1270-xtechhbcu.md

title	challenge-title	layout	permalink	challenge-id	status	sidenav	card-image	agency-logo	tagline	agency	total-prize-offered-cash	type-of-challenge	submission-start	submission-end	fiscal-year	legal-authority	challenge-manager	challenge-manager-email	point-of-contact	description	prizes	rules	judging	how-to-enter
xTechHBCU	xTechHBCU	front-matter-data-markdownify-content	/challenge/xTechHBCU/	1270	closed	true	/assets/netlify-uploads/xtechhbcu_challenge.png	/assets/netlify-uploads/dod_seal.jpg	xTechHBCU aims to engage with eligible institutions as defined below, and highlight opportunities to collaborate with the Army to tackle critical Army challenges, earn prize money, network with Army program managers and provide potential funding opportunities to tackle Army challenges.	Department of Defense - U.S. Army	$975,000	Software and apps Ideas Technology demonstration and hardware Analytics, visualizations, algorithms Scientific	2021/08/10 12:00 AM	10/01/2021 05:00 PM	FY21	Agency specific prize authority	Zeke Topolosky (for internal use only), Alex Mann	[email protected], [email protected]	[email protected]	# Description **Background** The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASA(ALT)) is announcing its newest xTech competition, in partnership with the Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Army Research Office (ARO), the xTech Historically Black Colleges & Universities and Minority Serving Institutions (also referred to as xTechHBCU). xTechHBCU aims to engage with eligible institutions as defined below and highlight opportunities to collaborate with the Army to tackle critical Army challenges, earn prize money, network with Army program managers and provide potential funding opportunities to tackle Army challenges. The ASA(ALT) recognizes that diverse perspectives provide a critical source of innovative talent and novel concepts for the advancement of Army Modernization Priorities and national security. In a concerted effort to attract truly novel perspectives, this initiative will target covered institutions that have historically received less funding than their counterparts, such as non-Tier 1 (R1) colleges and universities, with the intent to fund institutions that have not otherwise received a significant amount of funding from the DoD Research Development Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) programs. xTechHBCU will provide a structured and focused entry path for eligible participants to submit novel concepts and technology solutions directly to the U.S. Army and provide opportunities for these participants to become integrated into the Army’s science and technology (S&T) ecosystem by providing research opportunities with Army labs. Participants will receive detailed feedback from Army and Department of Defense (DoD) stakeholders; and will have access to training, mentorship, networking opportunities and other support infrastructure as they progress through the contest to determine how best to align their research proposals with real Army problems and Users. xTechHBCU will combine a prize competition with structured opportunities for follow-on research funding awards of up to $150,000. Competitions for cash prize awards will be executed under authorities 10 U.S.C. § 2374a and 10 U.S.C. § 2362. Follow-on opportunities will be left to the discretion of the participating agencies as they have the authority to award a variety of instruments. It is anticipated that up to a maximum of three (3) follow-on awards for up to $150,000 each may be awarded in the form of contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, technology investment agreements (TIAs), or other transactions for prototypes (OTAs). Participating agencies reserve the right to select the type of instrument most appropriate for the effort proposed. **Purpose** The purpose of xTechHBCU is to provide an innovative approach with multiple avenues for enduring connections with the Army S&T ecosystem and to highlight opportunities for participants to collaborate with the Army to tackle critical Army challenges. Five (5) critical technology focus areas are identified at the end of this announcement, where basic and applied research solutions are needed to enable our future Army to succeed and where follow-on research funding may be available for the eligible entities described above. For each submission, at least one of the five (5) focus areas below must be addressed and noted in the drop-down menu provided on the xTechHBCU registration page. **Problem Statements** *Topic 1 (Computing Sciences): Knowledge Systems* 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 which is in line with the DoD’s adoption of net-centric warfare, variously defined as flattening the information space to interconnect Soldiers and commanders to provide instantaneous access to information, knowledge, and situational awareness. Given this goal, 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, 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. *Topic 2 (Computing Sciences): Advanced Learning Intelligent Cyber Physical Systems* Advanced Learning Intelligent Cyber Physical Systems, including both embodied systems and software agents, 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, knowledge representation and 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. **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 aims 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. Skill acquisition focuses on developing new theories for learning, creating, and combining low-level skills into more sophisticated behaviors. **Knowledge Representation, Reasoning and Decision Making.** Long duration autonomy requires intelligent systems to manage information from different sources, including humans, knowledge bases, and external and on-board sensors. Data collected at different times and locations needs to be fused into a consistent understanding of objects and events in the environment, to support decision making and efficient communication with humans or other entities. Long duration autonomy requires reflecting on past experiences, combining, comparing, and using those experiences in new contexts to make decisions. Innovative research in representation and reasoning will enable future intelligent systems to manage information in both short and long-term memory systems, and develop new information through reflection and learning. Concepts from cognitive science may impact both the representation and storage of information and the ability to quickly retrieve pertinent information. New approaches are needed to combine reasoning with deep learning enabling systems to discover and use relationships between objects and concepts in learning, inference and reasoning tasks. **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. Advanced concepts for networks of intelligent agents will enable robots at the tactical edge to draw upon off-board resources such as, software agents, humans, or other robots to solve local problems as well as contribute to a shared knowledge base, and coordinate and collaborate with others for larger problems in dynamic environments. New research in game theory, deception, and other approaches will enable intelligent systems to operate effectively in a contested environment. Future battlefields pose a number of challenges in communications including, limited bandwidth and the availability of secure communication channels. New concepts are needed to build and maintain shared, but possibly distributed, information models for these environments. **Assured Operations.