EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII): EPSCoR Research Fellows | 24 528

Opportunity Information: Apply for 24 528

The NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII): EPSCoR Research Fellows program is a competitive fellowship-style grant opportunity meant to strengthen research capacity in EPSCoR-eligible jurisdictions (certain U.S. states, territories, and commonwealths that meet NSF EPSCoR eligibility criteria). At its core, the program supports investigators whose long-term research trajectories can be accelerated through meaningful collaboration with leading research environments, including premier academic institutions, government laboratories, research centers, and in some cases NASA centers. The broader NSF EPSCoR mission behind this program is to spread the benefits of federally funded research more evenly across the country by helping under-resourced jurisdictions build sustainable research infrastructure, expand R and D capacity, and improve competitiveness for future funding. In practice, the Research Fellows awards aim to create durable professional development pathways in STEM and to strengthen the workforce by giving researchers the time, access, and collaborative networks needed to elevate their work and their home institutions.

A defining feature of the fellowship is the structured collaboration with a host site through extended and/or periodic visits. The expectation is not a brief networking trip, but a substantive research engagement where the Fellow works alongside host-site investigators on a clearly defined research plan. Through that relationship, Fellows are expected to gain capabilities that are hard to develop in isolation at their home institution: learning new methods and techniques, building or deepening collaborations, accessing unique facilities and specialized equipment, advancing ongoing partnerships, and potentially redirecting or expanding their research into new, higher-impact, and potentially transformative directions. NSF signals that the payoff should extend well beyond the award period, meaning the fellowship should leave the Fellow with lasting advantages such as new collaborative publications or proposals, sustained cross-institution partnerships, and strengthened positioning for future competitive research awards. Importantly, the program frames these benefits as not only personal to the Fellow, but also as a way to raise the overall research capacity of the Fellow's home institution and the broader EPSCoR jurisdiction.

The solicitation offers two related tracks. Track 1, EPSCoR Research Fellows NSF, is the broad track open to eligible applicants across NSF-supported research areas, consistent with EPSCoR goals. Track 2, EPSCoR Research Fellows at NASA, has a similar capacity-building and collaboration focus but is tailored to facilitate research collaborations with investigators at NASA research centers and emphasizes participation by faculty from institutions with high enrollments of students from groups underrepresented in STEM. Even though the NASA-focused track involves coordination and additional funds through NASA EPSCoR, proposals for both tracks are submitted to NSF and go through NSF merit review. A key constraint is that if a Principal Investigator is eligible for both tracks, they may apply to only one track in a given competition cycle.

The program also intentionally builds in a training component. Each fellowship project provides an opportunity to include one trainee from an EPSCoR jurisdiction. That trainee can be an undergraduate or graduate student enrolled full-time in an accredited degree program, or a postdoctoral researcher. The solicitation also allows staff members such as technicians or lab assistants to serve as trainees when there is strong justification, which gives applicants some flexibility to support the person best positioned to benefit from and contribute to the capacity-building goals of the project. This trainee element reinforces that the fellowship is not just about an individual researcher, but about building a pipeline of skills and experience that stays in the jurisdiction after the visits and collaboration conclude.

Eligibility is tightly tied to geography and institution type. Proposals may be submitted only by organizations located in EPSCoR jurisdictions that are RII-eligible for the relevant fiscal year, as listed in the NSF RII Eligibility table on the NSF EPSCoR website. Submission-eligible organizations include accredited U.S. institutions of higher education (both Ph.D.-granting and non-Ph.D.-granting) that have a campus in the United States or its territories or possessions, and also domestic U.S. non-profit, non-degree-granting organizations (such as independent museums, science centers, observatories, research labs, and professional societies) that have an independent permanent administrative presence in the U.S. and 501(c)(3) status. For multi-campus university systems, distinct campuses that function independently (for example, awarding their own degrees and having separate administrative structures) can qualify as separate submission-eligible institutions, which matters for how institutions plan submissions and internal coordination.

The NASA-specific track adds another eligibility layer tied to the PI's employing institution. For EPSCoR Research Fellows at NASA, the PI must be employed by an institution that falls into at least one of four categories: a minority-serving institution as defined by the U.S. Department of Education, a Primarily Undergraduate Institution (including two-year colleges) that meets NSF's threshold of awarding 20 or fewer Ph.D./D.Sci. degrees in all NSF-supported fields over the previous two academic years combined, an institution dedicated to serving students with disabilities as referenced in NSF's broadening participation materials, or a degree-granting women's college as listed by the U.S. Department of Education Digest of Education Statistics. This structure is designed to ensure the NASA-focused fellowships are concentrated in institutions that play an outsized role in educating students from groups historically underrepresented in STEM, while still aligning with EPSCoR's overall jurisdiction-based capacity-building goals.

Rules on who may serve as PI are also specified to keep the program focused on investigators at a stage where the fellowship can materially reshape their trajectory. Eligible PIs include individuals in early-career or mid-career-track positions at eligible non-degree-granting organizations, and faculty at institutions of higher education who hold non-tenured or tenured appointments at the Lecturer, Research Faculty, Assistant Professor, or Associate Professor level (or equivalent). The solicitation notes that faculty rank is assessed as of the proposal deadline date. More broadly, the PI is expected to be positioned to build sustainable research capacity at the home institution during and after the fellowship, reinforcing the idea that the award should translate into lasting institutional and jurisdictional benefits rather than a one-off personal research experience.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is a discretionary NSF grant (Funding Opportunity Number 24-528) with an original closing date of April 8, 2025. It is categorized under science and technology and other research and development and is associated with multiple NSF CFDA/assistance listing numbers (including 47.041, 47.049, 47.050, 47.070, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, 47.079, 47.083, and 47.084), reflecting that EPSCoR fellows can span a wide range of NSF-supported disciplines. The award ceiling and expected number of awards are not specified in the provided text, so applicants typically need to consult the full NSF solicitation for budget limits, project duration, allowable costs, and any track-specific requirements for host site arrangements, documentation, and review criteria.

Overall, this program is best understood as an intentionally capacity-building fellowship that funds an investigator from an EPSCoR jurisdiction to embed, in a structured and recurring way, within a top-tier research environment to accelerate skills, collaborations, and research direction. The program is designed so that what the Fellow learns and builds does not stay at the host site, but is carried back to strengthen the research competitiveness of the Fellow, their trainees, their home institution, and ultimately their EPSCoR jurisdiction.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII): EPSCoR Research Fellows" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.049, 47.050, 47.070, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, 47.079, 47.083, 47.084.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-01-23.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-04-08. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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