What the FY2027 request buys
Verbatim from the R-2A exhibit for project PS1 of PE 0601384BP. This is the budget justification's own description of work that has not happened yet — the one thing no other level of the budget carries.
- Continue to identify and characterize innovative materials for next generation protection and detection proof-of-concept for chemical and biological defense. - Continue to employ artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches for material discovery and design parameters to synthesize new materials that destroy chemical and biological threats on contact.
Funds increase to meet the demand to accelerate materials development via both artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) discovery and High Throughput Experimentation.
FY2025–FY2026: what came before
Prior-year accomplishments and current-year plans from the same exhibit. Context for the FY2027 plan, not a series — an activity partitions its project exactly in the request year, but can under-cover it in earlier years.
- Multifunctional Materials – Begin synthesis of membranes with multiple catalytic sites and begin development of composite with mixed selective binding capacity. Characterizing porosity and moisture transport with rejection of simulants. Understanding how molecules bind certain chemicals allows for future development of better protective equipment, that has lower thermal burden and better selective capture of threats. - Design Rules for Materials – Complete feasibility of scaling 2D film deposition methods and operational limits. Complete mechanistic studies to evaluate structural characters and reactivity of fibers with impregnated metal organic framework composites. Investigate potential of spray technology for deposition of graphene fibers. Understanding how to incorporate new decontamination molecules can help in future development of protective equipment, that has lower thermal burden and better selective capture of threats. - Biomimetic – Develop and characterize enzyme functionalized algae based biomotors. Evaluate enzyme loading in conjunction with motor properties. Understanding how enzyme bonding to molecules can help in the future development of decontamination agents that are environmentally friendly and more efficient. - Photocatalysis – Complete characterization of chemical reactivity. Complete studies of simulants and modeling energetic effects. Begin synthesis of plasmonic nanoparticles and characterization of sensor memory units to evaluate limits of detection. Understanding how light can be used to aid in the detection and decontamination of chemicals can reduce energy requirements in future sensors.
- Continued development of Multifunctional Materials for chemical and biological defense to demonstrate surface agnostic coatings with selective moisture vapor transport. - Continued to identify and characterize materials that destroy chemical agent simulants with high throughput assay. - Began testing feasibility of scaling 2D film deposition methods and operational limits. - Began mechanistic studies to evaluate structural characters and reactivity of fibers with impregnated metal organic framework composites. Utilize microscopy to evaluate elasticity of graphene fibers coated onto garment surfaces. - Completed studies of biomimetic materials to establish scalability of protein designs and test membrane-protein against simulants for repellency and moisture vapor transport. - Completed synthesis and characterization of materials that store natural sunlight to destroy chemical agents in the dark. - Investigated artificial intelligence and machine learning computational approaches for material discovery, design, and parameters for catalytic and reactive decomposition of chemical threats. - Began development of visual indicator for blister agents for equipment contamination mapping and decontamination assurance.
Three years, and no five-year plan
An R-2A activity publishes the prior year, the current year and the budget year. The FYDP outyears exist at project and program-element level and are deliberately absent here rather than inferred. Estimate types are colored and never summed into one figure.
| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 16.5 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 10.6 |
| FY2027 | Request | 11.3 |
This activity is 100% of project PS1's FY2027 request and 41% of PE 0601384BP's. In the request year the activities under a project sum to it exactly; in the current year they under-cover it in about 9% of cases, so an activity's delta can legitimately exceed its parent's and the two must not be compared row to row.
1 activity in project PS1
Every R-2A line of this project, largest FY2027 request first. Linked where the activity has enough of its own narrative to carry a page; the rest are shown in full on the project page.