Defense Research Sciences

The Young Investigator Program (YIP) seeks to identify and support academic scientists and engineers who are early in their careers and show exceptional promise for performing creative research. The objectives of this program are to attract outstanding faculty members of U.S. Institutions of Higher Education to the Department of the Navy's Science and Technology research program, to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers. This program was previously represented under the Science and Engineering Education, Career Development and Outreach planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000.

The primary focus of the Quantum Measurement Architectural Devices activity is to conduct basic research in atomic, molecular and quantum systems to enable improved sensing and timekeeping capabilities for Naval forces in a contested environment.

Naval expeditionary forces increasingly face hybrid adversaries using conventional weapons combined with terror, crime, cyber, information operations, etc. A hybrid adversary is flexible and adapts quickly to synchronize advanced state weapons systems, disruptive commercial technologies, cheap expedient homemade weapons, and a variety of novel tactics. The Sciences Addressing Hybrid Threats (SAHT) (formerly Counter Improvised Explosive Device (IED)) activity seeks to establish and nurture science to counter these growing challenges, while collaborating with and leveraging results from more traditional Naval research portfolios. The SAHT Sciences program provides research for Naval Forces to fight hybrid threats and adversaries in expeditionary operations. Naval Expeditionary Forces need science advances to address a range of research challenges that result from physical and operational environmental limitations so harsh that solutions push basic discovery and invention. Naval Forces able to operate amphibiously and in the littoral will have all of their capabilities exposed to degrading sea and land physical effects. Expeditionary forces must be agile and lethal but will be constrained by size, weight, and power requirements and must be sustained across large areas. Research efforts include: machine perception, reasoning and collaborative behavior; artificial intelligence enabling future intelligent systems; optics, electronics, and photonics research to enable revolutionary spectral awareness in small low power sensors; computer and network science to enable expeditionary computing; fundamental chemistry and materials science research to advance technologies to support sustainment; materials research to explore and improve armor and structural materials; electrochemical energy conversion and storage research to sustain the force; chemistry and physics to provide disruptive energetics for expeditionary fires; and biology, physiology, and cognitive sciences addressing Naval Expeditionary warfighter capabilities.

Effective Naval operations depend upon accurately understanding the maritime and littoral operating environment and predicting its characteristics at high spatial and temporal resolution in areas that may be inaccessible. Understanding atmospheric phenomena and their impact on the electromagnetic spectrum from the sea surface to space provides a significant warfighting advantage. Efforts include: Battlespace Environments, Marine Meteorology and Prediction and Space Research. These efforts support basic research on physical process studies, fundamental observations, data discovery, and modeling and forecasting of the atmosphere and space with the goal of improving the ability to predict the battlespace environment of the Navy and Marine Corps, anywhere on the globe. Emphasis is placed on the marine atmosphere, the tropics, polar regions, the upper atmosphere and ionosphere and other areas where new understanding is needed in order to overcome predictability barriers that limit the accuracy of current forecast models. Efforts are underway to understand the interactions of physics between the atmosphere, space, land, ocean and ice, represent these coupled processes in models, and extend them across scales from local to planetary, with the goal of extending the skill of predictions up to seasonal and interannual timescales. Recent efforts have also focused on the processes that control tropical cyclone formation, structure and intensity changes and phenomena that affect electromagnetic and electro-optic signal propagation in the marine atmosphere and near space domains. Research results provide the foundation for improved global and regional forecasts of the operational environment and for development of next-generation, fully coupled, high resolution prediction systems. Research areas evolve in response to priorities of the Oceanographer of the Navy.

Sailors and Marines operate air, ground and sea vehicles in some of the most extreme environments on the planet. Basic research advances the capacity of naval platforms operating under, on and above the seas, and to project power ashore. Ongoing research in the Air, Ground and Sea Vehicles activity will increase platform performance, reliability, improve human-machine teaming, reduce the cost of at-sea operations and enhance the effectiveness of distributed maritime operations. The efforts research focus include: surface and subsurface signatures; free-surface, subsurface, and propulsor hydromechanics; hull life assurance; advanced ship concepts; distributed intelligence for automated survivability; advanced electrical power systems; air vehicles; air platforms propulsion and power; air platforms survivability and signature control; special aviation projects; environmental quality; logistics; power generation, energy conversion, and storage; and advancements in naval technology innovations.

Addresses the basic research to enable new, fundamental advancements for naval expeditionary platforms, sensors, weapons, networks, and countermeasures in the future operating environment.

This research activity creates the foundational science necessary for a continuously evolving digital engineering ecosystem. by pushing the bounds of high-fidelity physics and modeling capability with the science of complexity and design theory to enable the seamless creation of naval systems in silico from conception through virtual testing from atomic level interactions through macroscopic scales.

