National Science Foundation: Smart and Connected Communities

Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) calls for integrative research and research capacity-building that, when undertaken with meaningful community engagement, will secure far-reaching impacts in physical, geographically-defined communities often consisting of diverse and varied populations. Communities are defined as having geographically-delineated boundaries—such as towns, cities, counties, neighborhoods, community districts, rural areas, and tribal regions—consisting of various populations, with the structure and ability to engage in meaningful ways with the proposed research activities. A “smart and connected community” is a community that synergistically integrates information and communication technologies with the natural and built environments, including infrastructure, to improve the social, economic, and environmental well-being of those who live, work, or travel within it.

A proposal for an S&CC Integrative Research Grant must include the following:

• Integrative research that addresses the technological and social dimensions of smart and connected communities;
• Meaningful community engagement that integrates community stakeholders within the project;
• A management plan that summarizes how the project will be managed across investigators, disciplines, institutions, and community entities; and
• An evaluation plan for assessing short-, medium-, and long-term impacts of the proposed activities.

Amount: A total of $19,500,000 is anticipated to be available for 7-15 awards ranging from $750,000 to $3,000,000 for periods of up to four years.

Eligibility: Universities and colleges; nonprofit, nonacademic organizations; for profit organizations; state and local governments; unaffiliated individuals (e.g. scientists, engineers, or educators in the US and US citizens); and foreign organizations, if there is a cooperative project involving U.S. and foreign organizations, provided support is requested only for the U.S. portion of the collaborative effort.

Link: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf18520

Note: The January 30, 2018 deadline is for the required letter of intent. The full proposal deadline is February 28, 2018.

This post was filed under: