W911NF-23-S-0010 Final Posting.pdf

UNITED STATES ARMY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

FOR THE BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES (ARI)

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT

FOR

BASIC, APPLIED, AND ADVANCED

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

W911NF-23-S-0010

01 May 2023 – 30 April 2028

ISSUED BY:

U.S. Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground Research Triangle Park Division

P. O. BOX 12211

Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY:

A. Required Overview Content…………...………………………………………………….4 B. Additional Overview……………………………………………………………………...5

II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY:………7

A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION……………….………………………………………....…7

1. Basic Research Areas of Interest……………………………………………………

2. Applied Research and Advanced Technology Development Areas of Interest………..8

a. Holistic Personnel Assessment and Statistical Innovations for Talent Management.9

b. Leader Competences for Complexity & Uncertainty……………………..………..10

c. Team Assignment & Performance………………………………….………………15

d. Assessing and Developing Technological Fluency for the Future Force….……….18

B. FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION

1. Procurement Contract……………………………………………………………………20

2. Grant……………………………………………………………………………………..20

3. Cooperative Agreement………………………………………………………………….20

4. Technology Investment Agreement (TIA)……………………………………….………20

5. Other Transaction for Research…………………………………………………………..21

6. Grants and cooperative agreements for institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, foreign organizations, and foreign public entities………………………….21

7. Grants and cooperative agreements for for-profit and nonprofit organizations exempted from Subpart E - Cost Principles of 2 CFR Part 200……………………………………...21

8. OT for Research/ TIAs…………………………………………………………………...21

9. The following websites may be accessed to obtain an electronic copy of the governing regulations and terms and conditions……………………………………………………..22

C. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

1. Eligible Applicants………………………………………………………………………..23

2. Cost Sharing or Matching…………………………………………………………...…23

D. APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION

1. Address to View Broad Agency Announcement……………………………………...24

2. Content and Form of Application Submission……………………………………………24

Section 1 – General Information…………………………………………………………24 Section 2 – Application Process Overview……………………………………………….25 Section 3 – White Paper Preparation……………………………………………………..26 Section 4 – White Paper Submission……………………………………………………..27 Section 5 – Review of White Papers……………………………………………………...27 Section 6 – Preparation of Proposals……………………………………………………...27 Section 7 -- Conference and Symposia Grants……………………………………………35 Section 8 – Submission of Proposals……………………………………………………..36

E. APPLICATION REVIEW INFORMATION…………………………………………….….41

1. Criteria……………………………………………………………………………………41

2. Recipient Qualification……………………………………………………………………42

F. AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION………………………………………..44

1. Award Notices…………………………………………………………………………….44

2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements………………………………………….44

3. Reporting………………………………………………………………………………..…54

G. FEDERAL AWARD AGENCY CONTACTS………………………………………………56

H. OTHER INFORMATION………………………………………………………………..57

I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

A. Required Overview Content

Agency Name:

U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI)

Issuing Acquisition Office:

U.S. Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground, Research Triangle Park (ACC-APG-RTP) Division

Research Opportunity Title:

U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences Broad Agency Announcement for Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research (Fiscal Years 2023-2028)

Announcement Type:

Initial Announcement

Research Opportunity Number:

W911NF-23-S-0010

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number and Title:

12.630 – Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and Engineering

Response Dates (Submissions):

This BAA is a continuously open five-year announcement valid throughout the period beginning 01 May 2023 and ending 30 April 2028. New start awards are normally obligated early within each fiscal year Amendments to this BAA will be posted to SAM.gov and is now known as Contract Opportunities and will also be posted to http://www.Grants.gov when they occur. Interested parties are encouraged to periodically check these websites for updates and amendments.

(End of Section)

B. Additional Overview Information

INTRODUCTION:

This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), which sets forth research areas of interest to the United States Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI), is issued under the provisions of paragraph 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), which provides for the acquisition of basic and applied research and that part of development not related to the development of a specific system or hardware procurement through the competitive selection of proposals, and 10 U.S.C. 4001, 10 U.S.C. 4021, and 10 U.S.C. 4022, which provide the authorities for issuing awards under this announcement for basic and applied research. Proposals submitted in response to this BAA and selected for award are considered to be the result of full and open competition and in full compliance with the provisions of Public Law 98-369, "The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984" and subsequent amendments.

ARI is the Army’s lead agency for the conduct of research, development, and analyses for Army readiness and performance via research advances and applications of the behavioral and social sciences that address personnel, organization, and Soldier and leader development issues.

Programs funded under this BAA include basic research, applied research, and advanced technology development that can improve human performance and Army readiness.

Funding of research and development (R&D) within ARI areas of interest will be determined by funding constraints and priorities set during each budget cycle. Those contemplating submission of a proposal are encouraged to contact the ARI Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) identified in Section G of this BAA or the responsible ARI Manager noted at the end of the technical area entry (Part II Section A of this BAA) to determine whether the proposed R&D warrants further inquiry. If the proposed R&D warrants further inquiry and funding is available, submission of a white paper or proposal will be entertained. The recommended three-step sequence is (1) initial contact with the ARI TPOC or responsible ARI Manager, (2) white paper submission, (3) proposal submission.

This sequence allows earliest determination of the potential for funding and minimizes the labor and cost associated with submission of proposals that have minimal probability of being selected for funding. Costs associated with white paper or proposal submissions in response to this BAA are not considered allowable direct charges to any resulting award. These costs may be allowable expenses to normal bid and proposal indirect costs specified in FAR 31.205-18.

Applicants submitting proposals are cautioned that only a Government Contracting or Grants Officer may obligate the Government to any agreement involving expenditure of Government funds.

To be eligible for an award under this announcement, a prospective awardee must meet certain minimum standards pertaining to financial resources and responsibility, ability to comply with the performance schedule, past performance, integrity, experience, technical capabilities, operational controls, and facilities. In accordance with Federal statutes, regulations, and

Department of Defense (DoD) and Army policies, no person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving financial assistance from the Army.

II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

1. Basic Research Areas of Interest

Basic Research is defined as systematic study directed toward greater knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and of observable facts that drive theory forward without being restricted to ideas that have known applications or products. Basic research may lay the foundation for future research aimed at developing tools, but that is not its goal. ARI’s Basic Research Program maintains close contact with ARI's applied scientists and other relevant agencies within the Army to facilitate the transition of basic research to applied Army efforts. The Basic Research Program seeks to support and execute high-risk, high-reward fundamental research to develop state-of-the-art theory, methods, and models to create the innovative concepts required to support the Army’s future capabilities and needs. Basic Research seeks to support efforts in the following focal areas:

• Science of Measurement of Individuals & Collectives: Maintaining readiness requires that the Army be comprised of high-quality personnel who are optimally distributed throughout the force. Accurate, efficient, predictive, and informative measurement of individuals and collectives is the means to meeting this charge. The program goals of this focal area are to develop new (a) means to concurrently measure more than one factor with a single testing behavior without sacrificing precision; (b) approaches to capture and analyze continuous behavioral processes unfolding within and between fluid social situations; (c) models and methods for combining information from diverse and potentially archival sources to better understand the nature and antecedents of performance; and (d) construct validation models and methods consistent with the nature and antecedents of performance. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, psychometrics for modeling dynamic data, measurement theory for dynamic constructs, context-sensitive measures of adaptability and flexibility, and embedded assessments of individual and group attributes.

• Understanding Multilevel and Organizational Dynamics: The Army organization is a complex, often fluid structure based on both formal and informal work roles and social hierarchies. It is critical to better understand the multilevel and cross-level influences at the individual, small unit, and organizational level, and how these influences relate to organizational effectiveness. The program goals of this focal area are to (a) develop new theories that capture the multilevel and multifactored nature of organizations and the mechanisms underlying their coordination and restructuring processes, and (b) identify and define top-down and bottom-up factors, and their interactions, that influence organizational effectiveness. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, non-linear models for assessing team processes, process-oriented models of individual and group dynamics, modeling dynamic organizational restructuring, and models of complex multi-layered organizations.

• Context of Behavior in Military Environments: The Army must thrive in various and unpredictable situations. There are known gaps in current theory to address how contextual factors, including leadership behaviors, combine to impact individual and group behavior. The program goals of this focal area are to develop new (a) models or refine existing models that capture critical environmental characteristics that influence human behavior, and (b) theories understanding effective leadership and developing effective leaders efficiently; developing new measures that advance the current understanding of leadership and leader behaviors. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, developing leadership theory for complex organizations, identifying external factors that impact social and decision-making processes, understanding multilevel contextual effects on organizational behavior, and models for strategically activating organizationally relevant identities.

• Formal and Informal Learning and Development: The Army not only trains personnel for specific jobs, tasks, and roles, but also develops Soldiers across their careers. Thus, it is important to understand how to maximize opportunities for learning throughout that timespan. The program goals of this focal area are to develop (a) longitudinal theories of adult learning within a variety of environments from a multidisciplinary perspective; (b) innovative methods for maximizing collective learning; and (c) measurement techniques that allow for objective and/or automatic assessment of learning processes. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, understanding the role of narratives in learning, individual and collective mental models of learning experiences, non-linear models of learning and development, and models of development across the career span.

