NSF ASCEND Engine awarded up to $45M

FORT COLLINS — The National Science Foundation’s ASCEND Engine has been awarded up to $45 million over the next three years, in what Fort Collins-based technology incubator Innosphere called “a landmark investment” by the foundation “in the Colorado–Wyoming I-25 Innovation Corridor and a powerful vote of confidence in our region’s ability to lead the nation in environmental intelligence and resilience.”

ASCEND is an acronym for Advanced Sensing and Computation for Environmental Decision-making.

According to an Innosphere statement, “this investment from the National Science Foundation is a clear signal that our region is poised to lead the nation in advanced sensing, AI, and decision-making technologies that address some of our most urgent challenges.”

Over the next three years, the NSF ASCEND Engine will deploy two flagship research-and-development programs that tackle urgent regional and national challenges: ARID will accelerate solutions to protect critical power and water systems from increasing wildfire risk, while SHIELD will establish a first-of-its-kind network of field test sites to advance next-generation agricultural measurement technologies. These programs bring together advanced sensing, AI, and real-world deployment to turn breakthrough science into solutions.

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