Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) is now accepting white papers under a new Long Range Broad Agency Announcement (LRBAA) for 2012.
S&T seeks research and development projects for revolutionary, evolving, and maturing technologies that demonstrate the potential for significant improvement in homeland security missions and operations. Fully developed products are not normally considered under this LRBAA, unless the offeror is proposing a totally different application for the product or a modification is needed which requires substantial research.
The Chemical and Biological Division of S&T (CBD S&T) performs analyses and countermeasures, including improved characterization and prioritization of threats, innovative or revolutionary methods for surveillance and detection for early attack warning that minimize exposure and speed treatment of victims, new forensic methods to support attribution, and novel concepts for decontamination and restoration, agro-defense, and food defense. This division does not fund research on human clinical applications.
CBD S&T topics within the broader DHS LRBAA includes research that:
| Develops fundamental understanding of sample collection from various surface types and matrices (e.g. air, water, Soil) to improve selectivity |
| Improves organism collection and preservation by 70% viability or greater |
| Utilizes bioinformatics or chemical analytics towards higher success rates for assay design |
| Improves the sample prep ratio of analyte of interest to background contaminant |
| Improves understanding and development of single assay methodologies for full spectrum threats (traditional, enhanced, emerging and synthetic threat agents) |
| Rapid detection and identification of an agent immediately after its release into the environment. |
| Characterization and detection of novel, engineered, and emerging biological agents |
| Identification of a concealed agent or dispersal device prior to its release |
| Integrates sensors into building systems to enable rapid and adaptive responses to chemical and biological releases |
| Improves sharing of WMD sensor data and related information at the state, local, and federal level |
| Develops next generation and novel technologies to characterize biological threat agents (BTAs) for forensic source attribution |
| Improves agro-defense capabilities with cost-effective, biological-based countermeasures for foreign animal disease (FAD) and zoonotic pathogens |
More topics of interest and full requirements of the LRBAA are available under DHSS-TLRBAA12-07. The announcement remains open until December 31, 2012.