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The NITRD Program provides a framework in which many Federal agencies come together to coordinate their networking and information technology (IT) research and development (R&D) efforts.

The Program operates under the aegis of the NITRD Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council's (NSTC) Committee on Technology. The Subcommittee, made up of representatives from each of NITRD's member agencies, provides overall coordination for NITRD activities.

Federal IT R&D, which launched and fueled the digital revolution, continues to drive innovation in scientific research, national security, communication, and commerce to sustain U.S. technological leadership. The NITRD agencies' collaborative efforts increase the overall effectiveness and productivity of these Federal R&D investments, leveraging strengths, avoiding duplication, and increasing interoperability of R&D products. More...

The NITRD Program has its focus on the following research areas:

• Big Data (BD)
• Cyber Physical Systems (CPS)
• Cyber Security and Information Assurance (CSIA)
• Health Information Technology Research and Development (Health IT R&D)
• Human Computer Interaction and Information Management (HCI&IM)
• High Confidence Software and Systems (HCSS)
• High End Computing (HEC)
• Large Scale Networking (LSN)
• Software Design and Productivity (SDP)
• Social, Economic, and Workforce Implications of IT and IT Workforce Development (SEW)
• Wireless Spectrum Research and Development (WSRD)

The National Coordination Office (NCO) supports the national Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program by providing technical expertise, planning and coordination and by serving as the Program's central point of contact.

The NCO continuously seeks to enhance its ability to be a catalyst for collaboration, exchange of information, and outreach to foster knowledge, methods, R&D, technology transfer, and innovation for U.S. global leadership in networking and information technology and its applications.

Accountability, dedication, integrity, and responsibility are the core values that underlie NCO's efforts to serve as a catalyst for the networking and information technology research and development community. More...

What's New

June 20, 2013
Making the Most of BIG DATA
Aiming to make the most of the explosion of Big Data and the tools needed to analyze it, the Obama Administration announced a "National Big Data Research and Development Initiative" on March 29, 2012. As we enter the second year of the Big Data Initiative, the Administration is encouraging multiple stakeholders including federal agencies, private industry, academia, state and local government, non-profits, and foundations, to develop and participate in Big Data innovation projects across the country.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), NSF, and other agencies in the Networking and Information Technology R&D (NITRD) program would like to hear about projects that seek to foster innovation, advance technologies, and educate the future Big Data workforce.

Click Here to Read the Call for Projects

NSTC Documents & Reports: Federal Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education 5-year Strategic Plan
A Report from the Committee on STEM Education National Science and Technology Council

CSIA IWG

Cyber Security and Information Assurance (CSIA) Interagency Working Group coordinates the activities of the CSIA Program Component Area. CSIA agencies focus on research and development to prevent, resist, detect, respond to, and/or recover from actions that compromise or threaten to compromise the availability, integrity, or confidentiality of computer- and network-based systems...

CSIA R&D SSG

The Cyber Security and Information Assurance (CSIA) Research and Development (R&D) Senior Steering Group (SSG) was formed in response to the 2009 President’s Cyberspace Policy Review for “a framework for research and development strategies that focus on game-changing technologies.” The NITRD Program has led a series of public-private activities that culminated in defining initial strategic themes for transforming cybersecurity: (a) Tailored Trustworthy Spaces, (b) Moving Target, and (c) Cyber Economics and Incentives.

The Health Information Technology Research and Development Senior Steering Group (Health IT R&D SSG) coordinates programs, budgets and policy recommendations for Health IT R&D. This includes identifying and integrating requirements, establishing priorities, sharing program information and R&D activities, conducting joint program planning, and developing joint strategies for the Health IT R&D programs conducted by SSG agency members. Health IT R&D includes fundamental research, applied R&D, technology development and engineering, demonstrations, testing and evaluation, technology transfer, and education and training.

The HCI&IM CG coordinates the activities of the Human Computer Interaction and Information Management Program Component Area (PCA).

HCI&IM focuses on information interaction, integration, and management research to develop and measure the performance of new technologies (e.g., robotic, multimodal), agents, cognitive systems, and information systems that support the hierarchy and refinement of data from discovery to decision and action by both humans and computers working together and separately. HCI&IM capabilities support U.S. national priorities such as leading-edge scientific research, national defense, homeland security, economic competitiveness, emergency planning and response, education and training, health care, space exploration, weather forecasting, and climate prediction.

The HCSS CG coordinates the activities of the High Confidence Software and Systems Program Component Area (PCA).

HCSS R&D supports development of scientific foundations and technologies for innovative systems design, systems and embedded application software, and assurance and verification to enable the routine production of reliable, robust, safe, scalable, secure, stable, and certifiably dependable IT-centric physical and engineered systems comprising new classes of advanced services and applications. These systems, often embedded in larger physical and IT systems, are essential for the operation of the country's critical societal infrastructures, acceleration of U.S. capability in industrial competitiveness, and optimization of citizens' quality of life.

