NSF 25-539: Verticals-enabling Intelligent Network Systems (VINES)

Program Solicitation
NSF 25-539

		U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering      Division of Computer and Network Systems Directorate for Engineering Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships
		Department of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate
		Ericsson Inc.
		Innovation Funding Agency Business Finland
		Intel Corporation
		Japan Science and Technology Agency
		Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, India
		National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan
		National Institute of Standards and Technology
		Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering
		Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
		Research Council of Finland
		Swedish Research Council

Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitting organization's local time):

August 25, 2025

Track 1

September 25, 2025

Track 2 (Submission of a Concept Outline by August 25th is required. See full text for additional information)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND REVISION NOTES

A Concept Outline (CO) is required for Track 2 only. PIs interested in responding to Track 2 of this solicitation must submit a Concept Outline to vines-track2@nsf.gov by August 25, 2025 prior to submission of a proposal to aid in determining the appropriateness of the scope and work for consideration under this opportunity.

Any proposal submitted in response to this solicitation should be submitted in accordance with the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) that is in effect for the relevant due date to which the proposal is being submitted. The NSF PAPPG is regularly revised and it is the responsibility of the proposer to ensure that the proposal meets the requirements specified in this solicitation and the applicable version of the PAPPG. Submitting a proposal prior to a specified deadline does not negate this requirement.

SUMMARY OF PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

General Information

Program Title:

Verticals-enabling Intelligent Network Systems (VINES)

Synopsis of Program:

The VINES program seeks to support both fundamental research and verticals-driven technology development, demonstration, and translation activities that will lead to leaps in performance and capabilities of next generation (NextG) advanced intelligent network systems that span the user-edge-core-cloud continuum. The program seeks to go beyond the current research portfolios within individual participating NSF directorates and partner organizations by simultaneously emphasizing gains in performance and capabilities without compromising resilience and interoperability across all layers of the networking protocol and computation stacks. Innovations are sought across the various aspects of next generation communications, networking, and computing systems.

This program is a multisector effort led by the National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with several industry and international agency partners, and in cooperation with other U.S. Federal agencies. It recognizes the importance of advanced telecommunications as a key technology area. The program seeks to enhance U.S. competitiveness in advanced telecommunications technologies to establish itself as a global leader in both NextG wireless telecommunications and emerging potential NextG vertical industries, as well as address the need for skilled workforce and expertise in these technology areas. VINES expects to increase investments in foundational technology innovations and their translation while leveraging international eco-system partners to drive the principles of open and trustworthy networks. It seeks to fund collaborative research that transcends the traditional boundaries of individual disciplines or geographic boundaries to achieve the program goals.

This program is organized into two Tracks:

• Track 1 (Use-inspired Fundamental Research) will support activities focused on use-inspired fundamental research to develop novel networking techniques and solutions.
• Track 2 (Verticals-Driven Technology Development, Demonstration, and Translation) will support activities focused on technology development, maturation, demonstration, integration, and translation of solutions with higher technology readiness levels (TRLs), with the goal of producing adoption-ready technologies. Industry contributions will not be used to fund Track 2.

Companies specifically listed in this solicitation have committed to providing annual unrestricted donations to NSF for the purpose of funding proposals in Track 1. The reference to "industry partners" in this document refers specifically to Ericsson, Intel, and Qualcomm in their role as funding partners in this solicitation. The donations from these partners have been agreed upon based on a shared belief in the importance of advancing use-inspired fundamental research, education, and workforce development goals identified in Track 1.

In the spirit of a whole-of-government approach, the collaborating U.S. Federal agencies listed on this solicitation, NIST, OUSD (R&E), and DHS, referred to as "Federal partners," have participated in the development of this solicitation. NIST, OUSD (R&E), and DHS intend to consider co-funding proposals subject to availability of funds. Proposals will be recommended for funding in accordance with the NSF Selection Process described below. The collaborating U.S. agencies may consider funding or co-funding of proposals from either track in this solicitation. Any funds transferred from these partners to NSF will be combined with NSF and other partner funds where applicable to make awards under this program. These awards are made and managed at NSF.

As the NextG networks eco-system is global, this program also partners with international agencies to advance research and accelerate technology translation in the spirit of principles and values outlined in the February 26, 2024, "Joint Statement Endorsing Principles for 6G: Secure, Open, and Resilient by Design." International funding agencies listed in this solicitation, referred to as "international partners," from Finland, India, Japan, and Sweden have participated in the development of this solicitation. This program seeks proposals formed entirely by U.S. funded teams, as well as international collaborative proposals formed by U.S. and international partner funded teams. Personnel requesting funding from international partners on international collaborative proposals are referred to as foreign collaborators. For international collaborative proposals, this program supports bi-lateral international projects with the U.S., i.e., projects seeking funding from the U.S. in partnership with only one of the participating international partners. Proposals will be recommended for funding in accordance with the NSF Selection Process described below. International collaborative proposals are expected to have the international team funded by the respective international partner.

SELECTED LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AI - Artificial Intelligence

AR - Augmented Reality

Gbps - Giga-bits per second

ISAC - Integrated Sensing and Communications

IoT - Internet of Things

MHz - Mega Hertz

MIMO - Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output ms Millisecond

NextG - Next Generation

PAPPG - Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide

PAWR - Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research

RF - Radio Frequency

RV - Research Vector

THz - Tera Hertz

TRL - Technology Readiness Level

UAV - Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles

VR - Virtual Reality

XR - Extended Reality

BROADENING PARTICIPATION IN STEM

NSF has a mandate to broaden participation in science and engineering, as articulated and reaffirmed in law since 1950. Congress has charged NSF to "develop intellectual capital, both people and ideas, with particular emphasis on groups and regions that traditionally have not participated fully in science, mathematics, and engineering."

Cognizant Program Officer(s):

Please note that the following information is current at the time of publishing. See program website for any updates to the points of contact.

• Alhussein A. Abouzeid, telephone: (703) 292-7855, email: aabouzei@nsf.gov
• Sudharman Jayaweera Kankanamge, telephone: (703) 292-2828, email: sjayawee@nsf.gov
• John M. Chapin, telephone: (703) 292-8222, email: jchapin@nsf.gov
• Huaiyu Dai, telephone: (703) 292-4568, email: hdai@nsf.gov
• Hang Liu, telephone: (703) 292-5139, email: haliu@nsf.gov
• Jenshan Lin, telephone: (703) 292-7360, email: jenlin@nsf.gov
• Abraham Matta, telephone: (703) 292-4624, email: amatta@nsf.gov
• Daniela A. Oliveira, telephone: (703) 292-4352, email: doliveir@nsf.gov
• Phillip A. Regalia, telephone: (703) 292-2981, email: pregalia@nsf.gov
• Xiaogang Wang, telephone: (703) 292-2812, email: xiawang@nsf.gov

Applicable Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s):

• 47.041 --- Engineering
• 47.049 --- Mathematical and Physical Sciences
• 47.070 --- Computer and Information Science and Engineering
• 47.084 --- NSF Technology, Innovation and Partnerships
• 97.108 --- Department of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate

Award Information

Anticipated Type of Award:Standard Grant or Continuing Grant or Cooperative Agreement

Estimated Number of Awards: 28 to 40

Track 1: Approximately 20 - 30 awards are anticipated, with each award up to $1,500,000 total and up to 3 years in duration, subject to the availability of funds and the quality of proposals received. For international collaborative proposals, the budget for the U.S. team is up to $750,000, with the expectation that the international partner agency will provide matching funds for the international team for a complementary collaborative effort commensurate with the scope of the project.

Track 2: Approximately 8 - 10 awards are anticipated, with each award up to $6,000,000 total for up to 3 years in duration, subject to the availability of funds and the quality of proposals received. For international collaborative proposals, the budget for the U.S. team can range between $2 million to $4 million, with the expectation that the international partner agency will provide funds for the international team for a complementary collaborative effort commensurate with the scope of the project. The total combined budget must not exceed $6 million.

Anticipated Funding Amount:

Track 1: Up to $1,500,000 total per award

Track 2: Up to $6,000,000 per award

Total Funding:

U.S. Teams for Track 1: $33,000,000

U.S. Teams for Track 2: $33,000,000

Eligibility Information

Who May Submit Proposals:

Proposals may only be submitted by the following:

• Proposals for Track 1 may only be submitted by the following:
  • Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) - Two- and four-year IHEs (including community colleges) accredited in, and having a campus located in the U.S., acting on behalf of their faculty members.
  • Non-profit, non-academic organizations: Independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies and similar organizations located in the U.S. that are directly associated with educational or research activities.

Proposals for Track 2 may only be submitted by the following:

• Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) - Two- and four-year IHEs (including community colleges) accredited in, and having a campus located in the U.S., acting on behalf of their faculty members.
• Non-profit, non-academic organizations: Independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies and similar organizations located in the U.S. that are directly associated with educational or research activities.
• For-profit organizations: U.S.-based commercial organizations, including small businesses, with strong capabilities in scientific or engineering research or education.
• State and Local Governments: State educational offices or organizations and local school districts.
• Tribal Nations: An American Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, or community that the Secretary of the Interior acknowledges as a federally recognized tribe pursuant to the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994, 25 U.S.C. §§ 5130-5131.

Who May Serve as PI:

Track 1:

At the time of submission, any PI, co-PI, or other senior/key project personnel must hold either:

• a tenured or tenure-track position, or
• a primary, full-time, paid appointment in a research or teaching position

at a U.S.-based campus of an organization eligible to submit to this solicitation (see above), with exceptions granted for family or medical leave, as determined by the submitting organization. Individuals with primary appointments at for-profit non-academic organizations or at overseas branch campuses of U.S. IHEs are not eligible.

Researchers from foreign academic institutions who contribute essential expertise to the project may participate as senior/key personnel or collaborators but may not receive NSF support.

Track 2:

• Individuals with primary appointments at overseas branch campuses of U.S. IHEs are not eligible.
• There are no other restrictions except those identified in PAPPG Chapter 1.E.3

Guidelines for the Participation of Industry Partners and Affiliated Individuals in Proposals

Guidelines for Industry Partners:

An industry partner is permitted to participate in proposals to Track 2.

An industry partner is not, however, permitted to participate in proposals to Track 1. The company may not participate in such proposals in any way as a collaborator, whether funded or unfunded. For example, the company may not submit a letter of collaboration as part of any Track 1 proposal.

Guidelines for Individuals Affiliated with Industry Partners:

Track 1: Individuals affiliated with an industry partner may participate in proposals to the program subject to certain limitations and allowances. These limitations and allowances apply to individuals who are currently employed by, consulting for, or on an active agreement to provide services for the company. Specifically:

• Such individuals may not participate in their capacity with the industry partner.
• Such individuals may participate if they (i) hold a primary appointment at another organization not partnered on the program (e.g., a primary academic appointment at an institution of higher education), as applicable to and defined by that organization, and (ii) do so strictly in their capacity at that other organization.

Track 2: There are no restrictions.

Proposals that violate the above restrictions will be returned without review.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization:

There are no restrictions or limits.

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: 4

Track 1:

• An individual may be listed as PI, co-PI, and/or Senior/Key Personnel on no more than two Track 1 U.S.-only proposals (i.e. proposals that do not have an international collaboration) submitted in response to this solicitation. In the event that an individual exceeds this limit, only the first two proposals received will be accepted, and the remainder will be returned without review.
• In addition, an individual may be listed as PI, co-PI, and/or Senior/Key Personnel on no more than one Track 1 international collaborative proposal (i.e. a proposal that includes international collaboration) submitted in response to this solicitation. In the event that an individual exceeds this limit, only the first proposal received will be accepted, and the remainder will be returned without review.

Track 2:

• An individual may serve as PI or co-PI on only one Track 2 proposal in this competition, but may serve as Senior/Key Personnel or Other Personnel on any number of Track 2 proposals in this competition. In the event that an individual exceeds the PI/co-PI limit, only the first proposal received for this track will be accepted, and the remainder will be returned without review.
• In determining the PI, co-PI and Senior/Key Personnel limits for U.S. investigators for Track 2, teams with and without foreign collaborators are treated together. Specifically, a U.S. investigator can be the PI or co-PI in only one Track 2 proposal regardless of whether the proposals include foreign collaborations.

For international collaborative proposals, foreign collaborators should not be listed on the NSF proposal coversheet and are not considered NSF Senior/Key Personnel (see detailed proposal preparation instructions). Foreign collaborators should follow the investigator limit guidelines provided by the respective international partner agency from which the foreign collaborators will be seeking funding.

