The National Science Foundation will distribute $1.5 billion in research funding through 12 new Notices of Funding Opportunity, signaling a deliberate shift in how federal grants are awarded. Rather than a uniform approach, NSF will now match funding type, from long-horizon awards to rapid short-term grants, to the specific character of each research project.
This portfolio-based approach aims to accelerate fundamental research and “enable researchers to accelerate fundamental research, giving rise to the transformational breakthroughs that will power our future,” according to Brian Stone, Performing the Duties of the NSF Director. The funding supports the administration’s goal of bolstering American science and technology leadership.
$1.5 Billion Investment Drives Foundational Science and Engineering Research
The National Science Foundation will encourage researchers to request funding for projects lasting up to five years, a departure from the typical emphasis on securing funding in shorter cycles to demonstrate incremental progress. This shift, embedded within 12 newly released Notices of Funding Opportunity, aims to support truly paradigm-shifting research by allowing scientists to focus on ambitious, long-term questions without the constant pressure of immediate deliverables.
The agency intends to assess whether this extended support leads to more impactful scientific results, a key component of its evolving approach to grantmaking. NSF is also prioritizing rapid, short-term grants alongside these longer-horizon awards, creating a dual funding strategy designed to both foster ambitious projects and quickly evaluate promising new ideas. Researchers are encouraged to use existing rapid grant mechanisms to de-risk novel concepts, allowing for faster testing and iteration of potentially new approaches.
This portfolio-based approach, as described by Michael Kratsios, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, ensures the United States continues to drive scientific breakthroughs and “will support a wider range of meritorious science by matching the size, speed and duration of an award to the character of the research it supports.” The agency’s restructuring of funding opportunities extends beyond duration, with a focus on simplifying the application process and broadening access to funding. The new solicitations are fewer in number and designed to be easier to navigate, aiming to attract a more diverse range of applicants and reduce administrative burdens. This streamlining complements ongoing efforts to revise the merit review process, including the implementation of new mechanisms to identify unconventional proposals that might not succeed in traditional review panels.
Early-career researchers are specifically encouraged to apply across all available funding opportunities, reflecting a commitment to nurturing the next generation of scientists and engineers. These changes are not merely procedural. NSF intends to rigorously evaluate the impact of these adjustments on the quality and ambition of scientific outcomes. The agency plans to conduct structured experiments, assessing whether modifications to proposal design, review methods, and funding speed demonstrably improve research results.
Successful changes will be scaled over the long term, building what the administration’s FY 2028 R&D budget priorities memorandum calls for: a metascience capability and a self-improving scientific enterprise. The $1.5 billion investment directly supports the goals outlined in the administration’s “Ushering in a New Golden Age of American Innovation,” which identifies foundational research in science and engineering as a national priority.
This funding is intended to bolster U.S. economic competitiveness, enhance national security and improve the quality of life for all Americans by underpinning technological innovation across various industries. NSF’s focus extends to bold, interdisciplinary inquiry and projects that use artificial intelligence, advanced computation and automation to enable qualitatively new scientific possibilities.
In Science: A New Golden Age, the administration made foundational research in the sciences and engineering a national priority.
Michael Kratsios, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
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