Sailors and Marines operate across multiple domains: under, on and above the seas. This Activity focuses on understanding the human aspects of Naval operations with the objective of planning and execution for mission success. The long-term goal of this research is to increase total system performance by maximizing the effectiveness of human-machine systems to ensure mission effectiveness. Research areas include: attention and decision making in goal-directed behaviors, computational and neural foundations of cognitive skills and underlying processes, information exchange processes in human-human and human-machine teaming tasks, human interactions with autonomous systems, preparation and adaptation to novel challenge, new approaches to training and training assessment, personnel assessment, information conflicts, and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief.

This activity includes basic research efforts directed toward increasing scientific, mathematical, and computational foundations for integrated command, control, communications, cyber intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting. The purpose is to sustain U.S. Naval Science and Technology (S&T) superiority, provide new technological concepts for the maintenance of naval power and national security, and help avoid scientific surprise. Efforts include: Scientific foundations and understanding for robust communications and networking; foundations for novel computing hardware, including nanoscale materials, emerging devices and circuits, emerging computational architecture and nanofabrication; basic research on novel techniques for controlling quantum states; algorithms for analyzing massive datasets in real time and heterogeneous information integration; science base and computational methods for building versatile intelligent agents; theory, algorithms and tools for decision support; mathematical optimization for resource allocation and usage; modeling and computation of complex physical phenomena; computation and information foundations for cyber defense; secure and reliable information infrastructure for command and control; information assurance; and research to extend state-of-the-science in artificial intelligence for the unique challenges of the Naval domain.

Lighter, faster, stronger is a winning combination. Naval materials research produces quieter submarines, fuel-efficient ships/vehicles and systems capable of operating under extreme temperature and chemical environments. New materials will result in warfighting advantages, as well as, systems that ensure environmental compliance, improved system reliability/resilience, stealthier materials, reduced manufacturing/maintenance and lower total ownership costs. The Materials/Processes activity generates fundamental scientific understanding for new, advanced and improved materials, and to accelerate materials-driven concepts essential to Naval superiority. The research is conducted in a cross-cutting and interdisciplinary manner covering Structural Materials, Functional Materials, Manufacturing, Chemistry and Undersea Materials to ensure future Naval power and maritime superiority. Fundamental challenges include understanding atomic-scale to meso-scale phenomena; developing robust, accurate and validated computational modeling and simulation capabilities; and translating this understanding into materials composition, synthesis, processing, properties and performance design principals for engineered devices, components and systems. This activity also includes peer-review basic research to develop innovative solutions and enhance the science and engineering base. Research directions in the Focus Area are selected to generate new, advanced and improved materials that enable innovative new technologies or can close critical technology gaps. Successes provide breakthroughs for higher performing, cost effective and/or timely technologies supporting Navy and Marine Corps acquisitions, operations and sustainment. Accomplishments and plans described below are examples for each effort category.

The health and performance of Sailors and Marines is a top priority. Extensive research in the medical and biological sciences discover and leverage breakthroughs to improve Naval warfighter performance, so they can fight, win and come home safe. Sailors and Marines operate in the harshest working environments at sea and around the world. Conducting research to gain a better understanding of the biologic challenges of warfighters in their operating environments will ensure optimal performance, prevent injury, and equip the DON to provide the best care for its warfighters. Research areas include: bio-inspired autonomous systems; bioengineering; biophysics; microbial synthetic biology; microelectronics; microbial electrophysiology; microbiome research; bio-inspired multi-spectral camouflage and sensing; sensory neuroscience and physiology; Naval force health protection; undersea medicine; stress responses, health monitoring and modeling research; and health and welfare of the Navy's marine mammals.

Understanding and predicting oceanographic and acoustical phenomena provides significant warfighting advantages to naval forces. Ocean Sciences research addresses the full spectrum of acoustics and oceanography to enable observation, modeling, and prediction of the maritime environment. Efforts include: studying common operating areas for naval forces in the open oceans, the Arctic, the littorals, and nearshore and river mouths and inlet environments; elucidating the coupling between oceanographic, geophysical and acoustical phenomena relevant to such mission areas such as Anti-Submarine Warfare and Mine Warfare; development of global, regional and local predictive models that fully couple the ocean-atmosphere-wave- ice domains; development and use of autonomous systems and sampling technologies for the collection of environmental observations and continuing support to research vessels of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet to enable at-sea oceanographic science. Research within the Ocean Sciences subactivity responds to mission needs of the Navy and Marine Corps as guided by the Oceanographer of the Navy. At-sea research involves ancillary studies to ensure full compliance with environmental requirements.

