Cyber-Physical Systems | 21 551

Opportunity Information: Apply for 21 551

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) grant opportunity supports fundamental research and education aimed at improving engineered systems that tightly integrate computation (the "cyber" side) with physical processes and devices (the "physical" side). The program is built around the idea that future breakthroughs in systems like autonomous vehicles, smart manufacturing lines, medical devices, intelligent buildings, precision agriculture, energy grids, and transportation infrastructure will depend on deeper scientific and engineering principles for designing, operating, and assuring these highly interconnected systems. NSF emphasizes that CPS are increasingly data-rich and are moving toward higher levels of automation and autonomy, which raises both new capabilities and new risks. A major theme is that artificial intelligence and machine learning are reshaping CPS research, especially where AI must work under real-time constraints and in safety- or mission-critical environments, creating new opportunities with serious societal implications.

The program is interested in research that goes beyond incremental application-specific improvements and instead extracts cross-cutting ideas that apply across many CPS domains. In other words, proposals should not only solve a problem in one setting (for example, drones or medical monitoring), but also show how the resulting methods, theories, or tools can translate to other CPS areas. NSF is looking for foundational contributions that help engineer CPS with stronger performance, scalability, adaptability, resiliency, usability, and especially stronger assurances around safety, security, privacy, and correctness. Some projects may need to deliver dependable or even provable behavior, reflecting the reality that many CPS operate in the physical world where failures can cause real harm.

The solicitation highlights a broad set of core CPS research areas. These include control and autonomy; data analytics and machine learning (explicitly including real-time learning for control); system design methodologies; Internet of Things (IoT) integration; mixed-initiative approaches that include human-in-the-loop or human-on-the-loop oversight; networking; real-time systems; privacy; safety; security; and verification. NSF also supports not just theory, but the development of practical methods and tools, as well as hardware and software components that embody these cross-cutting principles. Validation matters: the program encourages prototype and testbed work that demonstrates the ideas under realistic conditions and uses clear success metrics rather than purely conceptual claims.

Proposals must follow several specific content expectations within the Project Description. A required Research Description must explain the technical rationale, the technical approach, and the core challenges that motivate the research problem, with a clear explanation of how the work integrates cyber and physical components. This section must also explain how outcomes generalize beyond one domain. Within that Research Description, proposers must include a subsection titled "CPS Research Focus" that spells out the cyber-physical attributes of the challenge problem and clearly identifies which core CPS research areas are being advanced and where the novel, foundational contributions lie. In addition, proposals must include an Evaluation/Experimentation Plan that explains how concepts will be validated and what metrics will be used to judge success, and a Project Management and Collaboration Plan that explains why the team is well positioned and how collaboration will be coordinated. Finally, proposals must include a Broader Impacts section describing dissemination beyond standard academic papers, including education and outreach across multiple levels, and explicitly addressing broadening participation in computing (BPC) and engineering (BPE).

The CPS program is described as a multi-agency effort, with NSF working closely with several federal partners, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate, the Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration, multiple National Institutes of Health (NIH) units (including NIBIB, NCI, OBSSR, and NCATS), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA). This collaboration signals that the program’s priorities align with national needs spanning infrastructure, health, transportation safety, security, and food and agriculture systems, and that CPS research is expected to have real-world relevance and pathways to impact.

Funding is offered in three project classes designed to match different scopes of work. Small projects can request up to $500,000 total for up to 3 years and are positioned for early-stage, high-impact, innovative ideas; they have no deadline. Medium projects can request $500,001 to $1,200,000 total for up to 3 years and are intended for integrated, multidisciplinary efforts with clear goals that require multiple perspectives; they also have no deadline. Frontier projects are the largest category and must address a clearly identified CPS challenge that cannot be solved by a collection of smaller independent projects; they are expected to push CPS capabilities beyond the current state of the art. Frontier awards can request $1,200,001 to $7,000,000 total over 4 to 5 years and do have a specific deadline (unlike Small and Medium). The opportunity lists an award ceiling of $7,000,000 and an expected number of about 30 awards.

In the source listing, the opportunity is identified as NSF Funding Opportunity Title "Cyber-Physical Systems" with Funding Opportunity Number 21-551, categorized as a discretionary grant supporting science and technology research and development. The original closing date shown is December 31, 2021 (with a creation date of January 8, 2021), but the solicitation text itself distinguishes between no-deadline tracks (Small and Medium) and a deadline-driven Frontier track, so applicants typically need to confirm the current solicitation status and dates in the active NSF posting. Eligible applicants are referenced as "Others" with further clarification in the full eligibility section, indicating that applicants should check the official solicitation details to confirm institutional eligibility and any partnership requirements.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cyber-Physical Systems" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.310, 20.200, 47.041, 47.070, 93.286, 93.350, 93.396, 97.108.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jan 08, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 31, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $7,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 30 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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