Proposal Preparation and Submission Instructions

A. Proposal Preparation Instructions

• Letters of Intent: Not required
• Preliminary Proposal Submission: Not required
• Full Proposals:
  • Full Proposals submitted via Research.gov: NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) guidelines apply. The complete text of the PAPPG is available electronically on the NSF website at: ;https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=pappg.
  • Full Proposals submitted via Grants.gov: NSF Grants.gov Application Guide: A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of NSF Applications via Grants.gov guidelines apply (Note: The NSF Grants.gov Application Guide is available on the Grants.gov website and on the NSF website at: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=grantsgovguide).

B. Budgetary Information

• Cost Sharing Requirements:

  Inclusion of voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited.

• Indirect Cost (F&A) Limitations:

  Not Applicable

• Other Budgetary Limitations:

  Not Applicable

C. Due Dates

• Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitting organization's local time):

  August 25, 2025

  Track 1

  September 25, 2025

  Track 2 (Submission of a Concept Outline by August 25th is required. See full text for additional information)

Proposal Review Information Criteria

Merit Review Criteria:

National Science Board approved criteria. Additional merit review criteria apply. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

Award Administration Information

Award Conditions:

Additional award conditions apply. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

Reporting Requirements:

Additional reporting requirements apply. Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Summary of Program Requirements

1. Introduction
2. Program Description
3. Award Information
4. Eligibility Information
5. Proposal Preparation and Submission Instructions
   1. Proposal Preparation Instructions
   2. Budgetary Information
   3. Due Dates
   4. Research.gov/Grants.gov Requirements
6. NSF Proposal Processing and Review Procedures
   1. Merit Review Principles and Criteria
   2. Review and Selection Process
7. Award Administration Information
   1. Notification of the Award
   2. Award Conditions
   3. Reporting Requirements
8. Agency Contacts
9. Other Information

I. INTRODUCTION

Telecommunications networks have undergone significant evolution over the past two decades, driven by advances in technology, increasing data demands, new vertical application industries and the need for reliable and ubiquitous connectivity. Today's networks have permeated nearly every aspect of modern life, serving as the backbone for communication, commerce, and entertainment. The widespread availability of high-speed internet, mobile connectivity, and cloud-based services has fundamentally transformed many aspects of our lives, including how we work, play, socialize, and access information. In professional settings, networks enable remote work, virtual meetings, and real-time collaboration across global teams. Networks also play a crucial role in education and training, with e-learning platforms, virtual classrooms, and online resources making education accessible to more people than ever before. In healthcare, networks enable telemedicine, remote training & monitoring, and may provide greater access to care, especially in rural or underserved areas. Beyond these domains, networks support entertainment through streaming services, social media, and gaming. The growing Internet of Things (IoT) connects everyday devices like smart home systems, wearables, and vehicles, enhancing convenience and efficiency in daily life. As we move further into the digital age, mobile wireless networks have become indispensable to the functioning of our economies, our societies, and our personal lives, impacting everything from financial transactions to public safety systems.

Despite the tremendous growth and impact of communication networks over the last two decades, many envisioned advanced network capabilities and features still remain beyond reach. The next generation (NextG) of advanced intelligent network systems is expected to support a wide range of future use cases including smart cities, autonomous networked systems (e.g., autonomous driving), smart agriculture, tele-medicine, disaster response, and industrial automation. Envisioned groundbreaking applications include, for example, holographic communication and immersive networked virtual environments, with a focus on interactive real-time and seamless connectivity. NextG network systems are expected to achieve leaps in capabilities, while improving network performance, efficiency, resilience, and availability, and address emerging challenges in spectrum sharing and coexistence, data privacy, and security.

NextG network systems will leverage various technological advances in all relevant disciplines to advance the performance and capabilities of network systems. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), jointly referred to as AI in this document, will be deeply embedded in NextG networks, potentially transforming how they are designed, managed, and utilized. In turn, NextG networks may impact the advancement of AI. NextG will advance spectrum sharing-native technologies to achieve reliable access to spectrum while maintaining quality of service (QoS) across different applications and uses, such as critical communications and low-latency services, to maximize the use of available spectrum. NextG network systems are expected to be energy efficient, which is a particularly challenging goal given the growing number of devices, demand for sophisticated services requiring ultra-low latency, and the utilization of computationally demanding algorithms that power AI. NextG networks are expected to utilize integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) technologies, offering a potentially major technological shift in network design and management, enhancing performance and capabilities, while enabling advanced applications. NextG networks' provision of such new performance capabilities and services cannot be done at the expense of security, reliability and trustworthiness. It is crucial for NextG network systems to maintain high levels of resiliency, reliability, and availability at scale, regardless of their complexity, with strong expectations for privacy, performance, and service assurance. The VINES program aims to speed up the rate of innovations in NextG networks towards open, global, interoperable, reliable, resilient, secure, and privacy-preserving networks.

This program also invites collaborative proposals from countries whose agencies have partnered with NSF to support international collaborative research. Interested proposers from international partner countries are expected to form joint project teams with collaborating institutions from the U.S.

II. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

NextG network systems will support dynamically varying demands for data processing, dissemination, and storage, often in a distributed user-access-edge-core-cloud continuum context. These network systems are expected to provide personalized and composable services, enable real-time computing/learning capabilities and facilitate large-scale content distribution, underpinned by a high-performance foundation of advanced wireless connectivity and mobility support. They will feature dynamic compositions of heterogenous components, systems and fabrics using advanced architectures. Advancing from the basic best-effort network design that is implicit in the network architecture, service providers are looking to offer end-to-end "slices" of the network system, spanning the access-edge-core-cloud, with varying quality of service to various industries. Important industry sectors and use cases include healthcare, smart agriculture, critical infrastructure, disaster response, logistics, finance, entertainment, training, defense and national security, each of which entails a unique set of network capabilities and service assurance requirements, while maintaining security, reliability, and privacy.

Providing performance capabilities that can support future envisioned network applications is the focus of this program. After several decades of advances in communication networks, the network architecture design has not kept up with, on the one hand, technology advances such as AI, and on the other hand, changes in requirements and constraints due to emerging use cases and the evolving spectrum environment. Recent developments in AI tools and techniques have significant potential for achieving zero-touch self-managing NextG networks that include a high degree of operational agility. AI-native intelligence will enable network systems to self-adapt and learn to re-allocate resources to meet application requirements. It will also enable them to respond to performance issues and emerging threats by reprogramming and/or reconfiguring themselves following failures or attacks. Autonomy can also potentially enable zero-trust systems models in the network and thus support strong security properties even in the presence of untrustworthy hardware, software, or network operators. The scope of this program includes areas critical to future generations of wireless networks and network systems, such as new wireless devices, circuits, protocols, and systems for 6G and beyond (not limiting to cellular); security, privacy, and resiliency; mobile edge computing; distributed machine learning and inferences across mobile devices; and fine-grained and real-time dynamic spectrum allocation and sharing.

This solicitation is organized into two Tracks:

• Track 1 (Use-inspired Fundamental Research) supports activities focused on use-inspired fundamental research to develop novel networking techniques and solutions. Industry partner contributions will be utilized to support proposals from this track. International collaborative proposals are expected to have the foreign collaborators funded by their respective international partner agency.
• Track 2 (Verticals-Driven Technology Development, Demonstration and Translation) supports activities focused on technology development, maturation, demonstration, integration, and translation of solutions with higher TRLs, with the goal of leading to adoption-ready technologies. Industry contributions will not be used to fund track 2. International collaborative proposals are expected to have the foreign collaborators funded by their respective international partner agency.

The partner participation, eligibility to apply, and role in the review process may differ for each track depending on the type of partner (industry versus international).

Collaborating U.S. government agencies may choose to co-fund proposals from either track subject to availability of funds and the alignment of a particular proposal with their missions and interests.

II.1 Track 1 Goals and Themes: Use-inspired Fundamental Research

VINES Track 1 aims to accelerate research in technology areas with high potential for impact on enabling future network capabilities and emerging use cases. The focus is on innovations in promising technologies across various disciplines that lead to leaps in performance and capabilities of future networks and networked systems. This program thus complements the current NSF research portfolio that supports basic research in the theory and practice of individual emerging topics, including AI, edge computing, radio communications, innovative transmit/receive technologies, dynamic spectrum utilization and other techniques to support coexistence with passive scientific uses of spectrum, security and privacy.

Track 1 of this program aims to support use-inspired fundamental research. A proposal submitted in response to Track 1 of this program must address one or more research vectors (RVs) from each of the two groups listed below. Each proposal should clearly identify the RVs chosen in the text of the project description. The program strongly encourages cross-layer collaboration or teaming to meet the stated goals.

The RVs described below for both Advanced Network Capabilities (Group A) and Enabling Technologies (Group B) are not arranged in any order of preference and will be given equal consideration. In addition, the specific research topics within each RV are provided only as examples and are not intended to be suggestive or exhaustive.

Proposals must clearly describe the synergy between RVs chosen from Group A and Group B, i.e., how the proposed technology advances in Group B enable the targeted network capabilities from Group A – this is an essential requirement for a Track 1 proposal.

II.1.a Group A: Advanced Network Capabilities

The main theme of any Track 1 proposal must address at least one of the RVs within this group (Group A). The advanced capabilities can be viewed from a variety of perspectives. Each proposal should explain how the proposed research will seek to advance the network capabilities beyond what is possible with today's networks.

A1: Enabling Emerging Verticals

"Emerging verticals" in the context of NextG networks refers to application domains or sectors that are evolving by leveraging advanced networking technologies to transform their performance, ease of use, services, or operating models. These verticals can be industries or sectors that have not so far been heavily reliant on communication networks but are increasingly integrating next-generation network capabilities such as 5G/6G, edge computing, IoT (including ambient IoT), and AI to innovate and enhance their offerings. Examples include healthcare, transportation, smart cities, smart power grid, entertainment, education, and agriculture sectors. They may also be applications that have been envisioned conceptually but not fully realized due to networking technology limitations, such as telesurgery or telepresence. For verticals that are significantly influenced by regulatory policies, proposals are encouraged to discuss how their proposed solutions can have a pathway towards realization in NextG systems.

Emerging verticals present diverse and challenging requirements for NextG networks due to their varied nature and the technological demands they place on the network. Next-generation networks must support billions of connected devices, from sensors in agriculture fields to smart appliances in cities. This massive connectivity necessitates efficient and scalable architectures capable of handling dense device distributions without compromising performance. Healthcare applications require a high degree of availability and reliability that is challenging to achieve, evaluate, and validate on an end-to-end basis. Various envisioned applications that rely on Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) for providing immersive experiences require higher speed and low delay/jitter. Supporting these applications may also require network slicing and customization to enable flexible provisioning of multiple types of service functions depending on the unique application needs. The integration of computing and communication across the core to edge to cloud continuum, requires effective approaches for orchestration of various resources to be able to meet diverse application needs. Proposals choosing this research vector need to clearly specify the target emerging vertical and the challenges that it presents to NextG networks.

A2: Energy Efficiency

As the communication networks have evolved over the past few decades, the energy consumption of various generations of communications systems has also increased. For example, a 5G base station consumes multiple times the energy of a 4G base station since it employs massive MIMO technology utilizing a large number of antennas to improve data rates and spectral efficiency, and to meet the need for overcoming higher propagation losses in new higher frequency bands of operation. Network densification, by relying on small cells, especially in urban areas, has potentially increased the total energy footprint. Densification, on the other hand, with proper design, may be utilized to improve energy efficiency. The introduction of AI, and the expected adoption of AI-native designs in NextG networks, should be done in a way that considers overall energy consumption, to avoid the risk of a significant increase in the energy footprint. For example, to support AI services in 5G and beyond, an increase in the deployment of edge computing data centers is expected, with the added energy consumption of these compute centers. On the other hand, if efficient methods for localized and distributed processing of AI compute within the network are developed, they could help reduce/avoid energy consumption due to expensive data movement. Energy efficiency in NextG networks is expected to play an important role in expanding broadband access to billions of people worldwide, e.g., by helping reduce networks operational costs, supporting base stations that are battery or renewal-energy powered, etc. This research vector focuses on innovative system level solutions to address this challenge to make a significant impact on managing the total energy consumption for NextG networks.

A3: Accessibility

This research vector solicits innovations that may address the accessibility challenges for NextG networks. Network accessibility refers to challenges that need addressing to ensure that everyone, regardless of location, socioeconomic status, or physical ability, can connect and use networks effectively. These challenges can manifest in various ways, including technological, economic, geographical, and social barriers. In rural and remote areas, deploying network infrastructure is challenging due to difficult terrain, or costly due to low population density. As a result, these areas often experience limited or no connectivity, creating a digital divide between urban and rural populations. The challenges may also occur in developing countries or cities with low average economic status, where basic network infrastructure may be lacking or insufficient to support modern, high-speed networks like 4G/5G and beyond, leading to limited access or lower quality of service. In some regions the cost of accessing the Internet is prohibitive due to the economies of scale or other economic challenges. While wireless has been reported as the most effective way to provide broadband connectivity to remote areas, rural or remote areas may not have the power infrastructure to support broadband networks. Proposals in this area are encouraged to offer creative, system-level approaches to improve the accessibility of NextG networks. The proposals are encouraged to discuss how their technical innovative solution is positioned within the other wider perspectives that affect accessibility such as regulatory reform, policy support, and economic investment.

