Smart and Connected Communities | 19 564

Opportunity Information: Apply for 19 564

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Smart and Connected Communities (SCC) grant opportunity supports research that helps communities use intelligent technologies in ways that measurably improve everyday life. The program is built around the idea that places like towns, cities, counties, neighborhoods, rural regions, and tribal areas are being reshaped by fast-moving digital and intelligent systems. While these technologies can expand prosperity and wellbeing, they also create real challenges where technology, people, institutions, infrastructure, and the environment intersect. NSF is looking for projects that strengthen the underlying scientific and engineering foundations needed to make these "smart and connected" transformations work in practice, with outcomes tied to economic opportunity, safety and security, health and wellness, and overall quality of life.

In this solicitation, a "community" is not a vague population group; it is a geographically defined place with clear boundaries and the ability to participate meaningfully in research activities. A "smart and connected community" is described as one that integrates intelligent technologies with both the built environment (such as infrastructure and public systems) and the natural environment to improve social, economic, and environmental wellbeing for people who live, work, or travel there. A central feature of the program is community-engaged research: NSF expects researchers to collaborate with residents and local stakeholders to identify pressing local challenges, then use those challenges to shape practical, use-inspired research questions. The intent is not technology for its own sake, but integrative work where technical innovation and social or behavioral understanding are developed together and tested through real-world pilots in partnership with the community.

NSF emphasizes integrative research that combines technological advances with social science perspectives, reflecting the reality that successful community-scale systems depend on governance, human behavior, equity, policy, ethics, education, and institutional capacity as much as they depend on algorithms, sensors, networking, and infrastructure. Another major priority is what happens after the grant ends. Proposals are expected to consider sustainability beyond the project period, including whether solutions can scale to larger contexts, transfer to other communities, and remain viable over time in terms of maintenance, adoption, and community ownership.

The opportunity funds two main types of awards. First are Smart and Connected Communities Integrative Research Grants (SCC-IRGs), which support the core research and piloting work. SCC-IRGs come in two budget tracks: Track 1 is for larger projects with budgets greater than $1.5 million, with no recommended upper budget limit, and allows up to four years of support. Track 2 is for projects with total budgets up to $1.5 million and provides up to three years of support. Both tracks are intended for fundamental, integrative research that jointly addresses technology and social dimensions while piloting solutions with communities. Second are Smart and Connected Communities Planning Grants (SCC-PGs), which are smaller, one-year awards designed for capacity building and team formation to help applicants develop strong future SCC-IRG proposals. Planning grants can request up to $150,000 total and are meant to support activities like partnership development, refining research directions with community input, and preparing a well-developed integrative project plan.

Administratively, this is a discretionary grant program run by NSF and structured as a cross-directorate effort, supported by multiple NSF directorates: Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE). That multi-directorate backing signals that proposals are expected to cross disciplinary lines and connect computing and engineering with education, human systems, and societal impacts. The listing indicates the opportunity is broadly open in terms of eligible applicants (unrestricted, subject to any eligibility clarifications in the full solicitation). The original posting was created March 6, 2019, with an original closing date of September 6, 2019, and the program anticipated making around 45 awards. The award ceiling is listed as $0, which typically means NSF does not specify a fixed maximum award size in the public listing (especially relevant for Track 1, which has no recommended upper limit).

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Smart and Connected Communities" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.070, 47.075, 47.076.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 06, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 06, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 45 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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