IEEE Future Directions Funding Process

IEEE Future Directions Funding Process

General Instructions:
For each section on the proposal form, please provide as much detail as possible. Describe how the funding, if granted, will be spent within the current calendar year, and into the subsequent year if needed. The full allocated amount will be held by Future Directions, e.g., no journal transfers of money will be made. It is anticipated that all expenses will be paid as they are incurred. FDC is particularly interested in the plan for continuation of the initiative after the FDC funding is completed.

Your request will be assessed by the committee via a scorecard. Considerations include, but are not limited to:

  • Proposal is seen as innovative and of strategic importance to IEEE;
  • Proposal is well thought out and the objectives are well defined and achievable;
  • Initiative has potential to generate revenue;
  • Outcomes, impacts, and metrics are clear and measurable;
  • Deliverables are described in a way that concludes in one year or outlines a strong path towards success.

If approved, a member of FDC pending availability will be assigned as an advisor. Written status reports are required to be submitted quarterly to FDC or upon request.

Funding Requests: Requests for initial funding are only accepted for consideration when supported by at least two (2) IEEE societies, councils, or technical communities. Requests outside of a society, council, or technical community are not eligible and will not be accepted. Include the requested funding amount and budget. If the proposal is approved, the requested funding amount may be adjusted.

Note funding of the initiative if approved for year one must be requested of the FDC and approved each subsequent year.

This Microsoft Word template (DOCX, 29 KB) should be used for drafting and revising the proposal information. This is the exact information that must be entered into the form for funding consideration. Please submit the proposal information in this Google Form.

Past Successful Projects Funded by IEEE FDC:

IEEE Low-Power Image Recognition Challenge (LPIRC): Many mobile systems (smartphones, electronic glass, autonomous robots) can capture images. These systems use batteries and energy conservation is essential. This challenge aims to discover the best technology in both image recognition and energy conservation. Winners are evaluated based on both high recognition accuracy and low power usage. Image recognition involves many tasks. This challenge focuses on object detection, a basic routine in many recognition approaches.

IEEE Technology Roadmaps Committee (IRC): The IEEE Technology Roadmaps Committee (IRC) works to provide guidance and infrastructure to support technology roadmap activities across IEEE. IRC reports into the IEEE Future Directions Committee. The growing interest in technology roadmaps spans a wide range of IEEE organizational units. IRC seeks to enable the success of IEEE’s technology roadmap activities by leveraging the expertise of experienced roadmap developers to create tools and templates and document a high-level roadmap development process to assist new roadmaps.

Fog World Congress (FWC): The first conference that brought industry and research together to explore the technologies, challenges, industry deployments and opportunities in fog computing and networking. The FWC provided a seamlessly integrated forum for industry and academia to work together. Interactive sessions provided an unprecedented platform where experts guided interactive roundtable discussions, ran a fog hackathon, and organized workshops to attack specific technical and business issues in selected industrial verticals. There were sessions designed to debate controversial topics such as why and where fog will be necessary, what will happen in a future world without fog, and how fog could disrupt the industry.

IEEE International Forum on Smart Grids for Smart Cities: For the past few years, smart grids have been the main topic of fervent research and development at both the industrial and academic level. However, all these prospected transformations bring with them numerous challenges and opportunities. In order to address some of these questions, IEEE Smart Grid, in collaboration with Think SmartGrids — the structure assembling smart grid players in France — gathered experts from the energy, telecommunications, and computing sectors for the first IEEE International Forum on Smart Grids for Smart Cities.

IEEE Environmental Engineering intended to create an interdisciplinary forum for the community interested in the area of environmental engineering including components in various S/Cs which are using our technologies and methodologies but are not yet embraced by our IEEE communities.