Assistance program
Polar Programs
$764.9 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- National Science Foundation, National Science Foundation
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 47.078
- What it does
- To strengthen and enhance the national scientific enterprise through the expansion of fundamental knowledge and increased understanding of the polar regions. To encourage and support basic research that is best conducted in or can only be conducted in the Arctic and Antarctic. Research areas include solid earth, glacial and sea ice, terrestrial ecosystems, the oceans, the atmosphere, geospace science, astronomy and astrophysics, social science, and beyond. Major objectives include understanding of the natural phenomena and processes in the Antarctic and Arctic regions and their role in global systems. To provide postdoctoral fellowships for the development and training of new investigators in polar regions research with goals to support innovative research in emerging areas, encourage interdisciplinary research, foster activities that create broader impacts for science and society, and to increase the participation of underrepresented groups. Support is also provided for science and technology centers, undergraduate student research, facility enhancement, instrumentation, laboratory equipment; and for research opportunities for women, minority, and disabled scientists and engineers.
- 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
- Authorized by
- National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 1861 et seq.
- Program site
- http://nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=opp ↗
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.
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