NIST Seeks to Advance Public Safety Broadband Tech R&D Through Grant Program; Dereck Orr Comments

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has introduced a $30 million grant program in an effort to advance research and development work on broadband technology platforms for first responders.

NIST’s public safety communications research division will accept applications from nonprofit organizations, higher education institutions and other non-federal entities for the Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program through Feb. 28, the First Responder Network Authority said Dec. 22.

Dereck Orr, director of NIST’s PSCR, told FirstNet Chief Technology Officer Jeff Bratcher in an interview that the grant program is part of the $300 million in allocated funds that NIST received through the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum auctions.

Orr noted that the funding opportunity also seeks to expand the number of researchers that would help address the public safety’s broadband communications requirements over the next decade or 15 years.

He also discussed the grant program’s technology areas that include location-based services, analytics, mission critical voice, prototyping, communication demand modeling and resilient systems.