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The NSF STEM K-12 program in the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) in the Directorate for STEM Education (EDU) supports fundamental, applied, and translational research that advances STEM teaching and learning and improves understanding of education across the human lifespan and a range of formal and informal settings.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) continues to develop and nurture a national innovation ecosystem that guides the output of scientific discoveries closer to the development of technologies, products, processes, and services that benefit allAmericans. The goals of the NSF I-Corps™program are to spur translation of foundational research to the marketplace, to encourage collaboration between academia and industry, and to train NSF-funded faculty, students and other researchers in innovation and entrepreneurship skills. The NSF National I-Corps programutilizes experiential learning of customer and industry discovery, coupled with first-hand investigation of industrial processes, to quickly assess the translational potential of inventions. The NSF National I-Corps programis designed to support the commercializationof "deep technologies,” those revolving around foundationaldiscoveries in science and engineering. The NSF National I-Corps programaddresses the skill and knowledge gaps associated with the transformation of basic research into deep technology ventures (DTVs). The purpose of the NSF National I-Corps Teams program is to provide NSF-funded researchers additional support in the form of entrepreneurial education, mentoring, and funding to accelerate the translation of knowledge derived from foundational research into emerging products, processes, and services that may attract subsequent third-party funding.The outcomes of NSFNational I-Corps Teams' projects are threefold: 1) a decision on a clear path forward based on an assessment of the business model, 2) subst...

The Professional Formation of Engineers (PFE) initiative integrates engineering research and education to improve and expand the nation’s engineering workforce. PFE is defined as the formal and informal processes and value systems by which people become engineers. The goal of PFE is to create an ethical engineering workforce with a global outlook and the ability to adapt to the rapidly evolving technical environment. This will help build a future engineering workforce with the skills to compete in the global marketplace, support emerging technologies, and grow U.S. industry. PFE supports projects in the ENGINEER program relating to future and current engineers’ training and education in many contexts, including formal classrooms, informal maker spaces, clubs and co-curricular activities, and workplaces. Such training encompasses cooperative education and internships, community-based experiences, and research labs. It also involves many scales of analysis, from mentor/mentee relationships to large-scale online learning and professional development experiences. Engineers must develop and maintain these learning opportunities with clear pathways to and through the profession. Such pathways include formal and informal education, apprenticeships, credentialing, and licensure, and consider relationships with other professionals, technical workers, and community members. Finally, such opportunities include transitions across and within academia and industry. To understand and improve this system requires expertise in both engineering and the social sciences.

The Transport Phenomena (TP) program supports fundamental research to understand, model, and control the transport of mass, momentum, energy, and species across multiple scales. Innovative TP research supports advances in artificial intelligence; manufacturing; biotechnology; microelectronics; energy generation, extraction, and utilization; nuclear energy; quantum science and engineering; and other national priorities. TP projects involve experiments, theory, and/or computational modeling. They aim to improve understanding and to create novel analytical techniques. While projects focus on fundamental principles, they also have a clear vision of how research outcomes will benefit applications in engineering. TP supports research on the dynamics of single- and multiphase systems. Special interests include flow separation, transition to turbulence, drag reduction, cavitation, instabilities, and reactive flows. The program encourages research on the connection between dynamics at the microscale and material and flow properties at the macroscale. Fluids of interest include liquids, gases, suspensions, emulsions, granular materials, active fluids, biological fluids, colloids, aerosols, bubbles and drops, and fluids with surfactants. TP supports research on physicochemical phenomena at the interfaces between fluids and between fluids and solids. These phenomena include adsorption and desorption of nanoparticles and surfactants; bulk and interfacial rheology; wetting and capillarity phenomena; electrokinetics; flow in porous media; and directed and self-assembly of particles. TP su...

Society relies on chemical processes to turn raw materials into useful products. The Chemical Process Systems (CPS) program invests in fundamental research on chemical and biochemical processes to make them more efficient, sustainable, and resilient. New CPS technologies for manufacturing, biotechnology, critical minerals, energy, food, and other national priorities will help make the U.S. more competitive and secure. Research supported by the CPS program covers the full breadth of chemical and biochemical process innovation. It spans reaction engineering and molecular thermodynamics; reactor design; catalysis; electrochemical systems; separations; and process design. The program encourages proposals that connect the molecular scale to process and plant scales. The CPS program explores active-site structure and function, reaction mechanisms, in situ and operando characterization, durability, and device-level integration. Microreactors, membrane and catalytic reactors, atmospheric plasmas, and other novel configurations are of interest. The program supports research in catalysis and electrochemical systems to produce, use, and store energy, to reduce waste, to process polymers, and to synthesize fuels and chemicals. This includes process and materials innovation to support the nuclear fuel cycle. The CPS program also targets chemical and biological separations that are efficient and scalable. Research includes the design of membranes, sorbents, and specialized interfaces. Advances can be used in gas separations, the recovery of critical minerals, bioprocessing, and protein a...

