NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program (PSIAP) – Mission Critical Voice
RFP Summary provided by the agency
There’s an urgent need for first responders to have access to the same broadband communications and innovative technologies that consumers and commercial networks now expect. That’s why NIST PSCR is seeking applications from eligible applicants for activities to accelerate research, development, production, and testing of key public safety capabilities related to mission critical voice, location-based services, and user interface/user experience. Specifically, this award seeks solutions around accelerating the development, production, and testing of:
- Mission critical voice over broadband networks
- Location-based services
- First responder-machine interactions
PSCR created this funding opportunity to stimulate external R&D activities addressing critical technology gaps identified by stakeholders and to build a public safety-focused R&D ecosystem with long-lasting impact namely:
- Promoting cross-cutting research to advance public safety communications technology
- Transforming public safety operations
- Addressing critical technology gaps
What is the mission and focus of the program: research, social, economic or others?
Research
How do you submit to this opportunity?
Electronic applications must be received at grants.gov
Who are the target applicants: cities, universities, companies, small business, nonprofits, or others?
Eligible applicants include institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, state and local governments, Indian tribes, hospitals, foreign public entities, and foreign governments. Organizations can work individually or with collaborators.
Example project(s) summaries from past RFPs:
An Infrastructure-Free Localization System for Firefighters: This project focuses on the development of a rapidly deployable infrastructure-free localization system to track firefighters inside of a structure such as a building. The goal of the project is to provide fire safety chiefs who are responsible for team accountability a live feed on a tablet or computer outside of the facility that can show the position of each firefighter within. Given the hostile nature of burning structures and the time criticality of missions, this requires that a system can track firefighters without any pre-installed internal and limited external infrastructure, and without assuming knowledge of the structure’s layout. For a system to be practically adopted at scale, it also needs to be low-cost and extremely simple to configure and deploy.
https://www.nist.gov/ctl/pscr/infrastructure-free-localization-system-firefighters
Other required documents/forms
All applicants are required to have a current registration in the electronic System for Award Management (SAM.gov)