The Science and Engineering Education, Career Development and Outreach activity addresses the critical need to grow and maintain a highly skilled technical naval workforce. These efforts inspire, engage, educate and attract participants to pursue naval careers and build the extramural performer base. DON Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and outreach is designed to increase the number of students and naval civilians with naval-relevant skills and degrees, expand capabilities of the current and future workforce by developing curricula and augmenting education, and augment awareness of Naval opportunities through localized education and outreach initiatives that foster the talent pipeline. This activity supports both the Naval Research Enterprise Intern Program (NREIP) for college students and the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) for high school students to encourage participants to pursue science and engineering careers. The objective is to further education via mentoring by laboratory personnel and their participation in research, and to make them aware of Department of the Navy (DON) research and technology efforts. This program serves as a recruitment tool for employment within the DON. Participating students at 45 DON laboratories will spend eight to ten weeks during the summer conducting research. The separately-managed Department of the Navy's (DON) Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI) program oversees the Navy's efforts to engage and support research in our nation's HBCU/MIs and is responsible for developing and managing efforts that strengthen and support the capabilities of HBCU/MIs to participate in basic, applied, and advanced development research programs within the Naval Research Enterprise. The ONR Young Investigator Program (YIP) attracts outstanding faculty members to the Department of Navy's basic research program by identifying individuals that show exceptional promise for doing creative research and encourage their teaching and research careers through long term support. Young Investigator awards are for a period of three years. Proposals are solicited annually via a funding opportunity announcement open to tenure-track faculty in science, engineering, and mathematics. YIP awardees are competitively selected based on faculty achievements, technical proposal, benefit to the Navy and Marine Corps, and university endorsement. The Naval Research Institution was established through a Memorandum of Understanding between the United States Naval Academy (USNA) and the Office of Naval Research. This effort contributes to the technical education of midshipmen by providing a research experience in STEM and its impact on fleet and forces capabilities. This activity also supports the Office of Naval Research Global mission to serve as the enduring Navy and Marine Corps global presence in technical and operational communities, investing in trusted partnerships to discover and connect science and technology leaders for sustained maritime security. This is accomplished by establishing quality, relevant connections between the international research and development community, Naval fleet/forces, Department of Defense, other US Government agencies and international partners. The direct impact of this investment is to leverage international basic research during increasingly dynamic global interdependence and improve the ability to solve DON Science & Technology challenges through shared knowledge with partners.

Basic research efforts directed toward increasing knowledge, components and algorithmic advances for electronics, sensing and EW ensuring the Navy can counter current and future threats. These efforts are applicable to sensing and EW on individual Naval platforms, as well as, efforts that aggregate capabilities in a Distributed Maritime Operation. The efforts research focus include: sensing, diagnostics, and detectors; navigation and timekeeping; nanoelectronics; wide band gap power devices; real-time targeting; Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) electronics; EO/IR electronic warfare; EO/IR sensors for surface/aerospace surveillance; Radio Frequency (RF) sensors for surface/aerospace surveillance; solid state electronics; vacuum electronics; and RF electronic warfare.

The Weapons activity focuses on a number of fundamental scientific areas aimed at expanding the underlying understanding of disciplines that are broadly useful for a wide range of naval weapon applications, including undersea weaponry; air weaponry; energetic materials and solid rocket propulsion; both laser and high power microwave directed energy systems; counter directed energy phenomena; and hypersonic aerodynamics and materials to address the unique challenges of extreme temperatures and air flow.

Realign efforts under the same program element from Project Unit (PU) 1099 to 11 PUs as follows: 1394, 1396, 1398, 1400, 1501, 1502, 1503, 1505, 1506, 1507, and 1508. Global Technology Awareness focus area addresses the critical need to grow and maintain relationships with both domestic and international scientists and engineers in the pursuit of supporting the US Navy as the partner of choice around the world. These efforts inspire, engage and educate top researchers around the world via the use of exchange visits, conferences and workshops, grant research funding that evolve to address the needs of the Navy and Marine Corps and enhance the S&T priorities of ONR, the NRE and our partnerships. - Research Grants provide direct research support to international scientists to help address naval S&T challenges. These grants support the insertion of innovative, international S&T into core ONR and NRE portfolios.

Addresses the fundamental basic research and phenomenological studies into the science of health, survivability, and recovery of naval expeditionary forces operating in austere, distributed, and isolated maritime environments and to enable fundamentally new biomedical applications in the future operating environment.

The Naval Force Health Protection and Human Performance planned program investigates research that will enhance the health, survivability, and recovery of Sailors and Marines operating in austere, distributed, and isolated maritime environments. The objectives are to enable naval forces to bring their biomedical capacity forward, create it on-demand, support prolonged field care, enable casualty evacuation, and provide en route care. This activity also addresses unique naval medical challenges associated with hypothermal and hyperbaric exposure. The research areas described in this planned program were previously represented under the Medical and Biological Sciences planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000. Research topics include Naval Force Health Protection, Physiological Monitoring and Modeling, Stress Response, and Undersea Medicine.

This program supports both the Naval Research Enterprise Intern Program (NREIP) for college students and the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) for high school students to encourage participants to pursue science and engineering careers. The objective is to further education via mentoring by laboratory personnel and their participation in research, and to make them aware of Department of the Navy (DON) research and technology efforts. This program serves as a recruitment tool for employment within the DON. Participating students at 45 DON laboratories will spend eight to ten weeks during the summer conducting research. The research described in this planned program was previously represented under the Science and Engineering Education, Career Development and Outreach planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000.

