Division of Earth Sciences

The National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences, a sub-agency of the civilian-side National Science Foundation, administers federal research funding in earth sciences domains including geology, hydrology, geophysics, and related fields. The Division operates primarily as a grant-making entity, with minimal contract activity.

The Division has closed 24 federal contracts cumulatively since 2007, with combined potential value of $865 thousand and combined dollars obligated of $852 thousand. Contract awards declined sharply after 2018; the most recent recorded contract award closed on June 11, 2020. Over the last five years tracked in the portfolio (2015–2020), activity was sparse: 1 award in 2015, 2 in 2016, 2 in 2017, 4 in 2018, and 1 in 2020. Among 17 distinct prime contractors awarded, competitive concentration is highly fragmented; the portfolio does not identify a dominant vendor. Three-quarters of contract awards carry no set-aside designation (18 awards); the remaining quarter divides between small-business set-asides (5 awards) and a single 8(a) sole-source award. The small dollar volume and contractor diversity indicate this is not a meaningful procurement stream for business development purposes.

Grant activity dominates the Division's portfolio. The Division has obligated $1.42 billion in federal dollars across 3,514 research grants since 2001. Annual grant awards totaled 333 in 2023, 337 in 2024, 247 in 2025, 136 year-to-date in 2026, and 10 recorded for 2027. Nearly all awards are Project Grants (3,490 awards); Cooperative Agreements account for 1 percent of the mix. Recipient concentration is highly fragmented across the last five years of activity — the top five recipients by award count hold only 9 percent of recent awards, and the top five by federal dollars obligated hold only 5 percent. Columbia University (26 awards, $15 million federal dollars), the University of Colorado (26 awards, $14.3 million), and the University of Minnesota (24 awards, $10.6 million) lead by count; the University of Oregon ($17.5 million across 15 awards) leads by federal dollars. A total of 393 distinct recipients have received funding, indicating a highly distributed portfolio with no single institution dominating earth sciences research funding.

The Division conducts no recent contract opportunities or grant opportunities solicitation activity recorded in the source data.

The Division of Earth Sciences supports proposals for research geared toward improving the understanding of the structure, composition, and evolution of the Earth, the life it supports, and the processes that govern the formation and behavior of the Earth's materials. The results of this research will create a better understanding of the Earth's changing environments, and the natural distribution of its mineral, water, biota, and energy resources and provide methods for predicting and mitigating the effects of geologic hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides.