People interested in this research initiative should contact the appropriate
person below from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA):
Contracts Eileen Frazier 301/227-7825
Technical Richard Berg 301/227-7498
NIMA's main web site is http://www.nima.mil
The following text is from the announcement document which can be read in
full at: http://www.nima.mil/poc/contracts/NURI00BAA.pdf
The National Imagery and Mapping Agency
University Research Initiatives
INTRODUCTION
The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) announces a Fiscal Year 2000
competition for the NIMA University Research Initiative (NURI). NURI is a
NIMA initiative to enhance universities' capabilities to perform research
and related education in science and engineering areas critical to NIMA
missions and national defense. NURI supports research teams whose efforts
intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline.
Multi-disciplinary team effort can accelerate research progress in areas
particularly suited to this approach and also can help to hasten the
transition of research findings to practical application. By supporting team
efforts, NURI complements other DoD programs that support university
research principally through single-investigator awards.
The U.S. National Science Foundation shares many of the fundamental research
goals detailed in this announcement, which have scientific merit beyond the
specific objectives of the Department of Defense. Relevant NSF Program
Officers expect to participate in the review, selection, and support of some
projects submitted in response to NURI.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Through this NURI competition, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency
expects to make awards in several specific research topics, subject to the
availability of funds. All awards will be based on merit competition. The
agency expects that typically each award will be
- for a basic period of three years (funded incrementally or as options),
with two optional additional years, and - on average about $130 thousand per year.
Given these award sizes, NURI provides more funding for critical research
infrastructure elements than traditional, single-investigator awards.
Therefore, to support the proposed research, a NURI proposal may request
proportionately more funding than a single-investigator proposal for
training graduate students and for acquiring or refurbishing equipment
needed to conduct the proposed research.
NURI RESEARCH TOPICS
* Geospatial Information Sciences
Includes uncertainty, spatio-temporal analysis, topological reasoning,
information management for massive databases, integrated source
management, interoperability, scale and high-dimensional representations.
* Physical Sciences
Includes geodesy and geophysics, hydrography, and remote sensing
phenomenology including synthetic aperture radar, multispectral and
hyperspectral imaging.
* Computer Sciences
Includes human cognition and human-centered computing, virtual
experts and intelligent agents.
* Neuroscience
Focused on neuroscience-inspired approaches (excluding classical neural
network applications) to target recognition and cartographic feature
extraction, either automated or to assist analysts.
* Image Sciences
Includes imagery compression and decompression and includes image
processing capabilities of data from electro-optical, spectral and/or
synthetic aperture radar sensors.
* Mathematics
Includes combinatorial strategies, fractal representations and wavelets,
and refinement schemes applicable to geospatial data and information.
* Technology Transfer
Focused on alternatives to the current, poorly-functioning
process for tech transfer within NIMA.
TIMELINE
Action Responsibility Due Date
Issue announcement in Government 09/27/99
Commerce Business Daily
White Paper due (optional) Principal 17:00 EDT
Investigator 10/19/99
Notification to proceed Government 10/29/99
(where required)
Proposal due Principal 17:00 EST
Investigator 11/18/99
Acknowledge receipt of Government 11/23/99
proposals
Letter of intent to Government 12/16/99
recommend for award
Start date Principal 01/01/00
Investigator
The full text of the program is available in PDF form at:
http://www.nima.mil/poc/contracts/NURI00BAA.pdf