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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

US Ignite: The Next Steps

While GENI will continue to provide a national research and education resource for networking scientists and engineers for years to come, NSF intends to further extend its usefulness through the US Ignite Initiative by encouraging the research community to develop novel, public sector applications that take advantage of ultra-fast software-defined networks and which have potential for significant societal impact.

The primary goal of the US Ignite is to break a fundamental deadlock: there is insufficient investment in gigabit applications that can take advantage of advanced network infrastructure because such infrastructure is rare and dispersed. And conversely, there is a lack of broad availability of advanced broadband infrastructure for open experimentation and innovation because there are few advanced applications and services to justify it. US Ignite intends to break this deadlock by providing incentives for imagining, prototyping, and developing public sector gigabit applications and by leveraging and extending this network testbed across US campuses and cities.

At this point in the process, NSF is accepting EAGER proposals or supplemental funding requests that are consistent with the guidance given in this letter and in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf11001/gpg_2.jsp#IID2 and / or the NSF Award & Administration Guide: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf11001/aag_1.jsp#IE4. NSF is currently emphasizing the development of public sector gigabit applications in areas of national priority -- advanced manufacturing, clean energy and transportation, cyber learning, health IT, and public safety/emergency preparedness. The expectation is that within a year or so, these applications could showcase new possibilities for gigabit networks.

Prior to submitting an EAGER proposal or supplemental funding request, however, a two-page summary must be submitted by email to usignite@nsf.gov. The summary should 1) identify which area of national priority the application will contribute to; 2) the scientific and engineering motivation for the proposed effort; 3) the novelty and benefits that might accrue if the application or service were to be deployed; and 4) the members of the team that will work together to show results at some level of scale and within the scope of some set of anchor institutions, campuses and / or cities. EAGER proposals or supplemental funding requests for US Ignite that do not contain the required predated email summary and a response from the NSF US Ignite team will be returned without review.

This US Ignite activity is not a proper venue for proposals for which there are existing programs or mechanisms. In particular, projects that are sufficiently aligned with other existing programs so as to receive an appropriate external review would not be appropriate for this program.

Sincerely,

Farnam Jahanian
Assistant Director
Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering

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