[Corpora-List] ARDA Exploratory Program Call for Workshop Proposals

[David S. Day]

       ARDA Exploratory Program Seeking Workshop Proposals
                   http://rrc.mitre.org/

            [Apologies for duplicate postings.]

The ARDA Exploratory Program (EP) requests Challenge and Seedling
Workshop Proposals to address Challenge Problems for the fiscal year
2006.  The Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) is a US
Government organization whose mission is to sponsor high-risk,
high-payoff research designed to advance basic research, leverage
leading edge technology, and enable supporting data to solve critical
intelligence problems.  The EP encourages novel approaches,
non-traditional government contractors, and new cross-organizational
teams to help solve Challenge Problems using collaborative workshops.

For 2006 the Exploratory Program invites proposals in the following
technical areas:

   Video Analysis
   Advanced Question and Answering
   Advanced Methods and Tools for Intelligence Analysis
   Computational Social Science/Social Informatics
   Advanced Information Assurance
   Next Generation Geospatial Analysis

For more information about these technical areas, please review the
full Call for Proposals, which is available at the Regional Research
Center's web site: http://rrc.mitre.org/cfp06.shtml

"Challenge Problems" have two objectives: (1) to initiate
revolutionary R&D addressing critical Intelligence Community needs
and/or (2) to accelerate critical R&D to real solutions, prototypes or
first proofs-of-principle.  Workshops that address Challenge Problems
may be of two types: Challenge and Seedling (see below).  Workshops
may support existing ARDA programs or explore new areas of research
and possibly result in creation of new ARDA programs.  These workshops
typically consist of eight to twenty or more domain experts,
scientists and technologists, who assemble for multiple meetings to
collaboratively address the identified challenge problem.  Results of
these workshops typically include annotated data, technical papers
describing new approaches, novel algorithms, prototype software,
prototype systems, and definitive roadmaps forward for future
research.

Note: Some problems are not well suited to the teaming Workshop
format.  It is imperative that proposals address technical challenges
whose solutions require a collaborative workshop environment.  It is
also imperative that proposals are cognizant of, and build beyond,
preceding core developments.

Challenge Workshops

Challenge Workshops address (1) revolutionary research critical to the
IC and (2) accelerate development to produce real solutions,
prototypes, first proofs-of-principle and demonstrations.  Challenge
Workshops are 12-18 month ($1M to 1.5M) efforts, and usually support
existing EP efforts.  The objective of these workshops is a tangible
prototype, or first proof-of-principle.  They typically bring together
moderate sized teams to develop, evaluate and integrate new and
complementary approaches toward an ultimate goal of a prototype or
demonstration.  Examples of Challenge workshops are diverse, and
include knowledge management interoperability, analyst tools for text
and video processing, quantum optics and physical devices, and
systems.

Seedling Workshops

Seedling Workshops, by comparison, may explore new areas outside of
the existing ARDA program areas and are funded at the $100K to $500K
level for a 6 - 12 month period.  Seedling Workshops are short term,
novel investigations that might result in future Challenge Workshops
or new ARDA programs.  Like Challenge Workshops, Seedling Workshops
may also result in development to produce real solutions, prototypes,
first proofs-of-principle and demonstrations.

Please visit the ARDA Exploratory Program web site at
http://rrc.mitre.org/ to learn more about the technical areas in which
Workshop proposals are being sought, as well as submission procedures
and schedules, and other related information.

     Schedule for ARDA EP 2006 Call for Workshop Proposals

February, 2005: Call for Challenge/Seedling Workshop proposals issued

   11 March 2005: Written proposals are due -- follow the web-based
                  submission instructions available at
                  http://conferences.mitre.org/rrc2006/

    1 April 2005: Written proposals selected for oral presentation

   14 April 2005: Oral proposals are due -- follow the web-based
                  submission instructions for oral presentations
                  available at http://conferences.mitre.org/rrc2006/

20-21 April 2005: Oral proposals presented (MITRE, McLean, VA)

      1 May 2005: Notification of selected Workshops

        May 2005: Challenge and Seedling Workshop Proposal refinement
                  with Government and RRCs (final tasking, membership,
                  costing)

      1 Oct 2005: Main workshop activities commence

     31 Dec 2006: All workshop activities have completed

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dr. Rich Quadrel
Director, Northwest Regional Research Center (NWRRC)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
P.O. Box 999, MS K7-10
Richland, WA  99352
Email: Rich.Quadrel at pnl.gov
Tel:  509-375-5933

Ms. April Lewis
Deputy Director, Southeast Regional Research Center (SERRC)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ONRL)
1 Bethel Valley Road
P.O. Box 2008
Oak Ridge, TN  37831
Email: lewisaa at ornl.gov
Tel: (865) 576-2045

Dr. Mark Maybury 	
Executive Director, Northeast Regional Research Center (NRRC)		
The MITRE Corporation
Bedford, MA 01730	
Email: maybury at mitre.org 		
Tel: (781) 271-7230
MITRE (www.mitre.org)		

Ms. Penny Chase
Deputy Director, NRRC
The MITRE Corporation
Bedford, MA 01730
Email: pc at mitre.org
Tel: (781) 271-2113

Dr. David Day
Program Manager, NRRC
The MITRE Corporation
Bedford, MA 01730
Email: day at mitre.org
Tel: (781) 271-2854