DoD Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) Program
Sponsor Deadline for Registration (required): October 12, 2021
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (required): October 15, 2021
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline: January 28, 2022
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals (if invited): February 4, 2022
Award Amount: Up to $3M for 5 years.

The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) program, formerly known as the National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship (NSSEFF), is oriented towards bold and ambitious “blue sky” research that may lead to extraordinary outcomes such as revolutionizing entire disciplines, creating entirely new fields, or disrupting accepted theories and perspectives. VBFF supports innovative basic research within academia, as well as opportunities intended to develop the next generation of scientists and engineers for the defense workforce. This FOA seeks distinguished researchers for the purpose of conducting innovative basic research in areas of interest to the DoD and fostering long-term relationships between the VBFF Fellows and the DoD. Fellows and their students are expected to attend VBFF activities scheduled throughout the year. Faculty with tenure at the time of proposal submission, with a record of substantial scientific contributions and the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to conduct the proposed research as the principal investigator (PI), are invited to submit an application. The PI must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

This program is interested in a broad spectrum of scientific areas, including:

• Area 1: Applied Mathematics and Computational Science
• Area 2: Networks and Artificial Intelligence
• Area 3: Cognitive Neuroscience
• Area 4: Fundamentals of Bioengineering
• Area 5: Quantum Information Science
• Area 6: Electronics, Photonics and Quantum Materials
• Area 7: Engineered Materials and Structures
• Area 8: Other Fields of Research

Recent recipients include Jennifer Lewis (SEAS, 2021, Programmable Assembly of Functional Human Tissues), Adam Cohen (CCB, 2018, Synthetic Bioelectrical Materials for Sensing, Pattern Formation, and Computation), Marcus Greiner (Physics, 2018, Many-Body Quantum Dynamics with Microscope Control - A New Research Frontier), Phillip Kim (Physics, 2018, Quantum Engineered Van Der Waals Heterostructures for Topological Electronic Structures Towards Novel Device Applications), Michael Brenner (SEAS, 2017, Theory-Driven Biomimetic Design of Novel Optical Metamaterials), Jennifer Lewis (SEAS, 2016, Programmable Architected Materials), and Hongkun Park (CCB and Physics, 2016, Nanostructured Surfaces for Integrated Optoelectronics. Plasmonics, and Quantum Optics), and Mikhail Lukin (Physics, 2015, Quantum Sensing and Metrology: Novel Methods and Applications).