Future Internet Architectures Next Phase | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), offered the "Future Internet Architectures - Next Phase" funding opportunity (NSF Publication/Funding Opportunity Number 13-538) to push forward ambitious, large-scale networking research. The core goal of this program was not to start entirely new internet architecture efforts from scratch, but to build on and strengthen the set of existing Future Internet Architecture (FIA) designs that NSF had already been supporting. In practical terms, the solicitation emphasized moving from architectural ideas and prior research outputs into working, integrated prototype systems that could be demonstrated, tested, and evaluated in realistic or otherwise relevant environments. The program was positioned as a continuation of NSF's long-term investment in foundational networking systems research, with an expectation that the next phase would show tangible progress toward deployable or at least convincingly testable architectural approaches.

A central theme of the opportunity was end-to-end prototyping and validation. NSF sought proposals that could translate architectural concepts into functioning prototype implementations and then subject those prototypes to rigorous evaluation in one or more environments appropriate to the technology. While the announcement does not prescribe a single testbed or deployment context, the intent is clear: projects were expected to go beyond theory papers and isolated components and instead deliver integrated systems that can be exercised under conditions that matter for future internet designs. This includes showing how architectural choices behave at scale, how they perform under realistic workloads or threat models, and how they support applications and operational constraints. The solicitation also encouraged creativity and innovation, but within the framing of leveraging and enhancing the existing FIA portfolio rather than diverging into unrelated networking directions.

The opportunity stressed multidisciplinary team composition as a requirement for success. NSF explicitly indicated that proposing teams should include people spanning relevant disciplines and research areas, ranging from theoretical researchers to experimentalists to those working in application domains. The reasoning behind this requirement is that a functional internet architecture prototype demands more than a clean design: it needs implementers, measurement and evaluation expertise, and application or domain perspectives to ensure the architecture can meet real requirements. In other words, the solicitation favored proposals that could connect architectural mechanisms to demonstrable benefits in use cases, and could back those claims with credible experimental evaluation.

Administratively, the funding mechanism was a cooperative agreement, which generally signals a more hands-on relationship between NSF and awardees than a standard grant, often used when there is an expectation of substantial coordination, shared infrastructure considerations, or ongoing programmatic engagement. The opportunity fell under the "Science and Technology and other Research and Development" activity category and was associated with CFDA number 47.070 (Computer and Information Science and Engineering). NSF anticipated making about four awards, with an estimated total program budget of $20,000,000 and an award ceiling of $5,000,000 per award. There was no cost sharing or matching requirement stated for applicants, which meant proposers were not required to commit institutional funds as a condition of eligibility.

Eligibility was restricted in an important way tied to the continuity goals of the program. Specifically, the project manager named in the proposal (as defined in the solicitation's Collaboration and Management Plan section) had to be a PI, co-PI, or senior personnel on one of the four FIA projects that were currently funded at the time. That constraint reinforces that this "next phase" competition was designed to extend and mature existing FIA efforts by leveraging experienced leadership already embedded in the ongoing projects, rather than opening the competition broadly to entirely new teams without that prior role.

Key dates and lifecycle details reflect that this was a time-bounded, archived solicitation. The opportunity was posted and created on February 11, 2013, with a full proposal deadline of June 7, 2013. The archive date was July 7, 2013, meaning the solicitation is no longer active. For access to the official full announcement, NSF pointed to the Additional Information link for NSF Publication 13-538, and provided standard support guidance: applicants having trouble accessing the announcement via Grants.gov were directed to contact Grants.gov support at grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov, with additional NSF contact guidance referenced for linking issues.

Overall, this opportunity can be summarized as a targeted NSF investment meant to accelerate the maturation of future internet architecture research into demonstrable, tested prototypes, guided by interdisciplinary teams and grounded in the existing FIA design ecosystem. The solicitation placed equal weight on architectural innovation and credible system-building, with a clear expectation that awardees would show working prototypes and meaningful evaluation rather than staying at the level of conceptual designs.

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