Center for Syn Bio Proposers Day - BAA overview.pdf

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AGENDA

Proposers’ Day – Army Center for Synthetic Biology

1:00-1:05 PM Welcome / Opening Remarks Dr. Barton Halpern

Director, DEVCOM ARL-ARO

1:05-1:10 PM Opening Remarks Dr. Corde Lane

Director, DEVCOM ARL-HRED

1:10-1:20 PM The Army Joint Enterprise for Biological Engineering Dr. Jennifer Rego

Army Futures Command (AFC)

1:20-1:50 PM Army Center for Synthetic Biology BAA Overview Dr. Stephanie McElhinny

DEVCOM ARL-ARO

1:50-2:00 PM DEVCOM ARL Syn Bio Knowledge Gaps Dr. Margaret Hurley

DEVCOM ARL-SEDD

2:00-2:10 PM DEVCOM CBC Syn Bio Knowledge Gaps Dr. Marilyn Lee

DEVCOM CBC

2:10-2:20 PM DEVCOM SC Syn Bio Knowledge Gaps Dr. Kathleen Swana

DEVCOM SC

2:20-2:30 PM Break

2:30-3:00 PM Contracting Dos and Don’ts Mr. William Creech

Army Contracting Command

APG-RTP Division

3:00-3:30 PM Answers to previously submitted questions Dr. Stephanie McElhinny

DEVCOM ARL-ARO

3:30-5:00 PM Teams meeting remains open to post questions

All times are Eastern Time

U.S. ARMY COMBAT CAPABILITIES

DEVELOPMENT COMMAND –

ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY

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Dr. Stephanie McElhinny

Program Manager

Army Research Office

DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory

14 DEC 2020

Army Center for Synthetic Biology

Introduction & BAA Overview

DISTRIBUTION A

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• Introduction to Army Center for Synthetic Biology

• Overview of Technical Thrust Areas

• Overview of Funding Areas

• Submission Process & Important Dates

OVERVIEW

Army Center for Synthetic Biology

Please note that nothing discussed today should be construed as intent to change the BAA.

Unless a change is made to the BAA, all proposers should propose only to what is discussed in the BAA and not to slides or information conveyed today.

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Army Center for Synthetic Biology

• Basic research program initiated by the Combat Capabilities Development Command

(DEVCOM)/Army Research Laboratory (ARL)/Army Research Office (ARO)

• Focused on an area of strategic importance to U.S. national security

• Increase the Army's intellectual capital in synthetic biology & improve its ability to address future challenges

• Bring together universities, research institutions, companies, and individual scholars to support multidisciplinary and cross-institutional projects addressing specific topic areas determined by the Department of the Army (DA)

• Promote research in specific areas of synthetic biology & promote a candid and constructive relationship between the Army Science and Technology (S&T) enterprise and the synthetic biology research community

• US Institutions ONLY

ARMY CENTER FOR SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY

Technical Thrust Areas

• Predictive Design of Engineered Biological

Materials

• Predictive Design of Engineered Cellular

Systems in Defined Environments

Funding Areas

Award Budget Base Option

Team ~$1.5-2M/yr 3 yr 1 x 2 yr

Seedling $60-250k/yr 1 yr 2 x 1 yr

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Objective: Develop experimental and computational tools enabling scalable synthesis, assembly and characterization of rationally designed biological materials with control over final material properties

• Seeking generalizable predictive tools that can be applied to materials beyond those selected for investigation

• Encouraged to focus on materials exhibiting more than one property (multifunctional materials)

Sub-areas may include, but are not limited to:

(1) Comprehensive sampling of the biological material property landscape

• Explore approaches to generate and characterize large libraries of material variants

• Determine relevant biological features impacting material properties of interest

• Identify the boundaries of the biological feature-material property landscape

(2) Material analytical characterization tools

• Develop high-throughput analytical methods to characterize, screen and select material variants with targeted multifunctional properties

• Explore approaches to enable sensitive, non-destructive analysis of buried interfaces

(3) Predictive design tools

• Develop, test and validate generalizable predictive tools that enable informed design of biological materials with targeted multifunctional properties via synthetic biology

• Create algorithms that extract critical biological features underlying material properties

• Develop approaches supporting extrapolation of property prediction to the macroscale

TECHNICAL THRUST AREA 1

Predictive Design of Engineered Biological Materials

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Objective: Develop experimental and computational tools that support the predictive design of engineered cellular consortia with robust controlled performance in a defined environment

• All experimental effort must be conducted in a controlled laboratory setting

• Examples of environments and engineered functions of interest provided in the BAA

Sub-areas may include, but are not limited to:

(1) Genetic modification of consortia

• Develop tools to genetically manipulate environmentally robust chassis organisms

• Develop methods to genetically modify specific organisms within a consortium while in a defined environment

(2) Stability of engineered genetic modifications

• Analyze the fate of engineered DNA within the consortium

• Explore the impact of environmental variation on the function and stability of engineered genetic modifications within the context of a consortium

(3) Control of engineered function

• Develop approaches to experimentally measure the impact of environmental parameters on the function of engineered microorganisms in the context of a consortium

• Design synthetic biology programs that support tightly regulated activation and inactivation of engineered function of the consortium

• Develop and validate predictive tools that identify optimal control schemes to support prolonged regulated function of engineered organisms within a given environment and consortium composition.

Predictive Design of Engineered Cellular Systems in Defined

Environments

TECHNICAL THRUST AREA 2

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For Both Funding Areas:

• Awards will be made in the form of cooperative agreements, grants, or contracts.

**Strong preference is for a cooperative agreement** (allows for maximum interaction, cooperation, and collaboration between the Government and the awardee).

• ALL awardees are expected to collaborate and cooperate with and among each other as well as with DEVCOM ARL and the Army S&T Enterprise.

