Assistance program
Integrative Activities
$2.6 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- National Science Foundation, National Science Foundation
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 47.083
- What it does
- Enhance the competitiveness of the Nation’s research through activities that build capacity for science and engineering and broaden participation in research and education and develops critical infrastructure for the nation's STEM enterprise. The program is intended to incubate new ideas and communities, support innovation in research and NSF’s own processes, and to promote integration across research and education domains. Support is provided to develop human and infrastructure capacity critical to the U.S. science and engineering enterprise; to catalyze new cross-cutting programs; to expand NSF’s capability to gather and use evidence about the progress and impacts of its programs; for prestigious honorary award programs and professional internships for aspiring scientists and engineers; and for policy and programmatic analysis for the NSF Director, Deputy Director, and Chief Operating Officer.
- Who benefits
- Except where a program solicitation establishes more restrictive eligibility criteria, individuals and organizations in the following categories may submit proposals: Universities and colleges; Non-profit, non-academic organizations; for-profit organizations; State and local governments; and unaffiliated individuals. See the NSF Grant Proposal Guide, Chapter I.E. for a full description of eligibility requirements: www.nsf.gov/publications/pub summ.jsp?ods key=gpg.
- Who applies
- For non-EPSCoR grants, 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 EPSCoR eligibility is based on two primary considerations: (1) a jurisdiction’s demonstrated commitment to develop its research bases and to improve the quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research conducted at its universities and colleges, and (2) a jurisdiction’s most recent three-year history of research funds awarded by NSF relative to the Foundation’s total research budget for that same period. Regarding the second consideration, a jurisdiction is eligible to participate in EPSCoR programs if its level of research support is equal to or less than 0.75 percent of the total NSF research budget for that same period. Adjustments are made in the rare instances where a single large NSF-funded national or international facility skews the data.
- Authorized by
- National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 1861 et seq
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