The U.S. National Science Foundation announced July 1, 2025 that it will no longer be accepting new proposals for the NSF Major Research Program during the 2026 submission window due to having many meritable submissions from the 2025 submission window.
According to an email sent Tuesday by WKU Proposal Development to faculty, NSF said that after the review of remaining funds, NSF will consider funding additional awards to the 2026 cohort. As of now, any proposals submitted during the October 15 to November 15, 2025 submission window for 2026 will be returned without review.
WKU Office of Sponsored Programs sent an email to faculty June 12 with the option for those interested in the program to submit a pre-application form by August 1, 2025. The office has now cancelled the call for pre-applications.
The National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation program helps to support the development of multi-user instruments or an instrument with new capabilities, according to the NSF website.
The NSF Major Instrumental program offers submissions to two tracks with limited submissions per institution:
- Track 1: Proposals that request between $100,000 and $1,400,000 with a limit of two submissions per institution.
- Track 2: proposals that request between $1,400,000 and $4,000,000 with a limit of one submission per institution.
The NSF Major Research program anticipates accepting new proposals during the next window scheduled for October 15 to November 16, 2025, according to the email sent by WKU Proposal Development.
