Two exciting new funding opportunities for the US Ignite Community

The US Ignite Initiative has taken a big step forward with the issuance of an official NSF program solicitation, number 15-508, entitled “US Ignite.” We are very excited about this solicitation, as we believe that it can help enhance and advance many of the activities that US Ignite and its partners and communities have been undertaking in the past two years.

The NSF wrote that they “seek proposals for innovative applications that leverage or enhance advanced networking technologies (i.e., gigabit throughput, software-defined networking, advanced wireless), and that address national priority areas.” Track 1 of this solicitation, entitled US Ignite Applications: Moving Novel Gigabit Applications into Practice, includes an exciting new opportunity for those of you who are working on or considering possible next-generation Internet applications. Up to $600,000 is available in funding for your application project. We would be happy to discuss and review your idea or possible proposal so that it is the strongest possible. It’s in all of our interests to submit as many strong proposals by January 21st. We, the US Ignite non-profit organization, are currently preparing a response to Track 2 of this solicitation, in coordination with existing US Ignite testbed communities and partners. A few new testbed cities may also be included. If you have unique and valuable applications to share with other testbed cities, we’d like to consider you for our ecosystem proposal. The results and lessons learned under a successful ecosystem proposal will benefit everyone. US Ignite Corporate partners are invited to play important roles in both Track 1 and Track 2 proposals. Innovation continues to be an incredibly important part of the US Ignite movement.