06/11/2010
Research funding opportunity available from Defense Department
The research arm of the Defense Department is holding a series of workshops to discuss research funding opportunities that may be of interest to biomedical engineers and bioengineers.
The program is through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.
It is for DARPA's viral pathogen surveillance program known as "Prophecy." The project focuses the preemptive prediction of emerging viruses using in-silica models validated by biological validation systems.
The Prophecy Teaming Day Workshops will introduce interested researchers to the details of the program, provide a forum to facilitate interaction and encourage collaboration among researchers with expertise in relevant disciplines. Participants will break out into small multidisciplinary groups to devise innovative strategies to address the program vision.
The Prophecy Teaming Day Workshop will be held at two locations on two different dates with the same overview information being presented at each. Access will be limited to one of the two workshops in order to ensure broad public attendance. The East Coast Workshop will be held on Thursday, June 24, 2010, at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston, MA. The West Coast Workshop will be held on Wednesday, June 30, 2010, at the Olive 8 Hyatt in Seattle, WA. The goals of the workshop are to:
- introduce the research community to the Prophecy program vision and its goals;
- explain the mechanics of a DARPA biology research program and the objectives and milestones of this particular anticipated effort; and
- encourage and promote collaborative arrangements among potential organizations that have the relevant expertise, facilities, and capabilities for executing a research and development program responsive to the Prophecy program goals.
The Teaming Day Workshop will include overview presentations by government personnel, breakout sessions where participants will examine potential strategies to address the program objective, an information session to respond to questions from participants, a poster session to facilitate interaction and collaboration among the session participants, and private sidebars that can be scheduled at onsite registration. A website is provided for additional information and teaming registration at: http://teaming.sainc.com/prophecy.
Deadlines related to the workshops include:
PROPHECY EAST, Workshop Date: June 24, 2010; REGISTRATION DEADLINE: June 14, 2010;
PROPHECY WEST, Workshop Date: June 30, 2010; REGISTRATION DEADLINE: June 18, 2010;
Go to: www.darpa.mil/dso/solicitations/solicit.htm to register
There is no fee for the Prophecy Teaming Day Workshop. Registration is limited (maximum 100 people; 2 people per organization) by the venue capacity. Access per organization will be limited to one of the two workshops. Early registration is strongly recommended.
Further administrative questions should be addressed to DARPA-SN-10-48@darpa.mil.
For the project, DARPA official are interested in approaches that can acquire high-throughput, quantitative information from in vitro systems required to detect rare events and the ability to tune and characterize evolutionary pressures to validate predictive models.
Such methods may include, but are not limited to: modeling, microfluidics, high-resolution and massively parallel imaging, flow cytometry, cellular and molecular biophysics, structural biology, labeled and label-free monitoring of viruses in cells via optical, electrical or mechanical means.