CHIPS R&D Office Broad Agency Announcement

KEY INFORMATION

Opportunity Number: 2025-NIST-CHIPS-CRDO-01

Agency: Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, CHIPS Research and Development Office

White Paper Due Date: Rolling

Full Application Due Date: 9/30/2029

Award Floor: $10,000,000

Cost Share: Not required

 

PROGRAM OVERVIEW       

This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is soliciting proposals from eligible applicants for research, prototyping, and commercial solutions that advance microelectronics technology in the U.S., to be considered for funding.

As a condition of receiving an award, applicants may be required to issue to the Department equity, warrants, licenses to intellectual property, royalties, or revenue sharing, or other such instruments to ensure a return on investment to the Government.

Submission to this BAA is in two parts: a required White Paper (5 pages) and, if invited to proceed, a Pre-negotiation Package.

 

OBJECTIVES

Under this BAA, there are six general topic areas that have been identified as priority areas for proposals:

1. Semiconductors

Example technical areas of interest include:

• Next generation lithography beyond 1nm;

• Semiconductor devices;

• Next generation memory devices: next generation materials, architectures, and interfaces;

• Advanced Packaging;

• Next generation design; and

• Accelerating domestic manufacturing fabs.

 

2. Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Advanced Microelectronics R&D

Example technical areas of interest include:

• Compute efficiency;

• Novel memory stacks;

• Cryogenic operations;

• Stacked machine health monitoring;

• AI devices for extreme environments; and

• Using AI to accelerate domestic manufacturing fabs to secure critical supply chains.

 

3. Application of Quantum Technology for Advanced Microelectronics R&D

Example technical areas of interest include:

• Scalable quantum computing;

• Quantum networks and communications;

• Quantum sensing and metrology; and

• Accelerating domestic manufacturing fabs.

 

4. Application of Biotechnology and Bio-manufacturing Technology for Microelectronics R&D

Example technical areas of interest include:

• Bioelectronics;

• Medical implantable devices;

• Accelerating domestic bio-electronics manufacturing fabs: scale domestic production.

 

5. Commercialization of Innovations

Example technical areas of interest include:

• advanced testing, assembly, and packaging capability that involves eligible participants, which may include Manufacturing USA institutes or other consortia, to adopt and commercialize innovations.

 

6. Standards Development

Example standards development areas of interest include:

• Quantum manufacturing standards

• Data standards

 

ELIGIBILITY    

Eligible Applicants include: 

• for-profit organizations

• non-profit organizations

• accredited institutions of higher education

• Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs)

• non-profit organizations

• Federal entities

Eligible applicants must be a domestic entity. Eligible subawardees include all eligible applicants, as well as foreign partners who are not otherwise prohibited (e.g., foreign adversaries).

NOTE: CRDO strongly recommends that Federal entities and FFRDCs seeking to respond to this BAA as an applicant first contact the CRDO POC to discuss eligibility. In areas of mutual interest, alternative funding mechanisms may be pursued independently of this BAA.

Cost Share: Cost sharing is not mandatory for all awards under this BAA. However, CRDO might decide to cover only part of a project’s total costs if the recipient demonstrates sufficient funding to complete the project.

 

KEY DATES 

Informational Webinar: TBD - 10/8 webinar rescheduled due to shutdown

Concept Paper Due Date: Rolling

Full Application Due Date: 9/30/2029

 

RESOURCES 

View the opportunity on grants.gov here. 

View the program website here.

Register for the Webinar here.