Office of Naval Research, 800 North Quincy Street, Arlington, VA 22217-5660

A -- MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PROGRAM OF THE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE POC Ms. Debra Hughes, ONR 353, (703) 696-4111. 96-018. The Department of Defense announces the FY 1997 competition for the Multidisciplinary Research Program, one element of the University Research Initiative (URI). The Multidisciplinary Research Program of the URI (MURI) supports research teams whose efforts intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline. Multidisciplinary team effort can accelerate research progress in areas particularly suited to this approach and also can help to hasten the transition of research findings to practical application. The DOD expects that MURI programs will promote application of defense research, primarily for defense purposes but also for commercial purposes. Proposals may be submitted only by U.S. institutions of higher education (other than federal government) with degree-granting programs in science and/or engineering (''universities''), or by consortia led by such institutions. Organizations which are not universities may participate in such consortia. This MURI competition is specifically for the eleven research topics listed as follows: (1) Cluster Engineered Materials (2) Quasi-Optic Power Combining (3) Design and Control of Smart Structures (4) Dendritic Polymers for Next Generation Functional Materials (5) Air Plasma Ramparts for Tomorrow's Battlefield (6) Cognitive Workload (7) Intelligent Agents for Wireless Computing (8) Advanced Acoustic Processors for Multiple DOD Applications (9) Photonics for RF Systems (10) Thermoelectric Materials for Cooling and Power Generation (11) Semantic Consistency and Heterogeneous Information Systems. The awards will be made in these eleven specific research topics by three sponsoring agencies: the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. This notice constitutes a Broad Agency Announcement as contemplated in FAR 6:102(d)2. The agencies expect that typically each award will be: (1) for a basic period of three years (funded incrementally or as options) with two additional years possible as options to bring the total award to a possible five-year award, subject to the availability of appropriations, and (2) on average, about $1 million per year, with the size of each award dependent upon the topic. More than one award may be made for an individual topic. A full description of the program is accessible on the World-Wide Web (via FEDIX, the Federal Information Exchange) at http://web.fie.com/fedix/onr.html (the last character is alpha ''el'' not numeric ''one''); select ''Education and Special Research Opportunitites.'' A computer help-line is available at 301-975-0103. DOD will issue no other version of this program description; no paper copy will be available from DOD. The program description provides general information, eligibility criteria (including conditions governing participation by organizations which are not universities), directions for submitting white papers and proposals, relevant dates, detailed descriptions of each of the eleven research topics (including technical points of contact) and evaluation criteria. White papers are due at the addresses shown for each topic by 4 p.m. local time on Wednesday 4, September 1996. Proposals are due at the addresses shown for each topic by 4 p.m. local time on Tuesday, 10 December 1996. The intent of a request for white papers is to minimize costs associated with production of proposals. Thus, white papers are strongly encouraged. However, all proposals submitted under the BAA terms and conditions will be reviewed, regardless of the disposition, or lack, of white papers. The primary evaluation criteria, of equal weight are: (1)Scientific and technical merits of the proposed research; and (2)Relevance and potential contributions of the research to defense missions. Other evaluation criteria, of lesser importance than (1) and (2) but equal to each other, are: (3)The qualifications of the principle investigator and other key research personnel; (4)The adequacy of current of planned facilities and equipment to accomplish the research objective; (5)The potential for strengthening the institution's infrastructure, for example, by acquiring or refurbishing equipment key to meeting DOD research objectives; (6)The impact of plans to train students in science and/or engineering; (7)The impact of interactions with other organizations engaged in related research and development, in particular industrial orgranizations, DOD laboratories and other orgranizations that perform research and development for defense applications; and (8)The realism and reasonableness of cost, including proposed cost sharing. Criteria (1),(2),(3) and (8) will be used to evaluate white papers. All eight criteria will be used to evaluate final proposals. Sponsor: Office of Naval Research, 800 North Quincy Street, Arlington, VA 22217-5660. (0193)

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