Air Force Young Investigator Research Program FY 2021: Basic Research in Science, Engineering
FOA-AFRL-AFOSR-2020-0003
Grants.gov  https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=325614

Program Description: The Air Force YIP supports scientists and engineers who have received Ph.D. or equivalent degrees within the last seven years and show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. The objectives of this program are:

1. to foster creative basic research in science and engineering;
2. enhance early career development of outstanding young investigators;
3. and increase opportunities for the young investigator to recognize the Air Force mission and related challenges in science and engineering.

The Air Force YIP  seeks unclassified proposals from qualified and responsible applicants in the research areas of interest identified in the most recent Broad Agency Announcement titled “Research  Interests of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research” published on Grants.gov at https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=314753  [see below]
Note: The AFOSR Open BAA updates annually in the March/April time frame. Please make sure you are coordinating your topic ideas with the appropriate Program Officer to ensure the topic area is still relevant to the Air Force. YIP proposals may be submitted for only one research portfolio area.  It is important that your proposal shows strength in as many of the evaluation areas as practicable for maximum competitiveness.
Individual awards are made to U.S. institutions of higher education, industrial laboratories, or non-profit research organizations where the principal investigator is employed on a full-time basis and holds a regular position.
YIP primary investigators must be a U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident.

Grants.gov  https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=314753 
AFOSR website https://www.wpafb.af.mil/afrl/afosr/   

ENGINEERING AND COMPLEX SYSTEMS: Dynamic Materials and Interactions; GHz-THz Electronics and Materials;Energy, Combustion and Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics; Unsteady Aerodynamics and Turbulent Flows; High-Speed Aerodynamics;  Low Density Materials; Multi-Scale Structural Mechanics and Prognosis; Space Propulsion and Power; Agile  Science of Test and Evaluation (T&E).
 
INFORMATION AND NETWORKS: Computational Cognition and Machine Intelligence; Computational Mathematics; Dynamics and Control; Dynamic Data Driven Information Processing; Information Assurance and Cybersecurity; Optimization and Discrete Mathematics; Science of Information/Computation/Learning/Fusion; Trust and Influence; Complex Networks; Cognitive and Computational Neurosciences.

PHYSICAL SCIENCES: Aerospace Materials with Extreme Properties; Atomic and Molecular Physics; Electromagnetics; Laser and Optical Physics; Optoelectronics and Photonics; Plasma and Electro-Energetic Physics; Quantum Information Sciences; Remote Sensing; Space Science, Ultrashort Pulse Laser-Matter Interactions.

CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES:  Biophysics; Human Performance and Biosystems; Mechanics of Multifunctional Materials and Microsystems; Molecular Dynamics and Theoretical Chemistry; Natural Materials, Systems, and Extremophiles; Organic Materials Chemistry.