For additional information on these domains, and potential areas of interest, Applicants may also consult the following reports by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Science (available from the National Academies Press http://www.nap.edu):

• “Measuring Human Capabilities: An Agenda for Basic Research on the Assessment of Individual and Group Performance Potential for Military Accession” (2015) supervised by the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences

• “The Context of Military Environments: Social and Organizational Factors” (2014) supervised by the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences “Sociocultural Data to Accomplish Department of Defense Missions: Toward a Unified Social Framework: Workshop Summary” (2011) supervised by the Board on Human-System Integration

The ARI Manager is Dr. Alexander Wind, (703) 851-9372, Alexander.P.Wind.civ@army.mil

2. Applied Research and Advanced Technology Development Areas of Interest ARI seeks Applied Research proposals that provide a systematic expansion and application of knowledge to design and develop useful strategies, techniques, methods, tests, or measures that provide the means to meet a recognized and specific Army need. Applied Research precedes specific technology investigations or development and should have high potential to transition into advanced technology.

The ARI Advanced Technology Development program includes the development of technologies, components, or prototypes that can be tested in field experiments and/or simulated environments. Projects in this category have a direct relevance to identified military needs. These projects should demonstrate the general military utility or cost reduction potential of technology in the areas of personnel selection, assignment, and retention; advanced data analytics and models applied to talent management; development of higher-order competencies for Soldiers and Leaders; holistic assessment of unit readiness;

and team and unit mission effectiveness. These projects should be focused on a more direct operational benefit and, if successful, the technology should be available for transition.

Topic areas of the applied research and advanced technology development include the following:

a. Holistic Personnel Assessment and Statistical Innovations for Talent Management

i. Improving Talent Management through Advanced Analytics

“Big Data” can be characterized by large sample sizes and high dimensionality, sparsity, noisy and irregular measurements, complex interdependencies (including social and temporal), and heterogeneity (e.g., of data types and structures). Legal or ethical considerations also may place restrictions on how data and models should be used (e.g., creating new forms of assessment that result in adverse impact). Finally, the utility of data and models for making decisions depends on getting the right kind of information to the right people at the right time.

Leaders and Soldiers need information that is understandable, reliable, valid, and timely.

Given these challenges, research is necessary to develop new ways of generating, analyzing, and using data for the purpose of talent management.

Topic areas of research interest include the following:

• New statistical and computational methods for assessing individuals and groups.

Examples include new approaches to generate, deploy, and score assessments; statistical innovations in addressing faking and response distortion; predictive models to improve talent management; new methods for augmenting assessments with non-traditional data;

and methods to reduce response burden.

• New methods to support timely, valid, and efficient data-based personnel management and leader decision-making. Examples include innovations in job analysis/competency modeling and statistical/computational methods to optimally assign individuals to specialties and units.

• New metrics and models for group and individual effectiveness in organizations.

Examples include network effects associated with individual training and performance, as well as metrics to more accurately integrate the value, costs, and likelihood of relevant performance behaviors across contexts and careers.

• Novel or non-traditional data sources for behavioral/social science research in military contexts. Examples include archival, physiological, relational, sensor, and qualitative data -- especially data related to Soldier performance, staffing and personnel decisions, leadership development, attitude assessment, and group/organizational behavior.

• Other applications of Big Data analytics, predictive modeling, or new computational methods to address talent management and personnel management. Examples include testing and assessment, counter-productive work behaviors, recruitment, retention, career development, promotions, improving person-job fit, enhancing readiness and resilience, and decision-support systems for leaders.

The ARI Managers are Dr. Andrew Slaughter, (703) 545-2353, andrew.j.slaughter.civ@army.mil, and Dr. Garett Howardson, (703) 545-2429, garett.n.howardson.civ@army.mil.

ii. Holistic Personnel Assessment The ARI personnel assessment program includes research to advance the science underlying talent management. The overarching objective is to devise means to attract, select, assign, promote, and retain enlisted and officer personnel, both Active and Reserve, whose abilities and interests will fit the Army’s current and future organizational and job requirements. Our approach to enlisted and officer job performance reflects a “whole person”, compensatory perspective, incorporating both the ability to perform and the motivation to perform. Our selection and assignment research must incorporate both elements in a holistic fashion. Areas of research include theory, methods, techniques, and tools to:

• Enhance the measurement of individual differences, both cognitive and non-cognitive, for personnel assessment using both classical and innovative measurement approaches;

• Refine and expand the measurement and evaluation of job performance to include innovative approaches and analysis techniques for job analysis and holistic job performance assessment;

• Enhance personnel management, e.g., selection, assignment, promotion, from application to the Army until separation using innovative methods, tools, and techniques;

• Evaluate and validate personnel assessments across the Soldier lifecycle to include evaluating the impact of new and proposed personnel policies on personnel management and performance; and

• Improve personnel management through application and enhancement of longitudinal data and analysis.