** Test, Evaluation, and Verification and Validation for intelligent systems is a nascent field that needs rigorous theoretical underpinnings and practical tools. Long duration missions require intelligent systems that can operate safely and reliably in an open world environment. Extending techniques from computer science and control theory, such as control barrier functions and model checking, can help ensure safe operations during both learning and execution of mission-related activities, but these techniques by themselves are not sufficient for assured operations. Theoretical advances in architectures, control theory, and introspection are needed to enable systems to adapt to temporary or permanent changes to internal and external conditions in a timely manner. Advances in risk-aware online planning will enable autonomous systems to balance conflicting objectives and operate safely in poorly understood environments. *Topic 3 (Life Sciences): Neurophysiology of Cognition* The Neurophysiology of Cognition program supports non-medically oriented basic research in neuroscience, the behavioral sciences, physiology and neuroengineering that might enable the optimization of Soldier’s cognitive and physical performance capabilities. An overarching goal of the program is to provide foundational knowledge of molecular, cellular and systems-level neural codes underlying cognition and performance across multiple length and time scales. Research in this program can include a broad range of methodological and theoretical approaches applied to animal and human experimental systems including electrophysiology, neuroimaging and computational neurobiology. This includes the study of the psycho-physiological implications of brain-machine interfaces, the measurement and modeling of individual cognitive dynamics and decision making during real-world activity, and identifying how neuronal circuits generate desirable computations. In the long term, research in this area may enable the development of interfaces enabling humans to more efficiently control machines, new training methods and devices to predict and optimize individual performance, and the potential restoration from injury at the neural level. Basic research opportunities are sought in two primary research thrusts within this program: (i) Multisensory Synthesis and (ii) Neuronal Computation. **Multisensory Synthesis.** The Multisensory Synthesis thrust aims to understand how the human brain functions in relation to the interaction of sensory, cognitive and motor processes during its performance of real-world tasks. Research focuses on mapping, quantifying and modeling distributed neural processes, physiological processes and mind-body interfaces that mediate these features to ultimately develop better understanding of cognition for eventual application to Soldier performance. **Neuronal Computation.** The Neuronal Computation thrust is focused on understanding how living neuronal circuits generate desirable computations, affect how information is represented, show robustness to damage, incorporate learning and facilitate evolutionary change. Research focuses on determining how brains structure, process and refine inputs into efficient decisions and behaviors, and how these multiscale features are altered under stresses. Cell culture, brain slice and in vivo models are used to develop better understanding of small and large-scale living neural networks for eventual application in Army systems. *Topic 4 (Life Sciences): Human Dimension* The Human Dimension Program supports multidisciplinary basic research in areas that include neural and cognitive sciences, behavioral and social sciences and human factors and neural engineering with an emphasis on modeling, predicting and enhancing human perceptual, cognitive, affective, physical, and social performance in individuals, groups and societies. An overarching goal of the program is to provide foundational knowledge of neural, biophysiological and cognitive-based mechanisms underlying individual, group and societal cognition and performance across multiple time scales. In the long term, research in this area may enable new training tools to predict and optimize cognitive/physical performance and team intelligence, interfaces enabling humans to more efficiently control machines and psychophysiologically-based predictive models of complex individual – societal dynamics. Basic research opportunities are sought in two primary research thrusts within this program: (i) Cognitive-Physical Interactions and (ii) Cognitive-Social Interactions. **Cognitive-Physical Interactions.** The Cognitive-Physical Interactions thrust seeks to support high-risk seed projects that use multimodal approaches to uncover dynamic and multiscale interactions of neural-cognitive and physiological systems. The goal of this thrust area is to advance the experimental and analytical tools available to develop comprehensive understanding of the impact of group and individual state-trait variability on human performance, human-systems interfaces and team intelligence. Research topics are supported in diverse areas that can include the neurobiological mechanisms of expert skill learning, closed-loop brain-computer interfaces and novel mind-body interfaces such as the microbiome-gut-brain axis. **Cognitive-Social Interactions.** The Cognitive-Social Interactions thrust seeks to develop new theories to understand the dynamic interrelationships between individual/group cognition, decision-making and the role that these influences play on interactions with large and small social systems. Multidisciplinary seed projects are supported that seek to advance the necessary analytical and experimental tools required to describe the underlying mechanistic interactions as they co-evolve in time and space. Research topics are supported in diverse areas that may include modeling the impact of mindfulness on state transitions of human cognitive, physical and social systems and describing the longitudinal neural, cognitive and social mechanisms mediating development of leadership, expertise and intelligent teams. *Topic 5 (Physics): Interface science of emerging electronic materials* A host of advanced electronic materials have emerged in the last twenty years and promise many novel technological advances in electronics. These advances, however, are often hamstrung by insufficient knowledge about interface science ranging from suitable contacting, gating, dielectrics and charge trapping to heterogeneous integration with established semiconductors. This topic seeks to address this knowledge gap specific to two emergent electronic materials families: topological materials and two-dimensional van de Waals materials. What are the fabrication, integration and processing methodologies necessary for effectual gating and contacting of these materials and for integrating them with semiconductors? Furthermore, how are the electronic properties of the material changed when integrated into a heterostructure? The Army is seeking to establish a theoretical and/or experimental research endeavor to begin to address these challenges. **Key