U.S. ARMY COMBAT CAPABILITIES DEVELOPMENT COMMAND ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR BASIC AND APPLIED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH   3

This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) sets forth research areas of interest of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL). This BAA is issued under FAR 6.102(d)(2), which provides for the competitive selection of basic and applied research proposals, and 10 U.S.C. 2358, 10 U.S.C. 2371, and 10 U.S.C. 2371b, which provide the authorities for issuing awards under this announcement for basic and applied research. The definitions of basic and applied research may be found at 32 CFR 22.105.
Proposals submitted in response to this BAA and selected for award are considered to be the result of full and open competition and in full compliance with the provision of Public Law 98-369, "The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984" and subsequent amendments.
Eligible applicants under this BAA include institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, foreign organizations, foreign public entities, and for-profit organizations (i. large and small businesses) for scientific research in mechanical sciences, mathematical sciences, electronics, computing science, physics, chemistry, life sciences, materials science, network science, and environmental sciences.
This BAA is a continuously open announcement valid throughout the period from the date of issuance through March 31, 2022, unless announced otherwise. This BAA succeeds ARL BAA W911NF-12-R-0011 (including all amendments) dated May 15, 2012.
See the attached document for the Army Research Laboratory BAA for Basic and Applied Scientific Research.

Background
The U.S. ARMY COMBAT CAPABILITIES DEVELOPMENT COMMAND ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR BASIC AND APPLIED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH seeks to enable adaptive, rapid, and low-cost fabrication of replaceable parts through the development of novel synthesis and processing methods. The objectives include 2D and 3D hybrid electronics assembly and packaging concepts for sensors and systems, multi-material 2D/3D small-scale fabrication of polymer/ceramic/metallic composite prototypes tailored for light weight and rapid field deployment, and the development of a multi-material 2D/3D composites capability for fabrication, characterization, and printing of polymer/ceramic composite electromagnetic and conductive materials for antennas and other radio frequency devices.

Work Details
The work includes research on system thermodynamics and kinetics within a meta-stable environment of rapid heating, material melting, alloy mixing, cooling, solidification, and solid-state transformation throughout the entire 3D additive manufacturing process. It also involves designing and producing precursor materials, developing a better understanding of the preconditioning and tailoring of precursor materials for thermomechanical processing to achieve the designed properties and performance. Additionally, the work focuses on developing additive processes for flexible electronics and 3D hybrid electronics supporting research in components sensors such as Soldier health monitoring, asset monitoring, communications, antennas, navigation, soft robotics, as well as engaging education and workforce development.