Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships | 24 594

Opportunity Information: Apply for 24 594

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Centers (STC): Integrative Partnerships opportunity is designed to fund ambitious, high-risk, high-reward research and education centers that are too large or complex to fit within typical grant programs. These centers are meant to operate at a scale and duration that allows teams to tackle problems that require sustained effort, major coordination, and long-term planning. The core idea is to support work that can reshape fields by creating entirely new scientific paradigms, launching new disciplines, or producing transformative technologies with broad scientific or societal benefits. STCs can be proposed in any area of science or engineering that NSF supports, with a strong emphasis on research that crosses disciplinary boundaries or introduces unusually innovative approaches within a discipline.

A defining feature of the program is the expectation of deep, structured partnerships. While a single eligible university serves as the lead, STCs are intended to function as integrated networks that link multiple types of organizations. Typical partners can include other universities and colleges, national laboratories, research museums, private-sector R and D organizations, and state or local government labs. International collaborations are also encouraged when they strengthen the center’s ability to meet its goals. The center model is meant to create a shared environment where researchers, educators, and trainees can collaborate closely, take intellectual risks, and pursue discoveries that may not be possible through smaller, individual-investigator projects.

Beyond research excellence, the STC program places major weight on integrating research and education in a way that strengthens both. Centers are expected to build a rich training environment for students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty, and to connect learning directly to inquiry and discovery. In practice, this often means embedding education and workforce development into the center’s research activities rather than treating them as add-ons, so that participants are learning in the same spaces where new knowledge is being created.

Broadening participation in STEM is also a central expectation, not a peripheral goal. NSF explicitly encourages involvement from the full spectrum of talent, including underrepresented and underserved communities, and expects STCs to include individuals from groups that have been historically underrepresented in science, engineering, and mathematics at every level of the center (faculty, staff, students, and postdocs). Centers are expected to act as leaders in this area and to use evidence-based or thoughtfully designed innovative approaches to recruitment, retention, success, and career advancement.

Another required component is knowledge transfer, meaning intentional activities that move ideas, results, and capabilities beyond the center itself and into wider use. NSF frames this as the exchange of scientific and technical information with the goal of broad dissemination and utilization across multiple sectors. Knowledge transfer can take different forms depending on the field and the center’s goals, including technology transfer, sharing scientific insights with policymakers, building connections that help research outcomes influence industry practice, or translating advances from one scientific domain into another.

Eligibility is limited to U.S.-based institutions of higher education (including U.S. territories and possessions) that have doctoral degree-granting research and education programs in NSF-supported areas. The process includes preliminary proposals and, for those invited, full proposals. The principal investigator must be a full-time faculty member at an eligible institution and should have a demonstrated track record of leading research teams, reflecting the management and coordination demands of running a large, multi-organization center.

Key opportunity details from the posting include: the agency is NSF; the instrument is a grant; the opportunity number is 24-594; the program supports large-scale, long-term center awards; the listed award ceiling is $6,000,000; and the original closing date shown is 2025-06-02. The opportunity is categorized under Science and Technology and other Research and Development, with CFDA numbers that align with NSF’s major research directorates and activities.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.049, 47.050, 47.070, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, 47.079, 47.083.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-08-09.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-06-02. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $6,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for 24 594

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