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.
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
Awardees will gather in a collaborative cohort called a “Community of Practice” to support each other as their projects are implemented.