Dates** * **10 August 2021** - Application Part 1: Research Concept Submission period open * **1 October 2021** - Application Part 1: Research Concept Submission period closed * **15 October 2021** - Part 1: Research Concept Submission winners notified * **15 November 2021** - Part 2: Draft Proposal Submitted * **6 December 2021** - Part 2 Winners notified * **NLT 14 January 2022** - Final Proposal Submitted * **NLT 21 January 2022** - Part 3: Finals – Participants conduct a final pitch to a panel of Army experts * **21 January 2022** - Winners Announced * **TBD January 2022** - HBCU Faculty Showcase Event	# Prizes Total Prize Pool: $525,000 Total Cooperative Agreement Pool: $450,000 **Part 1: Research Concept** * Number of awardees: Up to 54 * Prize: $5,000 each **Part 2: Draft Proposal** * Number of awardees: Up to 12 * Prize: $15,000 each **Part 3: Final Proposals** * Number of awardees: Up to 3 * Prize: $25,000 each * Cooperative agreement: Up to $150,000 each The xTechHBCU competition will provide an optional xTechHBCU Accelerator as a part of this competition. A two-part virtual accelerator program will be offered to all participants during Part 2 and to the twelve (12) selected finalists in Part 3. Participants will receive increased personal mentoring, educational webinars, and networking opportunities from the xTech Accelerator program as the competition progresses, to help refine their concepts and draft proposals and learn how to leverage the DoD defense market for future partnership opportunities.	# Rules The xTechHBCU competition is voluntary and open to all U.S.-based institutions that meet the eligibility requirements. Multiple submissions, i.e., more than one (1), addressing different problem statements/topics will be accepted from eligible entities. The registration information and upload submission must be received by **5:00 PM ET on October 1, 2021.** Submissions received after the deadline will not be considered. To receive prize money, entities are required to register in System for Award Management (SAM) and have or obtain an active CAGE code, DUNS number, and not be on the exclusions lists (debarred or suspended). Instructions on how to obtain a CAGE code can be found on the xTechHBCU registration page. **Eligibility Requirements** The entities allowed to participate in this competition must be from covered institutions that have historically received less funding than their counterparts, such as non-Tier 1 (R1) colleges and universities, with the intent to fund institutions that have not otherwise received a significant amount of funding from the DoD RDT&E programs. As provided in 10 U.S.C. § 2362, 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. Eligible applicants include community colleges or other 2-year degree granting institutions meeting the definition of a “covered educational institution.” 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), in order to meet the eligibility criterion above, an institution must apply to the Department of Education (DoEd) each year for Title III or Title V eligibility. A copy of the DoEd letter dated February 2020 or later certifying eligibility for Title III or Title V assistance must be included with each application submitted under this announcement. The eligibility letter will not be included in the page limit detailed in Section IV below. If the DoEd eligibility letter is not submitted with the xTechHBCU submission, the applicant will be deemed ineligible and their submission will not be considered. In addition to the “covered educational institution” requirement defined above, each submitting institution must (1) be a U.S.-based institution and (2) not be a U.S. Federal government entity or employ a U.S. Federal employee acting within the scope of their employment. **Terms & Conditions** **Disclaimers** Registered participants shall be required to assume any and all risks and waive claims against the Federal Government and its related projects, except in the case of willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from their participation in this competition, whether the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or otherwise. Participants shall be required to obtain liability insurance or demonstrate financial responsibility, in amounts determined by the Army, for claims by: * Third parties for death, bodily injury, or property damage, or loss resulting from an activity carried out in connection with participation in this prize competition, with the Federal Government named as an additional insured under the registered participant’s insurance policy and registered participants agreeing to indemnify the Federal Government against third party claims for damages arising from or related to prize competition activities; and * Federal Government for damage or loss to USG property resulting from such an activity. **Intellectual Property** The Army is a strong proponent of deliberate intellectual property (IP) rights and management by the private sector and the DoD. For the xTechHBCU: * The Federal Government may not gain an interest in IP developed by a participant without the written consent of the participant; * Nothing in this competition shall diminish the Government’s rights in patents, technical data, technical information, computer software, computer databases, and computer software documentation that the Government had prior to this effort, or is entitled to, under any other Government Agreement or contract, or is otherwise entitled to under law; and * The Federal Government may negotiate a license for the use of IP developed by a registered participant in the prize competition. For the follow-on research funding opportunities, cooperative agreements or similar, all data assertions submitted within the proposal are subject to Government negotiation of those data rights. Detailed instructions will be provided to the selected finalists when invited to submit the final proposal dependent on the funding instrument selected by the participating agency that is deemed most appropriate for the effort proposed.	# Judging Criteria **Judging Panel** Feedback will be provided to all participants at the end of each part of this competition. The purpose of providing feedback is to help the participants understand potential use cases or applications for the technology within the Army, suggestions for product improvement for Army use, and recommended next steps for development. The United States Government (USG) will not respond to questions or inquiries regarding the provided feedback. **Judging Criteria** **Part 1: Research Concept** All eligible faculty members are invited to submit one (1) or more proposed research or technology concept(s) applications to one (1) or more topic(s) of their choice. Concept submissions will be evaluated by a team of Army experts including scientific, technical, acquisition, and user experts. Submissions will consist of a brief concept description that includes a 1-page concept white paper and an optional video no more than 3 minutes in length to further describe or demonstrate the concept. Participants are not required to submit a professional video, videos can be taken on a cell phone or another device of your choice and will not be graded on production quality, but rather will provide an additional format to further explain your proposed research concept. All submissions shall adhere to the following requirements: * All concept white papers must be submitted using the template found on the Valid Eval registration page, “xTechHBCU_WhitePaper_Template.doc”. **Any proposals submitted in a format other than that provided by the template will not be reviewed, please read all instructions on the first page of the template document carefully.