Combat Capabilities Develoment Command (CCDC) Data and Analysis Center (DAC) | W911NF 17 S 0003 SPECIAL NOTICE CCDC DAC

Opportunity Information: Apply for W911NF 17 S 0003 SPECIAL NOTICE CCDC DAC

The Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Data and Analysis Center (DAC) opportunity is a U.S. Army research solicitation released as a special notice under the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) W911NF-17-S-0003. Rather than being a standalone call, it functions as an add-on announcement that directs interested teams to submit white papers following instructions in the attached Special Notice. The focus is applied research, especially Human Systems Integration (HSI) and human factors work that can strengthen Army Maneuver Support and Protection missions. In practical terms, the Army is looking for research that improves how Soldiers and teams perform in demanding environments by reducing unnecessary physical and cognitive burden, improving situational awareness, and increasing readiness, without venturing into medical research.

A central theme of the solicitation is optimizing the combined performance of Soldiers, their equipment, and their systems. The government highlights non-medical approaches to lowering workload and fatigue, methods that better match equipment design to human capabilities and limitations, and tools that help decision-making and performance under real operational constraints. That includes research on the tradeoffs that show up in real platforms and formations, such as balancing physical space versus system weight, crew size versus workload, and capability versus complexity. The intent is to increase lethality, survivability, and overall effectiveness by treating the human operator and the technology as an integrated system, not separate pieces.

Research concepts are expected to support enabling capabilities described in an Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence document for FY2021, and the notice lays out five major functional areas of interest. The first is "Preserve Essential and Critical Capabilities," which is about layered, all-domain protection of critical capabilities, assets, and activities, including cognitive and virtual dimensions. Within that, the Army specifically calls out contamination mitigation (CONMIT), protection of critical assets and infrastructure, and command and control (C2). Proposals aligned to this area could address how people, procedures, and decision aids work together during protection operations, especially where time pressure, uncertainty, and complex system interfaces drive errors or delays.

The second area, "Deny Enemy Freedom of Action," emphasizes proactive protection integrated with targeting and all-domain C2 to counter a range of threats, including weapons of mass effect/destruction, mobility and obstacle threats, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and swarms, and enemy observation and sensors. The listed subtopics are counter observation and sensing, counter mobility, and convergence. In this lane, HSI-relevant work might involve how operators detect, interpret, prioritize, and respond to sensor inputs; how they coordinate across echelons and domains; and how decision support tools can reduce cognitive overload while improving the speed and quality of counter-actions.

The third area, "Enable Persistent Access," focuses on establishing and maintaining bases and support areas and keeping mobility and movement corridors open to reach decisive spaces. The Army names security and mobility, protected corridors, and countering obstacles and hazards as specific research areas. This is essentially about sustained access under threat, where the human element includes planning, route and corridor management, and safe execution in environments with hazards, adversary interference, and limited visibility. Research could include better interfaces for route clearance operations, improved team coordination aids, and concepts that reduce the time and manpower required to keep corridors open.

The fourth area, "Understand the Operational Environment (OE)," targets sensing and characterization of threats and terrain, including geospatial data collection and mapping across surface, subsurface, and interior spaces. The Army also highlights terrain and infrastructure assessment and mobility assessment, with specific interests in critical capability assessment, CBRN reconnaissance and surveillance (RampS), and forensics and biometrics. The human-centered angle here often involves how collected data is presented and fused, how analysts and operators maintain trust in outputs, and how workflows and tools can speed accurate interpretation when working with large volumes of geospatial and sensor information.

The fifth area is "Robotic/Autonomous Systems and Artificial Intelligence (RAS/AI)," framed as an enabling layer that should support the previous four capability areas. Example applications include robotics used for standoff bridging, obstacle removal, explosive ordnance disposal, 3D topography generation, disrupting enemy movement, and autonomous decontamination. On the AI side, the notice mentions remote obstacle detection and removal and decision support tools tied to protection and contamination mitigation. The common thread is that autonomy and AI should be practical, mission-driven, and integrated with how Soldiers actually operate, including human-machine teaming, supervision, workload management, and safe, understandable system behavior.

Administratively, this is a discretionary Department of Defense funding opportunity managed under the Department of the Army, Materiel Command. The opportunity lists multiple potential award instruments (including grants, cooperative agreements, procurement contracts, and "other"), signaling that the government may choose the contracting vehicle based on the nature of the work and the proposer. The opportunity references an award ceiling of $500,000 and an anticipated number of awards of around 20, indicating an intent to fund multiple efforts, likely at modest applied-research scale. Eligibility is described broadly as "Others" with additional clarification expected in the full notice. The key action item for interested applicants is to follow the Special Notice instructions for white paper submission under the ARL BAA, since that is the gateway into further consideration.

The technical point of contact is Mr. Robert Clark, reachable at dacwhitepapers@leonardwoodinstitute.org, and the original white paper closing date shown in the listing is December 21, 2020.

• The Department of Defense, Dept of the Army -- Materiel Command in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Combat Capabilities Develoment Command (CCDC) Data and Analysis Center (DAC)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.431.
• This funding opportunity was created on Nov 25, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 21, 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 $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 20 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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