A4: Resilience

A previous NSF program, NSF 21-581: Resilient & Intelligent NextG Systems (RINGS), focused on resilience as the primary consideration. Resilience in networks is a broad term that includes notions such as resistance to failures/attacks, graceful degradation, rapid adaptation, and rapid identification of root causes of disruption/attack.

Resilience continues to be a major requirement for NextG networked systems that requires continued research and innovation, leveraging various emerging technology enablers. Networks must be capable of detecting, analyzing, and mitigating evolving threats in real time, and thus developing algorithms that can better predict and respond to attacks is essential. Designing network systems that can autonomously detect faults, reroute traffic, and recover from failures autonomously remains a significant challenge. Achieving resilience in large-scale, heterogeneous environments (like NextG networks) while maintaining performance and security requires innovations in algorithms and architectures. Achieving seamless cooperation among diverse network components and technologies is necessary for resilient systems. Interaction between network resilience and other capabilities adds additional challenges, for example, ensuring resilient networks while managing energy consumption is a major challenge.

A5: Convergence

Network convergence involves the integration of multiple network types (e.g., fixed, mobile, wireless, terrestrial, and non-terrestrial) into a unified architecture that offers seamless connectivity, enhanced performance, and efficient resource management, while supporting diverse applications requirements. Some of the innovations that have potential to help achieve this include software-defined programmable networking, and network function virtualization that decouples hardware from network functions, as well as network slicing over 5G and beyond cellular systems. However, there remain significant challenges to further advance the convergence of future networks. Combining multiple network types requires integrating diverse protocols, topologies, technologies, and systems, and overcoming significant complexity challenges. Although convergent networks can increase resilience, they can also increase the attack/failure possibilities, thus requiring advanced resiliency measures across different network segments to enable graceful degradation and reliable network management. Innovative and flexible solutions are needed to enable the scaling of such convergent networks. Convergence of computing and communication would improve the data transmission and processing efficiency in a highly distributed and wide area cloud across clients, on-premise devices, cell sites, edge nodes, core network sites, and data centers. Convergence of sensing and communication would improve network performance and resilience, and offer opportunities for new applications.

A6: Manageability and Control

The management and control of NextG network systems is increasingly challenging with the expansion and diversity of the supported capabilities and services. Decoupling management and control from network elements has emerged as a promising solution architecture to enable flexibility and scalability. This is exemplified by concepts such as Open Radio Access Network (RAN), where open and standardized interfaces at various levels of the network expose data from the RAN to management and control applications (e.g., routing, resource provisioning) and allow commands from those applications into the RAN. Another example is Software-Defined Networking (SDN). Furthermore, slice management, spanning the wireless access through the core network to the cloud, may be required in order to maintain the desired quality of service. At a high level, such open interfaces enable control loops to be established into the network. Thus, an arbitration framework is needed to harmonize these loops into a coherent overall management and control that results in effective network operation. Examples of enabling technologies include programmable network platforms, such as software-defined switches and smart network interface cards. Management and control applications can utilize such technologies for functions such as dynamic traffic management and fast processing. Furthermore, management applications can interact with digital twins to test performance optimization decisions before they get deployed in the network.

A7: Exploratory Capabilities

Beyond the capability RVs mentioned above, proposers are free to suggest other new and emerging network capabilities that require innovation to enable in future networks. A proposer should make a compelling case for such alternative RV(s) in the project description.

II.1.b Group B: Enabling Technologies

Achieving advances in network capabilities requires leveraging promising technologies. The list below outlines several key emerging technological areas that hold significant promise in overcoming barriers to achieve significant capability gains in NextG. The main theme of any Track 1 proposal must address at least one of the RVs within this group (Group B), alongside the chosen Group A RV(s).

B1: AI-Native Design

AI-native NextG refers to next-generation networks designed with artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI) as an integral component, rather than as an add-on. In AI-native NextG, AI is deeply embedded into the network's architecture, allowing for real-time learning, adaptation, and automation across all layers and all components of the networked system. This integration enables enhanced capabilities and performance, including dynamic spectrum management, seamless resource optimization, and autonomous security measures, making networks more efficient, adaptive, and resilient. By incorporating AI directly into network functions and operations, AI-native NextG systems can better meet complex demands in areas like IoT, edge computing, and smart environments.

This research vector aims to overcome some of the fundamental challenges of applying AI for advancing NextG networks. The architectural design choices of learning in networks have significant impact on the achieved performance. Guidelines or principles for the design and placement of learning functions and interplay with the availability of representative data remain challenging. Deploying AI at scale in large, heterogeneous networks can be resource-intensive and challenging, especially for real-time applications. Improvement of AI explainability and performance guarantees are needed for reliable adoption in real-world networks. New methods to evaluate the robustness of AI systems will also be needed. High-performance AI models require substantial computing power, which can be costly and environmentally taxing, limiting practical deployment in certain areas, like edge devices or resource-constrained IoT networks. Using AI often requires vast amounts of data, raising concerns about user privacy and data protection, especially when training machine learning models. Efficient implementation of edge AI solutions and interacting systems that learn continuously from distributed data becomes paramount. Use of AI systems exposes networks to new vulnerabilities driving new requirements on ensuring resilience.

B2: Spectrum Sharing-Native Design

Spectrum sharing will become increasingly crucial in future network generations because it allows for more efficient use of the congested radio frequency spectrum. Traditional spectrum allocation assigns exclusive frequencies to specific users (e.g., passive or active) or applications, which can lead to underutilization. Spectrum sharing enables multiple users to operate on the same frequencies in the same geographic area, optimizing usage and reducing wastage. This approach is vital because the spectrum requirements of emerging communications capabilities like NextG networks, IoT systems, and rural broadband compete with ongoing growth in bandwidth usage of non-communications services including positioning, radar, and scientific research. Continuing to rely on exclusive frequency assignments will exacerbate spectrum scarcity, preventing future communications systems from achieving their potential benefits for society. Additionally, spectrum sharing can foster innovation and reduce costs through enabling new entrants and increasing competition in the communications market, by reducing the current barrier to entry created by spectrum scarcity.

This program encourages innovative research that advances sharing-native networks, which refers to communication networks designed to operate well in shared spectrum bands. The sharing-native networks of interest for this program include NextG networks capable of operating efficiently and effectively, without causing harmful interference, in one or both of the following contexts: (a) operating in the same band as other users' communication networks that do not employ 4G/5G/NextG standards; and (b) operating in the same band as or immediately adjacent to a non-communications service that uses highly sensitive receivers. Proposed projects must investigate at least one of these two spectrum sharing contexts. Proposed projects may also investigate additional spectrum sharing contexts not listed here. Design of spectrum sharing capabilities and validation of non-harmful interference requires deep understanding of all involved systems. Therefore, research focused on sharing with specific system types is welcomed. Proposed projects may investigate approaches that require new regulatory structures, going beyond current structures such as unlicensed bands or bands managed by a Spectrum Access System.

Unlike traditional networks that assume exclusive access to specific spectrum bands, sharing-native networks integrate spectrum-sharing principles and technologies as foundational features. The 2024 National Spectrum R&D Plan describes many research topics relevant for sharing-native networks including agile front ends and antennas, flexible waveform capabilities, interference and noise resilience, methods to achieve reliable service from variable spectrum, spectrum sharing control, and fast interference management. AI can help sharing-native networks coexist more effectively with other users and services.

B3: Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC)

Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) combines sensing functionalities with communication networks to use shared systems for both transmitting and receiving data, as well as analyzing signals for various applications. This integration leverages common network modules to support both communication and sensing, reducing the need for separate infrastructures. ISAC aims to improve network coordination and management by fusing communication and sensing data and signals, which can enhance performance for applications that require both connectivity and environmental awareness, such as autonomous driving and smart cities. ISAC can use sensing data and signals to make virtual spaces more interactive and realistic for AR/VR users. Localization and object recognition functions may be better integrated and leveraged for various spatially dependent applications. ISAC can enhance network reliability and performance by integrating sensed data and signals at various scales. ISAC benefits include improved network/application performance and efficiency, reduced infrastructure cost, and increased network awareness.

This RV focuses on innovations in the design and integration of sensing and communication in NextG networks, enabling more adaptive and context-aware NextG networks that can handle emerging demands across applications like autonomous driving, smart cities, and immersive experiences. Proposals may address challenges including managing density and bandwidth requirements, optimizing existing signals for dual communication and sensing purposes, radio component design for improved sensitivity and cost-effectiveness, or rethinking network design to fully integrate sensing from the start. Collaborative sensing across network nodes, cross-platform integration (e.g., Wi-Fi, non-3GPP systems, etc.), and the development of effective approaches for evaluation of ISAC systems are also of interest. Privacy for ISAC can be considered at the foundational level, ensuring that ISAC technologies maintain strong protections.

B4: Security and Privacy

In next generation networks, security and privacy are essential to ensuring trust and reliability, especially as networks increasingly handle vast amounts of sensitive data across diverse applications. The increased complexity of NextG networked systems, due to the integration of diverse technologies like AI, IoT, and edge computing, expands the network vulnerability to sophisticated cyber threats, requiring robust frameworks for data protection and threat management. Privacy-preserving technologies must play a crucial role in safeguarding personal information, allowing for secure data processing while minimizing the leakage of individually identifiable information. As NextG networks embrace AI native design, ensuring security and resilience of complex interactions between different AI systems and solutions will become critical. Confidential computing and privacy-preserving engineering can further empower users with control over their data, allowing for customized privacy preferences and secure data-sharing practices. Additionally, the advent of quantum computing heightens the urgency of post-quantum cryptography, as traditional encryption may soon be inadequate. As NextG networks facilitate critical applications in areas like healthcare, autonomous systems, and smart cities, their security and privacy measures are paramount, enabling resilient and trustworthy infrastructures that support both innovation and user rights.

This research vector seeks innovations to significantly improve security and privacy in NextG networks. Confidential computing techniques focus on empowering users to control data access while preserving privacy. However, efficient implementation of confidential computing solutions in communication intensive radio networks remains challenging. Additionally, deploying confidential computing solutions can provide confidentiality and integrity guarantees, but innovations are still needed to protect AI solutions from leaking private data or being exposed to adversarial attacks. Privacy engineering approaches aim to support individual, user-driven privacy controls rather than broad, enterprise-defined policies. New privacy metrics are needed to quantify privacy risks and prevent data leakage, especially in environments vulnerable to adversarial attacks. Security against threats in highly dynamic environments, such as networks using dynamic spectrum sharing, require advanced techniques, high-quality RF filters and/or adaptive spectrum-sharing algorithms that learn to operate effectively within the spectrum sharing rules. Researching and developing post-quantum cryptography for quantum-resilient secure NextG networks is critical to protect NextG systems from quantum-based attacks.. Research is needed to enable energy-efficient secure hardware capable of securing data processing locally, especially for edge devices in wireless networks. This focus on energy-efficient computing aligns with the power constraints of NextG systems while maintaining robust security.

B5: Exploratory Enabling Technologies/Paradigms

Beyond the four RVs mentioned above, proposers are free to pursue research in other emerging technologies, such as quantum communications and sensing, that have the potential to enable new advanced capabilities or features in NextG networks and networked systems. In the project description, alternatives must be compellingly argued and justified.

II.2 Track 2 Goals and Themes: Verticals-Driven Technology Development, Demonstration and Translation

VINES Track 2 aims to support development, demonstration and translation of potential NextG technologies that will result in performance or capabilities critical to enabling emerging vertical application industries.

NextG networks aim to achieve ever greater performance targets. Demand growth for NextG networks with higher data rates, reliability, coverage, availability and security, and lower latencies, among others, will likely come from novel vertical applications. For these, the performance that matters is the application performance determined by the end-to-end network consisting of the radio access network (RAN), core, edge, cloud, application and transport segments. Different vertical applications, however, demand different combinations of key performance indicators (KPIs) and capabilities. Similarly, the same vertical application may require significantly different uplink and downlink performance figures. In particular, some emerging AR/VR/XR based immersive verticals may require much higher uplink data rates than traditional use cases. While general network performance indicators are important, they may not always meet the specific combinations of requirements for emerging novel vertical applications. There may also be emerging verticals that demand non-traditional network performance KPIs including, for example, extremely low-power operation, autonomy, self-organization or resiliency. To ensure there will be sufficient demand from vertical applications for NextG networks having advanced performance and capabilities, it is necessary to develop networking technology solutions that will address performance and capability requirements of emerging vertical industries with high potential for economic and societal impact.

