NSF Program on Fairness in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Collaboration with Amazon | 19 571

Opportunity Information: Apply for 19 571

The NSF Program on Fairness in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Collaboration with Amazon (Funding Opportunity Number 19-571) is a National Science Foundation discretionary grant opportunity designed to advance fundamental, computational research that improves the trustworthiness of AI and machine learning systems. The central idea behind the program is that as AI becomes more widely deployed in high-impact, real-world settings, public confidence and broad adoption will increasingly depend on whether these systems can be shown to behave fairly and responsibly. NSF frames this as more than a technical performance issue: even highly accurate AI can fail society if it produces unjust outcomes, hides decision logic, cannot be audited, or disproportionately harms certain groups. The program therefore targets research that helps the community ensure, assess, and demonstrate fairness-related properties in AI systems, with an emphasis on approaches that move beyond current capabilities and are motivated by realistic deployment constraints.

A key focus of the solicitation is the set of topics commonly associated with trustworthy AI, especially fairness, transparency, explainability, and accountability. Within that umbrella, NSF highlights specific areas of interest including identifying and understanding adverse biases and unintended effects, developing mitigation strategies, creating methods to validate or measure fairness claims, and incorporating inclusivity considerations so the benefits of AI are broadly available across all segments of society. The opportunity is explicitly oriented toward research contributions that can stand up in practice: the goal is not only to propose principles, but to develop theories, techniques, and methodologies that can be used to evaluate and improve real systems, ultimately supporting broader acceptance of AI technologies and enabling their responsible use in addressing major societal challenges.

Although Amazon provides partial funding, the program description makes a point of clarifying that Amazon will not participate in selecting proposals for award. NSF positions the partnership as a way to strengthen and accelerate research progress while keeping the merit-review and award decision process independent. The program also emphasizes that fairness in AI is inherently interdisciplinary. Strong proposals are expected to draw from, or collaborate across, fields such as computer science and information science, engineering, statistics and mathematics, and human-centered disciplines like cognitive science and psychology. This reflects the view that fairness and bias are not purely computational problems; they involve measurement choices, human interpretation, behavioral impacts, and social context, all of which benefit from multiple scientific perspectives.

From an administrative standpoint, this opportunity is offered as a grant under the broad federal activity category of science and technology research and development. The CFDA numbers listed are 47.070 and 47.075, and the agency is the National Science Foundation. The original posting date is March 26, 2019, with an original closing date of June 25, 2019. NSF anticipated making about nine awards, and the public listing shows an award ceiling of 0, which typically indicates that the ceiling is not specified in the high-level synopsis and applicants should rely on the full solicitation for budgeting guidance and any constraints. Eligibility is summarized as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," meaning applicants would need to consult the full program announcement to confirm which organizations and partnership types are permitted.

Overall, the opportunity is best understood as a targeted NSF research program aimed at building the scientific and technical foundations needed to make AI systems demonstrably fair and worthy of trust at scale. By funding work on measurement, auditing, explanation, accountability mechanisms, bias identification and mitigation, and inclusivity-aware design and validation, NSF intends to help ensure that the economic and societal benefits of AI can be realized without leaving segments of the population behind or creating new forms of harm that undermine confidence in the technology.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NSF Program on Fairness in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Collaboration with Amazon" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.070, 47.075.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 26, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 25, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 9 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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