Department of Defense (DoD) Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Applied Research Program | N00014 17 S B011

Opportunity Information: Apply for N00014 17 S B011

The Department of Defense (DoD) Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Applied Research Program is a discretionary, grant-based research and development funding opportunity managed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The program is part of the DoD EOD Science and Technology effort and is aimed at advancing and demonstrating new technologies that improve how the military addresses explosive hazards. In practical terms, the opportunity is looking for technical ideas that can move beyond basic concepts toward applied research, prototyping, and demonstration in realistic operational conditions.

The core focus is the full EOD mission chain, meaning proposals can target any step involved in dealing with explosive threats: detecting and locating hazards, gaining access to them, diagnosing or identifying what the device is, rendering the hazard safe or neutralizing it, and ultimately disposing of it. A notable feature of the program is that it explicitly spans both land and underwater environments, so solutions relevant to maritime operations, littoral zones, ports, rivers, and submerged ordnance fields are within scope alongside traditional terrestrial scenarios.

ONR emphasizes that EOD is a distinct mission set and should not be conflated with other related military roles such as combat engineering activities designed to clear routes for troop movement. Instead, EOD typically involves specialized procedures and decision-making around individual hazards, often requiring precise identification, controlled intervention, and safety-critical neutralization steps. Technologies supported under this program would therefore be expected to improve EOD-specific effectiveness, survivability, standoff, speed, accuracy, decision quality, or operational flexibility, rather than general-purpose mobility or breaching tools.

The opportunity explicitly covers a wide range of explosive hazards, including conventional and unconventional ordnance (foreign and domestic), improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and weapons of mass destruction (WMD)-related threats. The solicitation description includes a definition of IEDs to underline the variety and unpredictability of these devices: an IED is constructed and emplaced in an improvised way and may incorporate destructive, lethal, noxious, pyrotechnic, or incendiary materials to destroy, incapacitate, harass, or distract. While IEDs can include military munitions, they are often built using non-military components, and they can be placed on the surface, above ground, buried, or underwater. This framing signals that the program is interested in technologies that can cope with adaptive adversaries, unconventional designs, and complex emplacement methods across different operating domains.

From an application standpoint, ONR is seeking white papers and full proposals, suggesting an initial concept screening step followed by more complete submissions for selected ideas. Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning there are no applicant-type limits stated in the basic posting (for example, it is not confined only to universities or only to small businesses). The funding activity category is Science and Technology and other Research and Development, and the CFDA listing is 12.300, consistent with DoD R&D assistance. Key administrative details in the source data include the funding opportunity number N00014-17-S-B011, the creation date of 2017-05-12, and an original closing date of 2017-08-18. The public summary does not specify an award ceiling or expected number of awards, indicating those details were either omitted from the abbreviated record or were handled in the full solicitation documents.

Overall, this opportunity is best read as an ONR-led call for applied R&D innovations that strengthen EOD capabilities across the entire lifecycle of explosive hazard response, including difficult underwater and improvised threat scenarios, with an emphasis on technologies that can be demonstrated and transitioned toward operational use.

• The Office of Naval Research in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Department of Defense (DoD) Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Applied Research Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.300.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-05-12.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-08-18. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

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