NIST not releasing names

Twenty-seven finalists for grants that would pilot portions of the identity ecosystem for the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace have been notified.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, however, is leaving it to the finalists to decide whether they want to announce their status, says Jeremy Grant, NIST’s senior executive adviser for identity management. NIST is precluded from publicly releasing the names of the finalists due to the rules associated with a formal Federal Funding Opportunity.

NIST received 186 proposals and narrowed it down to 27, Grant says. The finalists will submit full proposals to NIST by May 10. From there Grant and his team will choose five to eight that will be funded a total of $10 million.

“We were excited to receive proposals from a wide array of stakeholders, from major companies to start ups, universities, state and local government,” Grant says.

Some applicants submitted individual proposals and some partnered and submitted as consortiums. Many proposals focused on the technical side but many looked at policy issues as well, Grant says.

“We saw everything from companies that submitted product brochures all the way through to some very well though out proposals that brought together multiple stakeholders to pilot different parts of the identity ecosystem,” he adds.