Opportunity

Award Info:

The NSF Engines program provides up to ten years of funding per Engine award with a maximum budget of $160 million, with the opportunity to receive up to two years of funding to support development activities prior to NSF Engine creation. The program solicits proposals corresponding to two award types, as outlined below.

Type-1 awards are development awards that provide seed funding to enable awardees to lay the groundwork for establishing a new NSF Engine, with the goal of catalyzing an innovation ecosystem for a specific topic area. Type-1 awards are intended to allow teams to prepare for the submission of a successful Type-2 proposal. The duration of a Type-1 award is up to 24 months, with a maximum proposed budget of $1 million.
Type-2 awards are intended to support awardees representing a geographical region of service that are primed to stand up a regional innovation ecosystem. Type-2 awards provide funding for up to 10 years, with a total maximum budget of $160 million. Submission of a Type-1 development proposal is not required for the submission of Type-2 proposal. See the NSF Engines Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for further details on the award types and the differences between them.

Description:

This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is the first funding opportunity for the NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) program, a bold new initiative of the National Science Foundation that will create regional-scale innovation ecosystems throughout the United States. Providing up to $160 million of funding for up to 10 years to establish each Engine, with up to an additional two years of development funding even before the official launch of an Engine, the program offers a unique opportunity to usher in a transformational revolution of economic growth by harnessing the Nation’s rich science and technology research enterprise and regional-level resources to address societal challenges and promote national competitiveness.