Image Credit: Douglas Pancoast & Satya Mark Basu, School of the Art Institute of Chicago/Array of Things
NSF's Smart & Connected Communities Effort
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has long been a leader in advancing the fundamental science and engineering research and education that will revolutionize our Nation's cities and communities for the 21st century. NSF investments create the scientific and engineering foundations for smart cities and communities and help to enhance economic vitality, safety, security, health and wellbeing, and overall quality of life.
A number of NSF solicitations support research in this important area. The flagship Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC) program was launched in 2016 to support iterative research advances in technological and social dimensions at colleges and universities across the U.S. with meaningful community engagement. For fiscal years (FY) 2017 and 2018, the S&CC program invested $42 million to support 52 projects. Learn more about the program:
S&CC Overview Video (05:46)
S&CC Overview Video (04:21)
NSF Funding Opportunities
- Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC)
- Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)
- Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR)
- Smart and Connected Health (SCH)
- AI Institutes
- Partnerships for Innovation (PFI)
Recent Awards
- Dear Colleague Letter (19-077) with the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) supporting collaborative research opportunities in Smart and Connected Communities.
- MetroLab (1931690) cooperative agreement to organize programming and capacity-building for Civic Innovation Challenge teams.
- MetroLab EAGER (1833054) cooperative agreement to fund an Ideas Competition and Festival. Seventy civic leaders, academics, and state and local government representatives who developed the leading submissions for the Ideas Competition were invited to participate in the Ideas Festival. The Civic Innovation Challenge is based on the ideas and discussions at the Ideas Festival.
- Dear Colleague Letter (19-051) with U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA/NIFA) supporting research at the intersection of agricultural science, big data, informatics, and smart communities.
- Dear Colleague Letter (19-026) supporting transition to practice supplemental funding requests in the NSF Cyber-Physical Systems and Smart and Connected Communities Programs.
- S&CC Program FY 2018 Awards
- S&CC Program FY 2017 Awards
- S&CC Awards (NSF-16-14) and Dear Colleague Letter (16-140) on opportunities for research in Smart and Connected Communities.
- US Ignite (16-553) Smart Gigabit Communities
NSF-Sponsored Workshops
- 2019 CPS Annual PI Meeting. Arlington, VA. November 2019.
- 2019 S&CC Annual PI Meeting. Denver, CO. April 2019.
- 2018 S&CC Aspiring PI Workshop. Kansas City, MO. September 2018.
- NSF-Sponsored Workshop on Effective Community-University-Industry Collaboration Models for Smart and Connected Communities Research. Arlington, VA. December 2017.
- 2017 National Workshop on Developing a Research Agenda for Connected Rural Communities (CRC17). Charlottesville, VA. September 2017.
- NSF Visioning Workshop: Towards Effective Community-University-Industry Collaboration Models. Boston, MA. July 2017.
- Smart and Connected Communities Researchers' Summit: Connecting Science and Communities. Austin, TX. June 2017.
- US-India Smart & Connected Communities Workshop. Delhi, India. June 2016.
- Smart and Connected Communities for Learning: A Cyberlearning Innovation Lab. Menlo Park, CA. May 2016. Blog Post
- NSF West Coast S&CC Visioning Workshop. Seattle, WA. January 2016.
- NSF East Coast S&CC Visioning Workshop. Arlington, VA. December 2015.
NSF News
- Press Release 19-021: NSF leads federal partners in accelerating the development of transformational, AI-powered innovation - New funding opportunity anticipates $200 million in long-term investments in AI research and education over the next 6 years.
- Press Release 18-091: NSF announces $24.2 million to support research fueling smart cities and communities - Smart and Connected Communities program supports researchers collaborating with local communities; NSF-WINS Challenge winners apply innovative wireless internet technologies to connect the unconnected.
- Press Release 18-025: Powering advances in wireless connectivity for the future - NSF joins leading networking companies and associations to support wireless research platforms in Salt Lake City and New York City.
- Press Release 17-102: NSF announces $19.5M in awards to support fundamental research to advance the nation's local cities and communities - First-ever awards through Smart & Connected Communities program seek to address transportation, infrastructure, health and other rural and urban challenges.
- Press Release 17-055: NSF-funded researchers demonstrate advanced network applications at 2017 Smart Cities Connect Conference & Expo. NSF connects research with local communities, builds a foundation for smart and connected communities.
- Press Release 16-113: NSF commits more than $60 million to Smart Cities Initiative - Agency-wide effort to further science, engineering and education will address challenges in cities and communities nationwide.
- Press Release 15-107: Gigabit application prototypes to help cities and communities serve citizens better - NSF awards nearly $12 million to expand innovation ecosystem for next-generation Internet applications.
- Press Release 15-106: NSF invests $10 million in smart, human-centered service systems - Awards to spur innovation for smart health, manufacturing, and infrastructure.
- Press Release 15-105: Laying the foundation for smart and connected cities and communities - NSF issues 12 new awards in support of the Global City Teams Challenge.
- Press Release 15-104: NSF supports urban-scale instrument to measure city's fitness - $3 million grant to the University of Chicago will prototype smart city technology.
- Press Release 15-103: Cultivating smart and connected communities - NSF exhibits commitments in support of White House Smart Cities Initiative.