Funding Alert: Up to $750K for Aircraft Structural Integrity Research

Up to $750K per award is available for U.S. based graduate level engineering universities (and their private partners) who are conducting research in areas relevant to aircraft structural integrity.

Details

Closing date: October 23, 2023
Expected number of awards: Multiple
Award amount: $50k-$750k
How to apply: Start here

What is the Air Force Research Laboratory?

The AFRL leads the discovery, development and delivery of war-fighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace forces. They are “pushing the boundaries and creating a new tomorrow through unparalleled research.”

Why Structural Integrity Research Collaborations for Aircraft (SIRCA)?

The Air Force Research Laboratory is soliciting white papers (and potentially technical and cost proposals) to foster innovative research in the area of aircraft structural integrity. This initiative targets higher education programs in engineering at colleges and universities located in the United States, and will encourage students and professors to perform fundamental research and development (R&D). The objective of the SIRCA program is to enable collaborative research partnerships between AFRL, Academia, and Industry, in areas relevant to aircraft structural integrity including risk and reliability, metal fatigue and fracture, and composite damage modeling. These technical areas are necessary for developing critical war-fighting technologies for the nation’s air, space and cyberspace forces, as well as commercial derivatives.

By including all US institutions with graduate degree programs in relevant engineering fields, this program will strengthen the supply of specialized workforce talent, not only for the AF and DoD, but also Industry and Academia. This program intends to engage multiple collegiate institutions and to develop scientists and engineers in specific research areas of interest to AFRL/RQ that will provide the Air Force and Industry with a broad range of highly unique technology advances; and, for Academia, pertinent concepts and experience for the future workforce. Teaming arrangements with Industry and other Academic Institutions are highly encouraged.

How does this funding work?

The Air Force anticipates multiple awards as a result of this solicitation, most likely as Cooperative Agreements. Awarded projects are anticipated to be 24 months in length, though different length projects may be proposed, with agreement values ranging from $50k-750k. The Air Force reserves the right to award larger or smaller dollar research agreements.

Also, the Air Force reserves the right to award zero, one, or more awards for all, some or none of the solicited effort based on the offeror’s ability to perform desired work.

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