Agencies coordinate their NITRD research activities and plans in Program Component Areas (PCAs), which are the major subject areas under which related projects and activities carried out under the NITRD Program are grouped. Budgets for the PCAs are reported in the annual NITRD budget crosscut.
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.
NITRD Program's member agencies coordinate their NITRD research activities and plans by Program Component Areas (PCAs). For each PCA, agency representatives meet in an Interagency Working Group to exchange information and collaborate on research plans and activities such as testbeds, workshops, and cooperative solicitations.
The NITRD Dashboard helps interested individuals better track funding trends and identify agencies with investments in technical areas of interest, which will enable entrepreneurs and grant seekers to better direct their efforts to engage the correct Federal agency.
NITRD -> NITRD PCAs -> FY2021
For general information about NITRD PCAs, see the NITRD PCA main page. The FY2021 PCAs described on this page will be used in the NITRD Supplement to the President's FY2021 Budget.
For each annual NITRD Supplement, Agencies "map" their NITRD Program activities coordinated by Interagency Working Groups (IWGs) into Supplement sections and budgets organized by PCAs. Predominant FY2021 mapping by agencies: Graphic | Text.
AI - Artificial Intelligence *
AI R&D advances the ability of computer systems to perform tasks that have traditionally required human intelligence; this includes R&D in machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing/understanding, intelligent decision support systems, and autonomous systems, as well as the novel application of these techniques to various domains, where not principally covered by other PCAs.CHuman - Computing-Enabled Human Interaction, Communication, and Augmentation
CHuman R&D advances information technologies that enhance people’s ability to interact with IT systems, other people, and the physical world; this includes R&D in social computing, human-human and human-machine interaction and collaboration, and human and social impacts of IT.CNPS - Computing-Enabled Networked Physical Systems
CNPS R&D advances information technology-enabled systems that integrate the cyber/information, physical, and human worlds; this includes R&D of cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things, and related complex, high-reliability, real-time, networked, and hybrid computing and engineered systems.CSP - Cyber Security and Privacy
CSP R&D advances protection of information, information systems, and people from cyber threats and prevention of adverse privacy effects arising from information processing; this includes R&D to deter, detect, prevent, counter, respond to, recover from, and adapt to threats to the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of information and information systems, along with R&D to address privacy goals of individuals and society related to direct and indirect effects of information processing.EdW - Education and Workforce
EdW R&D advances use of information technology to improve education and training; this includes IT to enhance learning, teaching, assessment, and standards, as well as preparation of next-generation cyber-capable citizens and professionals.EHCS - Enabling-R&D for High-Capability Computing Systems
EHCS R&D advances high-capability computing and development of fundamentally new approaches in high-capability computing; this includes R&D in hardware and hardware subsystems, software, architectures, system performance, computational algorithms, data analytics, development tools, and software methods for extreme data- and compute-intensive workloads.HCIA - High-Capability Computing Infrastructure and Applications
HCIA investments advance operation and utilization of systems and infrastructure for high- capability computing, including computation- and data-intensive systems and applications; directly associated software, communications, storage, and data management infrastructure; and other resources supporting high-capability computing.IRAS - Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Systems
IRAS R&D advances intelligent robotic systems; this includes R&D in robotics hardware and software design and application, machine perception, cognition and adaptation, mobility and manipulation, human-robot interaction, distributed and networked robotics, and increasingly autonomous systems.LSDMA - Large-Scale Data Management and Analysis
LSDMA R&D advances extraction of knowledge and insights from data; this includes R&D of data capture, curation, provenance, management, access, analysis, and presentation of large, diverse, often multisource, data.LSN - Large-Scale Networking
LSN R&D advances networking technologies and services; this includes R&D in networking architectures, wireless networks, software-defined networks, heterogeneous multimedia networks, testbeds, grid and cloud research and infrastructure, network service and cloud computing middleware, identity management, and end-to-end performance enhancement and performance measurement.Advanced Wireless R&D covers the activities coordinated through the NITRD Wireless Spectrum R&D Interagency Working Group, which includes Federal spectrum-related R&D investments that promote efficient use of wireless spectrum through advanced technologies and systems.
SPSQ - Software Productivity, Sustainability, and Quality
SPSQ R&D advances timely and affordable development and sustainment of low-defect, low-vulnerability software; this includes R&D to significantly improve software production processes; productivity, quality, and understanding of the economics of software and its development, sustainability, measurement, assurance, and adaptability; and guarantees of essential requirements such as security, privacy, usability, reliability, and autonomy.* Please note that we understand R&D in AI will intersect with multiple PCAs. For example:
Agencies should consider these examples and report a given activity under the PCA that is most specific to that activity.↩
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