Each Track 2 proposal must identify a novel emerging networking technology that has potential for translation and adoption in NextG mobile telecommunications networks (including 6G cellular and WiFi) and identify a vertical industry/application for which the performance/capability enabled by the identified networking technology would be critically important. A Track 2 project must be focused on a particular emerging wireless vertical application whose connectivity requirements cannot reasonably (i.e. cost-effectively, reliably, efficiently, securely etc.) be met by today's (5G, WiFi, etc.) networks. The project must develop and implement the proposed networking technology solution in an at-scale testbed in the context of the relevant vertical application and demonstrate that the performance/capability achieved indeed will enable the selected vertical application. Whenever possible, Track 2 teams are strongly encouraged to utilize existing national testbeds such as NSF Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR), testbeds funded by other Federal agencies (e.g., DOD, NTIA (in particular, recently funded Open RAN Testing & Evaluation (T&E) centers), NIST) or partner with mobile network operators (MNOs) and/or cloud service providers (CSPs).

VINES Track 2 program specifically seeks to:

• Bring telecommunications and wireless vertical applications teams together to develop NextG networking solutions that deliver performance required by emerging vertical industries
• Support verticals-driven technology development, demonstration and/or translation that will shape the future generations of advanced wireless and intelligent networked systems
• Encourage academic and industry collaborations that will lead to effective development, maturation and demonstration of novel NextG technologies
• Accelerate the flow of novel and emerging technologies derived from use-inspired research to proofs of concept, including prototype development and testing, to product/solution development, to market creation and to ultimately the desired societal and economic impacts
• Establish global technology leadership in NextG wireless telecommunications via partnerships with industry, academia and international collaborators
• Lead in emerging NextG wireless vertical industries via partnerships with industry, academia and international collaborators
• Train future technical experts and entrepreneurs in NextG telecommunications and emerging wireless vertical technologies
• Focus on relatively mature, yet still novel in terms of adoption, emerging technologies (current TRL level of at least 3) with the potential for translation and adoption in NextG networks
• Enable formation of U.S. and international collaborations to speed up the rate of innovation towards open, global, interoperable, multi-functional, reliable, resilient, and secure networks.

II.2.a Track 2 Team Requirements and Composition

Each Track 2 project must meet the following requirements:

1. An emerging translation/adoption-ready NextG networking technology applicable to any part/parts of the end-to-end system. Examples include, but are not limited to, RAN, Core, Transport, Cloud or Edge technologies
2. A wireless vertical for which the performance or capability offered through identified networking technology advancement will be critical for its success
3. Maturation, implementation, and integration of the proposal networking technology within the context of the identified vertical application
4. At-scale demonstration of the integrated system enabling the selected vertical in an end-to-end network (testbeds/platforms or in partnership with MNOs/CSPs).

To meet the above requirements, each Track 2 team is expected to demonstrate the following competencies:

1. Identified primary networking technology expertise (competency A)
2. Selected vertical application expertise (competency B)
3. Integrated end-to-end system/network expertise

II.2.b Track 2 International Collaborative Teams

While not required, a Track 2 team may include a bi-lateral collaboration between the U.S. and one of the participating countries. There is no limit on the number of entities from each country that may participate in such a team. However, in a Track 2 proposal with international collaborations, entities from the same country cannot be primarily responsible for both networking technology (competency A) and the vertical (competency B). The Concept Outline (CO), and the proposal, must demonstrate that entities from one country are primarily responsible for the competency A while those from the other country are primarily responsible for the competency B.

The CO and the proposal must demonstrate that participants from each partner country possess unique capabilities that increase the chance of project success and potential translational impact to justify the collaboration between the two countries.

II.2.c Track 2 Emerging Technologies of Interest

Emerging networking technologies of interest to VINES Track 2

as the candidate primary NextG networking technology are:

1. Integrated sensing and communications (ISAC)
2. Mobile/Multi-access edge computing (MEC)
3. Open & integrated networks (open standards and interfaces-based space-air-ground integration)
4. Semantic communications and networking (SC)
5. Advanced spectrum technologies such as dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), operation at higher frequencies, multi-band, multi-mode radios (MBMMR) and low-power & spectrum-agile radios
6. High-performance data transport (e.g., fiber, WDM), transport layer, and automation technologies for various network environments, including software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) and data center and cloud networks
7. Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS)

Proposers responding to Track 2 must select one of the above emerging technologies as their primary networking technology focus (see below for rare exceptions) and identify a vertical industry/application for which the performance enabled by the identified networking technology could be critically important. The scope of each of the above emerging technologies is intended to be broadly defined to allow for new ideas that are important for novel NextG vertical industries with potential for success and impact.

The proposed technological solutions are expected to be cost-effective and resource-efficient with the ultimate goal of being suitable for deployment and adoption. The starting maturity level of the proposed primary technology solution is expected to be at least at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 or higher while being novel and innovative in terms of translation and adoption.

Though not an exhaustive or a suggestive list, some of the potential vertical applications of interest may include:

• Smart manufacturing, Industrial IoT (IIoT)
• Immersive applications, AR/VR/MR/XR
• Smart/precision agriculture
• Connected autonomous vehicles, intelligent transportation
• Tele-medicine, remote healthcare, remote surgery
• Advanced Air Mobility, UAV networks
• Smart-grid
• Entertainment industry, gaming
• Disaster response
• Education, training

A proposing team must provide strong justification, backed by sufficient evidence, for their choice of the primary networking technology area and the vertical application by addressing the following (in both the Concept Outline and Proposal):

1. the identified primary networking technology area is relatively mature (at least TRL 3) and has the potential to be adopted in NextG networks,
2. the performance or capability enabled by the selected primary networking technology is critical to meeting the requirements of the identified vertical application, and
3. the identified vertical application has the potential to be of societal and/or economic importance.

Proposers are strongly encouraged to be thoughtful in selecting an emerging vertical application with the highest potential for commercialization, market adoption and economic and/or societal impact. Successful projects may emerge through in-depth technical dialog between networking and vertical experts. Proposers from both networking and vertical communities are advised to engage with each other early and often to identify suitable collaborative partners. Partnerships with R&D start-ups, academic institutions and other companies/organizations are highly encouraged.

While each Track 2 project must identify one of the above listed networking technologies as the primary networking technology focus of the project and the primary enabling technology for the selected vertical, a team's overall solution may incorporate aspects of other networking technologies (either from the above list or something not in it) as appropriate.

In rare cases, a Concept Outline proposing to use a primary networking technology area that is not in the above list may be allowed to submit a proposal. However, in this special case, the proposer must provide strong justification backed by sufficient evidence (in both the Concept Outline and Proposal) to demonstrate that:

1. the proposed primary networking technology is relatively mature (at least TRL 3) and has the potential to be in consideration for NextG networks,
2. the performance or capability enabled by the proposed primary networking technology is critical to meeting the requirements of the identified vertical application,
3. the identified vertical application has the potential to be of societal and/or economic importance, and
4. the solution approach based on the proposed primary networking technology is potentially superior and more desirable to that based on any of the above suggested technologies.

Track 2 proposers must note that, everything being equal, the preference will be given to those projects that advance the technologies identified in the above list provided in this solicitation.

Demonstration of developed technological solution in the context of the identified vertical application is a requirement for all Track 2 projects. Proposers must provide sufficient details on how they plan to develop, integrate and demonstrate the proposed networking solutions in an at-scale testbed/platform to validate successful vertical application operation. Specific success criteria and evaluation metrics must be identified. A phased demonstration approach (with a timeline) can be adopted to minimize risks, though it is not required.

II.3 Role of Industry Partners for Track 1

The companies listed in this solicitation (Ericsson, Intel and Qualcomm) have committed to providing contributions to NSF to fund Track 1 proposals awarded under this solicitation. Throughout this section, "Industry Partners" refers specifically to these entities and their role as funding partners for Track 1 only. The contributions from these partners are based on a shared belief in the importance of advancing use-inspired fundamental research, education, and workforce development goals identified by this program.

Pre-Award Involvement:

Industry partners will not participate in or observe the merit review of proposals. After the merit review process is completed, NSF may share a subset of Track 1 proposals under consideration for funding, along with corresponding unattributed reviews and panel summaries, with representatives of the industry partners. NSF will consider feedback from the industry partners but will retain full authority over all award decisions.

Post-Award Contributions:

• NSF will administer the awards under this program according to standard NSF policies and procedures, with all awards subject to NSF terms and conditions. Industry partners will not oversee recipient activities or the use of funds. However, they may engage with recipients as outlined below:

• Post-award, industry partners may provide additional resources, such as software (prototypes or products), data sets, and/or computing infrastructure. Use of these resources will be optional, and no recipient will be required to use a company's contributions.
• Industry partners may also fund their own personnel to collaborate with Track 1 recipients on projects. These arrangements are optional and will depend on mutual consent between the companies and recipient institutions. No Track 1 recipient will be required to accept a company researcher.
• NSF will share Track 1 annual project reports with industry partners and agencies after the NSF Program Officer reviews and approves them.

Intellectual Property Rights for Track 1 Proposals:

• Track 1 recipients supported by NSF (i.e. U.S. teams) must grant the sponsoring entities (the U.S. Government and the industry partners named in this solicitation) a non-exclusive, worldwide, paid-up, non-transferable, royalty-free license to any intellectual property resulting from research conducted under the program. [Note: the Bayh-Dole Act provides similar rights to the U.S. Government for patents on inventions made under federal funding.] This license extends to each industry partner's subsidiaries and contractors, at its discretion, specifically for use in connection with the partner's products and/or services. recipients shall grant the license to each industry partner unless the industry partner opts to decline the license. Track 1 recipients will not be required to license any background intellectual property, but they may voluntarily negotiate agreements regarding background IP with industry partners. NSF will not enforce or participate in these negotiations, and no NSF funding will be contingent on them.
• Track 1 recipients may delay publication of data and software describing inventions to allow for patent applications. Nevertheless, NSF's terms and conditions will require that recipients promptly publish all results, data, and software generated during their research.

Collaboration Restrictions:

• Proposals may not describe any prior agreements or assumed arrangements to use contributions or collaborate with the industry partners beyond what is described in the eligibility section of this solicitation. Any such proposals will be returned without review. However, proposers are not restricted from using publicly available products or services offered by the industry partners.

Inquiries:

• Proposers should not contact industry partners directly regarding their participation in this solicitation. All inquiries should be directed to the program contacts listed in the solicitation.

II.4 Intellectual Property Rights for Track 2 Proposals

• Prior to award issuance, each Track 2 team must certify in writing the existence of either a finalized Intellectual Property (IP) Management Plan executed by, or a general framework for IP Sharing and Management agreed upon by, authorized representatives from all participating institutions.
• The provisions of the Bayh-Dole Act will apply.
• recipients may defer the publication of data and software related to inventions to allow for the timely filing of patent applications. However, NSF's terms and conditions mandate the prompt publication of all research results, data, and software generated during the project.

II.5 Cloud Computing Resources

Proposers are encouraged to visit nairrpilot.org to explore opportunities to access AI resources, including AI-ready datasets, pre-trained models and other resources associated with the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot.

Proposals may request access to public cloud computing resources, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.

Cloud computing resources described in the proposal can be obtained through CloudBank, an external cloud access entity supported by NSF's Enabling Access to Cloud Computing Resources for CISE Research and Education (Cloud Access) program.

Proposers requesting cloud computing resources through CloudBank must include a Supplementary Document that details the following:

1. The public cloud providers that will be used.
2. The anticipated annual and total costs for accessing the requested cloud computing resources, based on current pricing from the public cloud providers.
3. A technical description and justification for the requested cloud computing resources.

The proposal budget should not include costs for accessing public cloud computing resources through CloudBank. However, the total cost of the project, including the requested cloud computing resources, must not exceed the budget limit specified in this solicitation. Proposers may consult CloudBank (see CloudBank FAQ) for assistance in estimating cloud computing costs.

For further guidance on describing cloud computing resource requests and the associated budget, refer to Section V.A. Proposal Preparation Instructions, Supplementary Documents.

II.6 Evaluation

Proposers are encouraged to use publicly available wireless, cloud-related and vertical application resources to evaluate or demonstrate their innovations. This could include leveraging wireless testbeds or collaborating with government labs or industry partners.

Examples of available resources include NSF-funded platforms such as the NSFFutureCloud projects (Chameleon Lab and CloudLab), FABRIC, and PAWR platforms; Linux Foundation Aether Private 5G Network, as well as NIST testbeds and facilities, NIST-led NextG channel model alliance and data repository.

In particular, in light of the required at-scale technology demonstrations, VINES Track 2 teams are strongly encouraged to leverage existing national testbeds such as NSF PAWR platforms, testbeds funded by other Federal agencies (e.g., DOD, NTIA, NIST) or partner with mobile network operators and/or cloud service providers. Purchase of new equipment for the sole purpose of setting up a testbed/platform for this project demo without a plan for post-project use are highly discouraged. When purchasing equipment is unavoidable, proposers should provide strong justification for why it is necessary and why it cannot be achieved via appropriate partnerships.

II.7 Webinar Information

NSF will host several informational webinars whose date and registration details will be posted on the Program Web page shortly after this solicitation is published.

III. AWARD INFORMATION

Estimated program budget, number of awards and average award size/duration are subject to the availability of funds.

The budget should be appropriate for the scope of the proposed research.

Please note that the estimated program budget, number of awards, and average award size/duration are subject to change based on the availability of funds.

Track 1:

• NSF anticipates making approximately 20 - 30 Track 1 awards, with each award up to $1,500,000 total and up to 3 years in duration, subject to the availability of funds and quality of proposals received. For international collaborative proposals, the budget of the U.S. team is up to $750,000, with the expectation that the international partner agency will provide matching funds for the international team for a complementary collaborative effort commensurate with the scope of the project.

The budget should be appropriate for the scope of the proposed research.

Please note that the estimated program budget, number of awards, and average award size/duration are subject to change based on the availability of funds.

Track 2:

• NSF anticipates making approximately 8 - 10 Track 2 awards, each with a total budget of up to $6,000,000 and a duration of up to 3 years, contingent upon the availability of funds and the quality of proposals received.
• For international collaborative proposals, the total combined budget from both countries must not exceed a total of $6 million. The budget for the U.S. team can range between $2 million to $4 million, with the expectation that the international partner agency will provide funds for the international team for a complementary collaborative effort commensurate with the scope of the project.
• Track 2 awards resulting from this solicitation will be only cost reimbursement awards. A cost reimbursement award is a type of grant/cooperative agreement under which NSF agrees to reimburse the recipient for work performed and/or costs incurred by the recipient up to the total amount specified in the award. Such costs must be allowable in accordance with the applicable cost principles. Accountability is based primarily on technical progress, financial accounting, and fiscal reporting. Before submitting a proposal under this solicitation, organizations should consider their capability to comply with the applicable federal regulations, including 2 CFR § 200.302 "Financial management," 2 CFR § 200.303 "Internal controls," 2 CFR § 200 Subpart E "Cost Principles" (or Federal Acquisition Regulation Part 31 "Cost Principles" for for-profit organizations), and 2 CFR 200 Subpart F "Audit Requirements."

Proposing organizations that have not received prior NSF funding will be asked to submit financial and administrative documentation as outlined in the New Awardee Checklist contained in NSF's Prospective New Awardee Guide (PNAG) and may be required to undergo a pre-award administrative and financial review. The purpose of this review is to assess any risk that may be posed by the proposing organization's financial capability, accounting systems, and internal policies and procedures for compliance with the terms and conditions of an NSF award. NSF will request financial and administrative documentation only after a proposal has been recommended for an award. However, proposing organizations that have not received prior NSF funding may wish to familiarize themselves with the PNAG guide to better understand the financial and administrative requirements associated with an NSF award.

International Awards (both tracks):

Subject to availability of funding:

• For US-Finland international collaborative projects, the Finnish component of the collaboration will be awarded by the Research Council of Finland for Track 1 and by Business Finland for Track 2, in accordance with their policies and regulations. Anticipated total funding amount available for Finland teams is approximately the equivalent of $6 million for Track 1 and $10 million for Track 2.
• For US-India international collaborative projects, the Indian component of the collaboration will be awarded by MeitY for Track 1 or Track 2, in accordance with its policies and regulations. Anticipated funding amount is pending availability of funds. Anticipated total funding amount available for India teams is approximately the equivalent of $4 million for Track 1 and $6 million for Track 2.
• For U.S.-Japan international collaborative projects, the Japanese component of the collaboration will be awarded by JST for Track 1 and by NICT for Track 2, in accordance with their respective policies and regulations. Anticipated total funding amount available for Japan teams is approximately the equivalent of $2.25 million for Track 1 and $3 million for Track 2.
• For US-Sweden international collaborative projects, the Swedish component of the collaboration will be awarded by the Swedish Research Council for Track 1 in accordance with their respective policies and regulations. Anticipated total funding amount available for Sweden teams is approximately the equivalent of $3 million for Track 1.

IV. ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

Who May Submit Proposals:

Proposals may only be submitted by the following:

• Proposals for Track 1 may only be submitted by the following:
  • Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) - Two- and four-year IHEs (including community colleges) accredited in, and having a campus located in the U.S., acting on behalf of their faculty members.
  • Non-profit, non-academic organizations: Independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies and similar organizations located in the U.S. that are directly associated with educational or research activities.
• Proposals for Track 2 may only be submitted by the following:
  • Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) - Two- and four-year IHEs (including community colleges) accredited in, and having a campus located in the U.S., acting on behalf of their faculty members.
  • Non-profit, non-academic organizations: Independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies and similar organizations located in the U.S. that are directly associated with educational or research activities.
  • For-profit organizations: U.S.-based commercial organizations, including small businesses, with strong capabilities in scientific or engineering research or education.
  • State and Local Governments: State educational offices or organizations and local school districts.
  • Tribal Nations: An American Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, or community that the Secretary of the Interior acknowledges as a federally recognized tribe pursuant to the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994, 25 U.S.C. §§ 5130-5131.

Who May Serve as PI:

Track 1:

At the time of submission, any PI, co-PI, or other senior/key project personnel must hold either:

• a tenured or tenure-track position, or
• a primary, full-time, paid appointment in a research or teaching position

at a U.S.-based campus of an organization eligible to submit to this solicitation (see above), with exceptions granted for family or medical leave, as determined by the submitting organization. Individuals with primary appointments at for-profit non-academic organizations or at overseas branch campuses of U.S. IHEs are not eligible.

Researchers from foreign academic institutions who contribute essential expertise to the project may participate as senior/key personnel or collaborators but may not receive NSF support.

Track 2:

• Individuals with primary appointments at overseas branch campuses of U.S. IHEs are not eligible.
• There are no other restrictions except those identified in PAPPG Chapter 1.E.3

Guidelines for the Participation of Industry Partners and Affiliated Individuals in Proposals

Guidelines for Industry Partners:

An industry partner is permitted to participate in proposals to Track 2.

An industry partner is not, however, permitted to participate in proposals to Track 1. The company may not participate in such proposals in any way as a collaborator, whether funded or unfunded. For example, the company may not submit a letter of collaboration as part of any Track 1 proposal.

Guidelines for Individuals Affiliated with Industry Partners:

Track 1: Individuals affiliated with an industry partner may participate in proposals to the program subject to certain limitations and allowances. These limitations and allowances apply to individuals who are currently employed by, consulting for, or on an active agreement to provide services for the company. Specifically:

• Such individuals may not participate in their capacity with the industry partner.
• Such individuals may participate if they (i) hold a primary appointment at another organization not partnered on the program (e.g., a primary academic appointment at an institution of higher education), as applicable to and defined by that organization, and (ii) do so strictly in their capacity at that other organization.

Track 2: There are no restrictions.

Proposals that violate the above restrictions will be returned without review.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization:

There are no restrictions or limits.

Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: 4

Track 1:

• An individual may be listed as PI, co-PI, and/or Senior/Key Personnel on no more than two Track 1 U.S.-only proposals (i.e. proposals that do not have an international collaboration) submitted in response to this solicitation. In the event that an individual exceeds this limit, only the first two proposals received will be accepted, and the remainder will be returned without review.
• In addition, an individual may be listed as PI, co-PI, and/or Senior/Key Personnel on no more than one Track 1 international collaborative proposal (i.e. a proposal that includes international collaboration) submitted in response to this solicitation. In the event that an individual exceeds this limit, only the first proposal received will be accepted, and the remainder will be returned without review.

Track 2:

• An individual may serve as PI or co-PI on only one Track 2 proposal in this competition, but may serve as Senior/Key Personnel or Other Personnel on any number of Track 2 proposals in this competition. In the event that an individual exceeds the PI/co-PI limit, only the first proposal received for this track will be accepted, and the remainder will be returned without review.
• In determining the PI, co-PI and Senior/Key Personnel limits for U.S. investigators for Track 2, teams with and without foreign collaborators are treated together. Specifically, a U.S. investigator can be the PI or co-PI in only one Track 2 proposal regardless of whether the proposals include foreign collaborations.

For international collaborative proposals, foreign collaborators should not be listed on the NSF proposal coversheet and are not considered NSF Senior/Key Personnel (see detailed proposal preparation instructions). Foreign collaborators should follow the investigator limit guidelines provided by the respective international partner agency from which the foreign collaborators will be seeking funding.

V. PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

A. Proposal Preparation Instructions

A Concept Outline is required for Track 2 proposals

Full Proposal Preparation Instructions: Proposers may opt to submit proposals in response to this Program Solicitation via Research.gov or Grants.gov.

• Full Proposals submitted via Research.gov: Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the general guidelines contained in the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG). The complete text of the PAPPG is available electronically on the NSF website at: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=pappg. Paper copies of the PAPPG may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-8134 or by e-mail from nsfpubs@nsf.gov. The Prepare New Proposal setup will prompt you for the program solicitation number.
• Full proposals submitted via Grants.gov: Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation via Grants.gov should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide: A Guide for the Preparation and Submission of NSF Applications via Grants.gov. The complete text of the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide is available on the Grants.gov website and on the NSF website at: (https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=grantsgovguide). To obtain copies of the Application Guide and Application Forms Package, click on the Apply tab on the Grants.gov site, then click on the Apply Step 1: Download a Grant Application Package and Application Instructions link and enter the funding opportunity number, (the program solicitation number without the NSF prefix) and press the Download Package button. Paper copies of the Grants.gov Application Guide also may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-8134 or by e-mail from nsfpubs@nsf.gov.

In determining which method to utilize in the electronic preparation and submission of the proposal, please note the following:

Collaborative Proposals. All collaborative proposals submitted as separate submissions from multiple organizations must be submitted via Research.gov. PAPPG Chapter II.E.3 provides additional information on collaborative proposals.

See PAPPG Chapter II.D.2 for guidance on the required sections of a full research proposal submitted to NSF. Please note that the proposal preparation instructions provided in this program solicitation may deviate from the PAPPG instructions.

• When initiating a new proposal on Research.gov or Grants.gov: Proposals submitting to Track 1 need to choose the CISE directorate. Proposals submitting to Track 2 need to choose the TIP directorate.

Collaborative Proposals:

A collaborative proposal is one in which investigators from two or more US-based organizations wish to collaborate on a unified research project. See PAPPG Chapter II.E.3. Both collaborative proposals from a single organization with sub recipient collaborators and separately submitted collaborative proposals from multiple organizations are allowed. Sub recipient institutions must follow the same eligibility rules.

International Collaborative Proposals:

International collaborative proposals involve at least one US-based organization and at least one organization based in, and seeking funding from, one of the international agencies' (Finland, India, Japan or Sweden). NSF acts as the Lead/Coordinating Agency for international collaborative proposals. International collaborative proposals will be reviewed by NSF in accordance with the NSF standard review process.

• Foreign collaborators are expected to submit documentation that may be required by their country's funding agency directly to the relevant agency in accordance with their procedures in addition to documentation submitted to NSF. VINES international partner agencies may assess to what extent the proposed activities align with their priority topics and missions and provide a "PI(s) Eligibility Letter" to the foreign PIs, which must be included in the proposal submission to NSF.
• Foreign collaborators should follow instructions on international partner websites, listed in this solicitation, to determine the process for obtaining the eligibility letter from the respective agency. The eligibility letter is not needed to be submitted with the Concept Outline, but must be included in Full Proposals to NSF for both tracks.

Cover Sheet:

Title: Proposal titles must begin with a prefix that identifies the track as follows: "VINES: Track 1:" or "VINES: Track 2:" followed by a space then followed by the proposal title. Proposers must not specify both tracks.

