June 15, 2012

US Ignite to Encourage New Applications for Next-Generation Networks

The White House and the National Science Foundation have announced a new initiative, US Ignite, to support new applications to improve healthcare delivery, advanced manufacturing, disaster response, and address other societal needs, using fast, open, next-generation networks.

NSF will serve as the lead federal agency. US Ignite will expand on investments in the NSF-funded Global Environment for Networking Innovation (GENI) project which lays the technical groundwork for the initiative. NSF has issued a Dear Colleague Letter requesting EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) proposals or supplemental funding requests for the development of novel applications that take advantage of advanced networks developed through GENI and have societal impact. Before submitting an EAGER proposal or supplemental funding request, investigators must submit a two-page summary by email.

NSF has also announced an award to the Mozilla Foundation to host an open innovation challenge, Mozilla Ignite.