US-EU Internet Core & Edge Technologies (ICE-T)

The Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS) within the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) supports research and education activities that seek to develop a better understanding of the fundamental properties of computer and network systems. The Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) program in the CNS division supports transformative research on fundamental scientific and technological advances leading to the development of Next Generation Internet (NGI) and Advanced Wireless Networking (AWN) systems and technologies.

NSF/CISE and the European Commission’s (EC) Directorate General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) seek to enable US and European Union (EU) researchers to collaborate to address compelling research challenges in NGI and AWN. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, software-defined infrastructures; network function virtualization; resource management in support of content delivery; open data architectures for shared, federated research infrastructures; advanced wireless technologies; and research software tools to support advanced wireless and smart city/community testbeds.

This NSF solicitation is expected to align with a related effort in the EC’s Horizon 2020’s Work Programme for 2018-2020. For funding under this solicitation, US investigators must describe: 1) collaborative research, 2) research collaboration initiation activities, or 3) research fellowships with counterpart EU investigators who have received, or are requesting funding separately under the EC Horizon 2020 Programme area on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

As such, NSF's ICE-T program will support awards in three classes:

• Research Collaboration (RC) awards support collaborative research partnerships, pairing investigators at US institutions with EC-funded ICT investigators at EU institutions (or EU investigators who are requesting funding separately from the EC), for periods of up to 3 years.

• Research Collaboration Initiation (RI) awards support the establishment of entirely new collaborations, pairing investigators at US institutions with EC-funded investigators at EU institutions (or EU investigators who are requesting funding separately from the EC), to pursue preliminary research investigations for periods of up to 1 year.

• Research Fellowships (RF) awards support graduate students at US institutions to travel to EU institutions to engage in in situ research collaborations with EC-funded investigators (or EU investigators who are requesting funding separately from the EC) for fellowship periods of 2-6 months, and an award duration of up to 1 year.

NSF/CISE and DG CONNECT recognize the opportunity for the US and EU to jointly benefit from international research collaborations in NGI and AWN that will accelerate the creation of a global, human-centric internet. This solicitation seeks to advance this opportunity by supporting US investigators to work in collaboration with EU investigators, toward increased understanding of core and edge network technologies and systems.