International collaborative proposals must begin with "VINES: Track X: (where X: is "1" or "2") NSF-international funding agency:" where 'international funding agency' is replaced by one of the following acronyms as applicable for the proposal: 'RCF', 'BF', 'SRC', 'JST', 'NICT' or 'MeitY'. Example: "VINES: Track 1: NSF-RCF:', 'VINES: Track 2: NSF-BF:' etc. Please check the "International Activity" box on the Cover Sheet page of Research.gov and select the corresponding collaborative country for the given proposal (Finland, India, Japan, or Sweden).

Personnel:

For international collaborative proposals, information on foreign collaborators is to be provided as specified below. Foreign collaborators should not be listed on the cover sheet of the NSF proposal. The cover sheet information is for administrative purposes and is not intended to characterize the level or value of the contribution of these individuals to the project.

1. Listing of all foreign collaborators for international collaborative proposals (Required): Upload the following information in the order noted as a single PDF in Other Supplementary Documents. Clearly label the document as "Personnel requesting funding from international funding agency", where 'international funding agency' is replaced by one of the following acronyms as applicable for the proposal: 'RCF', 'BF', 'SRC', 'JST', 'NICT' or 'MeitY'.
   1. For the equivalent of Senior/Key Personnel (as defined in the NSF PAPPG Exhibit II-3) requesting funding from international partner agencies, list:
      • Name
      • Email Address
      • Organizational Affiliation
      • Organization's Location
      • Role in the proposed project
   2. For each organization requesting funding from international partner agencies, list the total budget requested, expressed in USD and the currency of international partner agency. This should be a single number per requesting organization not the full budget or budget justification.
   3. If additional collaborators from countries not represented by international partner agencies are engaged in the proposed project, please provide the information listed in item 1.A. above for them in a separate single PDF in Other Supplementary Documents. Clearly label the document as "Listing of additional international personnel." Total budget number requested for these collaborators is not required.

Project Summary:

• Keywords: Track 1: Each proposal must include the relevant Research Vectors (RVs) as keywords using the format "RV:". For example, a proposal addressing RVs A1 and B3 should list keywords as "A1, B3" along with other project-relevant keywords.
• Proposals requesting cloud resources via CloudBank.org should include "CloudAccess" (as one word) as a keyword.
• For international collaborative proposals, the Project Summary of the proposal must summarize an integrated collaborative effort.

Project Description:

• The Project Description must include a section titled "Addressing VINES Solicitation-Specific Review Criteria" (about 1 page in length). This section should explain how the proposal meets the solicitation-specific review criteria for the track that the proposal is addressing, and refer to other sections for further details. For Track 2 proposals, this section should explain how the proposal meets the solicitation-specific review criteria for Track 2 by answering Q1 through Q6 (provided under the Additional Solicitation-Specific Review Criteria section) and refer to other sections for further details.
• Track 1 proposals must include a section titled "Evaluation Plan" that provides enough details about the evaluation of the proposed research. Additional details can also be provided under the Management Plan in supplementary documents.
• Track 2 proposals must include a section titled "Demonstration and Evaluation Plan" that provides sufficient details on the technology integration, demonstration, evaluation (including success criteria and metrics to be used) and validation plan (about 1 - 2 pages). Though not required, a phased demonstration approach (with a timeline) is desirable.
• For international collaborative proposals, the Project Description must represent an integrated collaborative effort.
• Results from Prior NSF Support: This section of the proposal Project Description is only applicable to individuals requesting funding from NSF.

Senior/Key Personnel Documents:

In this section, include the following documents, in accordance with the guidance specified in the PAPPG, for all U.S.-based PIs, co-PIs, and other Senior/Key Personnel.

• Biographical Sketches: A Biographical Sketch is required for all individuals designated as a senior/key person on a proposal (see PAPPGChapter II.D.2.h(i)). For international collaborative proposals, the information is also required for foreign collaborators who are the equivalent of Senior/Key Personnel (as defined in the NSF PAPPG Exhibit II-3). Upload a biographical sketch separately for each foreign collaborator who is the equivalent of Senior/Key Personnel as a PDF in Other Personnel Biographical Information following these instructions: https://www.nsf.gov/od/oise/proposals-with-international-collaborators. Clearly label each document with the individual's name and "Biographical Sketch."
• Current and Pending (Other) Support: Current and Pending (Other) Support is required for all individuals designated as a senior/key person on a proposal (see PAPPG Chapter II.D.2.h(ii)). For international collaborative proposals, this is not required for foreign collaborators, unless they have funding from a U.S. government organization.
• Collaborators & Other Affiliations Information: This information is required for the U.S. based personnel listed above. For international collaborative proposals, the information is required for foreign collaborators who are the equivalent of Senior/Key Personnel (as defined in the NSF PAPPG Exhibit II-3). NSF uses this information to manage reviewer selection and avoid potentially disqualifying conflicts of interest. COA information is not shared with reviewers. Upload COA information separately for each individual as a PDF in Single Copy Documents using the COA template. Clearly label each document with the individual's name and "COA."
• Synergistic Activities: This information is required from U.S. based personnel listed above. For international collaborative proposals, this is not required for foreign collaborators.

Supplementary Documents:

• Letters of Support/Collaboration:
  • Letters of support are not permitted.
  • Track 1: Letters of collaboration should follow the PAPPG guidelines (Chapter 2, Section C.2(j)). Industry Partners will not provide letters of collaboration and/or commitment for proposals submitted to Track I of this program.
  • Track 2: Proposers are strongly encouraged to include letters of collaboration from testbed/platform operators, MNOs/CSPs or other infrastructure providers critical to at-scale demonstrations indicating the scope of collaboration and that access is available to the facility and fits within the timeline of the proposed research. These letters may deviate from standard NSF template language suggested in Chapter II.D.2.i-(iii). However, each letter must be limited to a single page and a proposal may not include more than 4 such letters. This information is not considered part of the 15-page project description or the 8-page Management Plan limitation but should not exceed a total of 4 pages.

Other Supplementary Documents: The following special information must be provided as a Supplementary Document (single combined file).

• Management Plan: All proposals must include a management plan. The management plan is not considered part of the 15-page project description limitation but should not exceed a total of 4 pages for Track 1 proposals, and 8 pages for track 2 proposals, and must include the following numbered sections:
  1. a list of project personnel, including their affiliation, expertise and project roles.
  2. a plan for collaborative team coordination and project management: The complexity of the plan for collaborative team coordination and project management should match that of the project and should include: a.) How the project will be managed across investigators, organizations, and/or disciplines; b.) Personnel responsible for project management and execution of tasks; c.) Coordination mechanisms for cross-investigator, cross-organization, and cross-discipline integration (e.g., meetings, video conferencing, student exchanges, software repositories); d.) Budget line items supporting collaboration and coordination activities.
  3. a detailed project schedule identifying major tasks, inputs to each task, milestones with matching demonstrations/ deliverables (including a Gantt chart), associated risks and mitigation approaches. For Track 2 proposals, the schedule must also include planned demonstrations, where and when they will take place and who will be responsible.
  4. a brief plan for establishing and maintaining an up-to-date project website.
  5. Only for Track 2 proposals: an appropriately detailed initial draft of an IP management plan among team members indicating explicitly that all team members are in agreement of the initial draft and will be ready to sign either a finalized or a general framework agreement before an award is made.
  6. Only for Track 2 proposals: a sufficiently detailed roadmap (with a timeline) on plans for potential post-project (beyond the duration of 3 year project) follow-up activities such as partnerships, stakeholder engagement, commercialization and standardization of innovations resulting from Track 2 project.

Proposals without a Management Plan will be returned without review.

Supplementary Documents for International Collaborative Proposals:

• For international collaborative proposals, the international team's budget request and budget justification must be included in the NSF proposal as a Supplementary Document. International proposers should indicate only the international research expenses on the international partner agency's budget form. NSF proposers should indicate only the U.S. expenses in the NSF budget. The Budget Justification section of the NSF proposal should address the full project budget (U.S. and international teams). The U.S. project budget must be fully justified and clearly differentiated from funds requested by the international team. Proposals that request duplicative funding may be returned without review.
• Provide as a Supplementary Document, a 'Confirmation of Eligibility' letter obtained by the foreign collaborators from the respective international partner agency.
• Other Supplementary Documents: Proposers must follow PAPPG guidelines (Chapter II.D.2.i) for other required supplementary documents, including the Mentoring Plan and the Data Management and Sharing Plan.
• Cloud Computing Resources (if applicable):

  If requesting cloud resources, include a supplementary document (up to two pages) that contains:

  1. Proposal title.
  2. The public cloud providers that will be used.
  3. The anticipated annual and total costs for accessing the requested cloud computing resources, based on current pricing from the public cloud providers.
  4. A technical description and justification for the requested cloud computing resources.

  The NSF Budget should not include costs for accessing cloud computing resources via CloudBank.

• Single Copy Documents:
  • Track 2 proposals must include a copy of the NSF "Program Officer Concurrence Email" allowing the submission of the Track 2 proposal based on the Concept Outline.
  • If a proposal contains proprietary or privileged information (e.g., patentable ideas, trade secrets, or confidential commercial information), it must be included as a Single-Copy Document in Research.gov, per PAPPG Chapter II.E.1. This information will not be shared with reviewers; or agency, international or industry partners. NSF will make efforts to protect proprietary information but assumes no liability for its release.

Additional instructions for International Collaborative proposals:

The foreign collaborators must follow the guidelines provided in the respective international partner agency's instructions available at the links below. These links also include instructions about how to obtain the required eligibility letter from the respective international partner agency. For any questions regarding this matter, foreign collaborators are encouraged to contact the respective international partner agency listed in the international partner agency Contacts section of this solicitation.

Finland:

• RCF: https://www.aka.fi/en/research-funding/apply-for-funding/calls-for-applications/
• BF: https://www.businessfinland.fi/en/for-finnish-customers/whats-new#calls (new link will be added)

India:

• MeitY: https://www.meity.gov.in/whats-new

Japan:

• JST: https://www.jst.go.jp/kisoken/aip/en/call2025/index.html
• NICT: https://www.nict.go.jp/public_trust_info/index.html

Sweden:

• SRC: https://www.vr.se/5.4ab30ae2193deb6993a40100.html

Foreign collaborators must submit documentation that may be required by the respective international partner agency directly to the relevant agency in accordance with their procedures, in addition to documentation submitted to NSF. VINES international partner agencies may assess to what extent the proposed activities align with their priority topics and missions.

It is the foreign collaborators responsibility to seek a "PI(s) Eligibility Letter" from the respective international partner agency, which must be included in the proposal submission to NSF.

B. Budgetary Information

Cost Sharing:

Inclusion of voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited.

Budget Preparation Instructions:

Each proposal budget must include funding for a PI or co-PI and up to one other project participant to travel to and attend annual two-day PI meetings in the U.S. during the award period.

Purchase of new equipment for the sole purpose of setting up a testbed/platform for a project demo without a plan for post-project use are highly discouraged. When purchasing equipment is necessary and unavoidable, proposers should provide strong justification for why it is necessary and why it cannot be achieved via appropriate partnerships.

The project's total budget, including any cloud computing resource request from CloudBank.org, may not exceed the budget limits described in this solicitation. The total cost of the cloud computing resources requested from Cloudbank.org should not be included in the NSF budget. As noted above, it should be specified only in the associated supplementary document.

• Example: For a solicitation budget limit of $1,500,000, if a PI wishes to request $50,000 in cloud computing resources through CloudBank, then the proposal budget should not exceed $1,450,000. The $50,000 for cloud computing resources should be specified in the Supplementary Document. If a proposal involves PIs from multiple organizations, then a single Supplementary Document should capture the various cloud computing resource requests across the organizations.

C. Due Dates

• Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitting organization's local time):

  August 25, 2025

  Track 1

  September 25, 2025

  Track 2 (Submission of a Concept Outline by August 25th is required. See full text for additional information)

D. Research.gov/Grants.gov Requirements

For Proposals Submitted Via Research.gov:

To prepare and submit a proposal via Research.gov, see detailed technical instructions available at: https://www.research.gov/research-portal/appmanager/base/desktop?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=research_node_display&_nodePath=/researchGov/Service/Desktop/ProposalPreparationandSubmission.html. For Research.gov user support, call the Research.gov Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 or e-mail rgov@nsf.gov. The Research.gov Help Desk answers general technical questions related to the use of the Research.gov system. Specific questions related to this program solicitation should be referred to the NSF program staff contact(s) listed in Section VIII of this funding opportunity.

For Proposals Submitted Via Grants.gov:

Before using Grants.gov for the first time, each organization must register to create an institutional profile. Once registered, the applicant's organization can then apply for any federal grant on the Grants.gov website. Comprehensive information about using Grants.gov is available on the Grants.gov Applicant Resources webpage: https://www.grants.gov/applicants. In addition, the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide (see link in Section V.A) provides instructions regarding the technical preparation of proposals via Grants.gov. For Grants.gov user support, contact the Grants.gov Contact Center at 1-800-518-4726 or by email: support@grants.gov. The Grants.gov Contact Center answers general technical questions related to the use of Grants.gov. Specific questions related to this program solicitation should be referred to the NSF program staff contact(s) listed in Section VIII of this solicitation.

