News
Rapid Innovation Call for Topics
January 26, 2021 | Categories: America Makes News, Project Call, Technology
America Makes is seeking topic submissions by July 2, 2021 with the intent to officially launch a Rapid Innovation Call (RIC) for Projects at the beginning of August when future funding opportunities will be made available.
The RIC project model provides the Institute with an agile framework to adapt and pivot quickly to the evolving challenges of the supply chain via direct input from its membership community and/or government stakeholders.
| Topic Submission Deadline | Friday, July 2, 2021 before 5 pm EDT |
| Cost Share | No specific percentage, but cost share will be considered as part of evaluation criteria |
| Period of Performance | Shorter periods acceptable or 7 months (5 months execution, 2 months 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:
- Rapid Innovation Call for Topic Submission is submitted by stakeholder.
- Executive Committee reviews submissions and selects Topics for proposals
- Selected Topic gets posted to America Makes website
- Response Deadline and Q&A periods get defined
- Proposal with approach, SOW, Cost Volume, Exhibits is submitted
- Awards announced
Resources
Dates/Deadlines:
| Informational Webinar (View Recording) | June 8, 2021 |
| Submission Deadlines | July 2, 2021 by 5pm EDT |
| 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 |
Rapid Innovation Call for Topics – 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.
2. Do you have a format for the Concept paper for submission? If yes, will this be available online?
To submit a topic visit the Project Call link on the America Makes website and click “Submit a Topic” to fill out the web form.
The TRL for all projects are from TRL level 4 to TRL level 7.
4. Does the total include the cost share, or the cost share is added to the total funding available?
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.
Yes if the America Makes Member is a government employee.
Contact one of the following individuals:
- Design: Todd Spurgeon
- Materials: Ed Nemeth
- AM Genome: Ed Nemeth
- Process: Scott Crynock
- Value Chain: Ashley Totin
- Maintenance and Sustainment: Brandon Ribic
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. Wuestions should reference the specific posted topic ID and title. Questions will be posted to the America Makes website according to the posted topic 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.
The IP is owned by the organization that developed the IP, however that IP is subject to the rules outlined in the membership agreement.
