Amazon Research Awards issues spring 2024 call for proposals
The submission period opens March 27 and closes on May 7.
https://www.amazon.science/research-awards/program-updates/amazon-research-awards-issues-spring-2024-call-for-proposals


NSF - Artificial Intelligence, Formal Methods, and Mathematical Reasoning

  • Program seeks to support research at the interface of innovative computational and AI technologies and new strategies/technologies in mathematical reasoning to automate knowledge discovery.
  • Proposals should demonstrate potential to advance both mathematical sciences as well as computational models, with advancements such as:
  • Advancing AI for mathematical conjecture, proof, verification
  • Advancing interactive theorem provers for mathematical proof and verification, software/hardware verification.
  • Developing training data for AI algorithms for mathematical reasoning
  • Anticipating funding is $500K to $1.2M per award for up to 3 years per award
  • Full proposal due June 3, 2024 (Future deadlines in February in 2025 and 2026)
    (Posted 03.05.24)


DOE - Advancements in Artificial Intelligence for Science

  • Five research areas of of interest:
    • Extreme-scale foundation models for computational science
    • AI Innovations for scientific knowledge synthesis and software development
    • AI Innovations for computational decision support of complex systems
    • Federated and privacy-preserving machine learning and synthetic data creation
    • Co-design of energy-efficient AI algorithms and hardware architectures
  • 2-page pre-application is required, submission deadline for this is March 19, 2024
  • Funding is $100K - 350K per year for 3 years (up to $2M per year if you collaborate with DOE lab)

    (Posted 02.26.24)

NSF ACED: Accelerating Computing-Enabled Scientific Discovery 

https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/aced-accelerating-computing-enabled-scie[…]T.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_id=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
(Posted: 02.15.24)


Opportunities to connect with DOE funding opportunities through program office hours in coming months.
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDOEOS/bulletins/389b082
(Posted: 02.15.24)


Call for Proposals: 
Amazon Research Awards Winter 2024 
Apply before March 6, 2024

Amazon Research Awards (ARA) is announcing the winter 2024 call for proposals for the foundation model development research area, a new focus area for ARA this cycle. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. PT on March 6, 2024. Proposals will be reviewed for the quality of their scientific content, creativity, and their potential for impact at scale. Proposals related to theory, practice, and novel new techniques are all welcome.

This call for proposals provides grant recipients with AWS promotional credits to help develop and test solutions at scale. Funded projects are assigned an Amazon research contact, and recipients also receive training resources, including AWS tutorials and hands-on sessions with Amazon scientists and engineers.

Before applying, researchers are encouraged to visit the ARA website and read the frequently asked questions for more specific program information.

https://www.amazon.science/research-awards/program-updates/amazon-research-awards-issues-winter-2024-call-for-proposals

Posted 02.06.24


Navy - Fundamental Research Towards Expeditionary Air War

  • This is a special call out of the Navy BAA - so funding is most likely more readily available than a blind submission.
  • Topic 2 is: Theoretical foundations and limitations of predicting, deceiving, and disrupting AI algorithms in perception/action loops
  • Goal is to develop generalized foundations and limitations for deceiving, shaping, and manipulating AI systems in perception/action loops with unknown elements of the intelligent systems.
  • (My read of it) - think of an adversary using off the shelf AI/intelligent components, but those components aren't known. What generalized models can be used to identify and/or counteract that system?
  • Awards will be $330K for year 1, $910K for years 2-3, and $1M for years 3-4. Full details are in the FOA.
  • If you are interested and can't access the full document please email kem622@lehigh.edu and I will get it to you.

    Posted 01.26.24


Democratizing the future of AI R&D: 
NSF to launch National AI Research Resource pilot - additional information:

National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot  

The NAIRR is a vision for a shared national research infrastructure for responsible discovery and innovation in AI.  The NAIRR pilot is being launched and led by the U.S. National Science Foundation in partnership with ten other federal agencies and many non-governmental partners. The NAIRR pilot makes available an array computational, data, software, model, training and user support resources to the U.S. research and education community with the aims of demonstrating and investigating all aspects of the NAIRR vision. 
Information points 

 
Initial NAIRR Pilot opportunities for researchers, educators and students 

  1. Survey on Researcher and Educator Use Cases for the NAIRR 

This survey/request for information will be instrumental in helping to shape the NAIRR Pilot effort towards an eventual full-scale NAIRR. We welcome responses from individuals and groups in all research and education domains including researchers, educators, students, post-docs and others involved in the public and private U.S. research enterprise. 

·         Direct link to the survey: https://idaorg.gov1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cRMnkUFJoXs7UfI 

·         NSF Dear Colleague Letter pointing to the survey/RFI: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf24051  

  1. Initial NAIRR Pilot call for allocations to high performance computing resources  

NSF and the Department of Energy are collaborating to provide a first NAIRR Pilot opportunity for allocations to a set of advanced computing GPU systems and testbeds. This initial call emphasizes interest in computational research projects from US-based researchers focused on Safe, Secure and Trustworthy AI, and will secondarily consider proposals in areas aligned with the NAIRR pilot goals including healthcare, environment and infrastructure sustainability, and AI education as well as projects in other areas of AI research and domain applications.  

·         Learn more and apply here: https://nairrpilot.org/allocations.  

  1. Available NAIRR pilot resources  

The NAIRR pilot is making available AI-related resources contributed by our partners, such as AI ready datasets, pre-trained models, analytic platforms, and software. An initial set of these resources is available as of the January launch of the pilot, with many more to be added in the coming weeks and months. 

·         See the list of resources here: https://nairrpilot.org/pilot-resources.

Posted 01.24.24


UL Research Institutes - Independent digital risk assessment

  • Program to enhance public safety at the human-digital interface.
  • UL generates standards and other measures for technologies, interested in furthering that space.
  • Program to develop measures of an individuals' safety (cybersecurity, privacy, autonomy, information integrity) when using a consumer or business app.
  • Looking for researchers with deep expertise in digital system safety with interest in contributing to public digital safety labeling in their area of expertise (cybersecurity, data privacy, algorithmic trustworthiness, deep fakes, information integrity).
  • From the webinar - UL mentioned they are very interested in new ideas outside of things they are already working on - so it would be a good opportunity for an idea you have had kicking around without finding the funding opportunity for it previously.
  • Funding = $200K for 1 year with option to continue funding at UL's discretion
  • 3 page maximum letter of intent due February 16th (full proposals if encouraged are due May 10).

Posted 01.18.24


DOE - Data Reduction for Science

  • Required pre-application (2 pages) due March 19 (full application May 7).
  • Program is interested in developing algorithms, techniques, and workflows that can reduce volume of scientific data (from diverse sources across the DOE mission space), and can be applied to more than one application.
  • Principal focus is support applied mathematics and computer sciences approaches across:
  • Effective algorithms/tools trusted by scientists for accuracy & efficiency.
  • Progressive reduction algorithms that enable data prioritization for efficient streaming
  • Algorithms that preserve information with quantified uncertainty
  • Mapping techniques to new architectures and use cases
  • Research has to create understanding, not focus on a specific data set/application
  • Include one or more key characteristics, such as compression, reduced order models, experiment-specific triggers, filtering, and feature extraction, and may focus on cross-cutting concepts such as AI or trust.
  • Preference given to those that include reduction estimates for at least 2 science applications.
  • 3 year program, total funding = $150 - $400K per year (up to $1M per year with DOE National Lab or multi-institutional team).

    Posted 01.17.23


NSF - Responsible Design, Development, and Deployment of Technologies

  • Program is to examine and demonstrate principles, methodologies, implementations, and impacts associated with technologies in practice.
  • For this cycle, specific focus is on: AI, Biotech, Disaster prevention or mitigation
  • Both Phase 1 planning grants (Due Apr 8) and Phase II projects (Due Apr 22) are available.
  • Various models exist for planning grants (planning grants, workshops, coordination) and are outlined in the FOA. Funding ranges from $75K for workshops up to $500K for coordination networks.
  • Phase II project proposals will be funded in the $750K - $1.5M range for 3 years.

    Posted 01.16.23


NEH - Dangers and opportunities of technology: Perspective from the humanities

  • Program supports research that examines technology and its relationship to society through the lens of the humanities - focused on dangers/opportunities presented by technology.
  • Special encouragement this year for projects focused on ethical, legal, and societal impacts of AI
  • Funding is $75K for individuals and $150K for collaborative teams
  • Application deadline is September 12.

    Posted 01.16.23


NSF - Algorithms for Threat Detection

  • Deadline April 10, 2024 (Future deadlines in February from '25 onward)
  • Cosponsored by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
  • Funding is $150 - $300K per award
  • Two topical areas are supported:
    -Develop algorithms for analysis of massive spatiotemporal datasets at scale
    -Projects that develop mathematical theory to guide application of advanced AI to processing spatiotemporal data
  • Specific topic details are in bulleted list on page 4 of the FOA if interested.

    Posted 01.16.23