Smart and Connected Communities | 22 529

Opportunity Information: Apply for 22 529

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Smart and Connected Communities (SampCC) grant opportunity supports research that helps communities navigate and benefit from the growing wave of intelligent, connected technologies that now shape daily life. The program is built around the idea that these technologies can unlock major gains in prosperity and wellbeing, but only if they are designed and studied in ways that account for real social conditions, local needs, and the complicated tradeoffs that happen where technology meets people, institutions, and infrastructure. NSF is looking to fund work that strengthens the scientific and engineering foundations behind smart community systems, with an emphasis on outcomes that can improve economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, accessibility and inclusivity, and overall quality of life.

In this solicitation, a "community" is defined in a very practical way: it is a geographically bounded place such as a town, city, county, neighborhood, community district, rural area, or tribal region, with the organization and capacity to engage meaningfully in the proposed research. A "smart and connected community" is described as one that intentionally combines intelligent technologies with the natural and built environments, including infrastructure, to improve social, economic, and environmental wellbeing for the people who live, work, learn, or travel there. What stands out in the program design is that NSF is not simply funding technology demonstrations. The expectation is that researchers will collaborate with community stakeholders to identify the challenges that matter locally and let those challenges drive the research questions. Stakeholders can include residents, community groups, nonprofits and philanthropies, businesses, and public or civic entities like libraries, museums, schools and universities, public works departments, and health and social service agencies.

SampCC is geared toward integrative, use-inspired research that crosses disciplinary lines, especially combining technological innovation with social and behavioral science insights. Projects are expected to address both the technical dimensions (for example, intelligent systems, data, sensing, networking, cybersecurity, AI-enabled decision support, or infrastructure technologies) and the human and institutional dimensions (such as governance, equity, public trust, adoption barriers, ethics, privacy, workforce impacts, and policy). NSF also places clear value on piloting solutions with communities rather than developing them in isolation, and it specifically encourages teams to think beyond the grant period by planning for sustainability. That includes how a solution might continue to operate, scale to larger deployments, or transfer to other communities with similar challenges.

The solicitation offers two main funding pathways. The first is the SampCC Integrative Research Grant (SCC-IRG), which is split into two tracks. Track 1 supports larger, longer projects with budgets from $1,500,001 to $2,500,000 and durations up to four years. Track 2 supports projects up to $1,500,000 for up to three years. Both tracks focus on fundamental, integrative research that connects technology and social science and includes real-world piloting in partnership with a community. The second pathway is the SampCC Planning Grant (SCC-PG), designed for capacity building and team formation. Planning grants last one year and provide up to $150,000 total, with the goal of helping teams develop the partnerships, shared problem definition, data access plans, and project structure needed to submit a strong future SCC-IRG proposal.

From an administrative standpoint, this is an NSF discretionary grant program under the science and technology research and development category. Eligibility is listed as unrestricted (open to any entity type), subject to any additional eligibility details that may appear in the full solicitation text. Proposals are accepted anytime (no single closing date listed), and NSF anticipates making around 45 awards. The opportunity is cross-directorate, reflecting its interdisciplinary nature, and is supported by NSF Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE). This multi-directorate backing reinforces the program's core message: strong smart community work is not just a tech build, but a combined technical, social, and institutional effort that can deliver lasting, community-centered impact.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Smart and Connected Communities" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.070, 47.075, 47.076.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 02, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Proposals accepted anytime. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 45 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for 22 529

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: