NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program | 2021 NIST PSIAP PSRD 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for 2021 NIST PSIAP PSRD 01

The NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program, under the Public Safety Radio Data (PSRD) grant effort, is a discretionary grant opportunity focused on strengthening the evidence base for comparing traditional Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems with Long Term Evolution (LTE) technologies in public safety communications. The core purpose is to support projects that actively collect real-world public safety radio system transmission data and then publish that data for broad public use. NIST is looking for applicants who can gather meaningful, operationally relevant transmission data from public safety radio environments and make the resulting datasets publicly available so that researchers and practitioners can analyze performance, reliability, and other factors that matter when evaluating LMR versus LTE for mission-critical public safety use.

A central requirement is that data collection and publication are not enough on their own. Applicants must also propose a research plan that uses or is directly tied to the collected data to produce research findings relevant to the LMR-to-LTE comparison. In other words, the project is expected to both (1) create a public resource (open, accessible transmission data from active public safety radio systems) and (2) conduct research that helps interpret or apply that data to the question of how LMR and LTE compare in practice. The emphasis on making the data publicly available signals that NIST intends these awards to benefit the wider community, enabling additional independent studies beyond the original awardee's work.

Eligibility is intentionally broad, with the program open to non-Federal entities. This includes accredited colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, for-profit organizations incorporated in the United States, and state, local, territorial, and federally recognized tribal governments. It also includes foreign public entities and foreign organizations, which indicates NIST is open to international participation where appropriate. Individuals and unincorporated sole proprietors are explicitly excluded because they are not considered non-Federal entities for the purposes of this Notice of Funding Opportunity. Federal agencies and other Federal entities cannot receive funding as recipients under this NOFO, but they are allowed to participate as collaborators if they do so without receiving grant funds.

From an administrative standpoint, this opportunity is run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and is categorized as a science and technology research and development grant (CFDA 11.609). The funding instrument is a grant, the opportunity is labeled discretionary, and the original application closing date listed for this specific announcement was April 20, 2021, with a creation date of February 5, 2021. The source summary does not provide an award ceiling or the expected number of awards, suggesting those details would need to be confirmed in the full NOFO documentation.

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 11.609.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-02-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-04-20. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for 2021 NIST PSIAP PSRD 01

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