Submitting the Proposal: Once all documents have been completed, the Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) must submit the application to Grants.gov and verify the desired funding opportunity and agency to which the application is submitted. The AOR must then sign and submit the application to Grants.gov. The completed application will be transferred to Research.gov for further processing.

The NSF Grants.gov Proposal Processing in Research.gov informational page provides submission guidance to applicants and links to helpful resources including the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide, Grants.gov Proposal Processing in Research.gov how-to guide, and Grants.gov Submitted Proposals Frequently Asked Questions. Grants.gov proposals must pass all NSF pre-check and post-check validations in order to be accepted by Research.gov at NSF.

When submitting via Grants.gov, NSF strongly recommends applicants initiate proposal submission at least five business days in advance of a deadline to allow adequate time to address NSF compliance errors and resubmissions by 5:00 p.m. submitting organization's local time on the deadline. Please note that some errors cannot be corrected in Grants.gov. Once a proposal passes pre-checks but fails any post-check, an applicant can only correct and submit the in-progress proposal in Research.gov.

Proposers that submitted via Research.gov may use Research.gov to verify the status of their submission to NSF. For proposers that submitted via Grants.gov, until an application has been received and validated by NSF, the Authorized Organizational Representative may check the status of an application on Grants.gov. After proposers have received an e-mail notification from NSF, Research.gov should be used to check the status of an application.

VI. NSF PROPOSAL PROCESSING AND REVIEW PROCEDURES

Proposals received by NSF are assigned to the appropriate NSF program for acknowledgement and, if they meet NSF requirements, for review. All proposals are carefully reviewed by a scientist, engineer, or educator serving as an NSF Program Officer, and usually by three to ten other persons outside NSF either as ad hoc reviewers, panelists, or both, who are experts in the particular fields represented by the proposal. These reviewers are selected by Program Officers charged with oversight of the review process. Proposers are invited to suggest names of persons they believe are especially well qualified to review the proposal and/or persons they would prefer not review the proposal. These suggestions may serve as one source in the reviewer selection process at the Program Officer's discretion. Submission of such names, however, is optional. Care is taken to ensure that reviewers have no conflicts of interest with the proposal. In addition, Program Officers may obtain comments from site visits before recommending final action on proposals. Senior NSF staff further review recommendations for awards. A flowchart that depicts the entire NSF proposal and award process (and associated timeline) is included in PAPPG Exhibit III-1.

A comprehensive description of the Foundation's merit review process is available on the NSF website at: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/overview.

A. Merit Review Principles and Criteria

The National Science Foundation strives to invest in a robust and diverse portfolio of projects that creates new knowledge and enables breakthroughs in understanding across all areas of science and engineering research and education. To identify which projects to support, NSF relies on a merit review process that incorporates consideration of both the technical aspects of a proposed project and its potential to contribute more broadly to advancing NSF's mission "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense; and for other purposes." NSF makes every effort to conduct a fair, competitive, transparent merit review process for the selection of projects.

1. Merit Review Principles

These principles are to be given due diligence by PIs and organizations when preparing proposals and managing projects, by reviewers when reading and evaluating proposals, and by NSF program staff when determining whether or not to recommend proposals for funding and while overseeing awards. Given that NSF is the primary federal agency charged with nurturing and supporting excellence in basic research and education, the following three principles apply:

• All NSF projects should be of the highest quality and have the potential to advance, if not transform, the frontiers of knowledge.
• NSF projects, in the aggregate, should contribute more broadly to achieving societal goals. These "Broader Impacts" may be accomplished through the research itself, through activities that are directly related to specific research projects, or through activities that are supported by, but are complementary to, the project. The project activities may be based on previously established and/or innovative methods and approaches, but in either case must be well justified.
• Meaningful assessment and evaluation of NSF funded projects should be based on appropriate metrics, keeping in mind the likely correlation between the effect of broader impacts and the resources provided to implement projects. If the size of the activity is limited, evaluation of that activity in isolation is not likely to be meaningful. Thus, assessing the effectiveness of these activities may best be done at a higher, more aggregated, level than the individual project.

With respect to the third principle, even if assessment of Broader Impacts outcomes for particular projects is done at an aggregated level, PIs are expected to be accountable for carrying out the activities described in the funded project. Thus, individual projects should include clearly stated goals, specific descriptions of the activities that the PI intends to do, and a plan in place to document the outputs of those activities.

These three merit review principles provide the basis for the merit review criteria, as well as a context within which the users of the criteria can better understand their intent.

2. Merit Review Criteria

All NSF proposals are evaluated through use of the two National Science Board approved merit review criteria. In some instances, however, NSF will employ additional criteria as required to highlight the specific objectives of certain programs and activities.

The two merit review criteria are listed below. Both criteria are to be given full consideration during the review and decision-making processes; each criterion is necessary but neither, by itself, is sufficient. Therefore, proposers must fully address both criteria. (PAPPG Chapter II.D.2.d(i). contains additional information for use by proposers in development of the Project Description section of the proposal). Reviewers are strongly encouraged to review the criteria, including PAPPG Chapter II.D.2.d(i), prior to the review of a proposal.

When evaluating NSF proposals, reviewers will be asked to consider what the proposers want to do, why they want to do it, how they plan to do it, how they will know if they succeed, and what benefits could accrue if the project is successful. These issues apply both to the technical aspects of the proposal and the way in which the project may make broader contributions. To that end, reviewers will be asked to evaluate all proposals against two criteria:

• Intellectual Merit: The Intellectual Merit criterion encompasses the potential to advance knowledge; and
• Broader Impacts: The Broader Impacts criterion encompasses the potential to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes.

The following elements should be considered in the review for both criteria:

1. What is the potential for the proposed activity to
   1. Advance knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields (Intellectual Merit); and
   2. Benefit society or advance desired societal outcomes (Broader Impacts)?
2. To what extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts?
3. Is the plan for carrying out the proposed activities well-reasoned, well-organized, and based on a sound rationale? Does the plan incorporate a mechanism to assess success?
4. How well qualified is the individual, team, or organization to conduct the proposed activities?
5. Are there adequate resources available to the PI (either at the home organization or through collaborations) to carry out the proposed activities?

Broader impacts may be accomplished through the research itself, through the activities that are directly related to specific research projects, or through activities that are supported by, but are complementary to, the project. NSF values the advancement of scientific knowledge and activities that contribute to achievement of societally relevant outcomes. Such outcomes include, but are not limited to: expanding participation of women and individuals from underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); improved STEM education and educator development at any level; increased public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology; improved well-being of individuals in society; development of a globally competitive STEM workforce; increased partnerships between academia, industry, and others; improved national security; increased economic competitiveness of the United States; and enhanced infrastructure for research and education.

Proposers are reminded that reviewers will also be asked to review the Data Management and Sharing Plan and the Mentoring Plan, as appropriate.

Additional Solicitation Specific Review Criteria

Additional merit review criteria apply.

Track 1:

NSF engages in public-private partnerships to increase the potential for research discoveries to become innovations with societal impact through market mechanisms. Given this context, all Track 1 proposals must clearly address the following solicitation-specific review criteria through well-identified proposal elements:

1. What is the potential for the project to advance impactful research in the chosen Group B technology enablers, that leads to significant advances in the chosen Group A capability (or capabilities) of NextG network systems?
2. How effectively does the proposed research ensure synergy between the selected Capability RV(s) (Group A) and Enabling Technology RV(s) (Group B)?
3. Does the proposed research contain the required collaborative teaming to address the capability challenges utilizing the chosen enabling technologies?

Track 2:

All Track 2 proposals must include a section titled "Addressing VINES Solicitation-Specific Review Criteria" (about one page in length) in the Project Description. This section should explain how the proposal meets the following solicitation-specific review criteria for Track 2 and refer to other sections (including the supplementary documents) for further details.

Q1. Can the performance or the capability enabled by the proposed NextG networking technology solution be expected to meet the requirements of the target vertical application and, if so, what is the economic viability and the associated timeframe?

Q2. Does the selected vertical application have the potential to drive demand for NextG networks offering the proposed technological solution and the performance/capability enabled from it?

Q3. Does the proposal justify that (1) the identified primary networking technology area is relatively mature (at least TRL 3) and has the potential to be adopted in future NextG networks, (2) the performance or the capability enabled by the selected primary networking technology is critical to meeting the requirements of the identified vertical application, and (3) the identified vertical application has the potential to be of societal and/or economic importance?

Q4. Are the project schedule of milestones and matching demonstrations/deliverables sound and consistent with program and project objectives?

Q5. Only for proposals proposing a primary networking technology area not in the suggested list for Track 2: Does the proposal demonstrate that (1) the proposed primary networking technology is relatively mature (at least TRL 3) and has the potential to be in consideration for NextG networks, (2) the performance enabled by the proposed primary networking technology is critical to meeting the requirements of the identified vertical application, (3) the identified vertical application has the potential to be of societal and economic importance, and (4) the solution approach based on the proposed primary networking technology is potentially superior and more desirable to that based on any of the above suggested technologies?

Q6. Only for teams with foreign collaborations: Does the proposal demonstrate that (i) entities from one country are primarily responsible for competency A, while those from the other country are primarily responsible for competency B, and (ii) participants from each partner country bring unique capabilities to the team that increase the chance of project success justifying the collaboration between the two countries?

B. Review and Selection Process

Proposals submitted in response to this program solicitation will be reviewed by Ad hoc Review and/or Panel Review.

Reviewers will be asked to evaluate proposals using two National Science Board approved merit review criteria and, if applicable, additional program specific criteria. A summary rating and accompanying narrative will generally be completed and submitted by each reviewer and/or panel. The Program Officer assigned to manage the proposal's review will consider the advice of reviewers and will formulate a recommendation.

Initial selection of proposals by NSF will be through a Review Panel augmented as necessary with ad hoc reviews. Program staff from U.S. Federal agency partners may act as observers in the review process. Program staff from international agency partners may act as observers in the review process for international collaborative proposals.

After completion of the merit review process of Track 1 proposals, NSF may share with representatives of the industry partners, federal partners, and, for international collaborative proposals, the corresponding international partner, the subset of Track 1 proposals which are under consideration for funding by NSF, along with corresponding unattributed reviews and panel summaries.

After completion of the merit review process of Track 2 proposals, NSF may share with representatives of the federal partners, and, for international collaborative proposals, the corresponding international partner, the subset of Track 2 proposals which are under consideration for funding by NSF, along with corresponding unattributed reviews and panel summaries.

NSF will take into consideration the input of track partners, as outlined above, in addition to feedback from the reviewers, prior to making final funding decisions but will retain final authority for making all award decisions. Partners may opt to decline access to the proposals and corresponding unattributed reviews and panel summaries. Any resulting awards will be consistent with the goals set forth in this program solicitation. NSF will strive to balance awards across topics in order to ensure all programmatic priorities are met.

After scientific, technical and programmatic review and consideration of appropriate factors, the NSF Program Officer recommends to the cognizant Division Director whether the proposal should be declined or recommended for award. NSF strives to be able to tell proposers whether their proposals have been declined or recommended for funding within six months. Large or particularly complex proposals or proposals from new recipients may require additional review and processing time. The time interval begins on the deadline or target date, or receipt date, whichever is later. The interval ends when the Division Director acts upon the Program Officer's recommendation.

After programmatic approval has been obtained, the proposals recommended for funding will be forwarded to the Division of Grants and Agreements or the Division of Acquisition and Cooperative Support for review of business, financial, and policy implications. After an administrative review has occurred, Grants and Agreements Officers perform the processing and issuance of a grant or other agreement. Proposers are cautioned that only a Grants and Agreements Officer may make commitments, obligations or awards on behalf of NSF or authorize the expenditure of funds. No commitment on the part of NSF should be inferred from technical or budgetary discussions with a NSF Program Officer. A Principal Investigator or organization that makes financial or personnel commitments in the absence of a grant or cooperative agreement signed by the NSF Grants and Agreements Officer does so at their own risk.

Once an award or declination decision has been made, Principal Investigators are provided feedback about their proposals. In all cases, reviews are treated as confidential documents. Verbatim copies of reviews, excluding the names of the reviewers or any reviewer-identifying information, are sent to the Principal Investigator/Project Director by the Program Officer. In addition, the proposer will receive an explanation of the decision to award or decline funding.

