National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) Pilots Cooperative Agreement Program | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) Pilots Cooperative Agreement Program is a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) funding opportunity designed to move better online identity tools from concept to real-world use through practical pilot projects. The core idea behind the program is to support demonstrations of online identity solutions that help people and organizations access digital services using credentials that are secure, efficient, easy to use, and able to work across different systems and providers. NIST frames these pilots as a way to build confidence in online transactions while also encouraging privacy protections, user choice, and ongoing innovation rather than locking the ecosystem into a single technology or vendor approach.

The opportunity is anchored in the NSTIC vision and its guiding principles, which set the expectations for what funded pilots should accomplish. Projects are expected to be privacy-enhancing and voluntary, meaning participation should not require people to give up unnecessary personal data or be forced into a single identity scheme. They also need to be secure and resilient, emphasizing strong protection against fraud, misuse, and cyber threats, along with reliability under real operating conditions. Interoperability is another major requirement, pointing to identity approaches that can function across organizations, sectors, and platforms instead of being limited to one closed environment. Finally, the program stresses cost effectiveness and ease of use, reflecting the reality that identity solutions only scale when they are practical for everyday users and affordable for service providers and organizations that adopt them.

NIST is specifically looking to fund projects that test or demonstrate new solutions, models, or frameworks that are not yet common in the marketplace. In other words, the program is not just about incremental upgrades to widely deployed identity systems; it is geared toward pilots that can prove out emerging approaches in realistic settings and generate evidence that they can work at scale. The pilots are expected to address needs spanning individuals, private sector organizations, and government entities at all levels, which signals an interest in solutions that can support diverse use cases such as consumer-facing logins, organizational credentialing, and public service access, while still adhering to the privacy and interoperability goals of NSTIC.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity using a cooperative agreement mechanism, meaning NIST typically expects a more hands-on partnership style than a standard grant, with substantial agency involvement during performance. The activity category is science and technology and other research and development, and it is tied to CFDA 11.609 (Measurement and Engineering Research and Standards). The listing indicates there is no cost sharing or matching requirement, which lowers the barrier for participation and can make it more accessible to nonprofits, universities, and smaller commercial organizations.

The application process is structured in two stages. All applicants must first submit an abbreviated proposal through Grants.gov by the deadline specified in the announcement (11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on March 5, 2013). NIST then reviews these abbreviated submissions and selects a set of finalists, with the review and finalist selection expected to be completed by April 9, 2013. Only those finalists who are invited by NIST are allowed to submit full proposals. Abbreviated proposals submitted after the deadline are not reviewed, making the initial submission a strict gateway requirement.

Eligibility is broad but limited to U.S.-based entities and governments. Eligible applicants include accredited institutions of higher education, hospitals, nonprofit organizations, commercial organizations, and state, local, and Indian tribal governments located in the United States and its territories. Applicants can apply alone or build teams that include subawardees, contractors, or other collaborators, effectively allowing consortium-style projects. An organization may submit more than one proposal as long as each proposal addresses a distinct topic. Federal agencies may participate in the work but cannot receive NIST funding, which allows federal expertise to be involved while keeping the financial support directed to non-federal partners.

For practical logistics, the opportunity was posted on January 30, 2013, and later archived on April 6, 2013. The agency contact listed for access issues with the full announcement is Christopher Hunton, Grants Technical Assistant, at 301-975-5718.

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