This activity focuses on developing the fundamental principles and models for the design and construction of complex software and hardware systems that meet required assurances for security, safety, reliability and performance. It builds upon foundations of mathematical logic and computational complexity but takes into account the uncertainties and constraints of the Naval operational environment which is very different from commercial and home cyber environments. The overall goal is to measurably improve the ability of complex computing systems to meet the information-processing challenges of future naval systems. The Cyber Security sub-program investigates wide-ranging principles and techniques for continuously maintaining integrity, availability and confidentiality of information and information infrastructures, focusing on the software, the hardware and the network. The program heavily emphasizes automation and autonomy in the cyber environment, preferring the human-on-the-loop paradigm over the human-in-the-loop, whenever possible. The program seeks to establish an autonomic, secure and dependable informational infrastructure toward ensuring Navy's mission successes. The Complex Software sub-program: Investigates principles, algorithms and methods; explores software and hardware engineering proof-of-concept tools for achieving efficient, timely, robust and secure software executables; focuses on science for software construction, correctness and efficiency by revisiting software development and deployment methodology. Efficient, timely, robust and secure cyber systems are required for secure computing infrastructure toward ensuring Navy's mission successes.

The Communications and Networking activity conducts basic research in information-theoretic capacity and wireless communications science to enable seamless, robust connectivity and networking in hostile tactical environments.

The AI, Data Sciences, and QIS activity includes basic research efforts directed toward scientific foundations and understanding of novel techniques for controlling quantum states; algorithms for analyzing massive datasets in real time and heterogeneous information integration; science base and computational methods for building versatile intelligent agents; theory, algorithms and tools for decision support; mathematical optimization for resource allocation and usage; and modeling and computation of complex physical phenomena for the unique challenges of the Naval domain.

The Young Investigator Program (YIP) seeks to identify and support academic scientists and engineers who are early in their careers and show exceptional promise for performing creative research. The objectives of this program are to attract outstanding faculty members of U.S. Institutions of Higher Education to the Department of the Navy's Science and Technology research program, to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers. The research described in this planned program was previously represented under YIP planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Projects 1386, 1387, and 1392.

This research activity is focused on providing foundational research supporting future sea and ground systems and platform concepts that are highly integrated autonomous collaborative systems using advanced artificial intelligence to perceive and manipulate in highly contested and complex environments.

The focus of this research activity is to provide the scientific foundation for creating resilient ground and sea-going naval systems. Thus, it is focused on the basic science topics that would improve performance by reducing vulnerabilities and susceptibilities, improving maneuver, propulsion, recoverability and extensibility.

The Nanoscale Computing Devices and Systems activity invests in innovative research and breakthrough scientific discoveries that will inform the development of future computing technologies at all levels, from materials and devices to circuits and architectures.

Addresses the fundamental basic research and phenomenological studies into the science of health, survivability, and recovery of naval expeditionary forces operating in austere, distributed, and isolated maritime environments and to enable fundamentally new biomedical applications in the future operating environment.

The aim of the Biosciences, Bioengineering, and Synthetic Biology for Future Naval Applications planned program is to discover and develop biological/biologically-inspired and bioengineered solutions to expand current Warfighter capabilities in the domains of materials, manufacturing, energy, electronics, sensors and devices. The research efforts described in this planned program were previously represented under the Biosciences, Bioengineering, and Synthetic Biology planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 1387 and Project 1099.

The Bio-Inspired Systems and Soft Robotics planned program investigates research that will expand the operational envelope of Navy underwater and amphibious vehicles and enable enhanced underwater manipulation. The research investments in this program extract principles of sensorimotor control, biomechanics and fluid dynamics of underwater propulsion and control in aquatic and amphibious animals that underlie the agility, stealth, efficiency and sensory adaptations of these animals. The research efforts described in this planned program were previously represented under the Bio-Inspired Systems and Soft Robotics planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 1387.

Addresses the fundamental basic research to understand directed energy systems and to counter future directed energy threats in the futures operating environment.

The primary focus of the Research Platforms activity is to provide airborne research assets for collection of phenomenology data in real world environments in order to test new C5ISRT and Counter C5ISRT technologies and techniques. Data collection of this type is required to develop algorithms, train machine learning and test sensor capabilities to improve C5ISRT capabilities for Naval forces in complex electro-magnetic environments.

The primary focus of the Quantum Measurement Architectural Devices activity is to conduct basic research in atomic, molecular and quantum systems to enable improved sensing and timekeeping capabilities for Naval forces in a contested environment.

The primary focus of the Networked Sensing program is to conduct basic research in optical components and infrared technologies to enable significant leap-ahead capabilities for the survivability and lethality of Naval forces in complex environments.

Addresses the fundamental basic research and phenomenological studies to exploit new science to enable future successful offensive and defensive operations in the future operating environment.

The AI, Data Sciences, and QIS activity includes basic research efforts directed toward scientific foundations and understanding of novel techniques for controlling quantum states; algorithms for analyzing massive datasets in real time and heterogeneous information integration; science base and computational methods for building versatile intelligent agents; theory, algorithms and tools for decision support; mathematical optimization for resource allocation and usage; and modeling and computation of complex physical phenomena for the unique challenges of the Naval domain.

