Hardware grants in the United States
Explore Hardware grants for companies in the United States. This list brings together funding for electronics, devices, sensors, prototyping and hardware startups from US innovation agencies, research funders and foundations, international programs open to applicants in the United States, and competitions any company can enter, with the deadline, award size and eligibility on every listing. Grants aimed at Hardware in the United States come first.
Showing 1-24 of 585 grants
Activate Fellowship
🇺🇸Activate · United States
Offers two-year fellowships for first-time hard-tech founders building climate, energy, and biotechnology ventures without equity.
CHIPS Incentives: Semiconductor Materials & Equipment NOFO
🇺🇸CHIPS for America · United States
Invests in semiconductor materials and equipment manufacturers expanding domestic supply chain capacity.
NSF Small Business Innovation Research / Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I, Phase II, Fast-Track Programs: A Pilot Emphasis on Scientific Instrumentation
🇺🇸NSF · United States
Funds startups building next-generation scientific instruments — up to $2 million per company, no equity taken.
DURIP (AFOSR)
🇺🇸AFOSR · United States
Supports United States universities acquiring major research equipment for defense-relevant research capabilities.
Draper TIF
🇺🇸UW Entrepreneurship Hub + WiSys · United States
Funds WARF-disclosed UW Madison inventions through patent and licensing preparation for market-ready transfer.
Major Research Instrumentation Program
🇺🇸NSF · United States
Funds shared research instruments too expensive for an ordinary grant — up to $4 million to buy one or to build one that does not exist yet.
MPS Astronomical Sciences Research Programs (MPS Astro)
🇺🇸NSF · United States
Funds astronomy research, instrumentation and new approaches through one door — a $100 million pool.
BIRD General Program
🇺🇸BIRD Foundation · United States
Supports United States and Israel partners to jointly commercialize hi-tech innovation, including cybersecurity, life sciences, and manufacturing.
Texas Enterprise Zone Program
🇺🇸Texas Comptroller · United States
Funds businesses in Texas Enterprise Zones with tax-advantaged support tied to growth-oriented capital deployment.
AFOSR YIP
🇺🇸AFOSR · United States
Supports early-career researchers in the United States through long-term federal science initiatives.
One-Step, Rapid, Low-Cost Definitive Drug Testing at the Point of Need Challenge
🇺🇸NIDA · United States
Pays up to $600,000 in prizes to teams building rapid, low-cost drug-testing device prototypes.
Build the Autodesk University 2027 Product
🇺🇸Autodesk & Partners · United States
Awards $4,000+ in cash and hardware for the best wearable built with Autodesk Fusion and Arduino UNO Q.
AFRL/RD HPEM Modeling and Effects BAA
🇺🇸Air Force · United States
Funds high-power electromagnetics modeling and effects research to strengthen defense science over time.
TTO Office Wide (OW) BAA 2025
🇺🇸DARPA · United States
Funds hardware and platform proposals across DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, covering four focus areas from rapid builds to disruptive concepts.
Oceanographic Facilities and Equipment Support
🇺🇸NSF · United States
Funds the ships, instruments and technical crews that make US ocean research possible — procurement, upgrades and annual operation.
TTAC Proof of Concept Program
🇺🇸LaunchTN · United States
Offers early-stage Tennessee innovators proof-of-concept support to de-risk and validate commercialization ideas.
National Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program (BREP) - FY2026/27
🇺🇸NOAA · United States
Funds designing and testing fishing gear that reduces bycatch and post-release deaths in US commercial and recreational fisheries.
BRAIN Initiative: Preclinical Proof of Concept for Novel Recording and Modulation Technologies in the Human CNS
🇺🇸NIH · United States
Funds a novel recording or modulation technology for the human central nervous system from proof of concept up to readiness for first-in-human studies.
Preclinical Proof of Concept for Novel Recording/Modulation Technologies in Human CNS
🇺🇸BRAIN Initiative · United States
Funds preclinical testing for novel neural recording and modulation technologies before clinical transition.
Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-1
🇺🇸NSF · United States
Funds research infrastructure between $4 million and $20 million — the gap between an instrument grant and a national facility.
EMERGING FRONTIERS IN RESEARCH AND INNOVATION (EFRI-2026/27): Wave-Based Computing ( EFRI-WBC)
🇺🇸NSF · United States
Funds computing that runs on wave dynamics rather than switches — exploratory grants, or four-year projects up to $2 million.
Ocean Technology and Interdisciplinary Coordination
🇺🇸NSF · United States
Funds instrument development for ocean science — with a standing open door for unsolicited proposals that widen what the field can measure.
SEED Research Program
🇺🇸UW Entrepreneurship Hub + WiSys · United States
Funds UW Madison spin-out research teams to advance commercialization through faculty-led projects.
Air Delivered Effects BAA
🇺🇸AFRL/RW · United States
Supports United States. air-delivered munitions research through DoD broad announcements and cooperative agreements.