Newton Award for Transformative Ideas during the COVID-19 Pandemic | BRO 20 NEWTON

Opportunity Information: Apply for BRO 20 NEWTON

The Newton Award for Transformative Ideas during the COVID-19 Pandemic was a one-time Department of Defense (DoD) funding opportunity released by the Basic Research Office to spark bold, theory-driven scientific breakthroughs during a period when many labs and universities were shut down. The program draws inspiration from Isaac Newtons productive year away from Cambridge during the Great Plague of London (1665-1666), using that historical example to encourage researchers to turn pandemic-related isolation and limited lab access into an opportunity for deep, disruptive thinking rather than stalled progress.

At its core, the grant aimed to support "transformative ideas" that could reshape how fundamental scientific problems are understood, especially in ways that could ultimately benefit DoD and the country more broadly. Rather than incremental advances, the DoD was explicitly looking for proposals that introduce new conceptual frameworks, paradigm-shifting directions, or underappreciated fundamental questions that deserve renewed attention. The emphasis was on advancing frontiers and creating new ways of thinking about stubborn or unresolved challenges, with the expectation that successful work would set up future research efforts once normal laboratory operations resumed.

A key defining feature of this opportunity was its constraint on experimental work. Applicants were encouraged to rely on analytical reasoning, mathematical or computational calculations, simulations, and thought experiments. Data generation was permitted, but only if it could be produced without laboratory-based experimentation or specialized instrumentation. In practice, this meant the program favored work that could be executed remotely or independently of physical lab access, such as theoretical modeling, computational exploration, or synthesis of new theory from existing knowledge, while still producing credible and testable scientific predictions.

The award was open to investigators at both public and private institutions of higher education, and it limited teams to either a single investigator or a pair of investigators, reinforcing the idea of focused, high-concept work rather than large consortium projects. The funding mechanism was a grant under the DoDs science and technology and other research and development activity category (CFDA 12.630). The announcement listed an award ceiling of $100,000 and anticipated up to 10 awards, positioning it as a relatively small but high-impact seed investment meant to catalyze ideas rather than fund large experimental programs.

Deliverables and expectations went beyond producing a private report. Award recipients were expected to develop new theoretical or conceptual approaches that generate clear predictions the wider scientific community could test later, once laboratories were fully available again. Recipients were also required to share results openly by submitting pre-publication material to open archives and pursuing open publication in a journal, reflecting a strong push for rapid dissemination and broad community benefit. In addition, winners were expected to brief leadership within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) at the end of the performance period, and they could be asked to organize and lead a Future Directions Workshop related to their findings. The DoD also indicated it would help successful teams identify pathways for follow-on support to continue developing particularly promising transformative ideas.

Administratively, the opportunity was posted under Funding Opportunity Number BRO 20 NEWTON. It was created on April 3, 2020, with an original closing date of May 15, 2020. Overall, the Newton Award was framed as an intentionally unconventional call: a chance to submit daring, nontraditional proposals that prioritize conceptual originality and long-range scientific leverage at a moment when typical lab-centered research was widely disrupted.

• The Department of Defense in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Newton Award for Transformative Ideas during the COVID-19 Pandemic" 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 Apr 03, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 15, 2020. (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 $100,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

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