Cities and communities in the U. S. and around the world are entering a new era of transformational change, in which their inhabitants and the surrounding built and natural environments are increasingly connected by smart technologies, leading to new opportunities for innovation, improved services, and

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The goal of this Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC) solicitation is to support strongly interdisciplinary, integrative research and research capacity-building activities that will improve understanding of smart and connected communities and lead to discoveries that enable sustainable change to enhance community functioning.

Unless stated otherwise, for the purposes of this year’s solicitation, communities are physical, geographically-defined entities, such as towns, cities, or incorporated rural areas, consisting of various populations, with a governance structure and the ability to engage in meaningful ways with the proposed research.

Successful S&CC projects are expected to pursue research and research capacity-building activities that integrate multiple disciplinary perspectives and undertake meaningful community engagement, and to include appropriate and robust evaluation plans for assessing activities and outcomes.

To meet the multidisciplinary criterion, proposals must meaningfully integrate across both social and technological research dimensions.

In this solicitation, the social dimensions reflect areas typically included in the portfolios of the NSF’s Directorates for Social, Behavior, and Economic Sciences (SBE) and Education and Human Resources (EHR), while the technological dimensions reflect disciplinary areas typically included in the portfolios of the Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and Engineering (ENG).

Proposals may also pursue integration with other disciplines as needed, including but not limited to those typically encompassed in the portfolio of the NSF’s Directorate for Geosciences (GEO).

Successful proposals are also expected to include appropriate community engagement as defined further in the solicitation.