[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 117 (Tuesday, June 18, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28338-28339]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-12866]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Request for Information on Update to Strategic Computing 
Objectives

AGENCY: Networking and Information Technology Research and Development 
(NITRD) National Coordination Office (NCO), National Science 
Foundation.

ACTION: Notice of request for information.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: On behalf of the National Science and Technology Council's 
(NSTC) Fast-Track Action Committee (FTAC) on Strategic Computing (SC), 
NITRD NCO requests input from all interested parties on the goals and 
necessary approaches for sustaining and enhancing U.S. scientific, 
technological, and economic leadership in strategic computing.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before 11:59 p.m. (ET) on 
August 23, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be sent by any of the following methods:
     Email: [email protected]. Email submissions 
should be machine-readable and not be copy-protected. Submissions 
should include ``RFI Response: Strategic Computing Research and 
Development'' in the subject line of the message.
     Fax: (202) 459-9673, Attn: Ji Lee; or
     Mail: Attn: Ji Lee, NITRD NCO, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, 
Alexandria, VA 22314, USA.
    Instructions: Response to this RFI is voluntary. Each individual or 
institution is requested to submit only one response. Submissions must 
not exceed 10 pages in 12 point or larger font, with a page number 
provided on each page. Responses should include the name of the 
person(s) or organization(s) filing the comment.
    Responses to this RFI may be posted online at http://www.nitrd.gov. 
Therefore, we request that no business proprietary information, 
copyrighted information, or personally identifiable information be 
submitted in response to this RFI.
    In accordance with FAR 15.202(3), responses to this notice are not 
offers and cannot be accepted by the Federal government to form a 
binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses 
associated with responding to this RFI.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ji Lee at (202) 459-9674 or 
[email protected], or by mail to 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, 
Alexandria, VA 22314, USA. Individuals who use a telecommunications 
device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay 
Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern 
time, Monday through Friday.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:  The National Science and Technology 
Council's (NSTC) Fast-Track Action Committee (FTAC) on Strategic 
Computing (SC), NITRD NCO requests input from all interested parties on 
the goals and necessary approaches for sustaining and enhancing U.S. 
scientific, technological, and economic leadership in strategic 
computing. This includes the national high-performance computing 
ecosystem (as outlined in the National Stratetic Computing Initiative 
Strategic Plan) as well as research, development, and deployment. This 
Request for Information (RFI) seeks input on whether the strategic 
computing objectives should be revised and, if so, how. Comments about 
existing strategic objectives (i.e., suggestions to add, remove, or 
modify the objectives) and their past or future implementation by the 
Federal government are requested. All interested parties including 
those engaged in strategic computing research and development (R&D) and 
those affected by such R&D are welcome to respond. Responses will 
inform the NITRD NCO and the FTAC on SC on updating the goals and 
approaches for strategic computing R&D.
    Background: In 2015, the National Strategic Computing Initiative 
(NSCI) was launched to sustain and enhance U.S. leadership in strategic 
computing. The NSCI Strategic Plan, released in 2016, established five 
strategic objectives in collaboration with industry and academia:

1. Accelerating the delivery of capable exascale computing systems
2. Increasing technology coherence between technology base used for 
modeling and simulation and that used for data analytic computing
3. Establishing, over the next 15 years, a viable path forward for 
future HPC systems, even after the limits

[[Page 28339]]

of current semiconductor technology are reached
4. Creating an enduring national HPC ecosystem
5. Developing an enduring public-private partnership to ensure that the 
benefits of the research and development advances are, to the greatest 
extent, shared between the United States Government and industrial and 
academic sectors

    Since the launch of NSCI, there have been significant near- and 
long-term advances that support the efforts towards exascale computing. 
There have also been changes in the technology landscape such as: The 
availability of resources and usage models, the nature and requirements 
of applications, and the means and methods of implementation. Examples 
include the increasing role of network-centric and edge computing; the 
need for improved software interoperability and sustainability; the 
availability of new approaches for hardware-specific compute; and 
concerns regarding the long-term future of computing architectures and 
underlying technologies. As a result, it is appropriate to reexamine, 
as a nation, the objectives of SC.
    The Administration chartered the FTAC on SC under the NSTC to 
update the goals and approaches to strategic computing R&D and ensure 
continued and sustained U.S. leadership in SC. In consultation with the 
NSTC Artificial Intelligence Select Committee, the NITRD Subcommittee, 
the Subcommittee on Quantum Information Systems, and the Lab2Market 
Subcommittee, FTAC members will consider respondent's input in 
developing a SC R&D update report.
    Responders are asked to answer one or more of the following 
questions in the responses to the RFI:
    1. What are emerging and future scientific and technical challenges 
and opportunities that are central to ensuring American leadership in 
SC, and what are effective mechanisms for addressing these challenges?
    2. What are appropriate models for partnerships between government, 
academia and industry in SC, and how can these partnerships be 
effectively leveraged to advance the objectives of SC?
    3. How do we develop and nurture the capable workforce with the 
necessary skill and competencies to ensure American leadership in SC? 
What are effective nontraditional approaches to lowering the barriers 
to knowledge transfer?
    4. How can technical advances in SC and other large government and 
private initiatives, including infrastructure advances, provide new 
knowledge and mechanisms for executing next generation research?
    5. What are the future national-level use cases that will drive new 
computing paradigms, and how will new computing paradigms yield new use 
cases?
    6. What areas of research or topics of the 2016 NSCI Strategic Plan 
should continue to be a priority for federally funded research and 
require continued Federal R&D investments? What areas of research or 
topics of the 2016 Strategic Plan no longer need to be prioritized for 
federally funded research?
    7. What challenges or objectives not included in the 2016 NSCI 
Strategic Plan should be strategic priorities for the federally funded 
SC R&D? Discuss what new capabilities would be desired, what objectives 
should guide such research, and why those capabilities and objective 
should be strategic priorities.
    Reference: 2016 NSCI Strategic Plan: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/NSCI%20Strategic%20Plan_20160721.pdf.pdf.
    Submitted by the National Science Foundation in support of the 
Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) 
National Coordination Office (NCO) on June 13, 2019.

(Authority: 42 U.S.C. 1861.)

Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2019-12866 Filed 6-17-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7555-01-P