Cyber-Physical Systems | 19 553

Opportunity Information: Apply for 19 553

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number 19-553) supports research and education projects that advance engineered systems where computation and physical processes are tightly integrated. The program is centered on the idea that modern systems like autonomous vehicles, smart buildings, advanced manufacturing lines, connected medical devices, precision agriculture platforms, and intelligent transportation infrastructure increasingly depend on software, data, networking, and algorithms interacting seamlessly with sensors, actuators, and the real physical world. NSF is looking for work that strengthens the core scientific and engineering foundations behind these systems so they can become more capable, adaptable, scalable, resilient, safe, secure, and usable. A recurring theme is that CPS research should not be limited to incremental improvements of today’s designs; the solicitation explicitly encourages investigators to push past familiar architectures and propose creative, forward-looking ideas for systems that may not even exist yet.

A major goal of the program is to develop cross-cutting principles that apply across many CPS application areas, rather than solutions that only fit one niche scenario. In other words, even if a project is motivated by a specific domain (for example, healthcare devices or civil infrastructure monitoring), NSF expects the proposed methods and insights to generalize and translate to other domains. The program also emphasizes the growing importance of combining artificial intelligence with CPS, noting that AI-enabled CPS creates new research questions with major societal implications, especially around trustworthiness, safety, robustness, oversight, and real-world deployment.

The solicitation defines a broad set of “core CPS research areas” that proposals may address, including control, autonomy, data analytics, design methodologies, information management, Internet of Things (IoT), human-in-the-loop or human-on-the-loop approaches, networking, privacy, real-time systems, safety, security, and verification. Projects may focus on one or several of these areas, but they are expected to deliver novel and foundational contributions, particularly for the engineering of complex CPS that may require dependable, high-confidence, or even provable behavior. In addition to theory and algorithms, NSF supports the development of practical methods, tools, and hardware/software components grounded in these principles, along with validation through prototypes and testbeds. The broader intent is to help move CPS research into real-world use by building not just ideas, but credible evidence that the ideas work under realistic conditions.

Proposals must include several specific components within the Project Description. First is a clear Research Description that lays out the technical rationale and approach, explains the motivating challenges, and makes explicit how cyber elements (computation, communication, software, data, algorithms) and physical elements (sensing, actuation, dynamics, environment) are integrated. This section must also explain how the expected outcomes could transfer to other application domains. Within the Research Description, proposals must include a subsection titled “Intellectual Merit” and another titled “CPS Research Focus” that identifies which core CPS areas are being advanced and where the foundational novelty lies. Beyond the research narrative, proposals must include an Evaluation/Experimentation Plan that explains how claims will be validated and what metrics define success (for example, safety margins, latency bounds, reliability targets, robustness to uncertainty, security properties, verification coverage, or performance under real-time constraints). A Project Management and Collaboration Plan is also required to show that the team is well positioned to execute and that collaboration will be handled effectively, which is particularly important for interdisciplinary efforts. Finally, a Broader Impacts section is required, with dissemination plans that go beyond academic papers and include education and outreach across multiple levels. The solicitation highlights Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) and Engineering (BPE) as part of broader impacts, reinforcing that workforce development and inclusion are expected elements of a strong proposal.

NSF also notes significant coordination with other federal agencies for FY 2019, reflecting the wide relevance of CPS. Collaborators mentioned include the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate, the Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration, several National Institutes of Health (NIH) components (including NIBIB, NCI, and NCATS), and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The solicitation additionally describes collaboration with the German Research Foundation (DFG) to support joint U.S.-German projects in Networked CPS, signaling interest in internationally connected research efforts in that subarea.

The program offers three project classes, designed to support different scales of ambition. Small projects support emerging or high-risk/high-reward ideas, with budgets up to $500,000 total for up to 3 years. Medium projects support larger multidisciplinary efforts that need integrated perspectives and coordinated goals, with total budgets from $500,001 to $1,200,000 for up to 3 years. Frontier projects are the largest category and are meant to tackle clearly defined, critical CPS challenges that cannot realistically be solved by assembling smaller, disconnected projects. Frontier proposals are expected to push CPS well beyond current capabilities, and they can request $1,200,001 to $7,000,000 total for 4 to 5 years; the solicitation also notes that the submission window for Frontier projects differs from that for Small and Medium.

From a funding profile perspective, this is a discretionary grant program under NSF, with an award ceiling of $7,000,000 and an estimated 45 awards. The original closing date listed for this opportunity was April 12, 2019 (with the opportunity created February 12, 2019). Eligible applicants are listed broadly as “Others” with clarification referenced in the full eligibility text, which typically indicates that eligibility may include universities, nonprofits, certain for-profits, or other organizations depending on NSF’s specific rules for the solicitation. Overall, the opportunity is designed for teams aiming to advance the fundamental underpinnings of cyber-physical integration while also demonstrating credible validation, strong project execution plans, and meaningful broader impacts that help build the CPS research and education ecosystem.

• 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, 47.075, 47.076, 93.286, 93.350, 93.396, 97.108.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 12, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 12, 2019. (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 45 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 19 553

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