Getting Started - Funding at NSF | NSF - U.S. National Science Foundation

Getting Started - Funding at NSF | NSF - U.S. National Science Foundation
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.
Getting Started
Funding at NSF
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The U.S. National Science Foundation offers hundreds of funding opportunities — including grants, cooperative agreements and fellowships — that support research and education across science and engineering.
Search for funding
Search funded projects (awards)
On this page
What we fund
Broadly, we fund:
Basic research and education
across all fields of fundamental science and engineering, except the medical sciences.
Use-inspired research
with the potential to create products and solutions that improve people's lives.
Research partnerships
between colleges and universities, industry, nonprofits, government and other organizations within the U.S. and across the globe.
Education and training programs
in science and engineering that attract individuals from diverse backgrounds and from every sector — from pre-K through graduate school and beyond.
Infrastructure and state-of-the-art tools
for research, including supercomputers, ground-based telescopes, research stations in the Arctic and Antarctic, long-term ecological sites and engineering centers.
NSF encourages
interdisciplinary
and
convergent
approaches to research and education, as well as activities with the potential to lead to
transformative
discoveries.
NSF's focus areas
Arctic and Antarctic
Astronomy and space
Biology
Chemistry
Computing
Creating a STEM workforce
Earth and environment
Education and training
Engineering
Facilities and infrastructure
Materials research
Mathematics
People and society
Physics
Research partnerships
Technology
NSF-wide initiatives
How we announce funding opportunities
NSF announces its funding opportunities on the NSF
website
and on
Grants.gov
NSF's funding opportunities can take several forms. Click on the headings to learn more about each:
NSF encourages the submission of proposals to specific program areas of interest. These can take a more general form as program descriptions and program announcements, or a more focused form as solicitations. Solicitations normally only apply for a limited period of time, while program descriptions/announcements are longer lasting.
Dear Colleague Letters are used to advertise opportunities for supplements to existing awards and to announce NSF's interest in receiving proposals in specific topical areas.
NSF uses broad agency announcements to invite the submission of proposals for some of its use-inspired research and innovation priorities.
Learn more about the different types of NSF funding opportunities in the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (
PAPPG) I.C
How to find the right funding opportunity
Use the NSF Funding Search
NSF posts its active funding opportunities on the NSF Funding Search page. You can search opportunities by keyword or filter results by a specific NSF
directorate or division
you're interested in and other criteria.
Search for funding
Subscribe to email alerts
Subscribe to NSF's
email updates to receive information on NSF funding opportunities and updates in the topic areas you choose.
Subscribe to updates
Explore funded projects
Search NSF's database of previously funded projects to find projects in similar areas to yours and see which NSF programs funded them.
Award search
Visit NSF's directorate pages
NSF is organized into directorates reflecting the major areas of science and engineering funded by the foundation. On their pages you can find additional information about programs they fund.
NSF directorates
Explore NSF's initiatives
NSF's initiatives fund activities across a range of disciplines, focusing on challenges like advancing diversity in STEM and accelerating the translation of knowledge into tangible benefits to society.
Explore NSF initiatives
Can't find an NSF program that fits your project idea?
Learn how to submit an unsolicited proposal to NSF when there is no natural "home" for it in one of NSF’s existing programs.
Unsolicited proposals
How to contact us
Have a question about a funding opportunity? NSF offers regular webinars, virtual office hours and other opportunities to interact with its program staff.
NSF staff often hold informational sessions, such as webinars and virtual office hours, where they provide information about a funding opportunity and answer questions.
Visit
NSF's events page
to see upcoming informational sessions, and
subscribe to NSF's email alerts
to receive emails about some upcoming sessions.
Each
funding opportunity
has one or more associated program officers. If you already know which program you would like to apply to, you can find the right contact listed there.
If your research idea spans multiple science and engineering disciplines, you may want to explore NSF's
interdisciplinary research
opportunities and learn how to contact a program officer when there is no natural "home" for your idea in one of NSF's existing programs.
Read additional tips on how to
contact a program officer
Frequently asked questions
1. Who can submit proposals to NSF?
NSF welcomes proposals on behalf of all qualified scientists, engineers and educators. Proposals are usually officially submitted to NSF by the organization that employs the proposer.
Organizations that are eligible to submit proposals to NSF include institutions of higher education; nonprofit, nonacademic organizations; and tribal nations. For-profit organizations, state and local governments and other federal agencies may be eligible to apply, depending upon the specific funding opportunity.
See
PAPPG I.E
for the full details on who may submit proposals to NSF. And always carefully read an NSF funding opportunity to make sure you are eligible to apply to it.
2. When can I submit a proposal to NSF?
Many NSF programs accept proposals at any time. Some program solicitations, however, establish due dates for proposal submission. Each NSF funding opportunity will state when proposals are accepted.
Due dates can take the form of target dates, deadline dates, or submission windows. See
PAPPG I.F
to learn more about these types of due dates and what they mean for when you can submit your proposal.
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