NIST Standards Services Curricula Development (SSCD) Cooperative Agreement Program | 2017 NIST SSCD 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for 2017 NIST SSCD 01

The NIST Standards Services Curricula Development (SSCD) Cooperative Agreement Program is a discretionary federal funding opportunity from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) designed to expand and strengthen education on standards and standardization in U.S. higher education. The core purpose of the program is to provide financial assistance and hands-on support for developing or enhancing academic curricula that meaningfully incorporate standards-related content. Funded projects are expected to translate the real-world role of standards into educational materials that can be used in undergraduate and/or graduate settings, including full courses, course modules, seminars, and other learning resources. A central feature of this opportunity is that awardees do not work in isolation; they collaborate with NIST through a cooperative agreement structure, which generally implies more ongoing engagement and coordination with the agency than a typical grant.

The program is focused on practical integration of standards concepts into teaching and learning. In practice, this means creating educational content that helps students understand what standards are, how standardization works, and why standards matter across science, engineering, technology, and related fields. The intended outcome is a stronger pipeline of graduates who are familiar with standards development and use, and who can apply standards-aware thinking in research, product development, measurement, quality systems, interoperability, and emerging technology areas. Because the activity category is science and technology and other research and development, proposals typically align well with STEM disciplines, though the opportunity is framed broadly around standards education rather than being limited to a single department or technical domain.

Eligibility is anchored in U.S.-based accredited institutions of higher education, including those located in U.S. territories. Those institutions can apply directly. The program also allows a wider range of applicants to participate, including non-profit organizations, commercial (for-profit) organizations, public and private hospitals, and state, local, and federally recognized Indian tribal governments, as long as they can demonstrate a concrete pathway into higher education instruction. Specifically, non-IHE applicants must include a letter of commitment from an accredited U.S. institution of higher education stating that the institution will incorporate the proposed project into its undergraduate and/or graduate educational programs, such as through a pilot implementation or another formal mechanism. This requirement is meant to ensure the funded work does not remain a standalone training product, but instead becomes part of real academic offerings where students can benefit.

Applicants may propose projects as a single organization or may build a team through sub-awards or contracts, effectively forming a consortium. This flexibility supports multi-partner approaches, such as collaborations between universities and standards bodies, industry partners with applied standards expertise, non-profits with curriculum development experience, or government entities with relevant technical or workforce missions. Regardless of the team structure, the work must still center on curricula development and on demonstrable incorporation of standards and standardization content into higher education learning environments.

Administrative details from the source data identify the opportunity as a cooperative agreement under CFDA number 11.620, issued by NIST. The funding opportunity title is "NIST Standards Services Curricula Development (SSCD) Cooperative Agreement Program," with funding opportunity number "2017 NIST SSCD 01." The original posting date is January 25, 2017, and the original closing date is March 27, 2017. The source data does not provide an award ceiling or an expected number of awards, indicating those details were either unspecified in the excerpt or provided elsewhere in the full announcement.

Overall, the SSCD program is best understood as a curriculum-focused partnership opportunity with NIST aimed at embedding standards literacy into higher education. It targets the creation and deployment of instructional materials that help students learn how standards influence technology development and implementation, while also encouraging structured collaboration across academia and other sectors, provided the educational integration requirement is clearly met.

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIST Standards Services Curricula Development (SSCD) Cooperative Agreement Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 11.620.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-01-25.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-03-27. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for 2017 NIST SSCD 01

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