FY24 DOD HBCU/MI Equipment/Instrumentation | W911NF23S0014

Opportunity Information: Apply for W911NF23S0014

The FY24 DoD HBCU/MI Equipment/Instrumentation opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number W911NF23S0014) is a discretionary grant competition run under the Department of Defense Research and Education Program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions. It is administered through the Department of the Army, Materiel Command, and is listed under CFDA 12.630 within the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity area. The basic aim is to strengthen the research and STEM education capacity of eligible HBCUs and MIs by helping them purchase major equipment or instrumentation that meaningfully improves what their labs and programs can do.

The funding is specifically for acquiring equipment and instrumentation, either to expand or modernize existing research capabilities or to create new capabilities that align with Department of Defense research interests. In practice, that means proposals should clearly connect the requested equipment to concrete research areas that matter to DoD, showing how the instrument will enable new experiments, measurements, fabrication, testing, or analysis that the institution cannot currently perform (or cannot perform at the needed quality, scale, or speed). This is not framed as a general facilities upgrade; it is meant to be capability-building tied to defensible research use-cases and to a broader plan for research growth.

A central theme of the program is building the STEM pipeline, and applicants are expected to explain how the equipment will increase student participation in research and help attract students toward STEM degree paths and careers. Even though the opportunity emphasizes student engagement outcomes, the FOA makes an important restriction: the grant funds cannot be used for student support. That typically means applicants should not budget grant dollars for student stipends, scholarships, wages, or other direct student financial support, and instead should focus the budget on the equipment/instrumentation purchase and any allowable associated costs. Because student support is off the table, the narrative expectation shifts to describing structural and programmatic impacts on students, such as how the new instrument will be integrated into research experiences, senior design, lab courses, or research training environments, and how many students are likely to gain hands-on exposure as a result.

Eligibility is limited by law (10 U.S.C. 4144) to "covered educational institutions." These include institutions of higher education eligible for assistance under Title III or Title V of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as well as accredited post-secondary minority institutions. The opportunity explicitly notes that eligible applicants can include community colleges or other two-year degree granting institutions, as long as they meet the definition of a covered educational institution. In short, this is not an open competition for all universities; it is targeted to HBCUs, MIs, and other qualifying institutions under the cited federal definitions.

Key logistics from the posting indicate an award ceiling of $800,000, with the original closing date listed as September 15, 2023, and a posting creation date of July 17, 2023. The listing does not specify the expected number of awards in the provided text, but the ceiling suggests the program supports substantial equipment purchases, potentially including high-cost research instrumentation where a single acquisition can be transformative for an institution's research capability. Overall, competitive applications will usually be those that make a tight case for why the instrument is essential, how it advances DoD-relevant research capacity, how it will be sustained and utilized beyond the purchase, and how it will expand meaningful student research participation without relying on grant-funded student financial support.

• The Dept of the Army -- Materiel Command in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY24 DOD HBCU/MI Equipment/Instrumentation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.630.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-07-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-09-15. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $800,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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