Posted opportunity — confirm at source
Engineering Research Initiation (ERI)
U.S. National Science Foundation · 24-590
See source for award amount
2027-09-16-00-00-00
Confirm exact timezone in the announcement.Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)
Geographic eligibility and all attachment-specific conditions require review of the original announcement.
Eligibility details
*Who May Serve as PI: The PI of an ERI proposal must hold a doctoral degree in a field supported by NSF and must hold an appointment at an ERI-eligible institution. Postdoctoral fellow researchers are not eligible to serve as PI on an ERI proposal. At the time of the proposal submission deadline, the PI may not have been a PI or Co-PI on any current or prior awarded NSF research grant (including subaward) or have had research support from any other Federal Agency (within the United States or abroad) totaling $200,000 or more within the past five (5) calendar years from the proposal submission deadline date, with the following exceptions: Grants not directly for research purposes such as workshops, conferences, travel, instrumentation and equipment (e.g., Major Research Instrumentation; MRI), Research Experiences for Undergraduate Students (REU) and Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Sites, etc.; Awards that exclusively support pre-tenure-track activities (postdoctoral fellowships and Graduate Research Fellowships/GRFP); I-Corps, Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards; and Awards that originated as NSF or other Federal funds but were distributed locally without naming the submitting ERI PI in the Federal funding proposal (such as: NASA Space Grant Project or other non-NSF federally-funded opportunities, NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program.). The Department Chair's/Dean's letter must explicitly verify each of the PI eligibility criteria. See Section V.A. for additional information.
Matching funds & resources
Source matching-funds field: Not Required.
Matching funds and leveraged resources are different requirements. Read the description and reviewed rules below before determining resource commitments.
About this opportunity
The NSF Directorate for Engineering (ENG) seeks to build engineering research capacity across the nation by investing in new academic investigators who have yet to receive sufficient research funding from Federal Agencies. The Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) program will support new investigators as they initiate their research programs and advance in their careers as researchers, educators, and innovators. This funding opportunity aims to broaden the base of investigators involved in engineering research and therefore is limited to investigators that are not affiliated with “very high research activity” R1 institutions (according to the Carnegie Classification https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/ ).
Funding geography: Not specified — review source. A funder’s address does not establish eligibility.
Review original source ↗Funding instrument: Grant. Issuing jurisdiction: Federal. This is not a geographic eligibility determination.
Source fields and evidence
id: 363233
Source ↗ · id
opportunityNumber: 24-590
Source ↗ · opportunityNumber
opportunityTitle: Engineering Research Initiation (ERI)
Source ↗ · opportunityTitle
revision: 7
Source ↗ · revision
agencyDetails: {"code":"NSF","seed":"NSF","agencyName":"U.S. National Science Foundation","agencyCode":"NSF","topAgencyCode":"NSF"}
Source ↗ · agencyDetails
owningAgencyCode: NSF
Source ↗ · owningAgencyCode
cfdas: [{"id":434615,"opportunityId":363233,"cfdaNumber":"47.041","programTitle":"Engineering"},{"id":434616,"opportunityId":363233}]
Source ↗ · cfdas
applicantTypes: [{"id":"25","description":"Others (see text field entitled \"Additional Information on Eligibility\" for clarification)"}]
Source ↗ · applicantTypes
applicantEligibilityDesc: *Who May Serve as PI:
The PI of an ERI proposal must hold a doctoral degree in a field supported by NSF and must hold an appointment at an ERI-eligible institution. Postdoctoral fellow researchers are not eligible to serve as PI on an ERI proposal.
At the time of the proposal submission deadline, the PI may not have been a PI or Co-PI on any current or prior awarded NSF research grant (including subaward) or have had research support from any other Federal Agency (within the United States or abroad) totaling $200,000 or more within the past five (5) calendar years from the proposal submission deadline date, with the following exceptions:
Grants not directly for research purposes such as workshops, conferences, travel, instrumentation and equipment (e.g., Major Research Instrumentation; MRI), Research Experiences for Undergraduate Students (REU) and Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Sites, etc.;
Awards that exclusively support pre-tenure-track activities (postdoctoral fellowships and Graduate Research Fellowships/GRFP); 
I-Corps, Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards; and
Awards that originated as NSF or other Federal funds but were distributed locally without naming the submitting ERI PI in the Federal funding proposal (such as: NASA Space Grant Project or other non-NSF federally-funded opportunities, NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program.).
The Department Chair's/Dean's letter must explicitly verify each of the PI eligibility criteria. See Section V.A. for additional information.
Source ↗ · applicantEligibilityDesc
fundingInstruments: [{"id":"G","description":"Grant"}]
Source ↗ · fundingInstruments
fundingActivityCategories: [{"id":"ST","description":"Science and Technology and other Research and Development"}]
Source ↗ · fundingActivityCategories
awardFloor: 200000
Source ↗ · awardFloor
awardCeiling: none
Source ↗ · awardCeiling
responseDate: Sep 16, 2027 12:00:00 AM EDT
Source ↗ · responseDate
responseDateStr: 2027-09-16-00-00-00
Source ↗ · responseDateStr
costSharing: false
Source ↗ · costSharing
lastUpdatedDate: Oct 13, 2026 05:00:42 AM EDT
Source ↗ · lastUpdatedDate
status: posted
Source ↗ · oppHits[id=363233].oppStatus
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