Communities in the US and around the world are entering a new era of transformation in which residents and their surrounding environments are increasingly connected through rapidly-changing intelligent technologies. Concurrently, communities are unique and constantly evolving. Shifts in population size, demographics, economic opportunity, technology, built and natural environments, and available services all impact overall community culture, needs, and opportunities. A fundamental understanding of the complex, dynamic interactions between technology and society is essential for unlocking the potential benefits of smart and connected communities.
The goal of this solicitation is to accelerate the creation of the scientific and engineering foundations that will enable smart and connected communities to bring about new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, and overall quality of life.
For the purposes of this solicitation, 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 proposed research activities. A smart and connected community” is, in turn, defined as a community that synergistically integrates intelligent 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.
The S&CC program encourages researchers to work with community stakeholders to identify and define challenges they are facing, enabling those challenges to motivate use-inspired research questions. For this solicitation, community stakeholders may include some or all of the following: residents, neighborhood or community groups, nonprofit or philanthropic organizations, businesses; as well as municipal organizations such as libraries, museums, educational institutions, public works departments, and health and social services agencies.
The specific objectives of this solicitation are to:
- enhance scientific and engineering knowledge that integrates technological and social science dimensions through modeling, analysis, design, and in-situ experimentation in ways that improve the quality of life within communities;
- foster the development of a multidisciplinary and diverse research community that encompasses and integrates the perspectives of scientific areas supported by, but not limited to, participating NSF directorates;
- integrate community stakeholders into smart and connected community projects in order to co-create and pilot solutions that are directly informed by the needs, challenges, and opportunities of present and future communities; and
- conduct robust evaluation of project outcomes.
This S&CC solicitation will support research projects in the following categories:
S&CC Integrative Research Grants (SCC-IRGs) Tracks 1 and 2.
These awards will support integrative research that addresses fundamental technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Importantly, the program is interested in projects that consider the sustainability of the research outcomes beyond the life of the project, including the scalability and transferability of the proposed solutions. This includes, for example, projects that consider pursuing collaborations that link research outcomes to planned efforts within the community, identify joint investment models for implementing innovative research solutions, or consider how research will be transitioned to full-scale implementation, if successful.
S&CC Planning Grants (SCC-PGs)
Proposals are sought to establish a S&CC Virtual Organization (S&CC-VO). S&CC-VO proposals should describe innovative and effective strategies and mechanisms to: (i) facilitate and foster interaction and exchanges among S&CC PIs and their teams, including community partners; (ii) enable sharing of artifacts and knowledge generated by S&CC projects with the broader scientific and non-academic communities (e.g., local community stakeholders as described in this solicitation); and (iii) facilitate and foster collaboration and information exchange between S&CC researchers, community stakeholders, and others.
S&CC is a cross-directorate program supported by Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (Division of Computer and Network Systems Division of Information and Intelligent Systems) Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Directorate for Engineering (Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation), and Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences Division of Social and Economic Sciences)
Proposers are strongly encouraged to focus their multi-disciplinary S&CC research on areas of interest to those divisions and directorates participating in the program, as listed above.
Previously funded projects under this program can be seen at https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/advancedSearchResult?ProgEleCode=033Y&BooleanElement=Any&BooleanRef=Any&ActiveAwards=true&#results.
The five below components are required for IRG proposals, and the first two components are required for PG proposals.