Grants and Cooperative Agreements

Current & Upcoming Funding Opportunities

PSCR works with public safety agencies, academic researchers, and industry partners in both technology and human/social areas, and system developers to support our mission and accelerate the advancement of public safety communications technologies. PSCR leverages Financial Assistance Awards in the form of grants and cooperative agreements to stimulate critical R&D, advanced engineering, and product development in key technology focus areas. Official announcements for all open opportunities are made available on grants.gov. Application evaluation procedures are described on each individual notice of funding opportunity (NOFO). Please find our current and upcoming grants and cooperative agreements below.

Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program 2022 (PSIAP-2022)

The NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program 2022 (PSIAP-2022) sought applications from eligible applicants for activities to accelerate research, development, production, and testing of key public safety capabilities related to mission critical voice, location-based services, and user interface/user experience. PSCR anticipates funding up to $7M in new awards, with individual awards expected to range from $300,000 to $600,000 per year. Applications were due January 18, 2022. This funding opportunity is now closed. Awards are expected to be announced in May 2022. Learn more.

Follow-on Funding for Technical and Business Assistance and Demonstration Projects with Public Safety Agencies (TABA)

The Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program (PSIAP) from PSCR is currently seeking applications from eligible organizations - entities that previously were awarded a grant, cooperative agreement, prize challenge or subaward by a federal entity (‘entities with a previous award”), such as NIST Public Safety Communications Research Division, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Department of Homeland Security, etc., for a public-safety focused communication technology innovation - to propose activities that will either:

1. more rapidly advance their prototypes through needed technical and business assistance; or 
2.  a demonstration project with a partnering public safety agency, to provide additional testing and research.

 Learn more about this opportunity; download the FAQs.

General questions about this opportunity including eligibility requirements, the review and selection process, and the general characteristics of a competitive application may be addressed by e-mail to pscr [at] nist.gov with ‘TABA’ in the subject line. Questions submitted to NIST by e-mail may be posted on pscr.gov. Discussions about specific project ideas will not be permitted and NIST staff will not critique or provide feedback on specific project ideas while they are being developed by an applicant at any time before the deadline for all applications. Learn more.

Past Funding Opportunities

Below is a list of some of the most recently funded PSCR grant and cooperative agreements. To see a full list, visit the Past Funding Opportunities page.

• PSIAP 2017 ($38.5M awarded)
• PSIAP User Interface ($6.4M awarded)
• PSIAP Point Cloud City (more than $750K awarded)
• PSIAP Mission Critical Voice Quality of Experience ($5.5M awarded)
• PSIAP i-Axis (more than $500K awarded)

Other Funding Opportunities

To view Prize Challenge opportunities, visit PSCR's Open Innovation Prize Challenges page.