VII. AWARD ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

A. Notification of the Award

Notification of the award is made to the submitting organization by an NSF Grants and Agreements Officer. Organizations whose proposals are declined will be advised as promptly as possible by the cognizant NSF Program administering the program. Verbatim copies of reviews, not including the identity of the reviewer, will be provided automatically to the Principal Investigator. (See Section VI.B. for additional information on the review process.)

B. Award Conditions

An NSF award consists of: (1) the award notice, which includes any special provisions applicable to the award and any numbered amendments thereto; (2) the budget, which indicates the amounts, by categories of expense, on which NSF has based its support (or otherwise communicates any specific approvals or disapprovals of proposed expenditures); (3) the proposal referenced in the award notice; (4) the applicable award conditions, such as Grant General Conditions (GC-1)*; and (5) any announcement or other NSF issuance that may be incorporated by reference in the award notice. Cooperative agreements also are administered in accordance with NSF Cooperative Agreement Financial and Administrative Terms and Conditions (CA-FATC) and the applicable Programmatic Terms and Conditions. NSF awards are electronically signed by an NSF Grants and Agreements Officer and transmitted electronically to the organization via e-mail.

*These documents may be accessed electronically on NSF's Website at https://www.nsf.gov/awards/managing/award_conditions.jsp?org=NSF. Paper copies may be obtained from the NSF Publications Clearinghouse, telephone (703) 292-8134 or by e-mail from nsfpubs@nsf.gov.

More comprehensive information on NSF Award Conditions and other important information on the administration of NSF awards is contained in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) Chapter VII, available electronically on the NSF Website at https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=pappg.

Administrative and National Policy Requirements

Build America, Buy America

As expressed in Executive Order 14005, Ensuring the Future is Made in All of America by All of America's Workers (86 FR 7475), it is the policy of the executive branch to use terms and conditions of Federal financial assistance awards to maximize, consistent with law, the use of goods, products, and materials produced in, and services offered in, the United States.

Consistent with the requirements of the Build America, Buy America Act (Pub. L. 117-58, Division G, Title IX, Subtitle A, November 15, 2021), no funding made available through this funding opportunity may be obligated for infrastructure projects under an award unless all iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials used in the project are produced in the United States. For additional information, visit NSF's Build America, Buy America webpage.

Special Award Conditions:

• INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: Refer to Sections II.3 and II.4 in the Program Description section above.
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SUPPORT: Recipients will be required to include appropriate acknowledgment of Federal agency and industry partners' support in reports and/or publications on work performed under an award. An example of such an acknowledgment would be: "This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. (NSF grant number) and is partly supported by funds from federal agency and international partners as specified in the NSF 25-xxx VINES solicitation."
• PI MEETINGS: The program plans to host annual PI meetings (location to be announced later) every year with participation from all active projects. This meeting will be a community-wide event with representatives from Federal agencies, academia, industry, and international institutions. The first PI meeting is expected to be held in early 2026. At least one PI or co-PI and up to one other project participant must attend each PI meeting. Participation of at least two representatives from a multi-institution project is required, but attendance of a representative from every institution participating in that project is not required. For Track 2 teams, attendance of a representative from networking and vertical sectors each is required.
• PARTNERS AND COLLABORATING U.S. AGENCIES ENGAGEMENT: Once the Program awards have been issued, each of the industry or international partners and collaborating U.S. agencies, henceforth referred to as "organization," may engage with the recipients in the following ways:
  • Representatives may attend the annual PI meetings;
  • Organization may provide software (prototypes or products), data sets, other computing infrastructure, and/or other such support to all recipients; although recipients will not be required to use the participating organization's offered contributions;
  • Organization may offer to provide resources and opportunities (e.g., seminars, internships) to all recipients, although recipients will not be required to use participating organization's offered contributions; and/or
  • Organization may separately offer to fund its own personnel as researchers to directly participate, part-time or full-time, with the funded recipients, pursuant to terms and conditions agreed upon between the participating organization and the funded recipient. Such a researcher is an organization representative actively participating with the funded research team. Depending on organization's capacity to provide such a researcher, it is possible that not all recipients interested in hosting a researcher will have access to them. Optional deployment of one or more researchers will require mutual consent by the participating organization and the recipient for each award made under this program. In no case will any recipient be required to accept a partner's researcher, nor will a partner's researcher be required to engage with a recipient.
  • VINES COORDINATION ENTITY: Additionally, proposers should plan that NSF or an NSF-funded coordination entity will facilitate engagement between NSF, partners, and recipients, including on research dissemination, workshops, collaborative engagements, and other activities that support nurturing and growing the NextG networks / VINES community. Recipients must engage with NSF and/or the coordination entity on these activities throughout the duration of the award.

C. Reporting Requirements

For all multi-year grants (including both standard and continuing grants), the Principal Investigator must submit an annual project report to the cognizant Program Officer no later than 90 days prior to the end of the current budget period. (Some programs or awards require submission of more frequent project reports). No later than 120 days following expiration of a grant, the PI also is required to submit a final annual project report, and a project outcomes report for the general public.

Failure to provide the required annual or final annual project reports, or the project outcomes report, will delay NSF review and processing of any future funding increments as well as any pending proposals for all identified PIs and co-PIs on a given award. PIs should examine the formats of the required reports in advance to assure availability of required data.

PIs are required to use NSF's electronic project-reporting system, available through Research.gov, for preparation and submission of annual and final annual project reports. Such reports provide information on accomplishments, project participants (individual and organizational), publications, and other specific products and impacts of the project. Submission of the report via Research.gov constitutes certification by the PI that the contents of the report are accurate and complete. The project outcomes report also must be prepared and submitted using Research.gov. This report serves as a brief summary, prepared specifically for the public, of the nature and outcomes of the project. This report will be posted on the NSF website exactly as it is submitted by the PI.

More comprehensive information on NSF Reporting Requirements and other important information on the administration of NSF awards is contained in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) Chapter VII, available electronically on the NSF Website at https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=pappg.

Please see the full text of this solicitation for further information.

VIII. AGENCY CONTACTS

Please note that the program contact information is current at the time of publishing. See program website for any updates to the points of contact.

General inquiries regarding this program should be made to:

• Alhussein A. Abouzeid, telephone: (703) 292-7855, email: aabouzei@nsf.gov
• Sudharman Jayaweera Kankanamge, telephone: (703) 292-2828, email: sjayawee@nsf.gov
• John M. Chapin, telephone: (703) 292-8222, email: jchapin@nsf.gov
• Huaiyu Dai, telephone: (703) 292-4568, email: hdai@nsf.gov
• Hang Liu, telephone: (703) 292-5139, email: haliu@nsf.gov
• Jenshan Lin, telephone: (703) 292-7360, email: jenlin@nsf.gov
• Abraham Matta, telephone: (703) 292-4624, email: amatta@nsf.gov
• Daniela A. Oliveira, telephone: (703) 292-4352, email: doliveir@nsf.gov
• Phillip A. Regalia, telephone: (703) 292-2981, email: pregalia@nsf.gov
• Xiaogang Wang, telephone: (703) 292-2812, email: xiawang@nsf.gov

For questions related to the use of NSF systems contact:

• NSF Help Desk: 1-800-381-1532
• Research.gov Help Desk e-mail: rgov@nsf.gov

For questions relating to Grants.gov contact:

• Grants.gov Contact Center: If the Authorized Organizational Representatives (AOR) has not received a confirmation message from Grants.gov within 48 hours of submission of application, please contact via telephone: 1-800-518-4726; e-mail:support@grants.gov.
• Finland:
  • Risto Vilkko, Research Council of Finland (RCF), telephone: +358-295-33-5136, Risto.Vilkko@aka.fi
  • Oskari Miettinen, Research Council of Finland (RCF), telephone: +358-295-33-053, Oskari.Miettinen@aka.fi
  • Pekka Rantala, Business Finland (BF), telephone: +358-40-503-8808, Pekka.Rantala@businessfinland.fi
  • Kimmo Kanto, Business Finland (BF), telephone: +358-50-557-7852, KimmoKanto@businessfinland.fi
• India:
  • Prakash Kumar, R&D in CC&BT, MeitY, prakash.kr@meity.gov.in
  • Kamlesh Kumar, R&D in Electronics, MeitY, kr.kamlesh@meity.gov.in
• Japan:
  • Japan Science and Technology (JST), rp-info@jst.go.jp
  • Kyotaro Maeda, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), telephone: +(202) 486-5643, k.maeda@nict.go.jp
  • National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), vines-info@ml.nict.go.jp
• Sweden:
  • Tomas Andersson, Swedish Research Council (SRC), telephone: +46-8-546-44-173, tomas.andersson@vr.se

IX. OTHER INFORMATION

The NSF website provides the most comprehensive source of information on NSF Directorates (including contact information), programs and funding opportunities. Use of this website by potential proposers is strongly encouraged. In addition, "NSF Update" is an information-delivery system designed to keep potential proposers and other interested parties apprised of new NSF funding opportunities and publications, important changes in proposal and award policies and procedures, and upcoming NSF Grants Conferences. Subscribers are informed through e-mail or the user's Web browser each time new publications are issued that match their identified interests. "NSF Update" also is available on NSF's website.

Grants.gov provides an additional electronic capability to search for Federal government-wide grant opportunities. NSF funding opportunities may be accessed via this mechanism. Further information on Grants.gov may be obtained at https://www.grants.gov.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent Federal agency created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (42 USC 1861-75). The Act states the purpose of the NSF is "to promote the progress of science; [and] to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare by supporting research and education in all fields of science and engineering."

NSF funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering. It does this through grants and cooperative agreements to more than 2,000 colleges, universities, K-12 school systems, businesses, informal science organizations and other research organizations throughout the US. The Foundation accounts for about one-fourth of Federal support to academic institutions for basic research.

NSF receives approximately 55,000 proposals each year for research, education and training projects, of which approximately 11,000 are funded. In addition, the Foundation receives several thousand applications for graduate and postdoctoral fellowships. The agency operates no laboratories itself but does support National Research Centers, user facilities, certain oceanographic vessels and Arctic and Antarctic research stations. The Foundation also supports cooperative research between universities and industry, US participation in international scientific and engineering efforts, and educational activities at every academic level.

Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities (FASED) provide funding for special assistance or equipment to enable persons with disabilities to work on NSF-supported projects. See the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide Chapter II.F.7 for instructions regarding preparation of these types of proposals.

The National Science Foundation has Telephonic Device for the Deaf (TDD) and Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) capabilities that enable individuals with hearing impairments to communicate with the Foundation about NSF programs, employment or general information. TDD may be accessed at (703) 292-5090 and (800) 281-8749, FIRS at (800) 877-8339.

The National Science Foundation Information Center may be reached at (703) 292-5111.

The National Science Foundation promotes and advances scientific progress in the United States by competitively awarding grants and cooperative agreements for research and education in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. To get the latest information about program deadlines, to download copies of NSF publications, and to access abstracts of awards, visit the NSF Website at https://www.nsf.gov. Location: 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22314 For General Information (NSF Information Center): (703) 292-5111 TDD (for the hearing-impaired): (703) 292-5090 To Order Publications or Forms:   Send an e-mail to: nsfpubs@nsf.gov or telephone: (703) 292-8134 To Locate NSF Employees: (703) 292-5111

PRIVACY ACT AND PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENTS

The information requested on proposal forms and project reports is solicited under the authority of the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended. The information on proposal forms will be used in connection with the selection of qualified proposals; and project reports submitted by proposers will be used for program evaluation and reporting within the Executive Branch and to Congress. The information requested may be disclosed to qualified reviewers and staff assistants as part of the proposal review process; to proposer institutions/recipients to provide or obtain data regarding the proposal review process, award decisions, or the administration of awards; to government contractors, experts, volunteers and researchers and educators as necessary to complete assigned work; to other government agencies or other entities needing information regarding proposers or nominees as part of a joint application review process, or in order to coordinate programs or policy; and to another Federal agency, court, or party in a court or Federal administrative proceeding if the government is a party. Information about Principal Investigators may be added to the Reviewer file and used to select potential candidates to serve as peer reviewers or advisory committee members. See System of Record Notices, NSF-50, "Principal Investigator/Proposal File and Associated Records," and NSF-51, "Reviewer/Proposal File and Associated Records." Submission of the information is voluntary. Failure to provide full and complete information, however, may reduce the possibility of receiving an award.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, an information collection unless it displays a valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. The OMB control number for this collection is 3145-0058. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 120 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions. Send comments regarding the burden estimate and any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to:

Suzanne H. Plimpton
Reports Clearance Officer
Policy Office, Division of Institution and Award Support
Office of Budget, Finance, and Award Management
National Science Foundation
Alexandria, VA 22314