SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE BASIC RESEARCH OFFICE (BRO) OF THE U.S. ARMY RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR THE BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
- Notice Date
- 1/28/2003
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- Defense Contracting Command-Washington(DCC-W), ATTN: Policy and Compliance, 5200 Army Pentagon, Room 1D245, Washington, DC 20310-5200
- ZIP Code
- 20310-5200
- Solicitation Number
- DASW01-04-K-0001
- Archive Date
- 6/30/2003
- Point of Contact
- Carolyn Baltimore, 703-614-6823
- E-Mail Address
-
Email your questions to Defense Contracting Command-Washington(DCC-W)
(baltice@hqda.army.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- NA I. The Basic Research Office (BRO) of the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) solicits new proposals for its fiscal year 2004 contract program of fundamental research in behavioral science. This Broad Agency Announceme nt is issued per FAR 35.016. The purpose of the research is to add new, fundamental knowledge to behavioral science sub-disciplines and discover generalizable principles. Novel and state-of-the-art approaches to difficult problems are especially welcome, as are integrated programmatic efforts to develop and test theory. A portion of available funding may be made available for meritorious proposals from minority institutions and historically Black colleges and universities, and these entities are encouraged to participate. Investigations that focus on purely physiological mechanisms or psychopathology cannot be considered by this agency; however, neuroscience approaches to memory, cognition, and personality are not excluded. Similarly, no consideration can be given to purely applied research projects (e.g., human factors studies or applied training programs). However, support for basic science does depend on the judgment that its research findings will have the potential to stimulate new, applied behavioral technologies with potential for improving the effectiveness of Army personnel and their units. The decision to fund a new basic research program consists of two stages. In the first stage, each proposal is peer reviewed for responsiveness and technical merit by at least two behavioral scientists. Those proposals that are judged responsive and receive high technical ratings go to the second stage. In that stage, ARI research unit chiefs are asked whether the research generated by a given proposal, if successful, would be transitioned to their applied research programs. Proposals that are highly rated and are identified as useful for one or more ARI applied research programs will be given priority for funding. Proposals that are responsive and receive high technical ratin gs may also be funded but will generally be given a lower priority. II. Scientific Problems for Basic Research. To meet the transformation objectives of the U.S. Army over the next two decades, the Army must improve its ability to: (1) Select, train, and/or develop leaders and soldiers who are flexible and adaptable in novel missions and operational situations. (2 ) Select, train, and/or develop leaders? and soldiers? to function effectively in digital, information rich, and semi-autonomous environments. (3) Select, train, and/or develop teams that can function collaboratively and effectively when quickly formed and /or operating in distributed, high stress environments. (4) Accelerate leader development of those skills that usually develop over time only through direct experience. (5) Select, train, and/or develop leader and soldier interpersonal/intercultural skil ls/attributes that make leaders and soldiers effective in joint-service and multi-national operations. These needed improvements form the broad perspective of ARI?s research objectives. In keeping with this broad perspective, the areas listed below are o f special interest to ARI. It is particularly important that proposed basic research describe clearly how it can lead to applied research that would be meaningful to the Army. Some of our special interest research issues are: A. Basic Research?Training and Learning. 1. Training in Complex Situations, including factors that enhance transfer of training of the sort of complex tasks performed by Army personnel; the amount of training and feedback required to established sustainable improvements in complex task performanc e; the most effective mixes and sequences of training modes (classroom, live exercises, and simulations) in which complex tasks should be taught; reducing the effects of information overload through training; determining how individuals assign meaning and relevance to large amounts of ambiguous data being rapidly received, and determine how to improve this ability through training; improving adaptability through training. 2. Training for semi-autonomous/robotic systems including: if / how multi-tasking can be trained. What effect, if any, does training have on reducing information overload and to what it extent can it be measured and predicted? 3. Interpersonal and Group/Team Training, including the incorporation of mentoring and collaborative learning into web-based or distributed learning where team/group members are not familiar with each other and/or group team members may change unexpectedly ; investigating the most effective method of developing interpersonal skills such as communication, negotiation, mediation, emotional intelligence; determining how necessary assessment and feedback is in training interpersonal skills; best approaches to me ntoring/coaching and how can one teach unit commanders such approaches. 4. Training and Technology, including assessing and addressing the unique training requirements in digital systems; determining the human and training dimensions that affect compliance and/or effectiveness in self-regulated training environments; and under standing and modeling the effectiveness of ?just in time? training. B. Basic Research?Leadership 1. Methods for accelerating leader development to include assessment and training methods and devices. 2. Methods for assessing and developing/training flexibility and adaptability when faced with novel situations. 3. Assessing the nature of changes, if any, in the leader?s role with the introduction of semi-autonomous/robotic systems. What characteristics will a leader need to possess in order to lead a mixed (human and machine) team, and how will they be measured? 4. What aspects of leadership will be affected by the existence of dispersed teams? 5. Self-development, including identifying the types of learning or knowledge that are best handled through self-development; the specific training needs the Army has that are best handled through self-development; the strategies or interventions can the A rmy use to support these and other individual self-development efforts; best approach (es) for self-development (e.g., reflection, web-based training, self-awareness toolkits) including the question of whether it is possible and practical for leaders to se lf-develop the interpersonal skills through distance learning; determining whether self-development has to occur in isolation or also as a social process ? as part of a team. 6. Generational Differences in Leaders. Recent research has explored generational differences along various dimensions, e.g., values, communication, self-directed activities, organizational commitment, technology, and interpersonal relations. More specifi cally, military studies have addressed the issue of junior officer attrition and have identified and discussed the disparity between senior and junior officers in terms of generational differences. We are interested in a more valid understanding of how the se generations differ and how these specific differences impact processes and outcomes important to the Objective Force (e.g., team-building, self-development, leader teams). 7. Leadership Selection, including determining the interpersonal skills that are essential for Objective Force leaders and how one selects for them; the limits of self-management skill and self-directed learning for Objective Force leaders, how they relate to Objective Force skill requirements, how one differentiates them from traditional constructs and what new assessment measures can measure them; the predictors for strong self-awareness and successful self-development, how best to evaluate the impact of self-awareness and self-development efforts for Objective Force leadership. 8. A better understanding of the relationship between adult learning and growth in leadership ability. Most adult learning research that has fo cused on young college students who are, at best, immature adults. Additional research is needed to explore the applicability of these principles to mature adults in their 30s and 40s. C. Basic Research ? Human Resource Practices 1. General Selection, including identifying the aptitude and skill requirements that are specific to the Objective Force soldier; assessing how persistence and dependability develop and contribute to effective performance and job tenure, how they relate to job factors, and how individual differences in such processes can be measured; the extent to which practical intelligence is a function of an aptitude that cuts across domains and how to develop a method for measuring this aptitude; how to anticipate chan ge and develop performance measures for Objective Force soldiers for tasks that are not currently known. 2. Selection specific to the semi-autonomous/robotic requirements of the Objective force including: What characteristics should a soldier as an operator possess? How do you select for multi-tasking and decision making ability? What utility, if any, does flexibility/adaptability to change have for operator selection? What metrics and criteria should be used for selecting and assigning operators? SEE: DASW01-04-K-0001A for PART II; Contact: Dr. Paul Gade or Dr.Kaplan via e-mail: gade@ari.army.mil; kaplan@a ri.army.mil
- Record
- SN00247943-W 20030130/030128213317 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |