Collaborative Research: Conference: US Advancing Leadership in Global Networking Standards (US-ALIGNS)

The United States faces a narrowing window to reestablish leadership in future global networking technology standards - the foundational rules that determine how next-generation communications systems (5G/6G, cloud/edge, AI-driven network management, and critical Internet infrastructure) are built, secured, and deployed. While U.S. innovation remains unmatched, U.S. influence in international networking standards bodies such as International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has weakened. Peer competitors are actively conducting coordination and collaboration to shape standards to favor their industrial policies and intellectual-property portfolios. Without a cohesive national strategy, the United States risks diminished influence over the technical and security foundations of future global internet/communications ecosystem undermining economic competitiveness, technology innovation, and supply chain resilience. The proposed Workshop is aimed as a forum for achieving strategic alignment via an all-hands approach among academia, government and the private sector to potentially: 1. Strengthen U.S. presence and influence in standards to compete globally by reducing barriers to market entry; 2. Spur domestic innovation in key supporting industries (cloud, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, telecommunications) through stable, widely adopted standards and encourage greater private-sector R&D investment by providing clearer pathways for commercialization; 3. Incentivize broad, sustained U.S. participation from startups, subject matter experts (SMEs), academia, and open-source communities who currently lack resources but drive much of the innovation shaping next-generation networks; 4. Establish national standards coordination framework that synchronizes R&D priorities, spectrum policy, and procurement with standards development timelines; and 5. Protect and advance U.S. security and economic interests to support secure-by-design architectures, supply chain transparency, interoperability, and resilience. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.