EAGER: Pathways to Sustainable Success in Smart and Connected Communities

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The National Science Foundation supports a wide variety of valuable technical and social civic innovation through its Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) and Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC) programs. While many of the projects funded through these efforts have significant and long-lasting impact in multiple communities, others fail to make the translation into being sustainable and scalable. This EAGER will employ a multi-stage process to identify the combinations of factors which underlie successful translation as well as those factors which can be barriers. This EAGER will also explore specific steps, interventions, and resources which can propel more projects to sustainable, scalable, and long-term success. An important part of this research is connecting individual projects with what may be appropriate ideas, approaches, and resources, as well as documenting the process and outcomes.US Ignite will work with NSF's CIVIC and S&CC project teams to pilot pathways to deploy their technology and policy outcomes into larger-scale deployments. US Ignite will analyze existing NSF-funded research projects in S&CC and CIVIC to determine suitability for sustainable and successful deployment in multiple communities. Deployment may be accomplished through a number of pathways such as spinning out the technology to a startup, making the technology and/or data available as open source for others to use, protecting the intellectual property so that it retains value for a committed industry partner or alliance, and procurement by local government. Some of the pathways will leverage partners already providing these services. This EAGER will contribute to a wider body of knowledge on the evolution of innovative, inclusive, and equitable technology deployment in smart communities and their social and economic implications. Ability to positively impact equity, inclusiveness of diverse populations, community engagement, and civic trust will be important components of the success of this effort.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.