Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2024-36

Department of Energy: Connect with the Office of Science

The Office of Science would like to invite you to our monthly virtual office hours to share information and provide opportunities to ask questions about our various Program Offices. Researchers at all institutions are welcome to attend and learn more about our programs; no existing relationship with DOE or the DOE national laboratories is required to attend. Research administrators are also encouraged to join. 

We have transitioned to one monthly office hour covering the entire Office of Science. On the first Tuesday of each month, 2-3pm ET, each office hour will begin with a brief presentation followed by questions and answers on a monthly topic. After the presentation and questions, we will move to breakout rooms by program office to answer general questions. Click on the topic below to register for an upcoming Office Hour.

• Tuesday, September 3, 2024, 2-3pm ET – Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research (PIER) Plans
• Tuesday, October 1, 2024, 2-3 pm ET – FY 2025 Continuation of Solicitation for the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program (Open Call)
• Tuesday, November 5, 2024, 2-3pm ET – Office of Science Federal Advisory Committee
• Tuesday, December 3, 2024, 2-3pm ET – Topic TBD
• Tuesday, January 7, 2025, 2-3pm ET – Topic TBD
• Tuesday, February 4, 2025, 2-3pm ET – Topic TBD

For more information on SC Office Hours, including registration and upcoming topics, and to view slides and recordings of past Office Hours, please visit https://science.osti.gov/officehours.

NSF: Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL); NSF Trailblazer Engineering Impact Award; Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes (QLCI); Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-1 (Mid-scale RI-1); National Science Foundation Research Traineeship Program; NSF National Resource Coordination Center on Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE Center); Planning Regional Resilience Innovation Incubator (R2I2); Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships; Planning Grants to Create Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Ready Test Beds

NIH: Revolutionizing Innovative, Visionary Environmental Health Research (RIVER) (R35)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: Enabling Technologies for Electronic Warfare and Surveillance; NRL Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PFP)

Department of Commerce/EDA:  FY 2024 – 2026 - Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Announcement Type: Initial Climate Program Office FY2025 Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) Program: Climate Change Projections to 2050: Applied Information for Industrial Applications

Department of Energy: Carbon Capture, Removal, and Conversion Test Centers

Private Foundations: Experimental Physics Investigators

NSF launches AI-driven biotech research program: The National Science Foundation has allocated over $70 million to a new initiative that works to connect artificial intelligence and bioscience research spaces. Unveiled on Wednesday, five different projects will receive funding from BioFoundries, NSF’s new program that brings facilities and equipment together with researchers to develop new solutions for the U.S. bioeconomy, which includes fields like biological sciences, geosciences, biomaterials, chemical biology and bioengineering. NSF’s awardees will leverage AI and machine learning tools to process the large volumes of data required by these disciplines in order to model and scale novel advancements.

Five recipients will split a total of $75 million in funding. All recipients are led by academia, featuring participation from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Puerto Rico; the University of Georgia; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the University of California at Santa Barbara, Riverside and California Polytechnic Pomona; and the University of Delaware. 

Each recipient will form a biofoundry working with the NSF. Specific research areas include using AI to help develop RNA molecules and delivery vehicles; protein design and cellular engineering and development; and microorganism research, among others.

“We would like to see large numbers of use-inspired AI, ML protein designs from all around the United States with many different applications,” Raghavachari said. “And, more importantly, we want to create this robust and independently supported protein design and characterization tools, and we want it to be widely used by startups, industry and academia.”

The ultimate goal of the BioFoundaries funding is to strengthen the larger U.S. bioeconomy. Identified by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy as a leading emerging field, biotechnology development stands to impact the larger global technological and socioeconomic space in the coming years. 

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OpenAI, Anthropic to collab with NIST on AI safety testing: The U.S. government will get an advance look at new artificial intelligence models from industry leaders OpenAI and Anthropic as part of a new safety testing collaboration announced on Thursday by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST's AI Safety Institute, established under the Biden administration's AI executive order, will get to preview "major new models" from the two companies in advance of their public release and will have ongoing access to the models. The institute intends to share feedback with the two companies on safety improvements and plans to work with counterparts at the United Kingdom's AI Safety Institute on recommendations, according to a news release.  The AI Safety Institute launched in February 2024 and is charged with developing testing methodologies and testbeds for research on large language models. In addition, the institute is intended to explore options for detecting and identifying AI generated content and come up with ways to operationalize those activities for federal government use. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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Army unveils draft for $10B software development competition: The Army is now ready for industry to take a look at the service branch's plans for competing a multiple-award software development support services contract that is much larger in scope than originally communicated. In May, the Army first touted the ceiling of its New Modern Software Development IDIQ vehicle as exceeding $1 billion over 10 years. Then in July, Army officials announced the ceiling will be $10 billion as per a quarterly presentation to industry available here via GovTribe. A draft solicitation unveiled Friday sheds further light on the Army's plan to bring in a group of contractors that can perform on rapidly-awarded task orders as they are finalized. More information is posted on the NextGov website.