Cyber-Physical Systems | 18 538

Opportunity Information: Apply for 18 538

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number: 18-538) supports research and education aimed at advancing engineered systems that tightly integrate computation with the physical world. The program is motivated by the idea that CPS are becoming as transformative for human interaction with machines and infrastructure as the Internet was for human interaction with information. NSF is looking for work that helps CPS become more capable, adaptable, scalable, resilient, safe, secure, and usable. The opportunity emphasizes that CPS innovation is already reshaping major sectors such as agriculture, aeronautics, buildings, civil infrastructure, energy, environmental quality, healthcare and personalized medicine, manufacturing, and transportation. It also highlights a growing research frontier: combining artificial intelligence with CPS in ways that open new technical directions and carry major societal implications.

At its core, the solicitation is about accelerating fundamental, cross-cutting research that can keep up with fast-moving real-world demand. NSF explicitly encourages the community to think beyond standard CPS architectures and conventional “cyber plus physical” design patterns, and to propose creative ideas that address both today’s systems and future systems that have not yet been built or deployed. The program is not limited to any single application area; instead, it prioritizes principles, methods, and engineering foundations that generalize across domains. Many targeted CPS will require dependable, high-confidence, or even provable behavior, so proposals that grapple with correctness, robustness, and assurance in complex real-world settings are directly aligned with the program’s intent.

The program’s core research areas span much of the CPS stack and lifecycle. Topics called out include control, data analytics, autonomy, design methodologies, information management, Internet of Things (IoT) integration, mixed-initiative systems (including human-in-the-loop or human-on-the-loop approaches), networking, privacy, real-time systems, safety, security, and verification. NSF is looking for research that abstracts away from any one domain’s details to uncover foundational scientific and engineering concepts that govern cyber-physical integration broadly. Along with theory and core methods, the solicitation also supports practical outputs such as tools, prototypes, testbeds, and hardware/software components that embody these cross-cutting principles, plus clear validation that the ideas work under realistic conditions. A recurring theme is translation: the work should not be a one-off solution for a single niche system, but something that can carry over to other CPS contexts.

Proposal structure requirements are explicit. Within the Project Description, every submission must include: (1) a Research Description that states the CPS research problem and explains how outcomes can translate to other application domains, and it must include a clearly labeled “Intellectual Merit” subsection; (2) an Evaluation/Experimentation Plan that explains how the concepts will be validated and defines success metrics; (3) a Project Management and Collaboration Plan that makes the case that the team is well matched to the goals and that collaboration will be effective; and (4) Broader Impacts describing how results will be disseminated beyond traditional papers, including education and outreach spanning multiple levels of engagement, and explicitly incorporating Broadening Participation in Computing. In other words, NSF is signaling that strong CPS proposals need both rigorous research and a concrete plan for evidence, teamwork, and impact outside the lab.

NSF notes multi-agency engagement around this program in FY 2018, indicating that the research themes overlap with national priorities in security, transportation, health, and agriculture. Collaborating or participating agencies 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). This multi-agency posture reinforces the idea that CPS advances are expected to have wide societal and sector-specific relevance, and that strong projects may naturally intersect with real operational needs and policy-sensitive constraints like safety, privacy, and security.

The solicitation offers three project sizes, each matched to different scopes and ambitions. Small projects can request up to $500,000 total for up to 3 years and are positioned for new, emerging, high-risk/high-reward ideas. Medium projects can request $500,001 to $1,000,000 total for up to 3 years and are intended for multidisciplinary efforts with clear goals that require integrated expertise across fields. Frontier projects are the largest category and must tackle critical CPS challenges that cannot realistically be addressed by assembling smaller independent projects; they are expected to push CPS well beyond current capabilities. Frontier awards can request $1,000,001 to $7,000,000 total for 4 to 5 years, making them suitable for ambitious, coordinated research programs with significant validation infrastructure.

Key administrative details from the source data include: Agency: National Science Foundation; Instrument: Grant; Activity category: Science and Technology and other Research and Development; CFDA numbers listed include 10.310, 20.200, 47.041, 47.070, 93.286, 93.350, and 93.396. The opportunity was created February 10, 2018, with an original closing date of May 9, 2018. The award ceiling is $7,000,000, and NSF anticipated around 32 awards. Eligibility is listed broadly as “Others,” with specifics deferred to the solicitation’s additional eligibility information, which typically means applicants should confirm organizational and proposer requirements directly in the official NSF text.

Overall, this CPS opportunity is best read as NSF’s push for foundational research that makes complex cyber-physical systems more trustworthy and more capable, while also demanding credible experimental validation, strong cross-disciplinary collaboration, and real outreach and dissemination. It rewards projects that can articulate general principles, build and test tangible systems or prototypes, and demonstrate how the work can influence multiple CPS domains rather than a single narrow application.

• 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.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 10, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 09, 2018. (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 32 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 18 538

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: