The Resilient & Intelligent NextG Systems (RINGS) program (NSF 21-581) supports fundamental research to pursue scientific and technological breakthroughs that will create the bedrock for the next generation wireless networks of tomorrow. Partnering with the private and public sectors (see NSF 21-581 for list of partners), the RINGS program will bring unique experience and insight to research efforts and create the potential to accelerate the translation of fundamental research findings into new technologies that will transform the U.S. economy. The RINGS program is NSF’s single largest effort to date to engage public and private partners to jointly support a research program.
The goal of this solicitation is to invite the submission of proposals to set up a “Virtual Organization” (VO) for the RINGS program. The VO will serve the community of researchers funded by the RINGS program by facilitating coordination, collaboration, and community-building across academia, government, and industry. The VO’s activities will be instrumental in building a strong and effective research community to bolster U.S. leadership across wireless, cloud, and networking sectors.
Responsibilities
Proposals must address core aspects of RINGS coordination, community building, and information dissemination. It is expected that the VO will:
- Organize and host community-wide plenary summits. These summits will include presentations on research results, brainstorming and collaboration sessions, topical sessions, and other activities to support effective, interactive community building and information awareness. Two plenary summits will be held annually. At least one plenary is expected to be a physical meeting, and the other plenary may be a virtual meeting, depending on public health guidelines, cost, and community preference.
- Organize and host community webinars/seminars. These informational webinars/seminars are expected to help researchers publicize their accomplishments and findings, and for sponsors to articulate their own visions and perspectives, research opportunities, and independent technical advances that will support the research community.
- Organize and support a common program informational site and collaboration systems to facilitate information exchange and awareness. It is envisioned that there will be a RINGS program site containing (or linking to) research papers and reports, presentations, recordings of demos, summit/tech talk series/seminar videos, tools, data, announcements/newsletters, jobs/internships, open-source repositories, data sets, and other relevant work products. Similarly, the VO will establish channels for community discussion and sharing (email, discussion forums, etc.). The proposal should not include re-creating common tooling or processes that create duplicative effort for academic researchers or RINGS partners.
- Create and facilitate opportunities for collaboration and teaming. The VO will facilitate research collaboration between RINGS researchers and with RINGS partners to enhance the research outcomes and deeper understanding of the results. This facilitation will include organizing and publicizing opportunities for informational meetings between academic researchers and RINGS partners, identifying resources that could be helpful to the academic researchers, and ensuring that all parties have visibility into progress and potential in-kind contributions to the extent possible. In-kind contributions from the partners may include industry researchers, data, equipment, industry prototypes, simulation tools, contextual information, and opportunities for internships. The VO shall also be a catalyst for future research projects and teaming that leverage outcomes from awarded RINGS projects. It will facilitate the creation of research roadmaps, awareness of new technology translation/transfer opportunities, and dissemination of information about related funding and engagement opportunities. Proposed facilitation activities should be sensitive to the time constraints of academic researchers in working with the RINGS partners and should ultimately serve to reduce the burden on the RINGS PIs.
- Liaise with, and facilitate interactions with, other organizations and initiatives as appropriate. As needed by the community, the VO will be expected to facilitate and scale interaction with other research and industry organizations and initiatives, for example PAWR Platforms (https://advancedwireless.org), FABRIC (https://fabric-testbed.net), CloudLab (https://www.cloudlab.us) and other testbed facilities as appropriate, and/or the NextG alliance (https://www.atis.org).
- Provide regular reporting to NSF Program Directors. The VO shall consult with and report to NSF Program Directors on an agreed meeting frequency (weekly/monthly) including the activity/interaction tracker monthly reports.
- Perform other activities, as appropriate. Proposers may offer their own insights on activities that best support the VO goals of creating an eminent US research community Next Generation Network, enabling meaningful sharing and collaboration, and facilitating coordination to benefit all parties.
If you intend to submit complete the notification form to provide your contact information and the title and brief description of your project.
If interest exceeds the sponsors limits the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research will coordinate a selection review.