Office of Research
NSF Regional Innovation Engines
The NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) program creates regional-scale, technology-driven, inclusive innovation ecosystems throughout the United States by accelerating key technologies, addressing regional, national, societal, and/or geostrategic challenges, driving economic growth, creating and retaining quality jobs, expanding equitable pathways into careers, and strengthening national competitiveness and security. Each NSF Engine represents a formal coalition of regional partners, led by a full-time Chief Executive Officer (CEO), tasked to carry out an integrated and comprehensive set of activities spanning use-inspired research, translation of innovation to practice, entrepreneurship, workforce development, community engagement, and ecosystem building, to nurture and accelerate the growth of regional innovation ecosystems grounded in technological innovation and regional, national, societal, and/or geostrategic challenges. The mission of an NSF Engine must be clearly rooted in regional interests and reflect the aspiration that a regional innovation ecosystem can help build strong communities where all residents can thrive. This includes the equitable development of regional talent, intentional community engagement, and attention to impacts on a region's identities and cultures. The NSF Engines program is a placed-based innovation funding initiative, where the emphasis on "regions" expresses NSF's aim to stimulate innovation-driven economic growth within a particular place or region of service. The emphasis of the NSF Engines program further includes creating new business and economic growth in sectors that are critical to American competitiveness and in those regions of America that have not fully participated in the technology boom of the past several decades.
This solicitation replaces NSF Regional Innovation Engines Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), Notice ID - NSFBAA-ENGINES-2022-05-1. This solicitation is only for NSF Engines proposals (previously called Type-2 proposals). Proposals for NSF Engines Development proposals (previously called Type-1 proposals) will not be considered.
Application Instructions
Please submit:
- A one‐page letter of intent with a description of proposed aims and approach.
- If the final application requires a diversity statement or statement of broader impacts, please summarize your plans to address the specific requirements on an additional page.
- CV (not biosketch) of the PI including past grant funding.
to limitedsubs@uw.edu by 5:00 PM Wednesday, May 15, 2024. If given the go‐ahead by the Limited Submissions review committee, a required LOI with AOR signature is due 6/18/2024 (the OSP deadline is 6/7/2024), then a preliminary proposal is due 8/6/2024. If invited by NSF, the full proposal is due 2/11/2025.
Inquiries and Contact Information
Investigators who identify a grant, award or fellowship program that restricts the number of applications that can be submitted from an Institution should immediately contact their Chairperson, Associate Dean for Research (or Dean, if no ADR) and the Office of Research (see below) if they intend to prepare a response. Failure to do so, or to meet the deadlines for submission of pre-proposal, will preclude submission of the application through the Office of Sponsored Programs.
For general inquiries, or to request a listing of a limited submission opportunity that should be but is not already listed, please email us at limitedsubs@uw.edu.