National Science Foundation

NSF seeks to transform open-source tools into secure, sustainable ecosystems addressing national challenges in AI, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure. Funding supports establishing governance structures, expanding promising projects, and enhancing safety and security across distributed developer communities.

NSF CISE supports foundational research across 11 computing domains—from algorithms and AI to cybersecurity and human-centered computing. This program funds novel R&D projects that advance knowledge in computing systems, communications, and information science to drive future technological breakthroughs.

Develop expertise at the intersection of AI and biology to become a field leader applying machine learning to biological systems. This fellowship trains postdocs to drive biotechnology breakthroughs and innovations that strengthen the U.S. economy.

NSF seeks fundamental research advancing knowledge of STEM education across learning environments, broadening participation, and workforce development. Projects should generate foundational insights with potential long-term impact on educational practice across all learner groups and ages.

NSF seeks to expand engineering research capacity by supporting early-career investigators launching independent research programs. This initiative builds the national engineering research base by funding promising researchers at institutions outside the highest-tier research universities.

NSF is funding regional AI Infrastructure Hubs to expand computing access for AI-enabled scientific discovery. This program connects researchers to shared compute resources while developing workforce expertise in AI applications across science and engineering.

NSF seeks small businesses to develop next-generation scientific instrumentation and experimental platforms that enable breakthrough discoveries. This pilot program funds innovative tools and AI-driven research infrastructure to advance the U.S. scientific enterprise.

NSF seeks proposals to unlock hidden value in existing scientific datasets through AI-driven feature extraction, metadata generation, and automated analysis pipelines. Enable interdisciplinary discovery by harmonizing data for AI tools while addressing security, governance, and community contribution frameworks.

NSF funds foundational astronomical sciences research and instrumentation to advance understanding of the universe, from discovering habitable planets to studying black holes. Support includes core research, advanced technologies, and transformative innovations with no requirement for near-term commercial outcomes.

NSF supports mathematics research driven by real-world science and engineering problems, seeking proposals that demonstrate mathematical innovation and practical impact. Projects involving junior researcher training and interdisciplinary collaboration are particularly encouraged.

NSF seeks use-inspired research and translational activities that move scientific discoveries from the lab to real-world practice. Three tracks support researchers at different stages: exploring applications of existing research, maturing translational ideas, or scaling solutions through strategic partnerships with industry and other stakeholders.

NSF FINDERS FOUNDRY supports K-12 educators, technologists, and researchers collaborating to develop AI-integrated learning solutions and tools. Teams co-design evidence-based technologies addressing real challenges identified by students and educators to prepare the workforce for an AI-driven future.

LSAMP funds alliances of colleges and universities to increase STEM degrees among underrepresented minorities through evidence-based strategies, from community college transfers to graduate research pathways, addressing the critical need to diversify the nation's STEM workforce.

Support early-career scientists conducting dissertation research on Arctic environmental and social systems change. Funding advances fundamental understanding of rapid Arctic transformation and builds STEM workforce capacity in polar sciences.

NSF seeks foundational research on wave-based computing approaches that leverage wave dynamics principles for novel computation methods. Projects will advance transformative computing paradigms with potential long-term impact on strategic technology priorities.

This program funds research on ocean structure, movement, and transport processes, including interactions with biological, chemical, atmospheric, and geological systems. It addresses fundamental understanding of ocean dynamics critical to climate, marine ecosystems, and Earth system modeling.

NSF seeks proposals to develop AI and cybersecurity education programs and scholarships, addressing critical workforce shortages in these fields. Support includes both scholarship funding for students and innovation grants to enhance curricula, partnerships, and training methods.

NSF seeks ambitious, multidisciplinary computing research teams to pursue transformative 7-10 year agendas in areas like AI architectures, embodied intelligence, and next-generation networks. Awards up to $15M support high-risk foundational breakthroughs that single disciplines cannot achieve alone.

NSF seeks proposals to develop and operate novel national-scale cyberinfrastructure systems that enable data-intensive and AI-driven research across science and engineering disciplines.

NSF X-Labs Other Transaction Agreement framework for establishing full-time interdisciplinary R&D teams to develop novel platform technologies aligned with NSF Topic Announcements.

NSF seeks foundational engineering research on novel electrical, photonic, quantum devices, advanced communications systems, and control/learning technologies. Research aims to explore new scientific principles without requiring near-term commercial outcomes.

NSF seeks foundational geoscience research advancing knowledge across atmospheric, Earth, and ocean sciences. Projects should be intellectually ambitious and potentially transformative, with no requirement for immediate commercial applications.

NSF seeks foundational research in advanced manufacturing, civil infrastructure, intelligent systems, and materials science. Projects should pursue intellectually ambitious breakthroughs without requiring near-term commercial outcomes.

NSF MPS supports fundamental materials research across biomaterials, ceramics, polymers, metals, and photonic materials. This program funds intellectually ambitious, foundational science that advances understanding of material properties without requiring near-term commercial outcomes.

NSF supports foundational physics research across multiple domains—from quantum systems and particle physics to cosmology and living systems. This opportunity funds intellectually ambitious, potentially transformative research without requiring near-term commercial outcomes.