The Communications and Networking activity conducts basic research in information-theoretic capacity and wireless communications science to enable seamless, robust connectivity and networking in hostile tactical environments.

The In-house Laboratory Independent Research program provides opportunities to strengthen the Naval Science and Engineering workforce through basic research conducted at the Naval Warfare Centers and Laboratories. These research efforts address high risk/high payoff warfighter science and technological needs, as well as attract the next generation of researchers to consider employment within the Department of the Navy. ILIR also provides opportunities for advanced degrees, technical publications, presentations, and patents.

Supports fundamental basic research and phenomenological studies related to the science of flight from the land and sea surfaces to the edge of the atmosphere to enable fundamentally new future new applications for of flight for aircraft, missiles, rockets, munitions, and unmanned systems employed by the Navy and Marine Corps forces in the future operating environment.

Addresses the fundamental basic research for materials science utilizing new theories, mathematical and computational models, and developing the fundamental understanding between the structure material the processing methods to make the material, and the resulting material properties to support future tailored material for all domain operations.

Electronics addresses the fundamental basic research and phenomenological studies to support new science to enable fundamentally new electronic components, including electro-optic and quantum components, that provide superior performance, affordability, reliability and capability of current for future electronic-enabled systems in the future operating environment.

Electromagnetic Spectrum addresses the fundamental basic research and phenomenological studies to research fundamentally new electronic sensors, electronic warfare, and alternate positioning, navigation, and timing to understand, shape, and operate in the future operating environment.

Research relevant to enabling enhanced performance and resiliency of naval systems and platforms.

The Nanoscale Computing Devices and Systems activity invests in innovative research and breakthrough scientific discoveries that will inform the development of future computing technologies at all levels, from materials and devices to circuits and architectures.

This activity includes basic research efforts directed toward increasing knowledge, components and algorithmic advances for electronics and sensing ensuring the Navy can counter current and future threats. These efforts are applicable to electronics and sensing on individual Naval platforms, as well as efforts that aggregate capabilities in a Distributed Maritime Operation. Research efforts include: sensing, diagnostics, and detectors; nanoelectronics; wide band gap power devices; real-time targeting; Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) electronics; EO/IR sensors for surface/aerospace surveillance; Radio Frequency (RF) sensors for surface/aerospace surveillance; and solid-state electronics.

In operational environments with limited communications and extensive use of autonomous and unmanned systems, commanders will rely even more on decentralized control enabled by cohesive human-machine teams. Physical and cognitive enhancement capabilities will ensure warfighters are ready to meet a wide range of unanticipated, complex, and dynamic challenges. The Warfighter Lethality and Survivability planned program focuses on basic research that will enhance warfighter performance attributes needed to execute distributed maritime operations. The research areas described in this planned program were previously represented under the Warfighter Lethality and Survivability planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 1392.

The purpose of this program is to increase our understanding of decision-making, personnel selection and development, and operations in the information environment to enhance Naval operational effectiveness. Encompasses foundational research to optimize information warfare, decision-making, and readiness through the exploration of new analytics, modeling and simulation tools and cognitive science to improve learning, training, education, and operations. The science provides the foundation for future technologies that will enable streamlined talent management, enhanced cognitive and physical performance, and augmented warfighter-machine teaming for greater operational effectiveness. The research described in this planned program was previously represented under the Training and Education for Naval Readiness and Social Networks and Computational Social Science planned programs in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 1392.

The Physiological Monitoring and Modeling activity explores the Biomanufacturing Sciences and Biology, Materials and Warfighter Interfaces. Biomanufacturing research activities addresses biological processes required for the synthesis of materials, including harnessing existing cellular production, isolation and utilization of cellular components or pathways, and modification of cellular systems to develop and optimize novel pathways or products. Biotechnology and bioinspired process research explores the potential of components, biological and otherwise, to activate processes for on-demand control, delivery of a product or package, interrogation of a response, stimulation of a behavior change, and similar actions that may require interfacing across a large range of scales (via organism, organ, cell, protein, etc.). The research areas described in this planned program were previously represented under the Physiological Monitoring and Modeling planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 1387.

The Naval Force Health Protection and Human Performance planned program investigates research that will enhance the health, survivability, and recovery of Sailors and Marines operating in austere, distributed, and isolated maritime environments. The objectives are to enable naval forces to bring their biomedical capacity forward, create it on-demand, support prolonged field care, enable casualty evacuation, and provide en route care. This activity also addresses unique naval medical challenges associated with hypothermal and hyperbaric exposure. The research described in this planned program was previously represented under the Naval Force Health Protection and Human Performance planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 1386.

Mission sets and operational threats continue to evolve, and weapons platform technologies continue to advance. As a result, the manner in which warfighters will be employed must adapt in new and to-be-determined ways, making continued human systems science and technology efforts crucial to maintaining a decisive advantage of our warfighters over those of our adversaries. The Human-Level Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy planned program will help us gain a deeper understanding of how Warfighters sense, process, and use information to make decisions, and on providing the understanding needed for future technologies that can leverage cognition to enable humans to make better decisions. The research areas described in this planned program were previously represented under the Human-Level Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 1392.

