US Ignite:

US Ignite is an initiative that seeks to promote US leadership in the development and deployment of next-generation gigabit applications with the potential for significant societal impact. The primary goal of US Ignite is to break a fundamental deadlock: there is insufficient investment in gigabit applications that can take advantage of advanced network infrastructure because such end-to-end infrastructure is rare and geographically dispersed. And conversely, there is a lack of broad availability of advanced broadband infrastructure for open experimentation and innovation because there are few advanced applications and services to justify it. US Ignite aims to break this deadlock by providing incentives for imagining, prototyping, and developing gigabit applications that address national priorities, and by leveraging and extending this network testbed across US college/university campuses and cities.

This solicitation builds on the experience and community infrastructure gained from initial US Ignite activities to further engage the US academic research and non-profit communities along with local cities, municipalities, and regions in exploring the challenges of developing and applying next-generation networking to problems of significant public interest and benefit. In particular, this solicitation has two focus areas: the first encourages the development of application ideas and prototypes addressing national priority areas that explore new uses for high-speed networks and give rise to the Smart & Connected Communities of the future, as well as novel networking and application paradigms; and the second pursues fundamental research advances in networking technology and protocols that will further both the capabilities and our understanding of gigabit networking infrastructure to meet current and future application demands.  In 2016, NSF is also working with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office for Access to Justice (ATJ) to identify additional application ideas and prototypes and basic research directions that may serve national priority areas of mutual interest.