Submissions Due by September 4, 2020
News
Open Project Call
July 28, 2020 | Categories: America Makes News, Opportunities, Project Call, Technology
Open Project Call
The America Makes Additive Manufacturing (AM) Technology Roadmap offers a means to assess the progress of prior and ongoing efforts of the institute and AM supply chain, identify technology gaps, and develop new goals/requirements to advance the state of the art for AM technology.
The Open Project Call leverages collaboration and perspectives from the membership, working groups, Roadmap Advisory Group (RMAG), and prior America Makes AM Technology Roadmap workshop efforts to create actionable focus areas which should address the needs of the membership. Technical topic areas have been prioritized based upon input gathered from the membership, advisory groups, and working groups. These topic areas span the five swimlanes of the AM Technology Roadmap (Design, Materials, Process, Value chain, and AM Genome) and address elements of the America Makes EWD Roadmap.
Technical Topics
Following is a list of topic areas for consideration for the 2020 Open Project Call:
- Digital Storefront materials data repository – development of methods, tools, and data models to facilitate the compilation, development, future prioritization, and tracking of mechanical and physical AM materials data for America Makes which will serve as a single touchpoint within the America Makes Digital Store Front
- Machine learning and artificial intelligence for prediction, identification, and translation of AM process parameters, quality metrics, product/material performance factors for various AM processes, materials, applications, and geometries
- Identification and documentation of design feature (geometry, orientation) in-situ sensing limitations for various types of AM materials and processes for in-situ defect detection and process quality monitoring (process parameters or process metrics within an acceptable range of operation).
- In-situ sensing process methods/practices which facilitate cross-calibration of in-situ sensing and physics-based models for metallic AM processes. Development of methods for monitoring AM processes to validate experimental results and physics-based models or vice versa
- Development of environmental controls for feedstocks which impact product quality including:
- Recyclability
- Waste handling
- Guidelines/recommended practices for material handling and material safety
- Software controls
- In-situ monitoring methods
- Demonstration of automated data acquisition, processing and storage for various AM processes. Approaches should look to eliminate human error (manual data entry) and develop recommended practices for data gathering, formatting, and sharing
- Executive additive training courses – priority for America Makes generated and sharable content (limited or no background IP favored)
- Additive manufacturing courses for entry level engineering which embeds industry recognized credentials – priority for America Makes generated and sharable content (limited or no background IP favored)
- Cyber security for AM virtual training – priority for America Makes generated and sharable content (limited or no background IP favored)
One-Step Proposal Process
The proposal process for this America Makes Project Call is a one-step non-traditional process:
A full project proposal with a shortened format of 13 pages, as outlined in the RFP, is due by 5 p.m. EDT Friday, September 4, 2020.
Resources
Dates/Deadlines:
| Project Call Announcement and Posting | 07/29/2020 |
| Webinar at America Makes TRX | 08/04/2020 |
| Questions from Proposers about Scope or Approach Due | 08/11/2020 |
| Responses to Proposers about Scope or Approach Due
(All questions and responses will be shared with all proposers below. |
08/18/2020 |
| Deadline for all team members to be an America Makes Member | 08/21/2020 |
| Fully Executed NDA with NCDMM (if proposal contains proprietary information) | 08/21/2020 |
| Full Project Proposal Submission Due Date (Note: No Concept Paper Submission) | 09/04/2020 |
| Anticipated Decision and Notification to Project Proposal Teams | 10/09/2020 |
| Anticipated Date to have ALL Projects on Contract | 11/09/2020 |
| All project finalized reports and deliverables received by NCDMM no later than | 05/28/2021 |
Open Project Call Questions & Answers
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.
2. Do you have a format for the Concept paper for submission? If yes, will this be available online?
Section 3.5 of the RFP outlines the Project Proposal Format
While NDI was not explicitly mentioned in the topics listed, it may be of consideration for a Proposer to include as a means to evaluating characteristics of materials or product quality. It could be leveraged as a means of validating machine learning or artificial intelligence models.
Often, Proposers will partner with several other members in order to reduce the cost share contributed by each team member or supplement the necessary expertise or capabilities of the team in order to derive a more manageable or sound response. Collaboration is one of the pillars of the institute. We encourage members to partner when and where it makes sense and adds value to the outcome(s) of the proposal.
Joint IP ownership would be considered if America Makes members have access to the training free of charge. America Makes has no interest in owning or deploying training but the resources have to be free, on demand for America Makes members.
America Makes will use training resources produced by the project call to fill gaps in the EWD portfolio. These resources would be used as members only benefit and is protected through the membership agreement. The training cannot be commercialized or used for monetary benefit and any logos must remain when used. Credit must also be given to the creators of the training courses.
The level of support would be up to the proposer. America Makes would like for these to be standalone resources created in a member driven way. Although the resources must be given to America Makes members at no charge, they could be used outside of the membership by the creator as well.
This would be acceptable if America Makes Members have no-cost, on demand access. If members do not have no cost, on demand access this would be unacceptable.
America Makes will make training available through the America Makes Digital Storefront, and the EWD Roadmap Library/ inventory which will be created per America Makes Cooperative Agreement #3 with AFRL. As stated in other answers this will be a member benefit where no branding can be removed and members cannot commercialize as this would break IP.
Not certificates. This would be embedding credentials from 3rd party validation organizations such as NIMS, NOCTI, AWS, SME, MSSC, etc.
Contact one of the following individuals:
- Design: Shawn Nesmith
- Materials: Ed Nemeth
- AM Genome: Ed Nemeth
- Process: Scott Crynock
- Value Chain: Ashley Totin
- Maintenance and Sustainment: Brandon Ribic
Yes, provided the IR&D is current. Previously expensed IRAD from before the proposed project start date would not be able to be used as cost share.
Training resources must be given to America Makes members free of charge and on demand. As long as that is the case the creator can offer the training outside of membership.
No, there is no limit on the number of proposals that an organization can participate.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
All team members of project team must be America Makes members by 8/21/2020.
Yes, teams may submit more than one Project Proposal.
Questions should be emailed to projectcall@americamakes.us. Questions will be posted to the America Makes website according to the RFP schedule. Questions asked AFTER the scheduled Q&A session will NOT be addressed.
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.
Yes. The proposals will only be reviewed by the evaluation team and each team member signs a confidentiality agreement.
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.
The IP is owned by the organization that developed the IP, however that IP is subject to the rules outlined in the membership agreement.