Addresses the fundamental basic research to support new science advancements that enhance cognitive and physical performance, and augment warfighter-machine teaming for greater operational effectiveness in the future operating environment.

Supports the fundamental basic research and phenomenological studies into perceiving the future operational environment, processing information, and supporting decision-making to gain a future competitive advantage across the range of naval expeditionary missions.

The ONR Young Investigator Program (YIP) attracts outstanding faculty members to the Department of Navy's basic research program by identifying individuals that show exceptional promise for doing creative research and encourage their teaching and research careers through long term support. Young Investigator awards are for a period of three years. Proposals are solicited annually via a funding opportunity announcement open to tenure-track faculty in science, engineering, and mathematics. YIP awardees are competitively selected based on faculty achievements, technical proposal, benefit to the Navy and Marine Corps, and university endorsement.

Supports phenomenological studies to enable fundamentally new power and energy advancement for new naval applications in the future operating environment.

The Naval Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) activity addresses the critical need to grow and maintain a highly skilled technical naval workforce. These efforts inspire, engage, educate and attract participants to pursue naval careers and build the extramural performer base. DON STEM education and outreach is designed to increase the number of students and naval civilians with naval-relevant skills and degrees, expand capabilities of the current and future workforce by developing curricula and augmenting education, and augment awareness of Naval opportunities through localized education and outreach initiatives that foster the talent pipeline.

The Department of the Navy's (DON) Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI) program oversees the Navy's efforts to engage and support research in our nation's HBCU/MIs and is responsible for developing and managing efforts that strengthen and support the capabilities of HBCU/MIs to participate in basic, applied, and advanced development research programs within the Naval Research Enterprise. This program was previously represented under the HBCU/MI planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 1387.

This program supports both the Naval Research Enterprise Intern Program (NREIP) for college students and the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) for high school students to encourage participants to pursue science and engineering careers. The objective is to further education via mentoring by laboratory personnel and their participation in research, and to make them aware of Department of the Navy (DON) research and technology efforts. This program serves as a recruitment tool for employment within the DON. Participating students at 45 DON laboratories will spend eight to ten weeks during the summer conducting research. The research described in this planned program was previously represented under the NREIP/SEAP planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 1386, 1387, and 1392.

Mission sets and operational threats continue to evolve, and weapons platform technologies continue to advance. As a result, the manner in which warfighters will be employed must adapt in new and to-be-determined ways, making continued human systems science and technology efforts crucial to maintaining a decisive advantage of our warfighters over those of our adversaries. The Human-Level Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy planned program will help us gain a deeper understanding of how Warfighters sense, process, and use information to make decisions, and on providing the understanding needed for future technologies that can leverage cognition to enable humans to make better decisions. The research areas described in this planned program were previously represented under the Human Systems planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000. Research topics include Command Decision Making, Cognitive Science for Human-Machine Teaming, Computational Neuroscience, and Human Interaction with Autonomous Systems.

This program supports both the Naval Research Enterprise Intern Program (NREIP) for college students and the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) for high school students to encourage participants to pursue science and engineering careers. The objective is to further education via mentoring by laboratory personnel and their participation in research, and to make them aware of Department of the Navy (DON) research and technology efforts. This program serves as a recruitment tool for employment within the DON. Participating students at 45 DON laboratories will spend eight to ten weeks during the summer conducting research. The research described in this planned program was previously represented under the Science and Engineering Education, Career Development and Outreach planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be a necessary component in a future multi-domain, battle-capable, force. However, the Naval operational environment is considerably more complex and unstructured than that experienced in the commercial sector, with unique constraints. The Science of AI planned program focuses on basic research that will create efficient computational methods for building versatile intelligent agents (physical and cyber) that can perform a variety of tasks in uncertain, unstructured and open-world environments and aid in command decision making. Research areas include human-inspired computational models of vision-language interactions for agents, mission-focused AI, and collaborative AI. The research areas described in this planned program were previously represented under the Mathematics, Computer, and Information Sciences planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000.

Social Networks and Computational Social Science supports research in social science (anthropology, sociology, social psychology, etc.) for the study of social dynamics, human geography and human behavior relevant to Navy and Marine Corps missions. This program is pursuing research in big social changes that affect mission execution and success. Research in understanding important phenomena such as cyber-influence campaigns, the impact of climate change on human migration and human security concerns relevant to crisis response and humanitarian assistance are central thrusts in this program. The research areas described in this planned program were previously represented under the Human Systems planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000. Research topics include Social, Cultural, and Behavioral Modeling, Social Networks and Computational Social Science, and Minerva Research Initiative.

The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) for Warfighter Performance planned program addresses the critical need to grow and maintain a highly skilled technical naval workforce in research domains that will enhance warfighter effectiveness and efficiencies. These efforts inspire, engage, educate and attract participants to pursue naval careers and build the future extramural performer base.

