Digital Society and Technologies (DST) is a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that funds research on the relationships between digital technologies and society, addressing topics such as human-computer interaction, the social and organizational dimensions of technology design and use, computer-supported cooperative work, and the ethical implications of emerging digital systems.

The DST program supports research that generates fundamental knowledge about how technology shapes and is shaped by human behavior, institutions, and social structures. This is an archived funding opportunity, meaning the program is no longer accepting new applications under this specific solicitation. Researchers interested in related topics should check NSF's current portfolio for successor programs and active solicitations.

Eligible applicants are typically universities and research institutions submitting proposals through NSF's standard submission systems.

Digital Society and Technologies (DST) | NSF - U.S. National Science Foundation Digital Society and Technologies (DST) Archived funding opportunity This document has been archived. NSF's implementation of the revised 2 CFR NSF Financial Assistance awards (grants and cooperative agreements) made on or after October 1, 2024, will be subject to the applicable set of award conditions, dated October 1, 2024, available on the NSF website .

These terms and conditions are consistent with the revised guidance specified in the OMB Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance published in the Federal Register on April 22, 2024.

Important information for proposers All proposals must be submitted in accordance with the requirements specified in this funding opportunity and in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) that is in effect for the relevant due date to which the proposal is being submitted. It is the responsibility of the proposer to ensure that the proposal meets these requirements.

Submitting a proposal prior to a specified deadline does not negate this requirement.

Updates to NSF Research Security Policies On July 10, 2025, NSF issued an Important Notice providing updates to the agency's research security policies, including a research security training requirement, Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program annual certification requirement, prohibition on Confucius institutes and an updated FFDR reporting and submission timeline.

The future and well-being of the Nation depend on the effective integration of Information Technologies (IT) into its various enterprises and social fabric. Information Technologies are designed, used and have consequences in a number of social, economic, legal, ethical and cultural contexts.

With the rise of unprecedented new technologies (e.g., smart homes, shop-bots, pedagogical agents, wearable computers, personal robots, multi-agent systems, sensors, grids, knowledge environments) and their increasing ubiquity in our social and economic lives, large-scale social, economic and scientific transformations are predicted. While these transformations are expected to be positive, such achievements are not automatic.

Instead, there is general agreement among leading researchers that we have insufficient scientific understanding of the actual scope and trajectory of these socio-technical transformations. We have great difficulty predicting or even clearly assessing social and economic implications and we have limited understanding of the processes by which these transformations occur.

Furthermore, we have barely begun to make the critical theoretical and empirical connections among 1) design principles for IT artifacts, 2) the ways in which IT artifacts become embedded in activities and used in various contexts, 3) their long-term outcomes and consequences, which are frequently unintended, and 4) finally, the ways in which learning about use and outcomes can feed back into new and better designs.

To assure that transformations related to IT serve human needs and are productive for society over the long term, more focused and generalizable scientific studies and related education activities are necessary.

Awards made through this program Browse projects funded by this program Map of recent awards made through this program Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (CISE/IIS)