The ARI Manager is Dr. Tonia Heffner, 703-545-4408, tonia.s.heffner.civ@army.mil

b. Leader Competences for Complexity & Uncertainty

As the Army prepares to execute the potential range of future military operations, it must continue to develop a bench of officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who possess the competencies to perform well across a variety of conventional and emerging contexts.

Developing such competencies requires time and experience over a career, innate ability, and deliberate leader development and training interventions. Leaders at all levels in the Army— including junior and senior NCOs, cadets, and junior and senior officers—must develop the critical cognitive skills that underlie tactical and technical expertise. Leaders also must possess refined interpersonal and communication skills to mentor subordinates, build teams comprised of diverse individuals, effectively cooperate with interagency and coalition partners, and appropriately influence a variety of individuals and groups (e.g., the media, local populations).

Innovations in leader development and training require understanding of the competencies required for effective performance in future operational contexts, as well as an understanding of how ability and experience help or hinder competency progression. This area of research addresses methods and techniques to identify, train, develop, and assess higher-order competencies and requisite skills for successful leader performance within the Army.

mailto:andrew.j.slaughter.civ@army.mil mailto:garett.n.howardson.civ@army.mil mailto:tonia.s.heffner.civ@army.mil

i. Complex cognitive competencies for organizational and strategic leaders The Army invests significant time and effort to develop leaders over their careers. Army leaders are given immensely complex and dynamic missions that can have serious implications at both local and global levels. The development of complex cognitive competencies in Army leaders is essential for a successful and an effective organization.

Unless these complex cognitive competencies are continuously developed in Army leaders, they may lose the ability to anticipate change. When organizational and strategic leaders are continually developing their complex cognitive skills, they gain the power to explore all options rather than just react with last minute changes to existing plans with respect to what may have become an outdated concept of the operational and strategic environment. There is need for scientific innovative research that will enhance the Army’s capability in assessment of complex cognitive skills in its leaders and in the creation of improved methods to accelerate the development of such skills at opportune times during their career lifecycle.

• How to better develop, identify, and assess individuals with the capacity for strategic leadership and higher-order cognitive competencies (e.g., systems thinking, innovative thinking, thinking-in-time, action learning, comprehensive information gathering, critical thinking).

• Identification of the competencies, knowledge, skills, and abilities that must be developed over a career to build officers’ capacity for strategic thinking and leadership; identification of how the competencies develop over time and across a career.

• Methods to assess, develop, and accelerate acquisition of cognitive competencies at different phases in an officer’s career. Cognitive competencies of interest include, but are not limited to, strategic thinking, systems thinking, creativity and innovation, thinking-in-time, related complex cognitive skills.

• On-the-job approaches to building cognitive competencies and expertise. Examples include examining the value of broadening opportunities to develop strategic leadership skills, and methods to improve how leaders use mentoring to build strategic thinking in others.

• Methods to develop the competencies, knowledge, and skills to improve a leader’s ability to perform well in a variety of operational and mission contexts (e.g., visualizing the operational environment).

The ARI Manager is Dr. Rhett Graves, (913) 684-9758, thomas.r.graves5.civ@army.mil

ii. Multifaceted development pathways for organizational and strategic leaders Deterring adversaries and winning the nation’s wars are accomplished through the coordinated actions of cohesive and effective organizations working toward the same purpose. The leader’s role in shaping and directing these organizations is significant.

Moreover, as leaders advance in their careers, the organizations they lead grow in complexity. Army leaders advance from the direct level of leadership to leading organizations to leading the Army enterprise. At each stage, leaders are expected to continue learning and developing themselves, as well as developing the subordinates and mailto:thomas.r.graves5.civ@army.mil organizations they lead. To be effective across different performance environments and across a career, leaders must therefore develop and improve a wide range of knowledge, skills, and abilities—both within themselves and within others. Army leaders have a diversity of backgrounds, interests, talents, etc., that result in the development of competencies that are individualized to particular developmental paths. A better understanding is required of individual, multifaceted, and asynchronous patterns of competency development.

• Research is needed to identify how leaders grow over time and over unique developmental paths, as well as how leaders develop and mentor their subordinates.

• Development of innovative measures and models of leadership performance; leader competencies, knowledge, skills, abilities, and other attributes; and leader growth.

This includes developing and validating methods to assess competency baselines and progression throughout Professional Military Education.

• Methods for identifying, measuring, and developing operational leadership competencies for obtaining advantage in future operational environments, characterized by contextual features such as battlefield transparency, near-peer adversaries, autonomous systems, human-machine teaming, integrated domains.

