AI Service for Physical Systems Topic Announcement
Overview
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SUMMARY
KEY REQUIREMENTS
BUDGET
VerifiedTIMELINE
Written Proposal Submission Deadline: January 7th, 2027
Beginning of Phase 0: July 2027
Beginning of Phase 1 Go/No Go Selection: February 2028
Beginning of Phase 1: April 2028
QUESTION DEADLINE
CONTACTS
Primary procurement contact — name, title, email, and phone
Additional decision-makers and their departments
Issuing Agency
National Science Foundation
DESCRIPTION
The agency is seeking innovative, early-stage platform technologies that advance intelligent, adaptive, and scalable artificial intelligence systems operating in or interfacing with the physical world. Relevant areas may include robotics, embodied systems, human-robot interfaces, advanced sensing, cyber-physical systems, implantable, ingestible, or wearable AI devices, neural or bio-integrated platforms, and built-environment or infrastructure-scale systems.
Proposed technologies should address physical AI through embodied or physically integrated intelligent systems capable of adaptive operation. Applications involving human-robot interaction or embodied AI should demonstrate attention to security, failure-mode analysis, benchtop or sandbox testing, independent oversight, reliability, safety, responsible autonomy, and compliance.
The agency is generally not seeking narrow device-layer add-ons, instrumentation, user interfaces or dashboards, teleoperation applications, single-sensor improvements, or generic wearables that lack closed-loop autonomy or adaptability. Biological cataloging or data-lake concepts without novel embodied control or controlled training datasets tied to platform validation, as well as speculative bio-AI concepts, are also outside the intended scope.
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Frequently asked questions
- When is the submission deadline?
- Submissions are due January 7, 2027. Questions must be submitted by November 16, 2026.
- What is the budget for this RFP?
- The published budget is $1,500,000 – $50,000,000.
- Who issued this RFP?
- It was issued by National Science Foundation. The work is located in United States.
- Who is a good fit for this opportunity?
- Early-stage technology company developing embodied or physical AI platforms
- Expertise in robotics, cyber-physical systems, advanced sensing, or human-robot interaction
- Demonstrated capabilities in adaptive, closed-loop autonomous systems
- Strong practices in safety engineering, reliability, security, and failure-mode analysis
- Experience with laboratory, benchtop, sandbox, or platform validation testing
Analysis generated by Settle AI from the source RFP.
RFP Hunter shows what is open. Settle shows what is forming.
Settle pieces together buyer signals, budgets, contract activity, and the sources your team already monitors. See why an opportunity fits and what to do before the RFP posts.