Laboratory Security Office
and Grants Officer all international travel, i.e., all international travel completed
as part of any university business, by the Principal Investigator and key personnel
related to this award instrument prior to travel.
o The University shall report to the Army Research Laboratory Security Office and
Grants Officer all inquiries by foreign operatives or suspected foreign operatives
into research associated with the award.
o The University is encouraged to utilize students without potential conflicts of
interest or conflicts of commitment as identified in U.S. National Security
Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-33).
Under Course of Action 2, the applicant will be asked to sign the grant or cooperative
agreement prior to award, confirming agreement to these added requirements. Should
the applicant not agree to these added research protection requirements, the Army risk
assessment authority may decide not to award.
Course of Action 3 - The Army risk acceptance authority is not willing to accept the
risk assigned as a result of the assessment process. In this case, the applicant will be
provided an opportunity to provide a risk mitigation plan. This typically happens with
proposals with risk ratings of “HIGH” but could also happen with the other risk ratings.
In Course of Action 3, the applicant will be informed of the risk rating assigned during
the risk assessment process as well as the block(s) on the matrix where the review
resulted in some type of finding that contributed to the assigned risk rating. Should the
applicant choose to not submit a risk mitigation plan, the Army risk assessment
authority may decide not to award. Should the applicant choose to submit a risk
mitigation plan, the Army will review such plan. As a result of this review, the Army
risk acceptance authority may then be willing to accept the risk assigned with the
mitigation plan and proceed with the award or the Army risk acceptance authority may
not be willing to accept the risk and may decide not to award. Further, should the risk
mitigation plan include proposal revisions that affect those aspects of the proposal
included in the review or selection process under SECTION II.E.2.c, the original
proposal evaluation will be reviewed and revised as appropriate based on the proposal
revisions.
ii. Actions Required by Applicants.
(1) By submission of this application and authorized signature on the SF 424
(R&R) Form, the Applicant agrees to comply with the following
requirements:
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 To certify that each covered individual who is listed on the application
has been made aware: (1) of all relevant disclosure requirements,
including the requirements of 42 U.S.C. § 6605; and (2) that false
representations may be subject to prosecution and liability pursuant to,
but not limited to, 18 U.S.C. §§287, 1001, 1031 and 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-
3733 and 3802. See National Science and Technology Council
Guidance for Implementing National Security Presidential
Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33) on National Security Strategy for United
States Government-Supported Research and Development (January
2022), at p. 7 (available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2022/01/010422-NSPM-33-Implementation-
Guidance.pdf).
 To establish and maintain an internal process or procedure to address
foreign talent programs, conflicts of commitment, conflicts of interest,
and research integrity.
 To exercise due diligence to identify Foreign Components or
participation by Senior/Key Personnel in Foreign Government Talent
Recruitment Programs and agree to share such information with the
Government upon request.
(2) With the application, the Applicant must provide a completed “Privacy Act
Statement” consent form for each Covered Individual that is also signed by
the Applicant as that Individual’s Sponsor. The “Privacy Act Statement”
form is included at SECTION II.D.2.d.xii (3) of this BAA.
(3) During the award period of performance:
 If, at any time, during performance of this award, the Recipient learns
that its Senior/Key Research Personnel (including any subawardee
personnel who receive this designation) are or are believed to be
participants in a Foreign Government Talent Program or have Foreign
Components with a strategic competitor or country with a history of
targeting U.S. technology for unauthorized transfer, the recipient will
notify the Government or Grants Officer within 5 business days of
awareness.
 This disclosure must include specific information as to the personnel
involved and the nature of the situation and relationship. The
Government will review this information and conduct any necessary
fact-finding or discussion with the Recipient. The Government’s
determination on disclosure may include acceptance, mitigation, or
termination of the award.
 Failure of the Recipient to reasonably exercise due diligence to discover
or ensure that neither it nor any of its Senior/Key Research Personnel
involved in the subject award are participating in a Foreign Government
Talent Program or have a Foreign Component with a strategic
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competitor or country with a history of targeting U.S. technology for
unauthorized transfer may result in the Government exercising remedies
in accordance with federal law and regulation.
 The provisions concerning this disclosure will be included in each
award.
 The Recipient will be required to flow down this provision to all sub
awardees who have personnel designated as Senior/Key Research
Personnel as a result of their involvement in the performance of the
research.
iii.Actions Required by Covered Individuals.
Federal law requires that all current and pending research support, as defined by 42 U.S.C.
§6605, must be disclosed at the time of proposal submission, for all covered individuals.
The Government may require an updated disclosure during the performance of any research
project selected for funding. The Government will require an updated disclosure whenever
covered individuals are added or identified as performing under the funded project. See
definition of “Covered Individuals” below.
Covered Individuals are also required to sign the “Privacy Act Statement” and provide such
signed statement to the applicant for submission with the proposal.
Any decision to accept a proposal for funding under this announcement will include full
reliance on the individual’s statements. Failure to report fully and completely all sources of
project support and outside positions and affiliations may be considered a material statement
within the meaning of the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. 3729, and constitute a violation of
Federal law.
iv.Privacy Act Compliance. All information collected and developed for the purpose of
conducting ARRP risk assessments will be maintained in accordance with the following
authorities:
 Office of Personnel Management (OPM) System of Records Notice (SORN) GOVT-1.
