Assistance program
Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
$1.8 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- National Science Foundation, National Science Foundation
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 47.075
- What it does
- To contribute to the scientific strength and welfare of the Nation through the promotion of basic research and education in the social, behavioral and economic sciences and through monitoring and understanding the resources invested in science and engineering in the United States. Supported activities include research and education in the following disciplines: Anthropological and geographic sciences; cognitive, psychological, learning, developmental, and language sciences; economics, decision risk and management sciences; sociology; security and preparedness; accountable institutions and behavior; innovation and organizational change; measurement methods and statistics; law and science; and science and technology studies. Other SBE grants build infrastructure; develop methods; support center-scale investments; seek to understand the conduct of ethical and responsible research; and fund research workshops, symposia, and conferences. Educational activities include awards to improve the quality of doctoral dissertations in the behavioral and social sciences; grants for graduate traineeships and postdoctoral fellowships; and grants to promote K-12 education in the SBE sciences. Support is also provided for junior faculty and mid-career development opportunities, undergraduate student research, and for research opportunities for women, minorities, and the differentially abled. The Directorate also funds science studies; studies of scientists and engineers, R&D funding and expenditures, and educational attainment in science, mathematics and engineering.
- Who benefits
- Not applicable
- Who applies
- Except where a program solicitation establishes more restrictive eligibility criteria, organizations in the following categories may submit proposals: Institutions of Higher Education; Non-profit, non-academic organizations; For-profit organizations and State and local governments. See the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), Chapter I.E., for a full description of eligibility requirements: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=pappg
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
Administering agencies
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments