NSF Announces More Than $1.5 Billion in New Foundational Research Opportunities

On Aug. 17, 2026, the National Science Foundation released 12 new notices of funding opportunity providing more than $1.5 billion intended to support foundational research across the sciences and engineering.

Scope of the announcement

The set of notices covers foundational research, which the release describes as including both basic and use-inspired inquiry across scientific and engineering fields. The agency framed these opportunities around a set of emphases it identified in the announcement: bold, paradigm-challenging inquiry; cross-disciplinary research; and work related to artificial intelligence, advanced computation and automation.

The release characterizes the initiative as oriented toward broad research goals rather than narrowly defined disciplinary silos. It states the notices are intended to advance foundational understanding while enabling inquiry that may be use-inspired and that spans multiple fields.

How the opportunities are structured

NSF described the group of notices as supporting portfolio-based grantmaking. According to the release, that approach includes a mix of long-horizon awards and more rapid short-term grants. The release presents this design as a way to hold a range of time horizons within the same opportunity set, allowing for both extended projects and quicker, time-limited efforts.

The agency said researchers may request awards of up to five years where scientifically justified. The wording in the release emphasizes that such multi-year requests depend on scientific justification and are not automatic; the five-year request is presented as an option applicants may seek when the proposed work warrants that duration.

Application design and navigation

Alongside the description of program design, the release states that the new notices have been made shorter, fewer and easier to navigate. The agency highlighted those changes as a simplification in how the opportunities are presented compared with prior opportunity sets. The release also notes encouragement for early-career researchers to participate under the notices.

Those aspects of application design — shorter, fewer and easier-to-navigate notices and encouragement for early-career applicants — are described in the release as features of the announcement as issued. The release does not provide implementation details beyond characterizing these elements as part of the notices’ presentation.

What the notices are and what they do not decide

The release documents notices of funding opportunity. Notices of funding opportunity are formal announcements that invite applications and describe program priorities, allowable request durations and areas of emphasis. The agency did not state that any of the funds have been committed to specific projects; the release does not announce awards or guarantee that any particular proposal will be funded.

The announcement also did not assert that outcomes are assured. It sets out the structure, emphases and general expectations for the opportunity set rather than declaring results or funding decisions.

Key points for potential applicants

Applicants should note the main features described by NSF: the notices are intended to support foundational research across basic and use-inspired inquiry; they emphasize work that challenges paradigms and that crosses disciplinary boundaries; and they identify artificial intelligence, advanced computation and automation among areas of emphasis.

The portfolio-based design is presented as including both long-horizon awards and rapid short-term grants, and the release specifies that researchers may request up to five years of support when scientifically justified. The notices are described as being shorter and fewer in number and as easier to navigate, with explicit encouragement for early-career researchers to apply.

Beyond those program features, the release frames these notices as an invitation to submit proposals that align with the stated emphases. The release itself does not allocate funds to particular projects in this announcement, nor does it set outcomes or decisions about awards.

Where to read the release

The NSF release documenting the 12 notices was issued Aug. 17, 2026, and sets out the agency’s description of the opportunity set and its intended emphases. For the official release and full wording, see the attributed source wording: https://www.nsf.gov/news/nsf-announces-15b-foundational-research-drive-scientific.

The release describes the program design and the expectations NSF has set for these notices. It does not allocate funds to particular projects in this announcement, nor does it guarantee that applicants will receive funding.

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