Department of Defense Offering MURI Grants for Multi-Disciplinary Basic Research

The FY 2010 MURI competition is for the 30 topics listed below. Detailed descriptions of the topics can be found in Section VIII entitled, “Specific MURI Topics”, of this BAA. The detailed descriptions are intended to provide the proposer a frame of reference and are not meant to be restrictive to the possible approaches to achieving the goals of the topic and the program. Innovative ideas addressing these research topics are highly encouraged.

White papers and full proposals addressing the following topics (1) through (10) should be
submitted to The Office of Naval Research:

(1) Optical Metamaterials
(2) Adaptive Cognitive Maps for Autonomous Systems
(3) Non-linear Mediums Converting Frequencies of Propagating E/M and Pressure Waves
(4) Biofuels: Microbial Communities, Biogeochemistry and Surface Interactions
(5) Design, Synthesis, and Characterization of Electro-Active Polymers for Dielectric Energy Storage
(6) Reasoning for Image Understanding in Uncertain Environments
(7) Fundamental Study of High- and Low-K Dielectrics for III-V Electronic Devices
(8) Provably-Safe Perception-Based Control for Autonomous UAS Operations around Complex, Unstructured Terrain
(9) Dynamical Systems Theory in 4D Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
(10) Hyperspectral, Radar and EO/IR Signatures in the Littorals

White papers and Full proposals addressing the following topics (11) through (20) should be submitted to the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR):

(11) Novel Catalytic Mechanisms for the Chemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Energy-Dense Liquids
(12) Third Order Nonlinear Optical Organics
(13) Fundamental Processes in High-Temperature Gas-Surface Interactions
(14) Propagation of Ultrashort Laser Pulses through Transparent Media
(15) Superconducting Semiconductors
(16) Human-Machine Adversarial Networks
(17) Biologically-Engineering of Adherent / Spectroscopically Interrogated Microstructures
(18) Control of Information Collection and Fusion
(19) Stable Metrics for Global Inference in Social Networks to Predict Collective Behavior
(20) Solid State Cooling

White papers and full proposals addressing the following topics (21) through (30) should be submitted to the Army Research Office (ARO):

(21) Neuronal Behavior in Primary Blast
(22) Identifying and Extracting the Mathematical Signatures of Prokaryotic Activity in DNA; Developing a Theoretical Foundation for Predicting DNA Stability
(23) Tomography of Social Networks of Asymmetric Adversaries
(24) Adaptive Perception and Agile Autonomy in Severe Environments
(25) Structured Modeling for Low-Density Languages
(26) Directed Self-Assembly of Reconfigurable Materials
(27) “Atomtronics”: A generalized electronics
(28) Bio-Electronic Templates for Interfacing to the Nanoscale
(29) Ion Transport In Complex Heterogeneous Organic Materials
(30) Defect Reduction in Superlattice Materials

Proposals from a team of university investigators may be warranted because the necessary expertise in addressing the multiple facets of the topics may reside in different universities, or in different departments in the same university. By supporting multidisciplinary teams, the program is complementary to other DoD basic research programs that support university research through single-investigator awards. Proposals must name one Principal Investigator (PI) as the responsible technical point of contact. Similarly, one institution will be the primary awardee for the purpose of award execution. The PI must come from the primary institution. The relationship among participating institutions and their respective roles, as well as the apportionment of funds including sub-awards, if any, must be described in both the proposal text and the budget.