NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER)

NSF CAREER

Supports early-career faculty in the United States to build independent research careers in science and engineering.

The NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is described by the National Science Foundation as its most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who demonstrate potential to serve as academic role models and to lead advances in research and education within their organizations. Operating under solicitation NSF 22-586, CAREER is a foundation-wide activity spanning all NSF directorates — BIO, CISE, EDU, ENG, GEO, MPS, SBE, and the offices OD/OIA and OD/OISE. NSF expects to make approximately 500 awards per annual competition. The FY2026 deadline is July 22, 2026, at 5 p.m. in the submitting organization's local time zone, recurring on the fourth Wednesday of July annually thereafter.

CAREER is exclusively for individual early-career faculty at CAREER-eligible academic institutions in the United States. No co-PIs are permitted, and each eligible principal investigator may submit only one proposal per annual competition regardless of directorate. Award amounts are not uniform and vary by directorate and the scope of the proposed research and educational activities; the solicitation NSF 22-586 governs the specific budgetary and page-limit requirements. A CAREER proposal must integrate a compelling research plan with a substantive educational component that advances discovery while broadening participation in science and engineering.

The program carries an additional recognition pathway: up to 26 recent CAREER awardees are nominated annually for the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on early-stage researchers. Competitiveness is driven by the quality and integration of the research and educational missions in the proposal — reviewers assess both the intellectual merit of the research and the broader impacts of the education plan. Contact for program questions is nsf-ccc@nsf.gov or (703) 292-5111.