Spectrum and Wireless Innovation enabled by Future Technologies | 22 571

Opportunity Information: Apply for 22 571

The National Science Foundation (NSF) grant opportunity "Spectrum and Wireless Innovation enabled by Future Technologies" (SWIFT) supports research and development aimed at improving how radio spectrum is used and shared as wireless technologies become more capable and more crowded. Led jointly by NSF directorates in Engineering (ENG), Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), and Geosciences (GEO), SWIFT is designed to surface new concepts that can lead to meaningful advances in wireless systems and spectrum policy/engineering, with an emphasis on real-world coexistence rather than narrow laboratory-only gains in spectral efficiency.

A central theme of SWIFT is spectrum coexistence: enabling two or more systems to operate in the same frequency band at the same time and/or in the same place without causing harmful interference. The program highlights that coexistence becomes especially hard when one of the users is passive, meaning it is receiving but not transmitting RF energy. Passive services (for example, radio astronomy or certain Earth-observation measurements) are inherently vulnerable because they cannot "talk back" or coordinate in conventional ways, yet they often require extremely sensitive receivers that can be disrupted by relatively small increases in noise or interference. SWIFT explicitly calls attention to the fact that passive-use protection and practical coexistence techniques have historically received less research focus, and it encourages innovations that address that gap.

The solicitation is broad in technical scope, inviting work across wireless communications, sensing, electromagnetic theory, algorithms, hardware, and systems. Example research areas include large-scale communications approaches such as massive or large-scale MIMO and intelligent surfaces, reconfigurable transceivers and RF front ends, and energy-efficient or low-power communication methods that reduce interference footprints and improve sustainability. It also seeks advances in spectrum use and management, such as joint communication and sensing (systems that combine radar-like sensing and data communications) and resilient spectrum sharing strategies that continue to work under uncertainty, adversarial conditions, or rapidly changing environments. Overall, the intention is to drive technology that improves spectrum utilization and tackles related challenges (reliability, energy use, robustness, and system-level integration), not just incremental improvements in bits-per-hertz.

A particularly timely topic within SWIFT is the growing coexistence challenge between ground-based astronomy and large constellations of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. The opportunity notes that impacts are not limited to traditional RF interference. It also includes concerns like sunlight reflections that create bright streaks in astronomical images, thermal emissions that can contaminate observations, and the effects of optical/infrared inter-satellite links. As modern ground-based optical and infrared observatories push toward higher sensitivity and wider sky coverage, the cumulative effect of many satellites in view becomes a more acute constraint. SWIFT invites projects that could mitigate these issues through satellite design changes (for example, approaches that balance reflectivity reduction with thermal and power constraints of a constellation), improved astronomical instrumentation, better data processing and post-processing algorithms to identify and remove artifacts, and new coordination methods that rely on telemetry or orbital information sharing so observatories can plan around or correct for satellite impacts.

From a project outcomes perspective, SWIFT is oriented toward research that can create new technology or significantly enhance existing wireless infrastructure and practices. That can include new architectures, hardware, algorithms, spectrum-access methods, coexistence frameworks, or coordination mechanisms that translate into measurable societal benefit: more reliable connectivity, better use of scarce spectrum, reduced interference to critical scientific or environmental observations, and more resilient wireless ecosystems. The program also emphasizes collaborative, cross-disciplinary team research, reflecting the reality that coexistence problems often span RF engineering, networking, sensing, astronomy, policy constraints, and applied mathematics.

In terms of administrative details provided, this is a discretionary NSF grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number 22-571) in the science and technology R and D category, associated with CFDA numbers 47.041, 47.049, 47.050, and 47.070. The posting indicates an expected number of awards around 18, lists an award ceiling as 0 (which typically signals that budgets are governed by program guidance rather than a single fixed cap in the summary field), and shows the original closing date as May 11, 2022, with a creation date of February 11, 2022. Eligibility is listed as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," which is a common NSF format indicating that the full solicitation details control exactly which institution types and collaboration structures can apply.

Finally, the opportunity includes a set of acronyms that hint at the ecosystem SWIFT sits within, such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), EARS (Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum), RAS (Radio Astronomy Service), EESS (Earth Exploration-Satellite service), RFI (Radio Frequency Interference), ITU (International Telecommunication Union), PAWR (Platform on Advanced Wireless Research), and others. Taken together, these underscore that SWIFT is positioned at the intersection of advanced wireless innovation and responsible spectrum stewardship, especially where commercial growth and sensitive scientific uses must successfully coexist.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Spectrum and Wireless Innovation enabled by Future Technologies" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.049, 47.050, 47.070.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 11, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 11, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 18 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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