• Methods for leader development in contexts extending beyond formal education and training venues.

• Measures and methods to improve the rate of competency development and leader capability to develop his or her subordinates. This includes leader development interventions to improve knowledge and skills related to mentorship, methods to aid leaders in identifying subordinates’ developmental needs, and methods to improve performance counselling and feedback.

• Methods to enable leaders to influence and improve the organizations they lead. This includes methods to develop leader skills and competencies related to promoting organizational effectiveness, as well as techniques or job aids to help leaders promote organizational performance (e.g., methods to support the diffusion of innovation, methods to set conditions for a learning environment).

The ARI Manager is Dr. Rhett Graves, (913) 684-9758, thomas.r.graves5.civ@army.mil

iii. Assessing and Developing Junior Officer Competencies Research is needed to specifically develop valid measures and targeted interventions that are designed to provide developmental feedback on critical leader competencies for Junior Officers. The Leader Requirements Model (LRM) and the Army Talent Attribute Framework (ATAF) provide foundational and critical attributes and competencies relevant for this leader echelon. Building on this foundation, research will further explore the anatomy of the targeted competencies and the contexts in which they are used, ultimately allowing for the design of diagnostic and developmental tools specific to more granular subcompetencies. By focusing on the requisite knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAO) necessary for subcompetency proficiency, research findings will provide the Army with novel developmental methods as well as a more refined ability to predict performance. Additionally, research also is needed to provide instructional and institutional guidance, helping trainers/educators to better instill these leader mailto:thomas.r.graves5.civ@army.mil competencies to maximize transfer of training to current and future operational environments.

• Development of innovative assessment tools to diagnose Junior Officer leader competency gaps and provide actionable guidance for leader development.

• Development of a stage progression model for Junior Officer competency development accounting for configural profiles of subcompetency and KSAOs expertise and how those profiles interact with elements of contextual demands.

• Methods to accelerate the development of leader competencies with novel training interventions yielding improved performance at earlier stages of Officers’ careers.

• Prototype interventions promoting the transition from one stage of competency development to the next.

• Methods to predict specific aspects of individuals’ leader performance in a range of missions/situations enabling more refined talent management decisions.

• Development of enhanced and validated instructional guidance ultimately producing more ready and lethal Junior Officers.

The ARI Manager is Dr. Jennifer Tucker, Office: 706-545-2490; Work cell: 706-366-7312, jennifer.s.tucker.civ@army.mil

iv. Assessing and Developing Junior Leader Competencies for Multi-domain Operations

Sustained competition and conflict in the future operational environment (FOE) will impose novel performance requirements on Army Leaders. Emerging operational demands and requirements for multidomain operations will require Leaders to augment existing competencies and to develop new ones. Research is needed to identify critical competencies supporting Leader performance in the FOE and develop assessment and formative feedback tools to enhance competency development. Specifically, research is needed to enhance Leaders’: (a) perceptual and cognitive competencies for ambiguous contexts (e.g., degraded information environments, spatial cognition, social cognition), (b) adaptive competencies for rapidly evolving technological contexts (e.g., technological fluency, expert communication, expert problem-solving, career transitions to technical fields), and (c) self-regulation competencies for effective performance in demanding environments (e.g., hot cognition, vigilance, cognitive flexibility).

Additionally, research is needed to understand better the systematic nature of ecological and transactional aspects of competency development, taking place between the Soldier/Leader and their context, as they and the Army more broadly recognize, make sense of, respond to, and adapt to perceived contextual demands. The Army requires novel ways of thinking about, measuring, and enhancing competencies that incorporate, explore, develop, and refine ecological, transactional, and contextually focused perspectives, emphasizing perceptual, cognitive, affective, performative, and experiential facets of competency development.

mailto:jennifer.s.tucker.civ@army.mil

• Methods to identify critical competencies for Leaders to perform effectively in current and future operational environments, particularly with respect to MDO.

• Development of innovative and valid assessment techniques and tools for measuring Leader competencies for the FOE.

• Methods to determine the cognitive, affective, sociocultural, and/or other factors needed to be integrated into training and formative feedback interventions to enhance competencies for FOE conditions (e.g., simulated realistic training contexts).

• Development of validated formative feedback tools that support and enhance critical competencies early and throughout Leaders’ career lifecycle.

• Techniques to conceptualize and operationalize ecological and/or transactional models of competency development, accounting for the role of context in perceptual, cognitive, affective, performative, experiential, or other facets of competency development.

The ARI Manager is Dr. Jennifer Tucker, Office: 706-545-2490; Work cell: 706-366- 7312, jennifer.s.tucker.civ@army.mil

v. Developing Noncommissioned Officers for the Future Force Known as the “Backbone of the Army,” noncommissioned officers (NCO) conduct the daily operations of the Army and are charged with the care, training, education, and readiness of every Soldier. For those reasons, NCOs’ ability to coach, train and mentor competent Soldiers of character is key to the readiness and success of the force. As NCOs transition from direct, first line leadership (e.g., team leaders, squad leaders, and other equivalent duty positions) to operational and strategic leadership positions, they must progressively build upon the enduring leader competencies and knowledge, skills, abilities and other attributes (KSAO) that are required of all NCOs. They must also develop challenging new competencies and KSAOs that were not required of them as first line leaders. Although the Army has made great strides in providing NCOs with rich and impactful professional development opportunities within the institutional training domain, further research needs to be conducted within the operational and self-development domains. One important focus of the research is to understand how NCOs can build, practice, and accelerate their leadership competencies outside of the Army schoolhouse settings. This research will provide science-based developmental methods and assessments that 1) address the leader competencies and KSAOs for which NCOs need additional training and development before being assigned to duty positions that require them,

2) are aligned with Army doctrine and existing leader development training, and 3) can be used by NCOs in any learning domain.

• Identification of emerging challenges that NCOs will face when leading, training, and taking care of their units and Soldiers over the next decade, and identification of the KSAOs they will need to meet those challenges.

• Identification of leader competencies and KSAOs for which NCOs need additional training and development and the best methods to develop those competencies and KSAOs.

• Development and validation of developmental methods and assessments to accelerate and build upon the essential competencies and KSAOs that are required of NCOs across the entirety of their lifecycle (e.g., leader identity, effective communication, task prioritization, risk assessment and management).

• Development and validation of developmental methods and assessments to accelerate and build upon essential leader competencies and KSAOs that are uniquely required of senior NCO ranks and/or particular senior enlisted organizational and strategic leadership positions.

• Methods and models that identify, describe, and anticipate how NCO competency and KSAO requirements change over the course of an enlisted leader’s career.

The ARI Manager is Dr. Brian Crabb (254) 383-1132, brian.t.crabb.civ@army.mil.

c. Team Assignment & Performance

i. Multi-Layered Hierarchical Units Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) require a dynamic mix of U.S. Army forward presence, expeditionary forces, and partner forces to deter and defeat the enemy. Future Army units are projected to operate as disaggregated, highly mobile, self-contained forces that will operate for extended periods in complex environments without fixed basing. Small units drawing from diverse personnel across a variety of units will be required to rapidly and organically aggregate to achieve particular missions, and then disaggregate back into their previous state post-mission.

These teaming arrangements are an adaptive response to the complexity of the problems encountered in the current global environment. Teams are complex dynamic systems that exist across different environments, develop over time, and evolve and adapt as situational demands unfold. Research efforts are needed to develop tools and techniques for teams to be able to organically aggregate and disaggregate as the mission and operational environment demand, understand how myriad individual characteristics combine to create highly effective teams, and determine the contextual factors that impact the success of nested, hierarchical units.

• Tools and techniques to support the rapid, organic aggregation and disaggregation of small units within multi-team systems in response to task and environmental demands.

• Statistical and measurement methods to understand team and multi-team process and performance dynamics in field settings.

• Understanding of attributes and emergent states of teams related to robustness and a team’s ability to continue to perform well under duress for extended time periods.

• Understanding the role of trust, cohesion, and other emergent states that influence performance and effectiveness in multi-team systems; including the establishment and dynamics of these states in multi-team systems.

• Understanding of how leaders, climate, culture, and other aspects of teams interact across different echelons and team compositions.

mailto:brian.t.crabb.civ@army.mil

• Application or revision of concepts such as commander's intent, command intent, and unity of effort to train and support collaboration and decision-making by collocated and distributed teams.

The ARI Manager is Dr. Stefanie P. Shaughnessy, (571) 585-1790, stefanie.p.shaughnessy.civ@army.mil

ii. Team Staffing and Composition

As the Army shifts to the Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) paradigm, there will be an increased emphasis on ensuring effectiveness of Soldiers and small units, with a recent emphasis by Army Senior Leaders on small teams (squads, platoons, and companies) as the foundation of readiness. In order to maintain maximal effectiveness of the force in this paradigm, the Army will need to efficiently assign and utilize personnel throughout the formation. This concept is often articulated as “Right Soldier, Right Job, Right Time.” To achieve this vision, the Army requires the capability to shift to the assignment paradigm from focusing solely on individual jobs to also accounting for the specific organization, unit, and/or team context in which that job is performed. The Army requires the tools, methods, and frameworks for optimally assigning individuals to teams and small units to ensure the operational effectiveness of these units in future conflicts. Moreover, the Army would benefit from new assessment systems to collect sufficiently deep and appropriate information on the individual attributes and capabilities of Soldiers to support a team-based assignment paradigm. Research in this topic area will address both the methods and statistical tools, as well as the attributes and capabilities to be assessed in order to support team-based assignment in the future.

• Identifying characteristics that predict individuals’ capacity of working effectively in team environments.

• Statistical optimization frameworks and models for ensuring team effectiveness across a large number of teams and team assignment decisions.

• Understanding of team composition and compilation models for predicting team outcomes (e.g., cohesion, adaptability, performance, effectiveness, readiness).

• Computational tools that embody scientific knowledge of team composition and compilation, team tasks and environmental conditions related to team outcomes, and optimization frameworks for personnel officers and leaders to use to assign members to teams.

• Understanding the impact of team process change over time as team members rotate in and out of units.

• Analytical tools for aggregating and displaying data and facilitating team-based assignment decisions, to include taking into account different, or multiple, team outcomes based on team needs.

The ARI Manager is Dr. Stefanie P. Shaughnessy, (571) 585-1790, stefanie.p.shaughnessy.civ@army.mil mailto:stefanie.p.shaughnessy.civ@army.mil mailto:stefanie.p.shaughnessy.civ@army.mil

iii. Developing Teams for the Future Operational Environment To be prepared for the future operational environment (FOE), the Army is undergoing a transformational change with a focus on improving its talent management system. This change will necessitate optimization of human potential, especially at the small-team level. Current trends suggest that the FOE will be characterized by an expanded battlespace across time, domains, geography, and actors, the convergence of capabilities through technology, and compression among strategic, operational, and tactical levels.

The FOE will present challenges not just in the operational context, but also in training.

The multi-domain operations (MDO) concept requires Army teams to operate semi-independently, but also to utilize capabilities across multiple domains in order to conduct sustained missions in highly contested environments. According to the Army People Strategy (2020), the Army must modernize training through the development of new tools, technology, and methods to optimize human performance for MDO. To do this, the Army needs a broad and deep research program that focuses on developing the talent of small teams as they acquire proficiency of both the critical tactical skills and the requisite team dimensions that will be required of them in the emerging operational environment. Despite a burgeoning research literature on teams, there is considerable evidence that current teams in the Army, and in modern organizations more broadly, are vastly different from teams in the past (Jones et al., 2020; Shuffler et al., 2020). With some notable exceptions, researchers largely remain vetted to a traditional understanding of teams as fairly static and independent entities (Tannenbaum et al., 2012). Thus, the current state of the scientific literature lacks specific practical insight about how to train Army teams in order to meet the dynamic complexities that they are expected face in the FOE. This research will inform the science of teams by providing a better understanding of team processes, emergent states, and training approaches, while simultaneously equipping Army trainers through the development of effective tools for optimizing individual and collective talent during home station training. Such research will thereby allow the Army to maximize its human potential to meet the challenges of the FOE.

• Identification of the individual and team KSAOs, or relationships among them, that small teams need to build and sustain team effectiveness in the FOE.

• Development of training approaches and tools to build individual team member

KSAOs that enable teams to sustain mission performance in the FOE.

• Development of team training approaches and tools that build team KSAOs and team processes to enable sustained mission performance of teams in the FOE.

• Identification of the individual KSAOs and team-level characteristics that are necessary for the effectiveness of teams within multiteam systems.

• Development of training approaches and tools that facilitate optimal teaming and that enable teams to operate within multiteam systems.

The ARI Manager is Dr. Brian Crabb (254) 383-1132, brian.t.crabb.civ@army.mil

iv. Team Enablers Performance in the current and future operational environments hinges not only on the mailto:brian.t.crabb.civ@army.mil performance of individuals, but on the performance of teams. This research examines the relationships and development of innovative measures of critical multilevel constructs, such as unit resilience, unit cohesion, and unit climate and determines how these key enablers impact unit-level readiness outcomes. The research also adds to the development of integrated measures of objective and perceptual data on these key team enablers

• Development and validation of innovative measures and models of collective constructs (e.g., resilience, cohesion, and command climate).

• Methods to improve unit/collective constructs (e.g., resilience, cohesion, command climate).

• Development and validation of integrated measures of collective constructs such as resilience, cohesion, command climate.

• The use of social network analysis to understand and investigate the pattern of communication among unit members within small Army units to determine how it influences team resilience.

