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Below is a summary assembled by the Research & Innovation Office (RIO). Please see the full solicitation for complete information about the funding opportunity.ÌýThis call is for the Category II deadline.

Program Summary

This solicitation continues the Advanced Computing Systems and Services (ACSS) program's emphasis on funding systems and services providing cyberinfrastructure (CI) for the Nation's Science & Engineering (S&E) research community.

The intent of this solicitation is to request proposals from organizations who are willing to serve as resource providers within the NSF Advanced Computing Systems and Services (ACSS) program. Resource providers would (1) provide advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) resources in production operations to support the full range of computation, data-analysis, and AI research across all of science and engineering (S&E), and (2) enable democratized and equitable access to the proposed resources. The current solicitation is focused on: Category II, Innovative Prototypes/Testbeds: innovative forward-looking capabilities deploying novel technologies, architectures, usage modes, etc., and exploring new target applications, methods, and paradigms.

Category II – Innovative Prototypes/Testbeds

Resources proposed in this category will be initially deployed as a prototype/testbed supporting S&E research through delivery of novel forward-looking capabilities and services. Resources proposed in this category can represent the deployment of new technologies, system architectures, or usage modalities at scale, with plans for developing a national S&E user community that will benefit from the proposed capabilities. Proposed resources could encompass a broad range from enabling of advancements in traditional computing architectures to novel computing paradigms. The former could include novel processor architectures supporting artificial intelligence applications or integration of distributed systems leveraging edge devices; domain-specific architectures; reconfigurable and/or software defined systems; systems designed for streaming data and/or real-time processing, etc. The latter could apply aspects of neural and broader levels of non-neural biological organization architectures or implement collective properties of quantum states. Proposers are further encouraged to potentially explore novel facility scale electric power infrastructure, including models, leading to significant efficiencies in compute center and edge scale power utilization. Additionally, the solicitation incents efforts to explore and assess comprehensive and effective future options for science-based responses to a potential future national and/or international urgent need, as well as towards opportunities for future AI-enabled breakthroughs in science, engineering, and technology.

Proposers must clearly define the target classes of S&E applications that will be enabled, as well as a clear plan for ensuring the widespread adoptions by these classes of applications on the proposed capabilities and/or services. While the resources in this category may initially include prototypes/experimental testbeds, proposers are expected to present a clear near-term plan for transitioning to high-availability production services broadly available and allocatable to the S&E community through open peer-reviewed processes during the final 24 months of the project award period. It is also expected that the initially deployed prototype/testbed will include active engagements with S&E researchers, and these engagements will be reviewed by NSF in its evaluation of the system. Clear science impact metrics for measuring the performance of the proposed system are required.

Competitive proposals in Category II must address the following themes in the Project Description (to be discussed in a specific subsection as described in Section V.A. Proposal Preparation Instructions, if noted):

• A clear plan for provisioning innovative computational and data analysis capabilities or services that will enable new methods and paradigms in support of transformational S&E discoveries;
• A compelling description of how the proposed capabilities or services will address future demand for computation and data analytics capabilities in S&E research;
• A persuasive set of S&E use cases, including quantitative analysis through benchmarks, that clearly motivate how the resource will expand the range of S&E applications that can be currently tackled using existing ACSS resources;
• A clearly defined set of target S&E application classes that will be enabled, as well as a clear plan for ensuring the widespread adoption by these classes of applications on the proposed capabilities and/or services;
• A comprehensive set of system-level performance and reliability metrics that will be used by NSF for acceptance of the resource or service (to be discussed in the S&E Application Performance and Resource Reliability and Usability sections);
• A detailed risk-mitigated deployment plan to ensure that the proposed resource will evolve to high-availability production services broadly available for allocation to the open S&E research community in the final 24 months of the award period (to be discussed in the Project Management and Risk Mitigation section);
• A clear concept of operations for the project duration, with a detailed set of engagement activities with the S&E research community, to optimize the use of the resource, facilitate application and user transition during the initially-deployed prototype/testbed system phase, and ensure that the resource evolves to a high-availability production utility for a national community of S&E users (see );

Deadlines

CU Internal Deadline: 11:59pm MT April 14, 2025

Sponsor Category II Deadline: 5:00pm MT June 24, 2025

Internal Application Requirements (all in PDF format)

• Project Description (3 pages maximum): Please include the following: intellectual merit, broader impacts, resource specification, S&E application performance, resource reliability and usability, project management and risk mitigation, data infrastructure, security, and operations plan (see the full NSFÌý for further details on these elements).
• PI Curriculum Vitae
• Budget Overview (up to 1 page): A basic budget outlining project costs is sufficient; detailed OCG budgets are not required.

To access the online application, visit:

Eligibility

An individual may be the PI or co-PI on no more than one proposal per each competition specified in this solicitation. There is no limit on the number of proposals with which an individual may be associated in other capacities, such as senior/key personnel.

Limited Submission Guidelines

An organization may submit only one proposal but may be a subawardee on other proposals responding to this solicitation.

Award Information

Category II awards shall not exceed a total of $5,000,000 and 5 years of duration.

Review Criteria

Reviewers will be asked to assess the adequacy of the descriptions provided in the required sections of the Project Description (these are described in Section V.A. Proposal Preparation Instructions above):

• Resource Specification;
• S&E Application Performance;
• Resource Reliability and Usability;
• Project Management and Risk Mitigation;
• Data Infrastructure;
• Security;
• Operations Plan; and
• Broader Impacts.