** * Optionally, participants may submit an accompanying Video to further describe the concept to the Army evaluators. All videos shall be submitted **using a Vimeo link** with no password protection to ensure that all evaluators will have access. Concept Videos do not require professionals to develop, the videos can be taken from a phone, camera or any equipment that is already readily available to faculty members. * Please list your name(s) and proposal title **EXACTLY** how you would like them to appear on any contest marketing materials. Use clear and concise proposal titles to give readers and potential stakeholders an understanding of how your research or technology concept would benefit the Army. Research Concepts applications will be evaluated and ranked using the following Scoring Criteria (further details on each scoring dimension can be found on the xTechHBCU registration page): * Introduction – 5% * Alignment and Degree of Innovation – 30% * Technology and Concept Viability – 30% * Team – 25% * Narrative Quality – 10% * Potential for Army Impact – 0% (this is graded as a means to provide Army feedback only, but will not impact proposal evaluation scores at this stage) Upon competition of Part 1, the top-rated research concepts, up to a maximum of 54, will receive a prize of $5,000, and be invited to submit a more detailed draft proposal in Part 2. **Part 2: Draft Proposal** All selected participants from Part 1 will be invited to submit a 3-page draft proposal and an optional video no more than 5 minutes in length to further describe or demonstrate the concept. The xTechHBCU program will provide optional virtual programming to all applicants during this part of the competition to help align their research proposals with Army problems and provide insight and guidance to faculty members as they develop a draft proposal for award. Detailed instructions and evaluation criteria for draft proposals will be provided to Part 2 participants. Although evaluation criteria and associated weights may vary across xTechHBCU phases, the evaluation criteria across all phases is derived from the originating ARO Open Broad Agency Announcement ([BAA](https://www.arl.army.mil/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/AROBAA_W911NF17S0002-Amendment-9.pdf)) and, in general and not limited to, will touch on the following factors: * *Scientific or technical merit* – the overall scientific and technical merit, creativity, and innovation of the concept submission. * *Potential for Army Impact* – the potential impact on the US military (e.g., specific application areas and/or specific platforms or users of relevance). * *Team qualifications* – qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the proposed objectives; and the applicants record of past performance. * *Proposal Quality* – quality of the narrative, arguments, and data attribution to support arguments with relevant, properly attributed data. Upon conclusion of the judging for Part 2, the Army will select up to twelve (12) winners to receive a prize of $15,000 and an invitation to the Finals. **Part 3: Final Proposal** Selected participants from Part 2 will be invited to conduct an in-person or virtual 15-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute Q&A session with a panel of Army experts. Selected participants from Part 2 will also have an opportunity to participate in more intensive optional virtual and/or in-person programming to engage directly with Program Managers (PMs) and SMEs associated with topics outlined in this announcement, work directly with key Army stakeholders, further align their research proposals with Army problems, and gain additional insight and guidance on how to develop a final proposal for award consideration. As with Part 2 above, detailed instructions, evaluation criteria for final proposals will be provided to Part 3 participants and will follow from the ARO [BAA](https://www.arl.army.mil/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/AROBAA_W911NF17S0002-Amendment-9.pdf). The primary evaluation criteria for the final proposal will include: * Scientific or technical merit – the overall scientific and technical merit, creativity, and innovation of the concept submission. * Potential for Army Impact – the potential impact on the US military (e.g., specific application areas and/or specific platforms or users of relevance). * Team qualifications – qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the proposed objectives; and the applicants record of past performance. * Presentation Quality – quality of the oral delivery, arguments, and data attribution to support arguments with relevant, properly attributed data, visual design and command of the question and answer session. Upon conclusion of the Finals, up to three (3) participants selected will receive $25,000 in prize money and be invited to submit their final proposals and may be awarded a cooperative agreement (or similar) for up to 1-year and up to $150,000. **Follow-on Research Opportunity Awards** Only the participants that are selected from Part 3 will be eligible to submit their final proposal for follow-on research opportunity awards. Finalists invited to submit their final proposal will be notified and receive detailed instructions upon selection. A separate announcement will be issued with detailed instructions on how to submit the final proposal for the cooperative agreement (or similar) award for up to 1-year and up to $150,000 through the ARO [BAA](https://www.arl.army.mil/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/AROBAA_W911NF17S0002-Amendment-9.pdf). Finalists invited to submit their final proposal will be notified and will receive detailed instructions aligned with the associated [BAA](https://www.arl.army.mil/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/AROBAA_W911NF17S0002-Amendment-9.pdf) and [www.grants.gov](http://www.grants.gov) for final submission. All applicants are encouraged to review the BAA to learn more about the submission requirements for potential follow-on awards and for other opportunities with ARO.	# How to Enter **Entry Instructions** The xTechHBCU competition is voluntary and open to all U.S.-based institutions that meet the eligibility requirements. Multiple submissions, i.e., more than one (1), addressing different problem statements/topics will be accepted from eligible entities. The registration information and upload submission must be received by 5:00 PM ET on October 1, 2021. Submissions received after the deadline will not be considered. To receive prize money, entities are required to register in System for Award Management (SAM) and have or obtain an active CAGE code, DUNS number, and not be on the exclusions lists (debarred or suspended). Instructions on how to obtain a CAGE code can be found on the xTechHBCU registration page. **Submission URL or Email** <https://www.arl.army.mil/xtechsearch/competitions/xtechhbcu.html> Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

Description

Background

The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASA(ALT)) is announcing its newest xTech competition, in partnership with the Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Army Research Office (ARO), the xTech Historically Black Colleges & Universities and Minority Serving Institutions (also referred to as xTechHBCU). xTechHBCU aims to engage with eligible institutions as defined below and highlight opportunities to collaborate with the Army to tackle critical Army challenges, earn prize money, network with Army program managers and provide potential funding opportunities to tackle Army challenges.

The ASA(ALT) recognizes that diverse perspectives provide a critical source of innovative talent and novel concepts for the advancement of Army Modernization Priorities and national security. In a concerted effort to attract truly novel perspectives, this initiative will target covered institutions that have historically received less funding than their counterparts, such as non-Tier 1 (R1) colleges and universities, with the intent to fund institutions that have not otherwise received a significant amount of funding from the DoD Research Development Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) programs.

xTechHBCU will provide a structured and focused entry path for eligible participants to submit novel concepts and technology solutions directly to the U.S. Army and provide opportunities for these participants to become integrated into the Army’s science and technology (S&T) ecosystem by providing research opportunities with Army labs. Participants will receive detailed feedback from Army and Department of Defense (DoD) stakeholders; and will have access to training, mentorship, networking opportunities and other support infrastructure as they progress through the contest to determine how best to align their research proposals with real Army problems and Users.

xTechHBCU will combine a prize competition with structured opportunities for follow-on research funding awards of up to $150,000. Competitions for cash prize awards will be executed under authorities 10 U.S.C. § 2374a and 10 U.S.C. § 2362. Follow-on opportunities will be left to the discretion of the participating agencies as they have the authority to award a variety of instruments. It is anticipated that up to a maximum of three (3) follow-on awards for up to $150,000 each may be awarded in the form of contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, technology investment agreements (TIAs), or other transactions for prototypes (OTAs). Participating agencies reserve the right to select the type of instrument most appropriate for the effort proposed.

Purpose

The purpose of xTechHBCU is to provide an innovative approach with multiple avenues for enduring connections with the Army S&T ecosystem and to highlight opportunities for participants to collaborate with the Army to tackle critical Army challenges. Five (5) critical technology focus areas are identified at the end of this announcement, where basic and applied research solutions are needed to enable our future Army to succeed and where follow-on research funding may be available for the eligible entities described above. For each submission, at least one of the five (5) focus areas below must be addressed and noted in the drop-down menu provided on the xTechHBCU registration page.

Problem Statements

Topic 1 (Computing Sciences): Knowledge Systems

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 which is in line with the DoD’s adoption of net-centric warfare, variously defined as flattening the information space to interconnect Soldiers and commanders to provide instantaneous access to information, knowledge, and situational awareness. Given this goal, 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, 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.

Topic 2 (Computing Sciences): Advanced Learning Intelligent Cyber Physical Systems

Advanced Learning Intelligent Cyber Physical Systems, including both embodied systems and software agents, 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, knowledge representation and 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.

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 aims 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. Skill acquisition focuses on developing new theories for learning, creating, and combining low-level skills into more sophisticated behaviors.

Knowledge Representation, Reasoning and Decision Making. Long duration autonomy requires intelligent systems to manage information from different sources, including humans, knowledge bases, and external and on-board sensors. Data collected at different times and locations needs to be fused into a consistent understanding of objects and events in the environment, to support decision making and efficient communication with humans or other entities. Long duration autonomy requires reflecting on past experiences, combining, comparing, and using those experiences in new contexts to make decisions. Innovative research in representation and reasoning will enable future intelligent systems to manage information in both short and long-term memory systems, and develop new information through reflection and learning. Concepts from cognitive science may impact both the representation and storage of information and the ability to quickly retrieve pertinent information. New approaches are needed to combine reasoning with deep learning enabling systems to discover and use relationships between objects and concepts in learning, inference and reasoning tasks.

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. Advanced concepts for networks of intelligent agents will enable robots at the tactical edge to draw upon off-board resources such as, software agents, humans, or other robots to solve local problems as well as contribute to a shared knowledge base, and coordinate and collaborate with others for larger problems in dynamic environments. New research in game theory, deception, and other approaches will enable intelligent systems to operate effectively in a contested environment. Future battlefields pose a number of challenges in communications including, limited bandwidth and the availability of secure communication channels. New concepts are needed to build and maintain shared, but possibly distributed, information models for these environments.

