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Important information about NSF’s implementation of the revised 2 CFR

NSF Financial Assistance awards (grants and cooperative agreements) made on or after October 1, 2024, will be subject to the applicable set of award conditions, dated October 1, 2024, available on the NSF website. These terms and conditions are consistent with the revised guidance specified in the OMB Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance published in the Federal Register on April 22, 2024.

Important information for proposers

All proposals must be submitted in accordance with the requirements specified in this funding opportunity and in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) that is in effect for the relevant due date to which the proposal is being submitted. It is the responsibility of the proposer to ensure that the proposal meets these requirements. Submitting a proposal prior to a specified deadline does not negate this requirement.

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Dear Colleague Letter

NSF Support for DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2) Participants

Dear Colleague:

Wireless systems constitute a major source of productivity for nearly every sector of society and in turn drive the nation's overall economic competitiveness. Given the rapid proliferation of wireless networks and edge devices as well as the growth in wireless applications and services, precious spectrum resources are in ever-greater demand. Because wireless spectrum is finite, this demand cannot be met by simply allocating additional spectrum bands. Instead, spectrum sharing is seen as a viable option to meet the demand for scarce wireless spectrum by identifying unused frequency bands in the spatial and temporal domains. Consequently, over the last five years, the National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) and Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS) programs, has invested extensively in spectrum sharing research.

In March 2016, in response to the challenge described above — the increasing demand for wireless spectrum — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2) that aims to reward teams for developing smart systems that collaboratively, rather than competitively, adapt in real time to today's fast-changing, congested spectrum environment. In particular, SC2 aims to redefine the conventional spectrum management roles of humans and machines in order to maximize the flow of radio frequency (RF) signals. SC2 is structured in three yearlong phases, and is open to anyone. However, only a limited number of SC2 participants will receive support from DARPA for their challenge-related activities.

Through this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), NSF's Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) encourages academic researchers to participate in SC2, and announces its intention to support those researchers to pursue novel strategies in spectrum collaboration as part of SC2. NSF support is restricted to those researchers who are SC2 participants but are not being funded by DARPA for SC2 specifically. SC2 participation requires time and effort to develop, validate, and test novel strategies for wireless spectrum collaboration.

NSF intends to accept proposals from academic researchers actively engaged in SC2 in one of two ways: (i) supplemental funding requests to existing NeTS/EARS awards on wireless spectrum research; or (ii) EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) (see NSF's Grant Proposal Guide (GPG), Chapter II.D.2, for proposal preparation instructions).

Prior to submitting a supplemental funding request or EAGER proposal, a one-page summary of the research to be proposed should be emailed to Thyaga Nandagopal (tnandago@nsf.gov). That summary should include a synopsis of the proposed approach, details of the team's composition, recent research results from the team in spectrum collaboration, and evidence of the team's participation in SC2 (e.g., the team's relative ranking in SC2).

For additional information, please contact Thyaga Nandagopal at tnandago@nsf.gov.

Sincerely,

Jim Kurose
Assistant Director, CISE

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