DoD Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship: Sponsor Deadline for Registration to Submit White Paper

Date: 

Tuesday, October 25, 2022 (All day)

DoD Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) Program
Sponsor Deadline for Registration to Submit White Paper (required): October 25, 2022
Sponsor Deadline for White Papers (required): October 28, 2022
FAS/SEAS/OSP Deadline for Full Proposals (if invited): March 17, 2023
Sponsor Deadline for Full Proposals (if invited): March 24, 2023
Award Amount: Up to $3M over 5 years, with the actual amount contingent on availability of funds, the specific topic, and the scope of the proposed work. A total of 8-10 awards are anticipated.


The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) program 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 unclassified basic scientific and engineering research in areas of interest to the DoD and fostering long-term relationships between the VBFF Fellows and the DoD. 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 FOA is for single investigator grant proposals. VBFF Fellows and their students are provided with opportunities that are designed to enhance their understanding of DoD’s critical research needs and interact with DoD senior Science and Technology (S&T) program leaders. Additional information regarding the VBFF program and list of past recipients can be found at: https://basicresearch.defense.gov/Programs/Vannevar-Bush-Faculty-Fellowship/.

VBFF 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. This FOA is seeking proposals in the following research areas:

  • 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

Information regarding the white paper submission and submission process can be found at: https://dod-basicresearch.nvision.noblis.org/program/vbff.

Recent Harvard 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).