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ERI Funding Opportunities

Welcome to the ERI Funding Opportunities Site

College of Engineering campus
Research drives excellence in the College of Engineering by serving as a magnet to attract and retain outstanding faculty and students. Funding opportunities relevant to the College of Engineering will be posted here. If you are interested in pursuing any of these opportunities please contact ERI at eri-pre@iastate.edu for assistance or additional information. New opportunities are posted weekly. To have the new opportunities delivered directly to your inbox please subscribe using your ISU email address. One email per week.

 

 

In-line detection of foreign bodies in industrial processing

Halo 

https://www.halo.science/request_for_solutions/stealth-contaminant-detection-in-food

Posted Date: April 1, 2026

Proposal Due Date: May 29, 2026

We seek next-generation foreign body in-line detection technologies that can reliably identify metal contaminants along with low-density, low-contrast, and low-RF-signal contaminants, while maintaining low false rejects rates. Solutions that combine detection with automated removal are of particular interest, especially in bulk inspection scenarios where performance and waste reduction depend on the ability to accurately and selectively remove contaminated material. Detection-only technologies are also in scope where integration with rejection systems is feasible. Ideal solutions would integrate into existing processing environments with minimal disruption and align with food factory constraints, including sanitation, washdown, uptime, and maintenance requirements. We are also open to technologies adapted from adjacent high-accuracy industries, where there is a clear pathway to engineering or retrofitting the solution for food-safe, high-throughput manufacturing environments.

Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator

DOE

Solicitation: DE-FOA-0003589

https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/#FoaIdb2296432-4f64-4dd7-b0e3-730ef4584226

Posted Date: April 06, 2026

Letter of Intent Due Date: April 21, 2026

Proposal Due Dates:

Topic 1: May 26, 2026

Topic 2: June 22, 2026

Topic 3: July 20, 2026

This NOFO supports critical minerals and materials. Critical minerals and materials (CMM) are the building blocks for technologies foundational to U.S. energy dominance, national security, and industrial competitiveness. To build a secure domestic supply of CMMs, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) aims to support collaborative industry partnerships to prototype and pilot innovative processing technologies that are currently only proven at the bench scale to address CMM challenges in high impact areas. The CMM Accelerator program will advance these mid-stage innovations through validation, benchmarking, access to national lab test beds, testing in industry relevant environments, technoeconomic analysis, and life-cycle assessment. The program establishes a pipeline to support technology maturation to ultimately unlock private capital investments. It also will leverage other DOE lab based activities, such as the Critical Materials Innovation Hub (CMI Hub) and the Minerals to Materials Supply Chain Research Facility (METALLIC). Technologies resulting from the program are expected to have a path to domestic commercialization within 3-7 years.

FY2026 Research Opportunities in Accelerator Stewardship and Accelerator Development

DOE

Solicitation: DE-FOA-0003620

https://simpler.grants.gov/opportunity/b1309b75-ec21-4ca7-9021-5d0aeb7c7c82

Posted Date: March 12, 2026

Pre-Application Due Date: April 9

 

The DOE SC program in High Energy Physics (HEP) hereby announces its interest in
applications to conduct cross-cutting use-inspired basic research and development (R&D) to advance accelerator science and technology (AS&T) and domestic supplier development that supports SC’s activities in physical sciences research and which is of broader benefit to other U.S. government agencies and industry. Please note that this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is for cross-cutting R&D and domestic supplier development and that program-specific AS&T R&D is supported though NOFOs issued by each SC program

The Genesis Mission: Transforming Science and Energy with AI

DOE

Solicitation: DE-FOA-0003612

https://simpler.grants.gov/opportunity/0228b895-9cb3-4160-8acc-58709e75c3c7

Posted Date: March 17, 2026

Due Date: May 28, 2026

The DOE Office of Science (SC), Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI), Office of Environmental Management (EM), Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Office of Electricity (OE), and Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Office (HGEO) hereby announce interest in receiving applications from interdisciplinary teams addressing the Genesis Mission National Science and Technology Challenges to accelerate scientific discovery and research and development (R&D) workflows using novel artificial intelligence (AI) models and frameworks.
By achieving AI advantage, these teams will advance the DOE’s mission and ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through science and technology. Teams are encouraged to leverage the extensive scientific and data resources of the DOE/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the National Laboratories, U.S. industry, and academia. The resulting AI models and workflows, if successful, may be integrated into the American Science Cloud.

Automated Discovery for Design and Control of Turbulent Systems (AutoDIDACTS)

DARPA

Solicitation: HR001126S0008

https://simpler.grants.gov/opportunity/40b954c3-f11e-4dda-986a-ac05dae3bb79#opportunity-documents

Posted Date: April 1, 2026

Due Date: May 20, 2026

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative proposals for
the data-informed development of generalizable models and principles for aeronautical design and
the optimal control of turbulent systems. Proposed research should investigate innovative
approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. Specifically
excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of
practice.
AutoDIDACTS seeks to demonstrate and validate new data-informed paradigms for design
exploration and optimization across various regimes of aeronautics and turbulent control problems
of relevance to the Department of War (DoW). The principal objective of this program is to
demonstrate the use of precision ground-truth experimental data to arrive directly at macroscale
design principles and surrogate models that can guide aeronautical design in various regimes of
relevance to the DoW. Of particular interest to this program is the development of data-informed
design principles and models that combine high predictive accuracy with generalizability across
wide parameter regimes, multi-parameter design optimization, and inverse design paradigms.
To achieve its objectives, AutoDIDACTS will require teams to combine expertise in (1) compact
and tunable experimental simulators of turbulent flow phenomenology to generate precision
ground-truth data, (2) data-informed techniques for discovery of predictive macroscale design
principles and surrogate models, and (3) design and development in relevant topic areas for
demonstrations of end-of-program challenge problems

Academic Innovation Challenge – FY27 Solicitation

NASA

Solicitation: M2M X-Hab

https://lists.epss.net/campaigns/eb249t9v2ma8d/track-url/cs601y2s053a7/e173ed59270ab2eb044e5d52bb1fd99ee2860db3

Posted Date: March 12, 2026

Proposal Due Date: May 01, 2026

The Moon to Mars eXploration Systems and Habitation (M2M X-Hab) 2027 Academic Innovation
Challenge is a university-level challenge designed to develop strategic partnerships and collaborations
with universities. It has been organized to help bridge strategic knowledge gaps and increase knowledge
in capabilities and technology risk reduction related to NASA’s vision and missions. The competition is
intended to link with senior- and graduate-level design curricula that emphasize hands-on design,
research, development, and manufacturing of functional prototypical subsystems that enable functionality
for space habitats and deep space exploration missions. NASA will directly benefit from the challenge by
sponsoring the development of innovative concepts and technologies from universities, which will result
in novel ideas and solutions that could be applied to exploration.
Innovation is the keystone to this challenge. Universities and investigators not normally associated with
the aerospace industry are encouraged to consider their potential contribution to changing the way the
space industry views the solution space.
NASA’s Mars Campaign Office (MCO) anticipates offering multiple awards of up to $15k – $50k each to
design and produce studies or functional products of interest to NASA (see Section 3.2, M2M X-Hab
Proposal Topic List) as proposed by university teams according to their interests and expertise. The
prototypes produced by the university teams (examples of which are shown in Figure 1Figure 1) may be
integrated into existing NASA-built operational prototypes. Universities interested in participating will
submit M2M X-Hab proposals, which will be reviewed by technical experts; subsequent down-selection
will determine which projects will be funded. M2M X-Hab university teams will be required to complete
their products for evaluation by NASA MCO mentors in May 2027. Universities may form collaborations
to perform as a single distributed project team.

Advancing Global Health

Global Health Security

Solicitation: DFOP0017890

https://simpler.grants.gov/opportunity/084076e8-1f77-44f7-a832-35552c54454a

Posted Date: March 30, 2026

Submission of Interest (SOI) Due Date: May 31, 2026

The Department of State is announcing the launch of the Rapid Outbreak Response (ROR) projects, in line with the America First Global Health Strategy, to advance programming that enable timely, effective responses to infectious disease outbreaks by supporting immediate response actions during the earliest stages of an outbreak when rapid intervention can significantly limit transmission and reduce morbidity and mortality. These ROR efforts will capitalize on existing country capacities and partnerships to support swift activation of outbreak response activities, complementing national leadership and established response frameworks.
Projects supported under this addendum will prioritize speed, operational readiness, and flexibility, enabling countries to respond rapidly to evolving epidemiological threats, while maintaining coordination across national, regional, and international actors.
ROR projects will provide life-saving response support across key technical and operational domains, which may include (but are not limited to) coordination and incident management support; point of entry screening and border health measures; medical countermeasures; immunization for outbreak prevention and response; nutrition crisis prevention; infection prevention and control; case management; laboratory strengthening; surveillance and data
collection and use; and operational and logistical support. Activities are expected to be timebound, surge-oriented, culturally adapted and scalable, allowing partners to adapt interventions as outbreak dynamics change.

Generation Of Technical-data for High-strength Aluminum Alloy Material (GOTHAAM)

America Makes

Generation of Technical-data for High-strength Aluminum Alloy Material (GOTHAAM)

Posted Date: March 31, 2026

Proposal Due Date: June 02, 2026

Topics and Awards: This project call seeks to mature a laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) aluminum alloy capable of meeting the performance of aluminum 7075 through the generation of statistically based material property datasets across multiple machine size platforms. Efforts will span three different printer sizes, including a large-format system, to ensure scalability and consistency of material performance. In addition to achieving high strength, the project emphasizes corrosion resistance as a primary requirement, with focused evaluation of intergranular corrosion sensitivity and stress corrosion cracking behavior. Together, this work aims to establish a robust, data-driven foundation for reliable LPBF aluminum materials suitable for demanding aerospace applications.

Delta Qual 2.0

America Makes

Delta Qual 2.0

Posted Date: March 31, 2026

Proposal Due Date: June 02, 2026

Topics and Awards: The Delta Qual 2.0 Project Call advances next‑generation qualification methods for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) to accelerate deployment, reduce risk, and improve consistency across machines and sites. It focuses on three integrated topics:
Topic 1: Quantitative Measurement-Based Installation Qualification to standardize and strengthen site acceptance and machine performance verification.
Topic 2: Bracketed Qualification for LPBF to define and validate a bounded processing window that permits parameter flexibility without requalification.
Topic 3: Red Team function that provides independent oversight, challenge, and verification of methods and results.
Together, these efforts aim to deliver practical, scalable frameworks that cut qualification cost and time while safeguarding material and part performance.

Dear Colleague Letter Empowering and Educating Children to Thrive in a Digital Era

NSF

Solicitation: 26-017

https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/dcl-empowering-educating-children-thrive-digital-era

Dear Colleague:

This Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) encourages proposal submissions that empower children to learn, grow, and thrive through the safe and innovative use of advanced technology. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is interested in proposals that investigate and advance evidence-based strategies, technologies and approaches, including artificial intelligence (Al) and other emerging technologies, to strengthen children’s safety and privacy online, create and expand educational opportunities for children, support and promote their well-being in the digital age, and strengthen the capacity of educators, parents, caregivers and community stakeholders to protect children from online dangers. NSF is also interested in the design of advanced learning environments that help children learn, grow, and thrive in the future across formal and informal educational settings.

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