• Awards will be made at funding levels commensurate with the proposed research, investigator/team type, as well as availability of funding.

• The Government may award some, all, or none of the submitted proposals.

• Applicants are REQUIRED to submit a whitepaper to be considered for a full proposal.

• Only INVITED proposals based on submitted whitepapers will be considered for selection.

• Applicants may submit multiple whitepapers under either or both Funding Areas and Thrusts.

Funding Areas

Award # Budget Base Option

Team 2 ~$1.5-2M/yr 3 yr 1 x 2 yr

Seedling 5-10 $60-250k/yr 1 yr 2 x 1 yr

• Team proposals are expected to include multiple PIs

• Seedling proposals may include more than one PI

• Team and Seedling proposals must focus on one Technical Thrust

FUNDING AREA OVERVIEW

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FUNDING AREA OVERVIEW: TEAM

Funding Area One: TEAM

• ~$1.5M/yr (may consider up to maximum of $2M/yr only for extremely meritorious proposals)

• 36 month Base Award, with one Option for additional 24 months = 60 months total

• Must focus on one of the Technical Thrust Areas (expecting to award 1 Team proposal/Thrust)

• Whitepapers due NLT 4:00 PM Eastern on 01 Feb 2021

• Cover page (1 page) + Technical content (8 pages) + Addendum (1 page) = 10 pages

• Technical content = Scientific (6 pages) + Impact (1 page) + Programmatic (1 page)

• Invitations to submit proposals based only on submitted whitepapers will be sent 01 Mar 2021

• Proposals due NLT 4:00 PM Eastern on 24 May 2021 (see BAA for details on format)

• Team proposals must include a plan for collaboration, cooperation, and communication among team members, the Team addressing the other Thrust, the Seedling awardees, and researchers within DEVCOM ARL and other organizations within the Army S&T Enterprise

• Team proposals must describe a plan for data sharing that includes creation and maintenance of a website accessible by all Center awardees (both Teams and all Seedlings) and researchers across the Army S&T enterprise (one Team will be designated as Lead)

• Team proposals shall also include provision of sufficient facilities for an annual 2-day review to include the other Team awardee, Seedling awardees (5-10 anticipated), and Army researchers

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FUNDING AREA OVERVIEW: SEEDLING

Funding Area Two: SEEDLING

• $60-250k/yr (typical awards expected in $120-180k/year range; awards in upper end of the range only for extremely meritorious proposals)

• 12 month Base Award, with two 12 month Options = 36 months total

• May include more than one PI

• Must focus on one of the Technical Thrust Areas (anticipate ~$1M total, 5-10 awards)

• Whitepapers due NLT 4:00 PM Eastern on 01 Feb 2021

• Cover page (1 page) + Technical content (4 pages) + Addendum (1 page) = 6 pages

• Technical content = Scientific (3 pages) + Impact (0.5 page) + Programmatic (0.5 page)

• Invitations to submit proposals based only on submitted whitepapers will be sent 01 Mar 2021

• Proposals due NLT 4:00 PM Eastern on 24 May 2021 (see BAA for details on format)

• Seedling proposals must include a plan for interaction, collaboration, cooperation, communication and data sharing with the two Team awardees, other Seedling awardees, and researchers within DEVCOM ARL and other organizations within the Army S&T Enterprise

• Anticipate BAAs to consider new Seedling proposals during Years 1-3 of the Center

(FY22-FY24 BAAs released on similar schedule as this FY21 announcement)

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CONNECTING WITH ARMY RESEARCHERS

• Representatives from Army Laboratories and Centers will present their research interests that align with the Technical Thrust Areas (slides will be posted to grants.gov)

• DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) – Dr. Margaret Hurley

• DEVCOM Chemical Biological Center (CBC) – Dr. Marilyn Lee

• DEVCOM Soldier Center (SC) – Dr. Kathleen Swana

• POCs for other relevant organizations within the Army S&T Enterprise

• Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC)

Dr. Edward Perkins email: Edward.J.Perkins@erdc.dren.mil

• Army Medical Materiel Development Activity (USAMMDA)

Mr. Louis Jasper email: louis.e.jasper.civ@mail.mil

Both Team and Seedling proposals must include a plan for interaction, cooperation, collaboration and communication that includes Army researchers within DEVCOM ARL and other organizations within the Army S&T Enterprise.

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CONNECTING WITH ARMY RESEARCHERS

• How to document planned interactions within the whitepaper/proposal:

• Army or other federal researchers may be included as unfunded collaborators

• Funding may NOT be directed to Army or other federal laboratories

• A letter of intent may be included from an appropriate authority within the federal collaborator's organization as to the nature and scope of the proposed federal participation

• Army/DoD will not provide an official endorsement of your proposal and cannot provide an unqualified commitment of federal resources

Both Team and Seedling proposals must include a plan for interaction, cooperation, collaboration and communication that includes Army researchers within DEVCOM ARL and other organizations within the Army S&T Enterprise.

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NOTES:

• Only INVITED proposals based on submitted whitepapers will be considered for selection

• Late whitepapers or proposals will not be considered

• Applicants may submit multiple whitepapers under either or both Funding Areas and Thrusts

• Awards will occur after 01 Oct 2021, pending FY22 Federal Budget

FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS IN BAA

Event Date Time

Whitepapers due (email submission) usarmy.rtp.ccdc-arl.mbx.baa2@mail.mil

01 Feb 2021 4:00 PM Eastern

Invitations to submit a full proposal all invited whitepapers will receive feedback

01 Mar 2021

Proposals due 24 May 2021 4:00 PM Eastern

Selection of full proposals *01 Aug 2021

SUBMISSION PROCESS & IMPORTANT DATES

*anticipated