Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the Office of Naval Research (ONR), on behalf of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), for the Manufacturing Engineering Education Program | N00014 18 S F005

Opportunity Information: Apply for N00014 18 S F005

The FY 2018 Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) N00014-18-S-F005 is a discretionary grant opportunity issued by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) on behalf of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) to carry out the Manufacturing Engineering Education Program (MEEP), a program created in the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (10 U.S.C. 2196). At its core, the FOA is about strengthening the U.S. manufacturing engineering talent pipeline so the Department of Defense (DoD) can rely on a workforce capable of building advanced military systems and components and maintaining U.S. technological superiority. Rather than funding narrow, single-course efforts, the emphasis is on consolidated, integrated education programs that either establish new manufacturing engineering education capacity or significantly enhance existing programs.

The FOA encourages applicants to anchor their education and training efforts in one or more distinct manufacturing technology areas that matter to defense and industry. Examples named in the announcement include manufacturing of lightweight structures, systems, and materials; robotics for manufacturing; manufacturing that exploits nanotechnology; manufacturing of components and systems for power generation, storage, or distribution; and manufacturing of multi-functional electronics and/or optical devices. The FOA also leaves room for other manufacturing technologies that are important to a region or a specific industrial sector, which signals that proposals can be tailored to local supply chain realities as long as the training remains industry-relevant and clearly tied to manufacturing engineering needs.

A major theme running through the FOA is multidisciplinary manufacturing engineering education. ONR is looking for programs that prepare students to operate in modern design-to-production environments where multiple engineering disciplines must work together, and where manufacturing decisions are increasingly informed by computational tools for modeling and simulation. In practice, that means proposals should show how students will build the skill sets needed to collaborate across disciplines during design, development, and manufacturing, and to understand how manufacturers and suppliers of different sizes (from start-ups to major integrators) fit together to deliver complex defense-relevant systems.

Within that broader goal, the FOA highlights several specific priorities. First is instruction that covers the full manufacturing engineering enterprise, not just isolated technical skills. Second is giving students real work experience through internships, summer placements, or cooperative education/work-study models, reflecting a clear preference for hands-on exposure to real manufacturing settings. Third is meaningful faculty and student engagement with industry that directly supports manufacturing engineering education, such as collaborative projects and sustained partnerships rather than one-off interactions. Fourth is geographical diversity, indicating the program is interested in strengthening manufacturing education capacity across different parts of the country, not concentrating awards in only one region.

The FOA provides a wide menu of allowable education and workforce-development activities, giving applicants flexibility in how they build an end-to-end program. These activities may include classroom and laboratory instruction, thesis or capstone projects (individual or team-based), internships and co-ops, and engagement with industrial facilities, consortia, or similar organizations in the U.S. (and, where appropriate, foreign countries for certain interactions). It also explicitly includes faculty development; recruiting highly qualified manufacturing educators; hosting seminars, workshops, and targeted skills training; and creating mechanisms for student-industry interaction such as visiting scholars, personnel exchanges, or participation by industry executives. On the curriculum side, the FOA supports developing new manufacturing curricula or modernizing existing courses and programs. It also contemplates broader workforce training programs, joint programs with defense laboratories and depots, and expanded manufacturing education and outreach opportunities for members of the armed forces, their dependents, veterans, and DoD employees.

From an evaluation and outcomes standpoint, the FOA expects applicants to show that the proposed program (or collection of programs) will measurably improve understanding of manufacturing engineering challenges and potential solutions, and that this improved understanding will translate into higher-quality, more effective instruction. In other words, the deliverable is not only trained students, but also demonstrable programmatic improvement: better curriculum, better learning experiences, stronger industry alignment, and clearer pathways into manufacturing roles relevant to defense needs.

Eligibility is broad but has important exclusions. Eligible applicants include responsible sources from U.S. industry, U.S. nonprofit institutions, U.S. institutions of higher education, and consortia of these entities or industry. The FOA notes that submissions begin with white papers, and foreign entities are not considered. Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), including Department of Energy national laboratories, cannot receive awards as prime recipients under this FOA, although they may participate through teaming arrangements with eligible prime applicants if their sponsoring agreements allow it. Similarly, Navy laboratories, military universities, warfare centers, and other DoD or civilian federal laboratories are not eligible to submit white papers or applications as primes, but they may collaborate with eligible applicants; the FOA provides a point of contact (Dr. William Mullins) for those federal organizations to discuss potential projects and coordinate appropriately. University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) are generally eligible to submit white papers unless their specific DoD UARC contract restricts that participation.

Administratively, the opportunity is listed under CFDA 12.300, categorized as Science and Technology and other Research and Development, and uses the grant funding instrument. The FOA was created on January 12, 2018, and the original closing date listed is May 25, 2018. The announcement does not specify an award ceiling or the expected number of awards in the provided source text, which typically means applicants would need to consult the full FOA package or ONR guidance for budget scale expectations, submission stages, and detailed review criteria.

• The Office of Naval Research in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the Office of Naval Research (ONR), on behalf of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), for the Manufacturing Engineering Education Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.300.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-01-12.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-05-25. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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