Limited Submission Opportunities

NSF Tech Accelerators invest in teams and provide comprehensive guidance and support throughout the entire lab-to-market pathway. Funded teams benefit from strategic partnerships, mentorship and commercialization resources focused on customer discovery, innovation processes and other entrepreneurial skills to take their technology to the next level.

With fast-paced, clear research milestones and actionable outcomes (e.g., patents, licenses, entity formation, partnerships, pilots, demos and other scaling methods), the initiative accelerates translation at speed and scale, strengthening the nation's workforce in deep technology areas.

Managing Unit: VPDoR

U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office (HGEO) and Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs (IE) are soliciting applications from institutions of higher education (IHEs) through the Partnerships for Academic-Career Training (PACT) Initiative. Awards will establish regional consortia which must include at least one two-year IHE (e.g., vocational schools, trade schools, technical colleges, community colleges, Tribal colleges), at least two industry employers, and at least one workforce development entity. The prime applicant must be an IHE and must have signed documentation of commitment from each consortium partner.

Objective
The goal of the PACT initiative is to increase the number of highly skilled individuals entering the American energy workforce. During the application period, each consortium will choose between the two topic areas listed below:
Topic A - Enhance: applicants seeking resources to enhance their existing training program(s) or reorient them to focus on energy careers.
Topic B - Establish: applicants seeking resources to establish a new training program to focus on energy careers.
Training program participants will, upon completion, receive stackable credentials relevant to the applicant’s identified technology area.

Awarded projects for either topic will involve a two-phase approach:
Phase 1 - involves an initial planning period for the workforce consortium to design and plan a training program(s) which leads to energy jobs.
Phase 2 - involves executing the training programs designed in Phase 1.

Managing Unit: VPDoR

The Mathers Foundation support early-stage discoveries that drive innovation and lay the groundwork for future medical breakthroughs. The Foundation primarily supports basic science research with translational potential that can lead to major advances in scientific understanding and human health. Examples of current research areas supported include immunology, microbiome, structural biology, cellular physiology, cancer biology, genetics, genomics, microbiology and infectious diseases, stem cell biology, and neuroscience. Stanford faculty with PI eligibility (UTL, UML, NTLR faculty appointments) from all Schools may apply.

Managing Unit: SoM

The Research Facilities Act Program (RFAP) supports the construction, alteration, acquisition, modernization, renovation, and/or remodeling of a research facility. Proposals must enhance the institution’s long-term impact on food and agricultural research and build on careful strategic planning.

RFAP seeks to strengthen the quality and expand the scope of fundamental and applied research at eligible institutions by providing them with opportunities to assist in the construction, alteration, acquisition, modernization, renovation, and/or remodeling of the facility that supports their research and research training goals.

Managing Unit: VPDoR

The goals of the CyberAI SFS Program are to: (1) increase the number of CyberAI experts and support their placement and retention in the mission of government organizations; and (2) enhance the national capacity for the education and training of AI and cybersecurity professionals, educators, and researchers.
The CyberAI SFS program supports student scholarships for service (Scholarship Track) and educational innovations (Innovation Track). There is no limit for the Innovation Track.
The Scholarship Track funds academic institutions to award scholarships to students. In return, students agree to work in the AI or cybersecurity mission of a government agency.

Managing Unit: VPDoR

NSF 26-503: Government and the nation face a talent shortfall in artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity. The CyberAICorps Scholarship for Service (CyberAI SFS) program welcomes proposals that address AI and cybersecurity education and workforce development. CyberAI refers to using AI in cybersecurity as well as providing security and resilience for AI systems.
The Scholarship Track provides funding to establish, or to continue, scholarship for service programs with integrated AI and cybersecurity components (CyberAI). Scholarship recipients must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and work after graduation in the AI or cybersecurity mission of a government organization for a period of at least the length of the scholarship.
The Innovation Track supports projects that enhance preparation of AI and/or cybersecurity professionals. Projects may expand existing educational opportunities, curricula, degree programs, educational pathways, methods and interventions, and partnerships among institutions of higher education, government, and employers.

Managing Unit: VPDoR

The National Science Foundation (NSF) X-Labs initiative is a specialized funding mechanism designed to accelerate the development of novel platform technologies and use-inspired scientific breakthroughs. This program targets high-impact R&D that typically falls outside the scope of traditional academic grants or industry laboratory structures.

