Last year about this time I wrote a blog post updating you on the Program Office as we reached the middle of summer. It’s time again to report on the two programs as we look forward to FY-2018.

SERDP selections are complete and all the proposers have been notified of our decisions. We have selected forty-two Core projects to start next year pending approval by our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). In addition, we plan to start eighteen SEED and Limited Scope projects in FY-18. We are working out the details of the September and October SAB agendas and hope to have them published this week.

As has been true the past several years, there is some uncertainty about the final SERDP budget for next year so we have, once again, elected to place a number of SERDP proposals on hold. The House just passed the DoD Appropriation and the Senate is expected to act in September so we hope to have our budget settled early in the fiscal year and be in a position to make final decisions on the projects on hold.

We’d all like to thank those that served as peer reviewers and worked on our technical committees throughout the selection process. Even though it takes a lot of their time, the whole scientific enterprise doesn’t work without these efforts and we appreciate their help.

The next item on our collective agendas is the ESTCP selection process. The selection meetings for all five Program Areas are scheduled for the second half of September so we can get the selections in place early in the fiscal year and be ready to start the contracting process when funds are available.

The thing that is different this year from the past several is also the thing we are most excited about – the 2017 SERDP and ESTCP Symposium. As most of you know, we have received approval to host the Symposium in 2017 after a long gap.  The technical sessions are almost complete; we expect to post details on speakers and titles in the next week or so. We hope you are all able to attend this year to help us recapture the energy and excitement of the Symposium.