All told, the White House is investing over $160 million in federal research money and leveraging more than 25 new technology collaborations to help local communities.

There will be more than $35 million in new grants and $10 million in proposed investments so that the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology can build a research infrastructure for Smart Cities.

Over US$45 million will be used to fund investments to unlock new solutions in safety, energy, climate preparedness, transportation, and health, among others. Building on work that’s already been done by Internet 2, along with state and regional networks, communities will be able to experiment with prioritizing network resources for throughput, latency and more in the long-haul pipes connecting individual cities, depending on what an application needs. The efforts were also showcased at a Sept. 14 “White House Smart Cities Forum” in Washington, D.C.

It was only a little over a month ago when the White House hosted their first ever Demo Day, an event that shows the Obama Administration’s commitment to technology and innovation. These investments include new awards to US Ignite and the Mozilla Foundation to create “Living Labs”, or communities of practice that facilitate the participation of citizens and community organizations. “But communities that are making the most progress on these issues have some things in common”, said President Barack Obama in the release. “They don’t look for a single silver bullet; instead they bring together local government and nonprofits and businesses and teachers and parents around a shared goal”.

Now, a new $6 million grant from NSF to US Ignite makes Flint one of 15 communities across the country getting an extra boost toward the goal of a next-generation high-speed internet throughout the entire city.

The grant will help U.S. communities participate in a “smart city app store” for interoperable and interconnected gigabit apps that address national priorities, US Ignite said. It will also support academic-industry collaborations into smart services, Chicago’s Array of Things project and the Global City Teams challenge. This network of 500 Internet-connected sensors deployed throughout Chicago will continuously measure the physical environment at the city block level.

Second, different cities have a lot that they can learn from each other – from fundamentals like how to pool assets to support gigabit network expansion to specific application use cases like how to integrate a gigabit network with power distribution and management.

He added that “many smart city applications are enabled by the kinds of advanced technology and civic partnerships that [the grant from NSF] will build in US Ignite Smart Gigabit Communities.”.

The smart cities initiative, called Envision America, aims to tackle challenges such as reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime, fostering economic growth, managing the effects of a changing climate, and improving the delivery of city services.

The Detroit Land Bank Authority will have help from an IBM Smarter City Challenge team to design a strategy for cost-efficient, sustainable removal, recycling and re-use of debris from abandoned and neglected properties.