Assured Operations. Test, Evaluation, and Verification and Validation for intelligent systems is a nascent field that needs rigorous theoretical underpinnings and practical tools. Long duration missions require intelligent systems that can operate safely and reliably in an open world environment. Extending techniques from computer science and control theory, such as control barrier functions and model checking, can help ensure safe operations during both learning and execution of mission-related activities, but these techniques by themselves are not sufficient for assured operations. Theoretical advances in architectures, control theory, and introspection are needed to enable systems to adapt to temporary or permanent changes to internal and external conditions in a timely manner. Advances in risk-aware online planning will enable autonomous systems to balance conflicting objectives and operate safely in poorly understood environments.

Topic 3 (Life Sciences): Neurophysiology of Cognition

The Neurophysiology of Cognition program supports non-medically oriented basic research in neuroscience, the behavioral sciences, physiology and neuroengineering that might enable the optimization of Soldier’s cognitive and physical performance capabilities. An overarching goal of the program is to provide foundational knowledge of molecular, cellular and systems-level neural codes underlying cognition and performance across multiple length and time scales. Research in this program can include a broad range of methodological and theoretical approaches applied to animal and human experimental systems including electrophysiology, neuroimaging and computational neurobiology. This includes the study of the psycho-physiological implications of brain-machine interfaces, the measurement and modeling of individual cognitive dynamics and decision making during real-world activity, and identifying how neuronal circuits generate desirable computations. In the long term, research in this area may enable the development of interfaces enabling humans to more efficiently control machines, new training methods and devices to predict and optimize individual performance, and the potential restoration from injury at the neural level. Basic research opportunities are sought in two primary research thrusts within this program: (i) Multisensory Synthesis and (ii) Neuronal Computation.

Multisensory Synthesis. The Multisensory Synthesis thrust aims to understand how the human brain functions in relation to the interaction of sensory, cognitive and motor processes during its performance of real-world tasks. Research focuses on mapping, quantifying and modeling distributed neural processes, physiological processes and mind-body interfaces that mediate these features to ultimately develop better understanding of cognition for eventual application to Soldier performance.

Neuronal Computation. The Neuronal Computation thrust is focused on understanding how living neuronal circuits generate desirable computations, affect how information is represented, show robustness to damage, incorporate learning and facilitate evolutionary change. Research focuses on determining how brains structure, process and refine inputs into efficient decisions and behaviors, and how these multiscale features are altered under stresses. Cell culture, brain slice and in vivo models are used to develop better understanding of small and large-scale living neural networks for eventual application in Army systems.

Topic 4 (Life Sciences): Human Dimension

The Human Dimension Program supports multidisciplinary basic research in areas that include neural and cognitive sciences, behavioral and social sciences and human factors and neural engineering with an emphasis on modeling, predicting and enhancing human perceptual, cognitive, affective, physical, and social performance in individuals, groups and societies. An overarching goal of the program is to provide foundational knowledge of neural, biophysiological and cognitive-based mechanisms underlying individual, group and societal cognition and performance across multiple time scales. In the long term, research in this area may enable new training tools to predict and optimize cognitive/physical performance and team intelligence, interfaces enabling humans to more efficiently control machines and psychophysiologically-based predictive models of complex individual – societal dynamics. Basic research opportunities are sought in two primary research thrusts within this program: (i) Cognitive-Physical Interactions and (ii) Cognitive-Social Interactions.

Cognitive-Physical Interactions. The Cognitive-Physical Interactions thrust seeks to support high-risk seed projects that use multimodal approaches to uncover dynamic and multiscale interactions of neural-cognitive and physiological systems. The goal of this thrust area is to advance the experimental and analytical tools available to develop comprehensive understanding of the impact of group and individual state-trait variability on human performance, human-systems interfaces and team intelligence. Research topics are supported in diverse areas that can include the neurobiological mechanisms of expert skill learning, closed-loop brain-computer interfaces and novel mind-body interfaces such as the microbiome-gut-brain axis.

Cognitive-Social Interactions. The Cognitive-Social Interactions thrust seeks to develop new theories to understand the dynamic interrelationships between individual/group cognition, decision-making and the role that these influences play on interactions with large and small social systems. Multidisciplinary seed projects are supported that seek to advance the necessary analytical and experimental tools required to describe the underlying mechanistic interactions as they co-evolve in time and space. Research topics are supported in diverse areas that may include modeling the impact of mindfulness on state transitions of human cognitive, physical and social systems and describing the longitudinal neural, cognitive and social mechanisms mediating development of leadership, expertise and intelligent teams.

Topic 5 (Physics): Interface science of emerging electronic materials

A host of advanced electronic materials have emerged in the last twenty years and promise many novel technological advances in electronics. These advances, however, are often hamstrung by insufficient knowledge about interface science ranging from suitable contacting, gating, dielectrics and charge trapping to heterogeneous integration with established semiconductors. This topic seeks to address this knowledge gap specific to two emergent electronic materials families: topological materials and two-dimensional van de Waals materials. What are the fabrication, integration and processing methodologies necessary for effectual gating and contacting of these materials and for integrating them with semiconductors? Furthermore, how are the electronic properties of the material changed when integrated into a heterostructure? The Army is seeking to establish a theoretical and/or experimental research endeavor to begin to address these challenges.

