bioMASON Inc interior and exterior façade tile made with biocement, which is less costly and more sustainable than its traditional counterpart
Technology topic
The Artificial Intelligence topic focuses on cutting-edge technologies in the field of deep learning-based AI systems and AI-based hardware. The recent successes in computer vision, machine translation, natural-language processing and speech recognition have led to widespread use of learning-based systems in production and an unprecedented growth in AI systems that interact frequently with and/or on behalf of humans in highly personalized contexts. This topic especially emphasizes next-generation AI technologies that are not only safe and reliable but also fair, robust against sophisticated adversaries, privacy preserving, and efficient in terms of computational resources, energy, training data size, etc. It also includes cutting-edge hardware technologies needed for sustainable AI (i.e., novel devices and architectures to support the tremendous processing power needed by AI technologies), edge devices (i.e., intelligent systems on a chip for applications such as voice assistants) and AI technologies that lead to better hardware systems.
These subtopics are only meant to serve as examples. All proposals that are focused on developing a new high-risk technical innovation and that have significant potential commercial and societal impact are welcome to apply, regardless of subtopic.
Sub-Topics
Application process for funding
Eligibility for funding +
- Your company must be a small business (fewer than 500 employees) located in the United States.
- At least 50% of your company’s equity must be owned by U.S. citizens or permanent residents. NSF does not fund companies that are majority-owned by multiple venture capital firms, private equity firms, or hedge funds, to participate in SBIR and STTR.
- All funded work, including work done by consultants and contractors, needs to take place in the United States.
- The project’s principal investigator (tech lead) must be legally employed at least 20 hours a week by the company seeking funding. The principal investigator doesn’t need any advanced degrees.
- The principal investigator needs to commit to at least one month (173 hours) of work on a funded project per six months of project duration.
Evaluation Criteria: What We Look for When Evaluating proposals +
- Technological Innovation
- Broader Impacts
- Commercial Potential
- Read more about our criteria
Take our Project Pitch Suitability Assessment to see if your work might be a good fit for NSF funding.
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