Seed Research Program

CRUSER seeks to shape generations of naval officers through education, research, concept generation, and experimentation in maritime applications of robotics and autonomous systems.

The CRUSER Seed Research Program (SRP) is a critical aspect of how CRUSER achieves this objective. The program provides an environment for students, faculty, and staff to collaborate both internally and externally with the common goal of accelerating the development and fielding of unmanned systems across the Department of the Navy (DON). Furthermore, the SRP functions as an incubator, providing initial support for the NPS community to explore new, relevant concepts with the potential to transition to externally supported NPS research program.

Scope

CRUSER research provides an authentic academic experience for NPS students within the many fields that constitute Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS) science and technology. CRUSER continues to support a wide diversity of research topics, “from technical to ethical, from concept to experiment”.  CRUSER prioritizes support for seed projects that have a clear transition path for follow-on external support, e.g., research grant support, fleet investment, etc.

CRUSER supports both fundamental research (basic and applied), the results of which ordinarily are published and shared broadly within the scientific community,  and development, design, production, and product utilization efforts, the results of which ordinarily are restricted or classified or national security reasons.

2023 Call for Proposals

CRUSER is now accepting research proposals for the 2023 Seed Research Program.  The program provides an environment for students, faculty, and staff to collaborate both internally and externally with the common goal of accelerating the development and fielding of unmanned systems across the Department of the Navy (DON).  Furthermore, the program functions as an incubator, providing initial support for the NPS community to explore new, relevant concepts with the potential to transition to externally supported NPS research program.  

Important: Please review the Call for Proposals document (below) before starting your proposals for 2023.  In addition to defining the 2023 CRUSER research emphasis themes, the document clarifies the CRUSER intent with respect to proposals for follow-on funding and the scope of CRUSER seed research.  

Key dates and information:

• 12 September (1200-1250 PDT): Information Session via ZoomGov at the regularly scheduled CRUSER monthly meeting. Please email cruser@nps.edu for connection details.

• 2 October 2022: Proposals Due, see Call for Proposals document for submission instructions.

• 1 November (Anticipated): Announcement of intention to support 

• 1 January to 31 December, 2023:  Anticipated Period of Performance 

• Maximum Funding Levels:

  • $300,000 for multidisciplinary efforts relevant to the CRUSER Seed Research Themes (see Call for Proposals document for theme descriptions.)

  • $150,000 otherwise.

CRUSER Seed Research Program 2023 Documents:

• Call for Proposals (PDF)
• Terms and Conditions (PDF)
• Quad Chart Template (PPTX)
• Simplified Budget Summary Example (XLSX)

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