The U.S. National Science Foundation yesterday published a new investment to advance privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) and promote their use to solve real-world problems. The Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing in Practice (PDaSP) program, which aligns with a tasking in the recent “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” (AI EO), will enhance the ability to privately share and analyze data for a range of use cases and applications, including those of significant interest to federal agencies.
“The explosive growth of data and computational power in today’s world provide tremendous opportunities to accelerate scientific discovery and innovation,” said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF assistant director for TIP. “NSF is uniquely positioned to lead efforts to enable and promote data sharing in a privacy-preserving and responsible manner to harness the power and insights of data for public good. Through this program, NSF will prioritize use-inspired and translational research that empowers federal agencies and the private sector to adopt leading-edge PETs in their work.”
PDaSP is led by the NSF Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) in collaboration with the NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, as well as Intel Corporation and VMware LLC, as industry partners, and the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration and U.S. Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology as federal agency partners.
“PDaSP reflects NSF’s commitment to accelerate the translation of promising research outputs to the market and society by promoting use-inspired research, systems development and implementation projects,” said Thyaga Nandagopal, director of the Division of Innovation and Technology Ecosystems within TIP. “We are pleased to address, through the PDaSP program, key priorities put forward in the National Strategy to Advance Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing and Analytics (PPDSA). The PDaSP program also answers mandates of the AI EO by prioritizing research, development and availability of testing environments to support the maturation and deployment of PETs in application-specific contexts.”
The PDaSP program welcomes proposals from qualified researchers and multidisciplinary teams in the following tracks with expected funding ranges for proposals as shown below.
- Track 1: Advancing key technologies to enable practical PPDSA solutions: Projects are expected to be in the $500K – $1 million range for up to two years.
- Track 2: Integrated and comprehensive solutions for trustworthy data sharing in application settings: Projects are expected to be in the $1 million – $1.5 million range for up to three years.
- Track 3: Usable tools and testbeds for trustworthy sharing of private or otherwise confidential data: Projects are expected to be in the $500K – $1.5 million range for up to three years.