The virtual future beyond the Internet is known as FIA.

At least it is to the National Science Foundation, an independent government agency in Washington, D.C. which is funding the Future Internet Architecture (FIA) programme with $15 million in research grants to some of the country’s leading tech learning institutions.

According to the NSF:

“The objective of the new awards is to move the FIA efforts from the design stage to piloted deployments that assess how the designs work at large-scale and within challenging, realistic environments. Cities, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and industrial partners across the nation will collaborate with researchers to test the new designs.”

Researchers said the myriad studies aim to propel technology beyond the current state of the ‘Net, relying less on existing technologies like routers and transmission points.

Via VentureBeat