FAST NY Infrastructure Improvements

New York Fund for Innovation in Research and Scientific Talent (NYFIRST) - Round 7 is sponsored by Empire State Development (New York State). NYFIRST provides grants to encourage the recruitment or retention of exceptional translational researchers in New York State. Funds can be used for laboratory establishment/upgrading, capital equipment, specialized supplies, and professional staff salaries.

This is the largest single pot of federal money aimed at counter-drone capability, and it is worth understanding precisely who can touch it: eligible applicants are state governments only, which makes this a pass-through opportunity for the AI and sensing vendors that states procure from rather than a grant that a technology company applies to directly. Established under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 and administered by FEMA as opportunity DHS-FEMA-C-UAS-161, the program provides $500 million total to help states and their local partners detect, identify, monitor, track and, in select jurisdictions, mitigate unmanned aircraft that threaten public safety or critical infrastructure. The funding splits across two years with a deliberate geographic logic: $250 million in FY2026 is prioritized for the 11 states hosting FIFA World Cup 2026 events plus the National Capital Region hosting America 250 celebrations, and the remaining $250 million in FY2027 is distributed across all 56 states and territories with a broader emphasis on building durable national detection and response capacity. Award sizes are extraordinary in range - a floor of $3,325,000 against a ceiling of $250,000,000 across roughly 12 awards - reflecting that a single state consortium award can absorb an entire fiscal year's tranche. The AI relevance is in what the money buys: DIMT-M (detection, identification, monitoring, tracking and mitigation) technologies depend on sensor fusion, radio-frequency and radar signal classification, computer vision for visual drone identification, and machine learning models that distinguish hostile UAS from lawful traffic and birds in cluttered urban airspace. Practically, AI vendors should pursue this through state homeland security offices and existing statewide procurement vehicles. FEMA moved unusually fast on the first tranche, publishing the NOFO on October 28, 2025 and announcing $250 million in awards to World Cup host states by December 30, 2025, so companies should engage state emergency management agencies well ahead of the FY2027 cycle rather than waiting for a NOFO to appear.