FY2018 VANNEVAR BUSH FACULTY FELLOWSHIP | N00014 17 S F015

Opportunity Information: Apply for N00014 17 S F015

The FY2018 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) is a competitive Department of Defense basic research grant program sponsored by the Basic Research Office under the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) administering the solicitation. The program is designed to support distinguished academic researchers who want to pursue bold, high-risk, high-payoff "blue sky" ideas that deepen fundamental scientific understanding and could eventually underpin revolutionary new defense capabilities. The solicitation emphasizes DoD's definition of basic research: work aimed at expanding knowledge of fundamental phenomena without a specific end product or near-term application as the primary driver. In practice, VBFF is trying to seed the kind of foundational breakthroughs that can reshape fields, create entirely new research directions, or overturn accepted assumptions, while also building durable ties between leading university labs and the DoD science and technology community.

At its core, VBFF has a dual mission: push the frontiers of unclassified basic science and engineering, and help develop the future defense-relevant talent pipeline. The stated objectives include supporting foundational research that could lead to future game-changing DoD capabilities, educating and training graduate students and postdocs who may later join or support the defense workforce, and creating long-term relationships and ongoing awareness between university researchers and DoD needs and challenges. The fellowship component is not just a label; awardees receive the title of VBFF Fellow and are expected to engage in program activities throughout the year, such as orientation sessions, visits to DoD labs, technical workshops, and annual meetings where research progress is shared. Fellows may also be encouraged to contribute to DoD advisory boards or similar panels, reinforcing the program's intent to create sustained, two-way interaction rather than a one-off research award.

The FOA invites single-investigator proposals in several highlighted technical areas that the DoD views as strategically important, while also allowing submissions in other transformative basic research topics with clear DoD relevance. The featured areas include: (1) Engineering Biology, focused on fundamental advances that could make biology more like an engineered discipline, including new approaches to biological sensing, new biological production routes for complex molecules and materials, and expanding beyond standard lab organisms into wild organisms, consortia, or deployable biological systems. (2) Quantum Information Science, covering ambitious work on creating and controlling non-classical states of light and matter for computing, sensing, communications, simulation, and metrology; the FOA explicitly encourages disruptive directions, new algorithms that deliver real quantum advantage, and even exploration of the limits of QIS. (3) Cognitive Neuroscience, aimed at understanding mechanisms behind human cognitive skills and resilience, including theoretical, computational, neuronal, and molecular neuroscience, large-scale cortical modeling, cognitive architectures, and knowledge that could inform neural interfaces, brain-machine interfaces, and neuromorphic systems. (4) Novel Engineered Materials, supporting curiosity-driven discovery of materials whose unusual behavior comes from designed structure (for example metamaterials), with particular interest in understanding and controlling material evolution and irreversible, far-from-equilibrium behavior under extreme environments like high temperature, high strain rates, or radiation. (5) Applied Mathematics and Statistics, seeking foundational mathematical advances that could enable future DoD capabilities, including rigorous underpinnings for machine learning and AI, analysis of massive data sets, sociotechnical networks, systemic risk, cybersecurity, encryption and authentication, compressive sensing, and improved computational modeling of physical phenomena such as fluid and solid mechanics or electromagnetics. (6) Manufacturing Science, defined broadly around improving understanding and control of materials systems and processing across scales, including modeling, simulation, and characterization tools; the FOA stresses the need for new science that enables scalable, precise fabrication of complex hierarchical structures and multi-material architectures, potentially beyond current additive manufacturing and self-assembly limits. (7) Other high-potential fields are allowed as well, so long as the proposal is truly basic research, centers on fundamental understanding, and targets a transformative science problem rather than treating device-building or system integration as the end goal.

Eligibility is centered on U.S. doctoral-granting universities. Accredited U.S. institutions of higher education with PhD-granting programs may apply, while DoD institutions are not eligible as applicants. The program is oriented toward university-led work: nonprofits and for-profits may participate as collaborators via subawards or subcontracts, but the university must perform the majority of the work and receive the majority of the funding. Government agencies, DoD labs, universities, and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers may collaborate scientifically, but they cannot receive VBFF funds directly or indirectly through subawards. Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions are encouraged to participate, but the FOA does not reserve funds specifically for them. On the individual side, the principal investigator must be a tenured faculty member or full-time research staff with a strong record of impactful scientific contributions, and must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. The structure is strictly single-PI: only one application per PI is permitted, only one PI can be listed on an application (no co-PIs), and while collaborations are welcomed, the lead investigator must clearly show how the team operates under a single-PI model.

The FOA also highlights practical constraints and compliance expectations that matter for applicants. Because the awards are tied closely to the PI's role at the host university, the grant can be terminated if the PI leaves the university or cannot continue active participation, or if the university ends its relationship with the PI. The solicitation notes a resubmission rule for those invited to submit full proposals after prior-year participation: recommendation letters must be newly obtained and submitted, and older letters dated before the FOA posting date will not be accepted. The opportunity is listed as a discretionary grant (CFDA 12.300) managed by ONR under funding opportunity number N00014-17-S-F015, with an original closing date of January 8, 2018, and a creation date of June 14, 2017. Overall, the program targets a small set of top-tier investigators with unusually ambitious research visions, pairing substantial basic research support with structured engagement intended to connect cutting-edge academic science to long-term national security challenges.

• The Office of Naval Research in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY2018 VANNEVAR BUSH FACULTY FELLOWSHIP" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.300.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-06-14.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-01-08. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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