The U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Engineering (NSF ENG) supports foundational engineering research for chemical, bioengineering, energy, and transport systems through various programs. These programs include the Chemical Process Systems (CPS) program, the Engineering Biological and Biomedical Systems (EBBS) program, the Energy, Water, and Resource Engineering (EWRE) program, and the Transport Phenomena (TP) program. The NSF ENG anticipates a portfolio of awards with a range of budgets and durations. The estimated program budget is $100,000,000, and the number of awards is expected to be around 275. The average award size is expected to be around $500,000.
Key aspects of this opportunity include:
• Foundational engineering research in chemical and biochemical processes
• Foundational engineering research on platforms, devices, organisms, tissues, and processes that advance knowledge and control of biological functions
• Foundational engineering research to manage energy, water, minerals, and material resources
• Foundational engineering research to understand, model, and control the transport of mass, momentum, energy, and species across multiple scales
• Intellectually ambitious and potentially transformative foundational research
• Proposals need not promise a near-term product, deployment, or commercial outcome