The HEC IWG coordinates the activities of the High End Computing (HEC) Infrastructure and Applications (I&A) and HEC Research and Development (R&D) Program Component Areas (PCAs).

HEC I&A agencies coordinate Federal activities to provide advanced computing systems, applications software, data management, and HEC R&D infrastructure to meet agency mission needs and to keep the United States at the forefront of 21st century science, engineering, and technology. HEC capabilities enable researchers in academia, Federal laboratories, and industry to model and simulate complex processes in biology, chemistry, climate and weather, environmental sciences, materials science, nanoscale science and technology, physics, and other areas to address Federal agency mission needs.

HEC R&D agencies conduct and coordinate hardware and software R&D to enable the effective use of high-end systems to meet Federal agency mission needs, to address many of society's most challenging problems, and to strengthen the Nation's leadership in science, engineering, and technology. Research areas of interest include hardware (e.g., microarchitecture, memory subsystems, interconnect, packaging, I/O, and storage), software (e.g., operating systems, languages and compilers, development environments, algorithms), and systems technology (e.g., system architecture, programming models).

The LSN CG coordinates the activities of the Large Scale Networking Program Component Area (PCA).

LSN members coordinate Federal agency networking R&D in leading-edge networking technologies, services, and enhanced performance, including programs in network security, new network architectures, dynamic multi-domain optical networking, heterogeneous networking (optical, mobile wireless, sensornet, IP,…), high data transport, federation across networking domains, testbeds, end-to-end performance measurement (e.g., development and use of perfSONAR), and advanced network components; grid, cloud, and collaboration networking tools and services; engineering, management, and use of large-scale networks for scientific and applications R&D, and research to address network complexity. The results of this coordinated R&D, once deployed, can help assure that the next generation of the Internet will be scalable, trustworthy, and flexible.

The SDP CG coordinates the activities of the Software Design and Productivity Program Component Area (PCA).

SDP R&D will lead to fundamental advances in concepts, methods, techniques, and tools for software design, development, and maintenance that can address the needs of Federal agencies and society. The SDP R&D agenda spans both the science and the technology of software creation and sustainment (e.g., development methods and environments, V&V technologies, component technologies, languages, tools, and system software) and software project management in diverse domains. R&D will advance software engineering concepts, methods, techniques, and tools that result in more usable, dependable, cost-effective, and sustainable software-intensive systems. The domains cut across information technology, industrial production, evolving areas such as the Internet and the World Wide Web, and highly complex, interconnected software-intensive systems.

Consistent with the draft NITRD Strategic Plan, the SEW CG coordinates the activities of the Social, Economic and Workforce Implications of Information Technology (IT) and IT Workforce Development Program Component Area (PCA), including the work of the CG’s subsidiary Team focusing on IT and education.

The activities funded under SEW focus on i) the co-evolution of IT and social/economic systems, ii) interactions between people and IT devices and capabilities, iii) the workforce development, training, and education needs arising from the growing demand for productive next-generation workers skilled in IT, including graduate fellowships and iv) the role of innovative IT applications in education and training.

A key goal of SEW research and outreach activities is to enable individuals and society to better understand and anticipate the uses and consequences of IT, so that this knowledge can inform policymaking, IT designs, and the IT user community, and can broaden participation in IT education and careers.

The Wireless Spectrum R&D (WSRD) Senior Steering Group (SSG) has been formed to coordinate spectrum-related research and development activities across the Federal government. The purpose is two-fold: to help coordinate and inform ongoing activities across Federal agencies; and to facilitate the identification of shortcomings in the Government’s R&D portfolio with respect to technologies that allow a more efficient use of spectrum. These activities are consistent with the guiding principles of WSRD, which are transparency, smart investment, and the solicitation of opportunities for technology transfer across and beyond the Federal government.

The Big Data Senior Steering Group (BD SSG) has been formed to identify current big data research and development activities across the Federal government, offer opportunities for coordination, and begin to identify what the goal of a national initiative in this area would look like. As data volumes grow exponentially, so does the concern over data preservation, access, dissemination, and usability. Research into areas such as automated analysis techniques, data mining, machine learning, privacy, and database interoperability are underway at many agencies and will help identify how big data can enable science in new ways and at new levels. The science of data includes the processes of turning data into knowledge, data mining and visualization, interoperability, search and discovery, and semantics.

The Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) Senior Steering Group (SSG)

The CPS SSG is to coordinate programs, budgets, and policy recommendations for Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) research and development (R&D). This includes identifying and integrating requirements, conducting joint program planning, and developing joint strategies for the CPS R&D programs conducted by agency members of the NITRD Subcommittee. CPS includes fundamental research, applied R&D, technology development and engineering, demonstrations, testing and evaluation, technology transfer, and education and training; and "agencies" refers to Federal departments, agencies, directorates, foundations, institutes, and other organizational entities.