Humans are at the core of every current and foreseeable Naval mission, whether they are assessing, coordinating and communicating decisions and actions across and within command echelons, planning and directing missions, controlling, managing or supervising systems in support of a mission, or directly executing the mission. The ability to select, train, sustain, maintain, and improve innate human competencies extends the warfighter's ability to meet current and anticipated needs. Creating synergies between warfighters and their technologies positions naval forces to quickly pivot to meet and dominate future challenges. The science and resulting technologies enable streamlined talent management, enhance cognitive and physical performance, and augment warfighter-machine teaming for greater operational effectiveness. The research areas described in this planned program were previously represented under the Human Systems planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000. Research topics include Schoolhouse Training, Attention in Sensory Processing and Intelligent Sensing, Manpower, Personnel, Training, and Education for Future Warfighting.

In operational environments with limited communications and extensive use of autonomous and unmanned systems, commanders will rely even more on decentralized control enabled by cohesive human-machine teams. Physical and cognitive enhancement capabilities will ensure warfighters are ready to meet a wide range of unanticipated, complex, and dynamic challenges. The Warfighter Lethality and Survivability planned program focuses on basic research that will enhance warfighter performance attributes needed to execute distributed maritime operations. The research areas described in this planned program were previously represented under the Medical and Biological Sciences planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000. Research topics include Naval Force Health Protection, Physiological Monitoring and Modeling, Stress Response, and Undersea Medicine.

The Young Investigator Program (YIP) seeks to identify and support academic scientists and engineers who are early in their careers and show exceptional promise for performing creative research. The objectives of this program are to attract outstanding faculty members of U.S. Institutions of Higher Education to the Department of the Navy's Science and Technology research program, to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers. This program was previously represented under the Science and Engineering Education, Career Development and Outreach planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000.

The Ocean, Atmosphere & Space Science program advances our understanding of atmospheric and space phenomena/processes which, during naval operations, may range from the seabed, to surface sea-state conditions to high altitude space sensing. Highly dynamic conditions researched within this PE include artic conditions, ocean acoustics, coastal and seabed geoscience, meteorology, anti-submarine operations, mine counter measures, marine mammal biology and maritime sensing. Basic research advances improve the precision and reliability of ocean, atmospheric and space environmental products provided to the warfighter and allow for increasingly accurate assessments and predictions of the impact of space and atmospheric phenomena on the performance of naval weapon systems. Understanding and predicting oceanographic and acoustical phenomena provides significant warfighting advantages to naval forces. Ocean Sciences research addresses the full spectrum of acoustics and oceanography to enable observation, modeling, and prediction of the maritime environment. Efforts include: studying common operating areas for naval forces in the open oceans, the Arctic, the littorals, and nearshore and river mouths and inlet environments; elucidating the coupling between oceanographic, geophysical and acoustical phenomena relevant to mission areas such as Anti-Submarine Warfare and Mine Warfare; development of global, regional and local predictive models that fully couple the ocean-atmosphere-wave- ice domains; development and use of autonomous systems and sampling technologies for the collection of environmental observations and continuing support to research vessels of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet to enable at-sea oceanographic science. Naval Expeditionary Forces need science advances to address a range of research challenges that result from physical and operational environmental limitations so harsh that solutions push basic discovery and invention. Naval Expeditionary Forces operate amphibiously and in the littoral will have all of their capabilities exposed to degrading sea and land physical effects. Expeditionary forces must be agile and lethal but will be constrained by size, weight, and power requirements and must be sustained across large areas. Research efforts within this Project (previously aligned within the Sciences Addressing Hybrid Threats (SAHT) research area of Project 0000) include optics, electronics, and photonics research to enable revolutionary spectral awareness in small low power sensors. The Science and Engineering Education, Career Development and Outreach research activities address the critical need to grow and maintain a highly skilled technical naval workforce. These efforts inspire, engage, educate and attract participants to pursue naval careers and build the extramural performer base. DON Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and outreach is designed to increase the number of students and naval civilians with naval-relevant skills and degrees, expand capabilities of the current and future workforce by augmenting education and increasing the awareness of Naval Ocean Battlespace Sensing research and career opportunities through localized education and outreach activities that foster the talent pipeline.

Supports new phenomenological studies to enable fundamentally new advancements in support of all domain naval expeditionary applications in the future operating environment.

Supports the fundamental basic research and phenomenological studies into perceiving the future operational environment, processing information, and supporting decision-making to gain a future competitive advantage across the range of naval expeditionary missions.

The Electromagnetic Warfare (EmW) research area explores advanced concepts and knowledge required to develop new and advanced capabilities in electromagnetic warfare and its supporting technologies. Research activities will explore advances in radar systems, advanced signal processing, electronic warfare, Electro Optic/Infrared (EO/IR) sensor technologies, decision making algorithms utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) concepts for signal processing and other emerging effectors across the entire electromagnetic spectrum (EmS).

The Bio-Inspired Systems and Soft Robotics planned program investigates research that will expand the operational envelope of Navy underwater and amphibious vehicles and enable enhanced underwater manipulation. The research investments in this program extract principles of sensorimotor control, biomechanics and fluid dynamics of underwater propulsion and control in aquatic and amphibious animals that underlie the agility, stealth, efficiency and sensory adaptations of these animals. The research efforts described in this planned program were previously represented under the Medical and Biological Sciences planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000. Research topics include Bioinspired Autonomous Systems and Soft Robotics.

