Opportunities for Funding

Communities in the United States (US) and around the world are entering a new era of transformation in which residents and their surrounding environments are increasingly connected through rapidly-changing intelligent technologies. This transformation offers great promise for improved wellbeing and prosperity but poses significant challenges at the complex intersection of technology and society. The goal of the NSF Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) program solicitation is to accelerate the creation of the scientific and engineering foundations that will enable smart and connected communities to bring about new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, accessibility and inclusivity, and overall quality of life.

For the purposes of this solicitation, communities are defined as having geographically-delineated boundaries — such as towns, cities, counties, neighborhoods, community districts, rural areas, and tribal regions — consisting of various populations, with the structure and ability to engage in meaningful ways with proposed research activities. A "smart and connected community" is, in turn, defined as a community that synergistically integrates intelligent technologies with the natural and built environments, including infrastructure, to improve the social, economic, and environmental well-being of those who live, work, learn, or travel within it. The S&CC program encourages researchers to work with community stakeholders to identify and define challenges they are facing, enabling those challenges to motivate use-inspired research questions. For this solicitation, community stakeholders may include some or all of the following: residents, neighborhood or community groups, nonprofit or philanthropic organizations, businesses, as well as municipal organizations such as libraries, museums, educational institutions, public works departments, and health and social services agencies. The S&CC program supports integrative research that addresses fundamental technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Importantly, this program is interested in projects that consider the sustainability of the research outcomes beyond the life of the project, including the scalability and transferability of the proposed solutions.

This S&CC solicitation will support research projects in the following categories:

S&CC Integrative Research Grants (SCC-IRG) Tracks 1 and 2. Awards in this category will support fundamental integrative research that addresses technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Track 1 proposals may request budgets ranging between $1,500,001 and $2,500,000, with durations of up to four years. Track 2 proposals may request budgets up to $1,500,000, with durations of up to three years.

S&CC Planning Grants (SCC-PG). Awards in this category are for capacity building to prepare project teams to propose future well-developed SCC-IRG proposals. Each of these awards will provide support for a period of one year and may be requested at a level not to exceed $150,000 for the total budget. S&CC is a cross-directorate program supported by NSF's Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE).

Communities in the United States (US) and around the world are entering a new era of transformation in which residents and their surrounding environments are increasingly connected through rapidly-changing intelligent technologies. This transformation offers great promise for improved wellbeing and prosperity but poses significant challenges at the complex intersection of technology and society. The goal of the NSF Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) program solicitation is to accelerate the creation of the scientific and engineering foundations that will enable smart and connected communities to bring about new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, accessibility and inclusivity, and overall quality of life.

For the purposes of this solicitation, communities are defined as having geographically-delineated boundaries — such as towns, cities, counties, neighborhoods, community districts, rural areas, and tribal regions — consisting of various populations, with the structure and ability to engage in meaningful ways with proposed research activities. A "smart and connected community" is, in turn, defined as a community that synergistically integrates intelligent technologies with the natural and built environments, including infrastructure, to improve the social, economic, and environmental well-being of those who live, work, learn, or travel within it. The S&CC program encourages researchers to work with community stakeholders to identify and define challenges they are facing, enabling those challenges to motivate use-inspired research questions. For this solicitation, community stakeholders may include some or all of the following: residents, neighborhood or community groups, nonprofit or philanthropic organizations, businesses, as well as municipal organizations such as libraries, museums, educational institutions, public works departments, and health and social services agencies. The S&CC program supports integrative research that addresses fundamental technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Importantly, this program is interested in projects that consider the sustainability of the research outcomes beyond the life of the project, including the scalability and transferability of the proposed solutions.

This S&CC solicitation will support research projects in the following categories:

S&CC Integrative Research Grants (SCC-IRG) Tracks 1 and 2. Awards in this category will support fundamental integrative research that addresses technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Track 1 proposals may request budgets ranging between $1,500,001 and $2,500,000, with durations of up to four years. Track 2 proposals may request budgets up to $1,500,000, with durations of up to three years.

S&CC Planning Grants (SCC-PG). Awards in this category are for capacity building to prepare project teams to propose future well-developed SCC-IRG proposals. Each of these awards will provide support for a period of one year and may be requested at a level not to exceed $150,000 for the total budget. S&CC is a cross-directorate program supported by NSF's Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE).

