United States Military Academy Broad Agency Announcement

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point's mission is "to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army." The United States Military Academy is located at West Point, New York. USMA executes research to enhance the education of cadets, develop the faculty professionally, and address important issues facing the Army and the Nation. In addition, the Academy conducts research and analysis in emerging fields that may realize novel or vastly improved Army capabilities.

At West Point, research is organized and administered through centers and institutes, most of which reside within academic departments. These centers and institutes, affiliated with each other through the Academy Research Council (ARC), coordinated and supported by the Academic Research Division (ARD), provide the infrastructure necessary to tackle the nation’s and the world’s most challenging problems. Our research centers and institutes bring context to the classroom, are central to our vibrant and pioneering faculty, and are one way West Point connects to the Army and to the Nation. Our students are driven, our faculty is world-class, and through our centers, scholars and scientists thrive and produce their best work. Cadets regularly win Best Paper Awards at national and international graduate-level conferences, our faculty hold fellowships and chairmanships in their discipline's national organizations and our products are deployed to the soldier. In addition to applied research, there are centers and institutes at West Point that focus on other aspects of the USMA mission.

The USMA BAA identifies topics of interest to the USMA departments, directorates, and research centers and institutes. These groups focus on executing in-house research programs, with a significant emphasis on collaborative research with other organizations. The groups fund a modest amount of extramural research in certain specific areas, and those areas are described in this BAA.

The USMA BAA seeks proposals from institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and for-profit organizations (i.e., large and small businesses) for research based on the following campaigns: Socio-Cultural; Information Technology; Ballistics, Weapons, and Protections; Energy and Sustainability; Materials, Measurements, and Facilities; Unmanned Systems and Space; Human Support Systems; and Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Quantum Technologies.

Proposals are sought for cutting-edge innovative research that could produce discoveries with a significant impact to enable new and improved Army technologies and related operational capabilities and related technologies. The specific research areas and topics of interest described in this document should be viewed as suggestive, rather than limiting.