The aim of the Biosciences, Bioengineering, and Synthetic Biology for Future Naval Applications planned program is to discover and develop biological/biologically-inspired and bioengineered solutions to expand current Warfighter capabilities in the domains of materials, manufacturing, energy, electronics, sensors and devices. The research efforts described in this planned program were previously represented under the Medical and Biological Sciences planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000. Research topics include Bioengineering and Life Sciences, Naval Biosciences, and Synthetic Biology for Naval Applications

The Department of the Navy's (DON) Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI) program oversees the Navy's efforts to engage and support research in our nation's HBCU/MIs and is responsible for developing and managing efforts that strengthen and support the capabilities of HBCU/MIs to participate in basic, applied, and advanced development research programs within the Naval Research Enterprise. This program was previously represented under the Science and Engineering Education, Career Development and Outreach planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000.

This program supports both the Naval Research Enterprise Intern Program (NREIP) for college students and the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) for high school students to encourage participants to pursue science and engineering careers. The objective is to further education via mentoring by laboratory personnel and their participation in research, and to make them aware of Department of the Navy (DON) research and technology efforts. This program serves as a recruitment tool for employment within the DON. Participating students at 45 DON laboratories will spend eight to ten weeks during the summer conducting research. The research described in this planned program was previously represented under the Science and Engineering Education, Career Development and Outreach planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000.

The Young Investigator Program (YIP) seeks to identify and support academic scientists and engineers who are early in their careers and show exceptional promise for performing creative research. The objectives of this program are to attract outstanding faculty members of U.S. Institutions of Higher Education to the Department of the Navy's Science and Technology research program, to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers. This program was previously represented under the Science and Engineering Education, Career Development and Outreach planned program in PE 0601153N Defense Research Sciences Project 0000.

The Physiological Monitoring and Modeling activity explores the Biomanufacturing Sciences and Biology, Materials and Warfighter Interfaces. Biomanufacturing research activities addresses biological processes required for the synthesis of materials, including harnessing existing cellular production, isolation and utilization of cellular components or pathways, and modification of cellular systems to develop and optimize novel pathways or products. Biotechnology and bioinspired process research explores the potential of components, biological and otherwise, to activate processes for on-demand control, delivery of a product or package, interrogation of a response, stimulation of a behavior change, and similar actions that may require interfacing across a large range of scales (via organism, organ, cell, protein, etc.).

Addresses the fundamental basic research to support new science advancements that enhance cognitive and physical performance, and augment warfighter-machine teaming for greater operational effectiveness in the future operating environment.

This activity focuses on developing the fundamental principles and models for the design and construction of complex software and hardware systems that meet required assurances for security, safety, reliability and performance. It builds upon foundations of mathematical logic and computational complexity but takes into account the uncertainties and constraints of the Naval operational environment which is very different from commercial and home cyber environments. The overall goal is to measurably improve the ability of complex computing systems to meet the information-processing challenges of future naval systems. The Cyber Security sub-program investigates wide-ranging principles and techniques for continuously maintaining integrity, availability and confidentiality of information and information infrastructures, focusing on the software, the hardware and the network. The program heavily emphasizes automation and autonomy in the cyber environment, preferring the human-on-the-loop paradigm over the human-in-the-loop, whenever possible. The program seeks to establish an autonomic, secure and dependable informational infrastructure toward ensuring Navy's mission successes. The Complex Software sub-program: Investigates principles, algorithms and methods; explores software and hardware engineering proof-of-concept tools for achieving efficient, timely, robust and secure software executables; focuses on science for software construction, correctness and efficiency by revisiting software development and deployment methodology. Efficient, timely, robust and secure cyber systems are required for secure computing infrastructure toward ensuring Navy's mission successes.

This activity includes basic research efforts directed toward increasing knowledge, components and algorithmic advances for electronics and sensing ensuring the Navy can counter current and future threats. These efforts are applicable to electronics and sensing on individual Naval platforms, as well as efforts that aggregate capabilities in a Distributed Maritime Operation. Research efforts include: sensing, diagnostics, and detectors; nanoelectronics; wide band gap power devices; real-time targeting; Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) electronics; EO/IR sensors for surface/aerospace surveillance; Radio Frequency (RF) sensors for surface/aerospace surveillance; and solid-state electronics.

The primary focus of the Networked Sensing program is to conduct basic research in optical components and infrared technologies to enable significant leap-ahead capabilities for the survivability and lethality of Naval forces in complex environments.

The primary focus of the Research Platforms activity is to provide airborne research assets for collection of phenomenology data in real world environments in order to test new C5ISRT and Counter C5ISRT technologies and techniques. Data collection of this type is required to develop algorithms, train machine learning and test sensor capabilities to improve C5ISRT capabilities for Naval forces in complex electro-magnetic environments.