The Environmental Sustainability program is part of the Environmental Engineering and Sustainability Cluster together with 1) the Environmental Engineering program and 2) the Nanoscale Interactions program. The goal of the Environmental Sustainability program is to promote sustainable engineered systems that support human well-being and that are also compatible with sustaining natural (environmental) systems. These systems provide ecological services vital for human survival. Research efforts supported by the program typically consider long time horizons and may incorporate contributions from the social sciences and ethics. The program supports engineering research that seeks to balance society's need to provide ecological protection and maintain stable economic conditions. There are five principal general research areas that are supported.

Circular Bioeconomy Engineering: This area includes research that enables sustainable societal use of food, energy, water, nitrogen, phosphorus, and materials, with the reduction and eventual elimination of fossil fuel combustion that lacks carbon capture. The program encourages research that helps build the raw material basis for the functioning of society principally on biomass, drawing heavily on sustainable agriculture and forestry. Additionally, material flows must reduce or preferably eliminate waste, with an emphasis on closed-loop or “circular” processing.

Industrial ecology: Topics of interest include advancements in modeling such as life cycle assessment, materials flow analysis, net energy analysis, input/output economic models, and novel metrics for measuring sustainable systems. Innovations in industrial ecology are encouraged.

Green engineering: Research is encouraged to advance the sustainability of manufacturing processes, green buildings, and infrastructure. Many programs in the Engineering Directorate support research in environmentally benign manufacturing or chemical processes. The Environmental Sustainability program supports research that would affect more than one chemical or manufacturing process or that takes a systems or holistic approach to green engineering for infrastructure or green buildings. Improvements in distribution and collection systems that will advance smart growth strategies and ameliorate effects of growth are research areas that are supported by Environmental Sustainability. Innovations in management of stormwater, recycling and reuse of drinking water, and other green engineering techniques to support sustainability may also be fruitful areas for research.

Ecological engineering: Proposals should focus on the engineering aspects of restoring ecological function to natural systems. Engineering research in the enhancement of natural capital to foster sustainable development is encouraged.

Earth systems engineering:Earth systems engineering considers aspects of large-scale engineering research that involve mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation to climate change, and other global concerns.

Summary of MAP Program Requirements

Geographic Scope: National, must take place on US National Forests and Grasslands or adjacent public lands, and demonstrate benefit to National Forest System lands

Funding Source: Federal funds via the US Forest Service

Eligible Applicants: Nonprofit organizations, Tribal governments and organizations, and universities

Match Requirements: 1:1 nonfederal cash match

Program Areas: All MAP applications must focus on in-person community engagement, and have a stewardship component

Project Timing: Eligible projects are no more than 18 months in duration, and start two months after the application deadline

Letters of Support: All applications must include a letter of support from the District Ranger of each National Forest or Grassland unit included in a proposal

Environmental Compliance: All permitting and environmental compliance work (including but not limited to NEPA) must be complete before submitting a MAP application

Administrative: Applicant must have or be able to obtain a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) if selected for funding

Recent Program Update
In 2023, the National Forest Foundation (NFF) announced changes to its flagship competitive grant program, the Matching Awards Program (MAP). The adjustments were a result of over two years of work to collect feedback to align the program with current National Forest System needs, and the NFF strategic plan.
The resulting program, MAP: Connecting People to Forests, focuses primarily on in-person community engagement and completion of appropriate stewardship activities. Program goals are to create lasting change that will allow all communities, especially underserved communities, opportunities to benefit from activities on National Forest System lands or adjacent public lands.
Refer to the summary and the Request for Proposals (RFP) linked below for full information.

The Clean Bus Planning Awards (CBPA) program reduces barriers to zero-emission bus deployment by providing school and transit bus fleets with free technical assistance to develop comprehensive and customized fleet electrification transition plans.

CBPA is managed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and funded by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office). CBPA connects transit and school bus fleets with technical experts to support planning for bus electrification. Fleets also have the option to receive free deployment assistance from NREL at the completion of their plan.

CBPA is not an incentive program, and fleets do not receive direct funding—rather, selected applicants will be allocated technical assistance resources by NREL.

EDA has authority to provide grants to meet the full range of communities’ and regions’ economic development needs from planning and technical assistance to construction of infrastructure. These grants are made through a series of Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) that can be found on EDA’s website at https://www.eda.gov/funding/funding-opportunities and are designed to support the economic development activities most useful to a community based on its needs and circumstances. EDA funds community or regionally generated ideas and assists communities to advance to the next level of economic development.

This NOFO, which supersedes the FY20 PWEAA NOFO, sets out EDA’s application submission and review procedures for two of EDA’s core economic development programs authorized under the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 3121 et seq.) (PWEDA): (1) Public Works and Economic Development Facilities (Public Works) and (2) Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA).

EDA supports bottom-up strategies that build on regional assets to spur economic growth and resiliency. EDA encourages its grantees throughout the country to develop initiatives that present new ideas and creative approaches to advance economic prosperity in distressed communities.

Through this NOFO EDA intends to advance general economic development in accordance with EDA’s investment priorities, but also to pursue projects that, where practicable, incorporate specific priorities related to equity, workforce development, and climate change resiliency so that investments can benefit everyone for decades to come.

The primary goal of the RCP Program is to reconnect communities harmed by past transportation infrastructure decisions, through community-supported planning activities and capital construction projects that are championed by those communities. The RCP Program aligns with Biden-Harris Administration policies and priorities, including the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT or Department) Strategic Plan goals. The Department seeks to fund projects that advance the Departmental priorities of safety, equity, climate and sustainability, workforce development, job quality, and wealth creation as described in the USDOT Strategic Plan, Research, Development and Technology Strategic Plan, and in executive orders.

The purpose of the RCP Program is 1) to advance community-centered transportation connection projects, with a priority for projects that benefit disadvantaged communities (See Section H.1. Definitions), that improve access to daily needs such as jobs, education, healthcare, food, nature, and recreation, and foster equitable development and restoration, and 2) to provide technical assistance to further these goals.

The RCP Program provides grant funding and technical assistance for planning and capital construction to address infrastructure barriers, restore community connectivity, and improve peoples’ lives. The variety of transformative solutions to knit communities back together can include infrastructure removal, pedestrian walkways and overpasses, capping and lids, roadway redesigns, complete streets conversions, and main street revitalization.

The RCP Program welcomes applications from diverse local, State, Tribal, and regional communities regardless of size, location, and experience administering Federal funding awards.

The primary goal of the RCP Program is to reconnect communities harmed by past transportation infrastructure decisions, through community-supported planning activities and capital construction projects that are championed by those communities. The RCP Program aligns with Biden-Harris Administration policies and priorities, including the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT or Department) Strategic Plan goals. The Department seeks to fund projects that advance the Departmental priorities of safety, equity, climate and sustainability, workforce development, job quality, and wealth creation as described in the USDOT Strategic Plan, Research, Development and Technology Strategic Plan, and in executive orders.

The purpose of the RCP Program is 1) to advance community-centered transportation connection projects, with a priority for projects that benefit disadvantaged communities (See Section H.1. Definitions), that improve access to daily needs such as jobs, education, healthcare, food, nature, and recreation, and foster equitable development and restoration, and 2) to provide technical assistance to further these goals.

The RCP Program provides grant funding and technical assistance for planning and capital construction to address infrastructure barriers, restore community connectivity, and improve peoples’ lives. The variety of transformative solutions to knit communities back together can include infrastructure removal, pedestrian walkways and overpasses, capping and lids, roadway redesigns, complete streets conversions, and main street revitalization.

The RCP Program welcomes applications from diverse local, State, Tribal, and regional communities regardless of size, location, and experience administering Federal funding awards.

EDA provides strategic investments on a competitive merit basis to support economic development, foster job creation, and attract private investment in economically distressed areas of the United States. Under this NOFO, EDA solicits applications from applicants in order to provide investments that support research and technical assistance projects under EDA’s R&E and NTA programs. Grants and cooperative agreements made under these programs are designed to leverage existing regional assets and support the implementation of economic development strategies that advance new ideas and creative approaches to advance economic prosperity in distressed communities.

This NOFO employs a two-step application process: (1) the Concept Proposal and (2) the Full Application. EDA will only review Full Applications submitted by applicants who first submitted a Concept Proposal. Any Full Application received from an applicant that did not submit a Concept Proposal will be deemed ineligible and not considered for funding. For the Concept Proposal, applicants may use the optional template available at https://eda.gov/programs/rnta/resources/. Full Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov using the link that EDA will provide with its response to the Concept Proposal.

*Please note: While the published Notice of Funding Opportunity (available under "Related Documents") states that the ED900A form and the SF424B form are both required for a complete application, these forms are no longer required and have therefore been removed from the package template.

This program helps very small, financially distressed rural communities with predevelopment feasibility studies, design and technical assistance on proposed water and waste disposal projects.