The ARI Manager is Dr. Alok Bhupatkar, 703-712-3038, alok.a.bhupatkar.civ@army.mil

d. Assessing and Developing Technological Fluency for the Future Force

In the Future Operating Environment (FOE), Soldiers and squads will be teamed with increasingly sophisticated and evolving technologies. Soldiers and leaders in specialty areas (e.g., Cyber, Data Workforce, Technology Workforce) and General Purpose Forces (GPF) will require increased technological aptitudes and skills in order to adapt emerging technologies to evolving mission sets and avoid being overmatched by AI-enabled “smart” technologies. Technological Fluency (TF) - the ability of Soldiers and units to use and rapidly adapt new and emerging technologies without formal training on these technologies

- will be a decisive factor in the FOE. This research will enable the creation of a “technologically fluent” Force by developing models of technological fluency, methods and measures to assess and develop the technological fluency of Soldiers across a career, and technologies to maximize resilience and performance in Soldiers and units.

Modernization is incomplete without critical mass in the Force capable of learning and using those new technologies and systems. Talent Management reform is incomplete without foresight of future operational demands and the ability to recruit, assign, and develop Soldiers to meet those demands. To build a technologically fluent Force, Army talent management processes must be capable of modeling TF, assessing Soldier and unit TF, and developing performance for future mission success.

Areas of research include theoretical models or frameworks, methods, techniques, and tools to:

• Build individual difference assessments that reflect TF competencies leveraging existing measures and developing new, innovative measures.

• Expand the assessment of job performance to include criterion measures related to TF, e.g., behavioral inputs to systems, system feedback of coordinated AI-human interactions, collective performance measures, training performance measures.

mailto:alok.a.bhupatkar.civ@army.mil

• Develop training and leader development programs to enhance the KSAOs reflecting TF competencies and to maximize performance in jobs/tasks requiring a high degree of TF.

The ARI Managers are Dr. Jennifer Tucker, Office: 706-545-2490; Work cell: 706-366- 7312, jennifer.s.tucker.civ@army.mil and Dr. Alok Bhupatkar, 703-712-3038, alok.a.bhupatkar.civ@army.mil mailto:alok.a.bhupatkar.civ@army.mil

B. FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION:

The Army Contracting Command- Aberdeen Proving Ground, RTP Division has the authority to award a variety of instruments on behalf of ARI. Anticipated awards may be made in the form of procurement contracts, grants, cooperative agreements and technology investment agreements (TIAs), or other transactions for prototypes (OTAs). The ACC (APG) RTP Division reserves the right to use the type of instrument most appropriate for the effort proposed. Applicants should familiarize themselves with these instrument types and the applicable regulations before submitting a white paper or proposal. The following are brief descriptions of the possible award instruments:

1. Procurement Contract: A legal instrument, which consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6303, reflects a relationship between the Federal Government and a State, a local government, or other recipient when the principal purpose of the instrument is to acquire property or services for the direct benefit or use of the Federal Government.

Procurement contracts awarded by the ACC (APG) RTP Division will contain, where appropriate, detailed special provisions concerning patent, rights in technical data and computer software, reporting requirements, equal employment opportunity, etc.. No fee or profit will be allowed on travel and equipment.

Contracts are primarily governed by the following regulations:

a. Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)

b. Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFARS)

c. Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (AFARS)

2. Grant: A legal instrument, that consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6304, is used to enter into a relationship in which:

a. The principal purpose is to transfer a thing of value to the recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law or the United States, rather than to acquire property or services for the Department of Defense’s direct benefit or use.

b. Substantial involvement is not expected between the Department of Defense and the recipient when carrying out the activity contemplated by the grant.

c. No fee or profit is allowed.

3. Cooperative Agreement: A legal instrument which, consistent with 31 U.S.C. 6305, is used to enter into the same kind of relationship as a grant (see definition "grant"), except that substantial involvement is expected between the Department of Defense and the recipient when carrying out the activity contemplated by the cooperative agreement. The term does not include "cooperative research and development agreements" as defined in 15 U.S.C. 3710a. No fee or profit is allowed.

4. Technology Investment Agreement (TIA): An assistance instrument as described in 32 CFR Part

37. A TIA may be a cooperative agreement or an Other Transaction for Research under 10 U.S.C.

4021 both with provisions tailored for involving commercial firms or research involving commercial application. To the maximum extent practicable, TIAs shall provide for a 50/50 cost share between the Government and the applicant. No fee or profit is allowed on TIAs.

5. Other Transaction for Research. A legal instrument, consistent with 10 U.S.C. 4021, which may be used for basic, applied, and advanced research projects. The research covered under this instrument cannot be duplicative of research being conducted under an existing DoD program. To the maximum extent practicable, OTs for research are to provide for a 50/50 cost share between the Government and the applicant. An applicant’s cost share may take the form of cash, independent research and development (IR&D), foregone intellectual property rights, equipment, access to unique facilities, and/or other means.