NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER)

NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program, or CAREER, sits under the National Science Foundation, the U.S. federal science agency established in 1950. It is the foundation-wide early-career faculty award for researchers who can pair strong scholarship with STEM education and academic leadership across BIO, CISE, EDU, ENG, GEO, MPS, SBE, and the NSF offices that participate in the program. The program runs as an annual grant competition with one proposal allowed per principal investigator and no co-principal investigators. NSF expects about 500 awards each year, and the current competition carries a July 22, 2026 deadline at 5 p.m. local time for the submitting organization. Recent CAREER awardees can also be considered for PECASE, with up to 26 nominees selected annually. CAREER is built for faculty who can present a durable research agenda and a serious education plan in the same proposal. The strongest applications usually fit the home directorate cleanly, show a coherent five-year arc, and demonstrate how the investigator will serve as a role model in the institution. Because the program is broad but selective, the winning case is less about a single project and more about a clear faculty trajectory that NSF can support at scale.

Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.