Key Dates

• 10 August 2021 - Application Part 1: Research Concept Submission period open
• 1 October 2021 - Application Part 1: Research Concept Submission period closed
• 15 October 2021 - Part 1: Research Concept Submission winners notified
• 15 November 2021 - Part 2: Draft Proposal Submitted
• 6 December 2021 - Part 2 Winners notified
• NLT 14 January 2022 - Final Proposal Submitted
• NLT 21 January 2022 - Part 3: Finals – Participants conduct a final pitch to a panel of Army experts
• 21 January 2022 - Winners Announced
• TBD January 2022 - HBCU Faculty Showcase Event

Prizes

Total Prize Pool: $525,000

Total Cooperative Agreement Pool: $450,000

Part 1: Research Concept

• Number of awardees: Up to 54
• Prize: $5,000 each

Part 2: Draft Proposal

• Number of awardees: Up to 12
• Prize: $15,000 each

Part 3: Final Proposals

• Number of awardees: Up to 3
• Prize: $25,000 each
• Cooperative agreement: Up to $150,000 each

The xTechHBCU competition will provide an optional xTechHBCU Accelerator as a part of this competition. A two-part virtual accelerator program will be offered to all participants during Part 2 and to the twelve (12) selected finalists in Part 3. Participants will receive increased personal mentoring, educational webinars, and networking opportunities from the xTech Accelerator program as the competition progresses, to help refine their concepts and draft proposals and learn how to leverage the DoD defense market for future partnership opportunities.

Rules

The xTechHBCU competition is voluntary and open to all U.S.-based institutions that meet the eligibility requirements. Multiple submissions, i.e., more than one (1), addressing different problem statements/topics will be accepted from eligible entities. The registration information and upload submission must be received by 5:00 PM ET on October 1, 2021. Submissions received after the deadline will not be considered.

To receive prize money, entities are required to register in System for Award Management (SAM) and have or obtain an active CAGE code, DUNS number, and not be on the exclusions lists (debarred or suspended). Instructions on how to obtain a CAGE code can be found on the xTechHBCU registration page.

Eligibility Requirements

The entities allowed to participate in this competition must be from covered institutions that have historically received less funding than their counterparts, such as non-Tier 1 (R1) colleges and universities, with the intent to fund institutions that have not otherwise received a significant amount of funding from the DoD RDT&E programs.

As provided in 10 U.S.C. § 2362, 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.

Eligible applicants include community colleges or other 2-year degree granting institutions meeting the definition of a “covered educational institution.” 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), in order to meet the eligibility criterion above, an institution must apply to the Department of Education (DoEd) each year for Title III or Title V eligibility. A copy of the DoEd letter dated February 2020 or later certifying eligibility for Title III or Title V assistance must be included with each application submitted under this announcement. The eligibility letter will not be included in the page limit detailed in Section IV below. If the DoEd eligibility letter is not submitted with the xTechHBCU submission, the applicant will be deemed ineligible and their submission will not be considered.

In addition to the “covered educational institution” requirement defined above, each submitting institution must (1) be a U.S.-based institution and (2) not be a U.S. Federal government entity or employ a U.S. Federal employee acting within the scope of their employment.

Terms & Conditions

Disclaimers

Registered participants shall be required to assume any and all risks and waive claims against the Federal Government and its related projects, except in the case of willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from their participation in this competition, whether the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or otherwise.

Participants shall be required to obtain liability insurance or demonstrate financial responsibility, in amounts determined by the Army, for claims by:

• Third parties for death, bodily injury, or property damage, or loss resulting from an activity carried out in connection with participation in this prize competition, with the Federal Government named as an additional insured under the registered participant’s insurance policy and registered participants agreeing to indemnify the Federal Government against third party claims for damages arising from or related to prize competition activities; and
• Federal Government for damage or loss to USG property resulting from such an activity.

Intellectual Property

The Army is a strong proponent of deliberate intellectual property (IP) rights and management by the private sector and the DoD.

For the xTechHBCU:

• The Federal Government may not gain an interest in IP developed by a participant without the written consent of the participant;
• Nothing in this competition shall diminish the Government’s rights in patents, technical data, technical information, computer software, computer databases, and computer software documentation that the Government had prior to this effort, or is entitled to, under any other Government Agreement or contract, or is otherwise entitled to under law; and
• The Federal Government may negotiate a license for the use of IP developed by a registered participant in the prize competition.

For the follow-on research funding opportunities, cooperative agreements or similar, all data assertions submitted within the proposal are subject to Government negotiation of those data rights. Detailed instructions will be provided to the selected finalists when invited to submit the final proposal dependent on the funding instrument selected by the participating agency that is deemed most appropriate for the effort proposed.

Judging Criteria

Judging Panel

Feedback will be provided to all participants at the end of each part of this competition. The purpose of providing feedback is to help the participants understand potential use cases or applications for the technology within the Army, suggestions for product improvement for Army use, and recommended next steps for development. The United States Government (USG) will not respond to questions or inquiries regarding the provided feedback.

Judging Criteria

Part 1: Research Concept

All eligible faculty members are invited to submit one (1) or more proposed research or technology concept(s) applications to one (1) or more topic(s) of their choice. Concept submissions will be evaluated by a team of Army experts including scientific, technical, acquisition, and user experts. Submissions will consist of a brief concept description that includes a 1-page concept white paper and an optional video no more than 3 minutes in length to further describe or demonstrate the concept. Participants are not required to submit a professional video, videos can be taken on a cell phone or another device of your choice and will not be graded on production quality, but rather will provide an additional format to further explain your proposed research concept.

