Networking and Information Technology Research and Development
![]() | This article reads like a press release or a news article and may be largely based on routine coverage. (March 2012) |
The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program consists of a group of U.S. federal agencies to research and develop information technology (IT) capabilities to empower Federal missions; support U.S. science, engineering, and technology leadership; and bolster U.S. economic competitiveness. The inter-agency program focuses on identifying research that will help the United States to “out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world”.[1]
Working groups
NITRD program activities are organized into ten program component areas (PCAs), fourteen coordination groups (CGs), task force groups, teams, and a community of practice (CoP). The NITRD Subcommittee convenes three times a year and the working groups meet approximately monthly. These groups provide input to the NITRD supplement to the president’s budget.
NITRD working groups are organized in the following program component areas for FY 2019:
- CHuman - Computing-Enabled Human Interaction, Communication, and Augmentation. CHuman involves R&D of information technologies that enhance a person’s ability to interact with IT systems, other people, and the physical world, including R&D in social computing, human-human and human-machine interaction and collaboration, rational decision-making, command and control, and human and social impacts of IT.
- CNPS - Computing-Enabled Networked Physical Systems. CNPS involves R&D for information technology-enabled systems that integrate the cyber/information, physical, and human worlds, including R&D of cyber-physical systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT), and related complex, high-reliability, networked, distributed computing systems.
- CSP - Cyber Security and Privacy. CSP involves R&D to protect information and information systems from cyber threats and to prevent adverse privacy effects arising from information processing, including R&D to deter, detect, prevent, resist, respond to, recover from, and adapt to threats to the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of information and information systems, as well as R&D of privacy-protecting information systems and standards.
- EdW - Education and Workforce. EdW involves R&D using information technology to improve education and training, including 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 involves R&D to advance high-capability computing and develop fundamentally new approaches in high-capability computing, including 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 involves 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 involves R&D of intelligent robotic systems, including 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 involves R&D to extract knowledge and insight from data, including R&D in the capture, curation, management, access, analysis, and presentation of large, diverse, often multisource, data.
- LSN - Large-Scale Networking. LSN involves R&D of networking technologies and services, including 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.
- SPSQ - Software Productivity, Sustainability, and Quality. SPSQ involves R&D to advance timely and affordable development and sustainment of quality software, including R&D to significantly improve software production processes, productivity, quality, economics, sustainability, measurement, assurance, and adaptability.
Other coordination groups focus on emerging issues and are not required to report budgetary information to the NITRD program. They offer a means of collaboration for individuals with a senior level of authority who do not participate in the program component area working groups.
- Big data research and development
- Cyber physical systems
- Health information technology research and development was established in 2010 in response to Section 13202(b) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, P.L. 111-5) for bringing together health and IT communities.
- Wireless spectrum research and development group was established in 2010 in response to the June 28, 2010 presidential memorandum Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution.[2]
Community of practice
Faster Administration of Science and Technology Education and Research (FASTER) Community of Practice (CoP) FASTER, supported by the NITRD NCO, communicates with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council concerning IT R&D matters that are of general interest to Federal agencies. FASTER’s goal is to enhance collaboration and accelerate government agency adoption of advanced IT capabilities developed by government-sponsored IT research. The group is focused on the following strategic themes:
- Cloud computing
- Semantic web and ontology technology
- Open government
- Emerging technologies
- Sharing knowledge, ideas, and best practices
Participating agencies
The following federal agencies report their IT research budgets in the NITRD "crosscut" and provide proportional funding to support NITRD's operations:
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the Department of Commerce
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the Department of Commerce
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the Department of Defense
- National Security Agency (NSA) in the Department of Defense
- Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and Service Research Organizations in the Department of Defense
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) in the Department of Defense
- Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in the Department of Defense
- Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in the Department of Defense
- Office of Naval Research (ONR) in the Department of Defense
- National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) in the Department of Energy
- Office of Science (DOE/SC) in the Department of Energy
- The Department of Homeland Security
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the Department of Health and Human Services
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Department of Health and Human Services
- Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in the Department of Health and Human Services
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
- National Science Foundation (NSF)
Representatives of other agencies also participate.
Publications
- The Annual Supplement to the President's Budget, which is required by law, summarizes the program activities.[3]
- CSIA IWG Cybersecurity R&D Recommendations (May 2010)
- Harnessing the Power of Digital Data for Science and Society - Report of the Interagency Working Group on Digital Data to the Committee on Science of the National Science and Technology Council (January 2009)
- Federal Plan for Advanced Networking Research and Development (September 2008 )
- Federal Plan for Cyber Security and Information Assurance Research and Development (April 2006)
- Federal Plan for High-End Computing (Second Printing - July 2004)
Strategic plans
- The National Artificial Intelligence Research And Development Strategic Plan (October 2016)
- National Privacy Research Strategy (July 2016)
- The Federal Big Data Research and Development Strategic Plan (May 2016)
- Trustworthy Cyberspace: Strategic Plan for the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Program
- Five-Year Strategic Plan for FY 2002-FY 2006
History and legal background
NITRD started in 1991 with the High Performance Computing Act of 1991,[4] and was changed by the Next Generation Internet Research Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-305),[5] and the America COMPETES Act of 2007 (P.L.110-69),[6] NITRD provides a framework and mechanisms to coordinate among 15 Federal agencies that support advanced IT R&D and report IT research budgets in the "NITRD crosscut." Individuals from other agencies with IT interests also participate informally.
The NITRD program had an invitation-only symposium in Washington, DC, in February 2012. Former Vice President Al Gore, who sponsored the High Performance Computing Act of 1991, was promoted as a speaker.[7]
Coordination
NITRD's National Coordination Office (NCO) supports NITRD's planning, budget, and assessment activities. The NCO also supports the NITRD Subcommittee, which coordinates the NITRD Program, and the organizations that report to the Subcommittee.[8] The NCO's director is appointed by the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The NCO works with the NITRD agencies, IWGs, CGs and the White House Office of Management and Budget to prepare, publish, and disseminate the Program's annual supplement to the President's Budget, Federal networking and IT R&D plans, and networking and IT research needs reports.
The NCO provides technical support for the activities of the Networking and Information Technology Subcommittee of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a panel of experts from industry and academia, in assessing the NITRD Program and preparing associated reports.
The NCO maintains the NITRD Web site - https://www.nitrd.gov - which contains information about the Program and electronic versions of NITRD documents
References
- ^ “A Strategy for American Innovation: Securing Our Economic Growth and Prosperity,” President Barack Obama, February 4, 2011 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/innovation/strategy)
- ^ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-unleashing-wireless-broadband-revolution, Section 3.
- ^ Supplements to the President's Budget at nitrd.gov
- ^ High Performance Computing Act of 1991 (P.L. 102-194)
- ^ Next Generation Internet Research Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-305)
- ^ COMPETES Act of 2007 (P.L.110-69) (standing for Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science
- ^ "The Impact of NITRD: Two Decades of Game-Changing Breakthroughs in Network and Information". Archived from the original on February 10, 2012.
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