I've been looking at Small Business Innovation Research grants since my first submission last summer (no joy but a terrific experience), and this one sounds really interesting. It's offered from DHS, and the proposal deadline is Feb 4, 08:
SBIR TOPIC NUMBER: H-SB08.1-003
TITLE: Mapping of Long-term Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Impacts
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information analytics
OBJECTIVE: Develop capabilities to graphically depict the complex, long-term threats to the security of the United States and its vulnerabilities to terrorist incidents or other disasters
DESCRIPTION: The impact of various terrorist actions as well as natural or manmade disasters on the physical, social, behavioral, and economic life of the United States and its citizens is dependent on multiple factors. These include, but are not limited to, the type, severity, and persistence of the terrorist agent or natural catastrophe; the particular vulnerabilities of infrastructures, locations, and populations; the efficacy of response and remediation measures, including such capabilities as communications; and the resilience or strength of the public affected by the incident. At this stage in the development of an effective homeland security policy, information on some of these factors is being collected and analyzed. What is most lacking, however, is a method for integrating and depicting the multivariate nature of threats to the homeland, both the local- and national-level vulnerabilities to multiple threats, and especially the potentially long-term and diverse effects of terrorist incidents or other disasters.
PHASE I: Identify the multiple factors that determine the impact of a terrorist event or natural or manmade disaster on a local, national, or international scale and over the short, medium, or long term.
PHASE II: Develop mathematical methods for systematically analyzing threats and vulnerabilities and their resulting effects and impacts.
PHASE III - COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: Develop and demonstrate visually appealing and informative (for decision-making) techniques that depict the complex, multivariate nature of threats to homeland security. The work is expected to transition into current CID activities in the Visual Analytics and Physics-based Simulation Program.
KEYWORDS: Visual analytics, terrorist threats, disaster, geographical information systems, vulnerabilities, critical infrastructure
REFERENCES: The National Visualization and Analytics Center (www.nvac.pnl.gov); the Dynamic Data Analysis Center (www.dydan.rutgers.edu); the Northeast Visualization and Analytics Center (www.geovista.psu.edu/NEVAC/)
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Talk about an ambitious project. I'm surprised that it's been offered via SBIR, which excludes all of the usual suspects (the big DOD contractors) from participating. I think that this might be the implementation of DHS' announcement last August to channel money away from the Prime contractors to smaller companies.