This SORN governs information collected from federal grantees for the purpose of
conducting a national security investigation or carrying out other lawful statutory,
administrative, or investigative purposes of the agency, to the extent the information is
relevant and necessary to the requesting agency’s decision.
 Department of the Army (DA) SORN A0381-20b-DAMI (Feb. 10, 2009, 74 F.R.
6596). This SORN applies to information contained in systems used by the Department
of the Army to develop ARRP risk assessments.
 32 C.F.R. Appendix A to Part 310, Paragraph N: DoD Blanket Routine Uses. Pursuant
to this provision, a record from a system of records maintained by a Component may
be disclosed as a routine use outside the DoD or the U.S. Government for the purpose
of counterintelligence activities authorized by U.S. law or Executive order or for the
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purpose of enforcing laws that protect the national security of the United States.
v.Definitions
 Covered Individual. An individual who contributes in a substantive, meaningful way
to the scientific development or execution of a research and development project
proposed to be carried out with a research and development award from a Federal
research agency; and is designated as a covered individual by the Federal research
agency concerned. See 42 U.S.C. § 6605, Definitions. (For purposes of this BAA,
“covered individuals” are all Senior/Key Personnel.)
 Senior/Key Research Personnel. This term includes the Principal Investigator (PI) and
other individuals who contribute to the scientific development or execution of a project
in a substantive, measurable way, whether or not they receive salaries or compensation
under the award. These include individuals whose absence from the project would be
expected to impact the approved scope of the project. (For purposes of this BAA,
“Senior/Key Personnel” are all considered “covered individuals.”
 Foreign Associations and Affiliations. Association is defined as collaboration,
coordination or interrelation, professionally or personally, with a foreign government-
connected entity where no direct monetary or non-monetary reward is involved.
Affiliation is defined as collaboration, coordination, or interrelation, professionally or
personally, with a foreign government-connected entity where direct monetary or non-
monetary reward is involved.
 Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Programs. In general, these programs include
any foreign-state-sponsored attempt to acquire U.S. scientific-funded research or
technology through foreign government-run or funded recruitment programs that target
scientists, engineers, academics, researchers, and entrepreneurs of all nationalities
working and educated in the U.S. Distinguishing features of a Foreign Government
Talent Recruitment Program may include:
 Compensation, either monetary or in-kind, provided by the foreign state to the
targeted individual in exchange for the individual transferring their knowledge
and expertise to the foreign country. In-kind compensation may include
honorific titles, career advancement opportunities, promised future
compensation or other types of remuneration or compensation.
 Recruitment, in this context, refers to the foreign-state-sponsor’s active
engagement in attracting the targeted individual to join the foreign-sponsored
program and transfer their knowledge and expertise to the foreign state. The
targeted individual may be employed and located in the U.S. or in the foreign
state.
 Contracts for participation in some programs that create conflicts of
commitment and/or conflicts of interest for researchers. These contracts include,
but are not limited to, requirements to attribute awards, patents, and projects to
the foreign institution, even if conducted under U.S. funding, to recruit or train
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other talent recruitment plan members, circumventing merit-based processes,
and to replicate or transfer U.S.-funded work in another country.
 Many, but not all, of these programs aim to incentivize the targeted individual to
physically relocate to the foreign state. Of particular concern are those programs
that allow for continued employment at U.S. research facilities or receipt of U.S.
Government research funding while concurrently receiving compensation from
the foreign state.
 Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Programs do not include research
agreements between the University and a foreign entity, unless that agreement
includes provisions that create situations of concern addressed elsewhere in this
section; agreements for the provision of goods or services by commercial
vendors; or invitations to attend or present at conferences.
 Conflict of Interest. A situation in which an individual, or the individual’s spouse or
dependent children, has a financial interest or financial relationship that could directly
and significantly affect the design, conduct, reporting, or funding of research.
 Conflict of Commitment. A situation in which an individual accepts or incurs
conflicting obligations between or among multiple employers or other entities.
Common conflicts of commitment involve conflicting commitments of time and effort,
including obligations to dedicate time in excess of institutional or funding agency
policies or commitments. Other types of conflicting obligations, including obligations
to improperly share information with, or withhold information from, an employer or
funding agency, can also threaten research security and integrity and are an element of
a broader concept of conflicts of commitment.
 Foreign Component. Performance of any significant scientific element or segment of a
program or project outside of the U.S., either by the University or by a researcher
employed by a foreign organization, whether or not U.S. government funds are
expended. Activities that would meet this definition include, but are not limited to:
involvement of human subjects or animals; extensive foreign travel by University
research program or project staff for the purpose of data collection, surveying,
sampling, and similar activities; collaborations with investigators at a foreign site
anticipated to result in co-authorship; use of facilities or instrumentation at a foreign
site; receipt of financial support or resources from a foreign entity; or any activity of
the University that may have an impact on U.S. foreign policy through involvement in
the affairs or environment of a foreign country.
 Strategic Competitor. A nation, or nation-state, that engages in diplomatic, economic
or technological rivalry with the United States where the fundamental strategic
interests of the U.S are under threat.
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