A National Research and Action Competition
Driven By Community Priorities
The Civic Innovation Challenge is a multi-agency, federal government research and action competition that aims to fund ready-to-implement, research-based pilot projects that have the potential for scalable, sustainable, and transferable impact on community-identified priorities. It aims to flip the community-university dynamic, inviting communities to identify civic priorities ripe for innovation and to then partner with researchers to address those priorities.
Projects from CIVIC 2021 (the first round of CIVIC) are still in progress.
Learn more about these projects here.
Access the current CIVIC funding opportunity
Learn about the CIVIC proposal and award process
U.S. Department of
Homeland Security
Co-Lead and Co-Funder
U.S. National Science Foundation
Challenge Lead and Funder
U.S. Department of Energy
Co-Lead and Co-Funder
MetroLab Network
Community-of-Practice Builder
What's the Process?
Teams of researchers and civic partners will submit proposals to one of two community-identified tracks by May 5th.
LIVING IN A CHANGING CLIMATE
Pre-Disaster Action Around Adaptation,
Resilience, and Mitigation
RESOURCE & SERVICE EQUITY
Bridging the Gap between Essential Resources and Services & Community Needs
Teams’ proposals will be reviewed by civic leaders and researchers in NSF-led review panels. NSF, DHS, and DOE will jointly select Stage 1 planning grants, who will then have the opportunity to apply for Stage 2 full awards. Stage 2 awardees will receive $1 million and have 1 year to implement their pilot projects in communities across the country.
| Stage 1: Planning Grants | Stage 2: Full Awards |
|
|---|---|---|
| Award Size | Up to $50K | Up to $1M |
| No. of Awards | Up to 50* | Up to 20* |
| Length of Stage | 6 Months | 12 Months |
*Contingent on the quality of proposals and availability of funds