The Engineering Biological and Biomedical Systems (EBBS) program expands our understanding of biological and physiological systems, and it helps improve human health. For U.S. leadership in biotechnology, the engineering of biology is required at every scale. Engineering is needed for sensing biomarkers to making proteins to restoring functions of the body. In EBBS, fundamental mechanistic insights are combined with experimental and computational techniques. This approach helps develop platforms, devices, organisms, tissues, and processes that bring new understanding and control of biological functions. EBBS supports studies of mechanisms that drive the behavior of microbial populations and cells, and of therapeutic cells and tissues. This includes discovering the underlying engineering principles that are needed to capture the responses of biological systems and bioreactors. It also includes the creation of novel biosensing platforms and new optical imaging and modulation strategies. Research that enables the design of biological systems to sense and respond to novel stimuli is welcome. Similarly, projects leading to insight into tissue changes or injury, and to systems that imitate or restore the functions of tissues or organs are encouraged. Projects that advance rehabilitation engineering through new theories and approaches are supported by the EBBS program. Fundamental engineering research driven by the needs of persons with disabilities is encouraged. The EBBS program expands what is possible in biomanufacturing; research may advance biotechnology and/or health. EBBS....

The Engineering Environmental Resiliency (EER) program supports fundamental research to advance resource and energy conservation and recovery, and to safeguard the natural environment and human health. Better use of domestic resources will help make U.S. manufacturing and energy systems more resilient and secure. EER projects advance artificial intelligence; biotechnology; quantum science and engineering; nanoengineering; microelectronics; and other national priorities. EER supports research that transforms biotechnology and manufacturing to create domestic sources of energy; engineered chemical, biological, and/or geo-physical processes may be involved. The program supports studies on the sustainability of benign manufacturing. EER supports the development of innovative technologies that minimize or re-use waste discharges to soil, water, and air by closing resource loops. EER also supports research on sustainable recycling and management of waste materials and critical minerals. EER supports studies on life cycle assessment, materials flow analysis, and AI modeling to advance the circular economy. EER research encompasses the chemistry, biochemistry, transport, and fate of nutrients and contaminants of emerging concern in air, water, soil, and sediments. It also includes the biochemical reactivity of pollutants in the built environment. EER welcomes ideas that grow fundamental and quantitative understanding of how nanomaterials and nanosystems interact with biological and environmental media. The program also supports research on engineered systems that safeguard health a...

APPLICATIONS ARE TO BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY THROUGH RD APPLY AT: https://rdapply.sc.egov.usda.gov/. This posting at grants.gov is informational only. The CY 2022 Disaster Water Grants Program is designed to assist communities by awarding grant funds to qualified entities for expenses related to water infrastructure systems in designated areas that were impacted by events that occurred during CY 2022 and were recognized through Presidentially Declared Disasters. In addition to damage repairs, these grants are also intended to develop system capacity and resiliency in order to reduce or eliminate long-term risks from future events. Water infrastructure systems include drinking water, wastewater, solid waste, and stormwater projects serving eligible communities. Adequate documentation must be provided to demonstrate impacts to the water infrastructure systems. Eligible applicants must meet the following eligibility requirements: (a) Be either a Public Body, an organization operated on a not-for-profit basis, a tribe, or a prefabricated home organization operating an eligible community-based system. Non-tribal applicants proposing to serve tribes and tribal areas should have the support of those tribes either in the form of a Tribal Resolution and/or letter of support for the project impacting their communities.(b) Be eligible to receive and administer a Federal grant under Federal law. (c) Each applicant must:(1) Have or will obtain the legal authority necessary for owning, constructing, operating, and maintaining the facility or service to be repaired or replaced and for...

The Endangered Species Program of the Southeast Region provides financial assistance on a competitive baiss to educators, researchers, non-federal agencies, private businesses, individuals and other partners interested in the conservation and recovery of endangered, threatened, candidate, and/or species of conservation interest.