NSF invests over $26 million in open-source projects

The U.S. National Science Foundation announced an investment of over $26 million in 19 Phase II projects through the Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program, further cultivating the creation of new open-source ecosystems (OSEs) anticipated to lead to cutting-edge innovation.

These geographically-diverse, open-source projects come from academia, nonprofits and for-profits and include advances in key technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum information science, as well as applications including education, health care, biology, the environment, transportation and engineering. Phase II awards provide up to $1.5 million per project over two years to support the transition of promising open-source products into secure, sustainable and impactful OSEs. Browse the full list of the first Phase II POSE awards.

"POSE offers a unique opportunity for innovators to create and grow sustainable, high-impact, open-source ecosystems," said Barry Johnson, director for NSF's Translational Impacts Division within the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, which leads the POSE program. "These projects will support the POSE program vision to ensure more secure open-source products, increased coordination of developer contributions, and a more focused route to impactful technologies."

The POSE program specifically harnesses the power of open-source development for the creation of new technology solutions to problems of national, societal and geostrategic importance. It supports managing organizations that will establish capabilities critical to the growth of their OSEs, including security, privacy, developer and end-user coordination, and efficient technology delivery.

The program offers two types of awards: Phase I and Phase II. In addition to the Phase II awards being announced today, in September 2022, NSF awarded its first 25 Phase I POSE projects. Phase I awards provide up to $300,000 for one year to enable scoping activities that will inform the development of efficient, safe and secure OSEs around open-source products emerging from fundamental research. A Phase I award is not required to submit a Phase II proposal.

Visit the POSE program webpage to learn more.