All submissions shall adhere to the following requirements:

• All concept white papers must be submitted using the template found on the Valid Eval registration page, “xTechHBCU_WhitePaper_Template.doc”. Any proposals submitted in a format other than that provided by the template will not be reviewed, please read all instructions on the first page of the template document carefully.
• Optionally, participants may submit an accompanying Video to further describe the concept to the Army evaluators. All videos shall be submitted using a Vimeo link with no password protection to ensure that all evaluators will have access. Concept Videos do not require professionals to develop, the videos can be taken from a phone, camera or any equipment that is already readily available to faculty members.
• Please list your name(s) and proposal title EXACTLY how you would like them to appear on any contest marketing materials. Use clear and concise proposal titles to give readers and potential stakeholders an understanding of how your research or technology concept would benefit the Army.

Research Concepts applications will be evaluated and ranked using the following Scoring Criteria (further details on each scoring dimension can be found on the xTechHBCU registration page):

• Introduction – 5%
• Alignment and Degree of Innovation – 30%
• Technology and Concept Viability – 30%
• Team – 25%
• Narrative Quality – 10%
• Potential for Army Impact – 0% (this is graded as a means to provide Army feedback only, but will not impact proposal evaluation scores at this stage)

Upon competition of Part 1, the top-rated research concepts, up to a maximum of 54, will receive a prize of $5,000, and be invited to submit a more detailed draft proposal in Part 2.

Part 2: Draft Proposal

All selected participants from Part 1 will be invited to submit a 3-page draft proposal and an optional video no more than 5 minutes in length to further describe or demonstrate the concept. The xTechHBCU program will provide optional virtual programming to all applicants during this part of the competition to help align their research proposals with Army problems and provide insight and guidance to faculty members as they develop a draft proposal for award. Detailed instructions and evaluation criteria for draft proposals will be provided to Part 2 participants.

Although evaluation criteria and associated weights may vary across xTechHBCU phases, the evaluation criteria across all phases is derived from the originating ARO Open Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) and, in general and not limited to, will touch on the following factors:

• Scientific or technical merit – the overall scientific and technical merit, creativity, and innovation of the concept submission.
• Potential for Army Impact – the potential impact on the US military (e.g., specific application areas and/or specific platforms or users of relevance).
• Team qualifications – qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the proposed objectives; and the applicants record of past performance.
• Proposal Quality – quality of the narrative, arguments, and data attribution to support arguments with relevant, properly attributed data.

Upon conclusion of the judging for Part 2, the Army will select up to twelve (12) winners to receive a prize of $15,000 and an invitation to the Finals.

Part 3: Final Proposal

Selected participants from Part 2 will be invited to conduct an in-person or virtual 15-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute Q&A session with a panel of Army experts. Selected participants from Part 2 will also have an opportunity to participate in more intensive optional virtual and/or in-person programming to engage directly with Program Managers (PMs) and SMEs associated with topics outlined in this announcement, work directly with key Army stakeholders, further align their research proposals with Army problems, and gain additional insight and guidance on how to develop a final proposal for award consideration. As with Part 2 above, detailed instructions, evaluation criteria for final proposals will be provided to Part 3 participants and will follow from the ARO BAA. The primary evaluation criteria for the final proposal will include:

• Scientific or technical merit – the overall scientific and technical merit, creativity, and innovation of the concept submission.
• Potential for Army Impact – the potential impact on the US military (e.g., specific application areas and/or specific platforms or users of relevance).
• Team qualifications – qualifications, capabilities, and experience of the proposed PI, team leader, or other key personnel who are critical to achievement of the proposed objectives; and the applicants record of past performance.
• Presentation Quality – quality of the oral delivery, arguments, and data attribution to support arguments with relevant, properly attributed data, visual design and command of the question and answer session.

Upon conclusion of the Finals, up to three (3) participants selected will receive $25,000 in prize money and be invited to submit their final proposals and may be awarded a cooperative agreement (or similar) for up to 1-year and up to $150,000.

Follow-on Research Opportunity Awards

Only the participants that are selected from Part 3 will be eligible to submit their final proposal for follow-on research opportunity awards. Finalists invited to submit their final proposal will be notified and receive detailed instructions upon selection. A separate announcement will be issued with detailed instructions on how to submit the final proposal for the cooperative agreement (or similar) award for up to 1-year and up to $150,000 through the ARO BAA. Finalists invited to submit their final proposal will be notified and will receive detailed instructions aligned with the associated BAA and www.grants.gov for final submission. All applicants are encouraged to review the BAA to learn more about the submission requirements for potential follow-on awards and for other opportunities with ARO.

How to Enter

Entry Instructions

The xTechHBCU competition is voluntary and open to all U.S.-based institutions that meet the eligibility requirements. Multiple submissions, i.e., more than one (1), addressing different problem statements/topics will be accepted from eligible entities. The registration information and upload submission must be received by 5:00 PM ET on October 1, 2021. Submissions received after the deadline will not be considered.

To receive prize money, entities are required to register in System for Award Management (SAM) and have or obtain an active CAGE code, DUNS number, and not be on the exclusions lists (debarred or suspended). Instructions on how to obtain a CAGE code can be found on the xTechHBCU registration page.

Submission URL or Email

https://www.arl.army.mil/xtechsearch/competitions/xtechhbcu.html

Email: [email protected]