Website Army Research Laboratory (ARL)
PROGRAM SUMMARY
The Army Research Lab seeks to fund 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. ARL conducts 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. ARL 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
FUNDING
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. 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.
INTERNAL COMPETITION APPLICATION SUBMISSION
An HBCU/MI institution may submit no more than three (3) proposals under this Special Notice.
Proposals must be received no later than 4:00 PM (ET), January 12, 2024. An award announcement is expected by March 2024. 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 with enough information to determine if there is interest on the part of ARL to receive a full proposal.
Thus, UCI may submit up to 3 proposals in response to this call. Interested applicants are asked to submit an internal preliminary proposal to the Office of Research via the UCI Review portal by Monday December 2nd at 11:59pm. The internal application should include the following:
- 1 to 1.5-page project summary that outlines the proposed research and the ARL competencies that it addresses.
- 2-page NSF biosketches for the PI and any co-PIs.
If necessary, an ad hoc committee will convene to review the preliminary proposals and the selected PIs will be notified in time to first submit a white paper, and then develop a full proposal (if they are encouraged by ARL to do so) by 1:00 PM PT on January 14, 2025.
For the complete ARL Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) please visit: Broad Agency Announcement W911NF-23-S-0001-0002.
Questions about our internal campus review process may be directed to Mike Gallo in the Office of Research at magallo@uci.edu.