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K-State Today

May 13, 2019

Seeking faculty researchers, teams for NSF Smart and Connected Communities proposal submissions

Submitted by Mary Lou Marino

Several K-State colleges are interested in forming multiple research teams for submissions to the National Science Foundation Smart and Connected Communities, or S&CC, program, which offers two tracks for Integrative Research Grants, as well a Planning Grant category.

An information and team development session will be from 2-3 p.m. Monday, May 20, in  1044 Rathbone Hall in the engineering complex and is open to all university faculty and staff. Hosted by the College of Engineering, other currently participating colleges include Arts and Sciences, Human Ecology, Education, Business Administration and the landscape architecture and regional and community planning department in the College of Architecture, Planning & Design.

The goal of the National Science Foundation Smart and Connected Communities program is to accelerate the creation of the scientific and engineering foundations that will enable smart and connected communities to bring about new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, and overall quality of life.

The program encourages researchers to work with communities and residents to identify and define challenges they are facing, enabling those challenges to motivate use-inspired research questions. The program supports integrative research that addresses fundamental technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Importantly, the program is interested in projects that consider the sustainability of the research outcomes beyond the life of the project, including the scalability and transferability of the proposed solutions. Letters of intent are due to NSF Aug. 6, with a full proposal deadline following shortly thereafter on Sept. 6.

With assistance from the Office of Research Development, the intention is for teams to begin working together immediately and over the summer in order to have robust letters of intent as full proposals are due only a month later.

If you are interested but cannot attend or need additional information, contact Mary Lou Marino at mlmarino@k-state.edu or Carole Lovin at clovin@k-state.edu.