Stanford Research Development Office

NSF Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems

Most recent content update: June 17, 2025

Note: This page will be updated as new information becomes available. If you are developing a proposal or making plans to develop one, please check back frequently.

Program Snapshot

The NSF POSE program is designed to strengthen open-source software ecosystems to address problems of national and societal importance through a two-phase funding approach (phases described in more detail below). The POSE program envisions that proactive management organizations will drive the adoption of open-source products, enhance coordination among developers, and accelerate the development of impactful technologies. To achieve this, POSE supports the establishment of new open-source ecosystem (OSE) management organizations, each responsible for the efficient and secure development and maintenance of specific open-source products or classes of products. The POSE program aims to grow the community of researchers and innovators who develop and contribute to OSE efforts and enable pathways for the safe and secure development of OSEs with broad societal impacts. OSEs can emerge from any area of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) research and development.

Funding Levels

Phase I: OSE Scoping and Planning Proposals

  • Intended for open-source research products with a small community of external users, though not necessarily an existing community of external content developers
  • Focus on enabling scoping activities to inform the transition from existing open-source research products into sustainable OSEs, and providing training to teams interested in building such an OSE
  • Phase I awardees are not obligated to submit Phase II proposals in the future
  • Awards of up to $300,000 each for up to 1 year

Phase II: Establishment and Expansion Proposals

  • Intended for open-source research products with small, existing communities of external users and external content developers
  • Successful projects receive additional support to implement and scale their approaches, emphasizing sustainability and broad community engagement
  • Phase II proposers do not need to have received a previous Phase I award to qualify; however, they are expected to have already conducted the necessary scoping activities.
  • Awards of up to $1.5M each for up to 2 years

Timeline

  • Next sponsor deadlines for Phase I Proposals: September 2, 2025, and January 13, 2026
  • Next sponsor deadline for Phase II Proposals: September 2, 2025

Eligibility and Application Requirements

  • This award supports organizations, including institutions of higher education
  • To apply through Stanford, PI/Project Directors must have PI eligibility.
  • Senior personnel (including PI and any Co-PIs) must hold either a tenured or tenure-track position; a primary, full-time paid appointment in a research or teaching position; or a staff leadership role in an Open-Source Program Office, or equivalent, at the time of application
  • If a proposal involves multiple organizations, it must be submitted as a single proposal with sub-awards; separately submitted collaborative proposals are not permitted.

Resources from NSF

Resources for Stanford PIs

  • OpenSource@Stanford: RDO partners with OpenSource@Stanford to support strategic proposals for funding open source projects and ecosystems. Through RDO, individual consultations are available to Stanford teams, which may include: draft proposal review, open science and code repository best practices, persistent identifiers, community health analytics, analysis of license dependencies and code dependents & deployments.
  • 6 things you can do right now to improve your open source project, prepared by the Open Source@Stanford team