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Government Driven Project Call for Topics

July 28, 2020 | Categories: America Makes News, Project Call, Technology

Submissions Considered for FY2020 Funds until January 22, 2021


Government Driven Rapid Innovation Call for Topics

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Rapid Innovation Call for Topics Deadline Changed to January 22

Last summer America Makes announced a series of project calls using a new process – the Rapid Innovation Call (RIC) Call for Topics process. The goal of the RIC process is to get member input by allowing members the opportunity to submit their project topics/ideas to generate project opportunities relevant to industry.

Since launching this process we have funded one project and are in the process of creating project calls RFPs for two additional topics that will be announced in the coming days.

The exciting news is that we still have $185,000 in project funding to award but we’re running short on time. To utilize this funding appropriately we have moved up our submission deadline from February 28 to January 22 to ensure that project teams have enough time to complete their tasks without running into a time crunch.

We want your input and encourage you to visit the RIC information page to find out how you can submit a topic.

Please note the deadline to submit topic ideas is fast approaching with submissions now due on January 22nd. The RIC process will now follow this timeline:

  1. RIC topic submissions due by January 22, 2021
  2. Executive Committee will meet on January 26, 2021 to review all topics and make selections
  3. Project call RFPs will be developed and released shortly after
  4. Project calls submissions will be due in mid-February 2021
  5. Project teams will be selected by February 28, 2021
  6. Project teams will then have approximately 3 months to complete their efforts

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The Government Driven Rapid Innovation Call (RIC) will seek to address immediate and readily actionable needs identified by government stakeholders. The Rapid Innovation Call will allow the Institute an agile framework to adapt to the evolving challenges of the supply chain via direct input from the membership.


Due Dates Submissions considered for FY2020 funds until January 22, 2021
Total Federal Funding Available $200k
Max Federal Award per Proposal None
Cost Share Target 25%
Anticipated Number of Awards 4
Period of Performance Shorter periods acceptable or 4 months (3 months execution, 1 month final reporting) NO extensions will be considered

Eligibility

All team members of a project team must be America Makes members in good standing a minimum of 45 days prior to the project start.  To achieve a good standing status a non-member organization must establish a new America Makes membership and provide a cash payment or enter into an @Program MOU to satisfy the membership fee obligation for the first year of membership.  Cost share provided during the period of performance of the project will be applied to the first renewal cycle of your membership.


Topic Submission, Selection,
and Proposal Process

The process for this America Makes Project Call is a non-traditional process:

  1. Rapid Innovation Call for Topic Submission is submitted by stakeholder.
  2. Executive Committee reviews submissions and selects Topics for proposals
  3. Selected Topic gets posted to America Makes website
  4. Response Deadline and Q&A periods get defined
  5. Proposal with approach, SOW, Cost Volume, Exhibits is submitted
  6. Awards announced

Dates/Deadlines:

Project Call Announcement and Posting 08/04/2020
Kickoff Webinar 08/04/2020
Immediate Call for Topics 08/04/2020
Anticipated date to release first RIC opportunity 10/06/2020
America Makes Member/MoU Execution Deadline Min 45 days prior
to project start
Fully Executed NDA with NCDMM (if concept contains proprietary information) Prior to concept submission
Concept Submissions for FY2020 funding considered until 01/22/2021

Rapid Innovation Call Questions & Answers

Costs that can be considered as cost share: Material, labor hours, overhead, equipment, building, land purchase, tuition, software – How will this be tracked – through cost share forms submitted monthly to America Makes from the lead member of the project team, sub-contractors will submit to the lead  – What may not be considered cost share – Proposal costs, Entertainment, Alcohol, gifts.

To submit a topic visit the America Makes website under Project Call.  Choose Government Driven or Member Driven, download the information guide, and choose the submit a topic link to fill out the web form.

If $1.00 of funding is requested from America Makes, $0.50 in cost share must be committed against that $1.00 for a total scope of $1.50.

Government agencies can participate on a project team but cannot receive funding, cannot be the lead, and cannot provide cost share as the money they would be providing would just be other federal dollars which is not allowable under 2 CFR 200.

Contact one of the following individuals:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

All team members of project team must be America Makes members or have an MOU for membership through cost share signed a minimum of 45 days prior to project start.

Yes, teams may submit more than one Topic Proposal.

Questions should be emailed to ric@americamakes.us. Questions will be posted to the America Makes website according to the schedule. Questions asked AFTER the scheduled Q&A session will NOT be addressed.

Questions should be emailed to Jason.Thomas@ncdmm.org.  No questions regarding posted topics will be answered by this email address, only questions pertaining to submitting topics for consideration (the approval process to become a posted topic).

Yes, however all foreign-owned companies must apply for a foreign membership by completing Sections A & B of the membership request form, prior to proposal submission.  The approval process for foreign-owned entities can take up to 4 weeks to complete.  Please contact Tiffany Westbay for more information.

Please note, federal dollars cannot be spent outside of the Unite States.  It is the Lead / team’s responsibility to ensure compliance with all applicable export control laws and regulations.

The owning organization should list anything that they are leveraging that is not going to be made available to the membership at the completion of the project.  This could be a patent number or a description of the background IP that is being leveraged.

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