The fundamental purpose of NSF X-Labs is to establish and support research teams focused on the following pillars:
- Platform Technology Development: Creating foundational technologies capable of unlocking entirely new scientific fields and economic sectors.
- Use-Inspired Breakthroughs: Addressing large-scale scientific challenges that require intensive, interdisciplinary coordination across academia, industry, national laboratories, and the nonprofit sector.
- Non-Traditional R&D Structures: Implementing a model characterized by operational autonomy and milestone-based funding, distinct from standard institutional frameworks.

The goal of the Quantum Systems: Interconnects and Integrated Photonics topic is to advance the development of foundational platform technologies necessary for functional, connected quantum systems. It focuses on bridging the gap between current quantum components and scalable, integrated architectures.

Managing Unit: VPDoR

The Integrated Data Systems and Services (IDSS) program supports national-scale, operational cyberinfrastructure systems and services that advance open, data-intensive, and AI-driven science and engineering research, innovation, and education. Projects must broadly serve the research and education community across multiple disciplines, enabling diverse users to access, integrate, and connect data with resources such as computing, facilities, instrumentation, and repositories. Proposals that primarily benefit a single discipline, project, or application are not supported.

Managing Unit: VPDoR

Research projects must be hypothesis-driven, breast cancer-focused studies. They may be considered basic, translational, clinical and/or population science in nature and should align with Komen’s research priorities and mission to save lives from breast cancer. Komen’s research priorities are conquering metastatic and aggressive breast cancers, advancing personalized breast cancer care throughout the continuum of care, and improving health outcomes for everyone impacted by breast cancer. Metastatic breast cancer-focused studies may include, but are not limited to, the development of novel treatment strategies for existing metastatic disease, strategies to prevent or arrest metastasis and late recurrence, and innovative approaches to detect new or recurrent metastatic breast cancer. See guidelines for more details.

Managing Unit: SCI (Stanford Cancer Institute)

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting for revolutionary discovery solutions in the following thrust areas: a world beyond electronics, foundations beyond components, and materials beyond nature and current synthetic practice. Proposed discovery solutions should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

The DARPA Multi X Office (MXO) (formerly known as Microsystems Technology Office) will host an invitation-only, in-person Pitch Day on November 2, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois, in conjunction with the MXO Spark Tank event.

Principal Investigator who previously served as a Principal Investigator under a DARPA-funded award are not eligible.

Managing Unit: VPDoR

The primary objective of the National Science Foundation’s Energy Water Security Initiative (EWSI) is to secure American energy and national infrastructure resilience by producing measurable reductions in vulnerabilities where water scarcity threatens energy production, baseload stability, and industrial water extraction. This effort aims to accelerate deployment of technical solutions, with a priority focus on the systemic crisis within the Colorado River Basin. The NSF Energy Water Security Initiative seeks to develop the critical framework needed for research and development and accelerated, high-impact deployment. This initiative implements a two-phase program. Phase 1 awardees receive resources to develop consortia comprising multi-sector partnerships that can deliver on the goals of this initiative. Consortia should include regional partners and provide the collaborative infrastructure needed to accelerate development and deployment of technical capabilities. Phase 2 awardees will receive significant resources to expand the scale of projects leading to rapid completion and deployment of secure, public-domain technologies.

Managing Unit: VPDoR

The Schmidt Science Polymaths Program supports recently tenured faculty with extraordinary track records and bold, creative visions for exploring entirely new lines of research that are clearly distinct from their prior work. These grants are designed for “polymath” researchers, those who cross disciplinary boundaries and apply insights in unconventional ways, to pursue high-risk, underexplored ideas unlikely to receive traditional funding.
The program invests in individuals, not specific projects, and seeks candidates who are intensely creative, willing to take adventurous leaps, and capable of generating transformative breakthroughs. Successful nominees are not simply excellent scientists—they exhibit high-variance thinking, a strong desire to pivot into new research domains, and the courage to test “big if true” ideas. Proposals should reflect future research directions and describe the kinds of questions they want to explore if traditional constraints were removed.

Managing Unit: VPDoR