Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund Grant Program – Solutions for AI-Native RAN
This grant funds U.S.-organized applicants that can develop and commercially deploy AI-native RAN solutions with a secure compute environment and a demonstrated business case for revenue, cost savings, or third-party services.
⚑ Applicant must be a U.S. organization with principal place of business in the United States. · Must be capable of developing and commercially selling and/or deploying the solution; this is not a general academic research-only program. · Focus is on secure compute environments and AI-native RAN commercialization/deployment. · Award ceiling listed as $0 in the notice metadata; verify the NOFO for actual funding structure and amount.
This is primarily a telecom/computing applied-R&D program about AI-native radio access networks, secure compute environments, and commercial deployment/business cases. It does not match IPPRA’s public-opinion, risk communication, education policy, or weather/energy/nuclear social-science lines except in a very distant, non-core way.
JUDGED AGAINST THE ROSTER'S PUBLICATION DOSSIER · GPT-5.4-MINI · 2026-07-15
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 90 strong | technical depth: central; funds applied research |
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 45 partial | funds applied research; prototyping/demonstration stage; deep-tech content |
| IPPRA | 40 partial | outside portfolio topics; social/behavioral work is none; funds applied research |
Description
This NOFO is the fourth issued under NTIA’s Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund (PWSCIF or Innovation Fund). Titled “Solutions for AI-Native RAN,” the goal of this NOFO is to support the development of a secure compute environment to enable or leverage native artificial intelligence (“AI”) capabilities in the Radio Access Network (RAN) that generate revenue for operators, cost savings, and innovative third-party services, and demonstrate a business case for one or more services that leverage these capabilities, accelerating commercial deployments and the export of open, interoperable, and secure equipment.
Eligibility
Applicants must demonstrate they are capable of developing and commercially selling and/or deploying a solution that leverages a secure compute environment to enable native AI capabilities in the RAN. The applicant must be organized under the laws of the United States or a State thereof, with its principal place of business in the United States. Eligibility requirements can be found in Section 2.2
Apply
View on Grants.gov → CONTACT: Misty L Roosa Grantor <Shanell.williams@nist.gov>
Proposal brief SEE AN EXAMPLE →
A one-page internal memo: fit assessment, submission requirements, document scaffold, and next steps dated back from the deadline — tailored to your project idea if you add one.
Proposal shell · NOAA / Department of Commerce conventions SEE A NOAA EXAMPLE →
Funder-faithful document skeletons — NOAA / Department of Commerce's document set with section headings, page limits, reviewer guidance, and writing prompts; add a project idea to get [DRAFT] starter bullets. Download as .md for Word or Overleaf.