Division of Materials Research

The National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research, a sub-agency within the civilian NSF, administers federal grant funding for materials science and engineering research across academic and research institutions nationwide. The Division has minimal contract activity but substantial grant-making reach, operating as a pure grant funder with a secondary, limited contracting footprint.

The Division issued 7 federal contracts totaling $3.3 million in combined potential value since 2014, with $2.5 million obligated to date. Award cadence has been episodic: 1 contract in 2014, 1 in 2016, 2 in 2017, 2 in 2018, and 1 in 2021; no contracts are recorded after 2021. Among five distinct prime contractors, competitive concentration is highly fragmented by both count and value, with no vendor name appearing more than once in the contract portfolio. Set-asides split evenly between open competition (57% of awards) and 8(a) sole-source awards (43%), reflecting targeted use of small-business set-asides on a small overall contract base.

Grant-making dominates the Division's activity. Since 2001, the Division has obligated $3.05 billion in federal funding across 4,229 grant awards to 315 distinct recipients. Recent grant cadence remains active: 309 awards in 2022, 357 in 2023, 339 in 2024, 279 in 2025, and 226 year-to-date in 2026. Among the top five recipients over the last five years by award count, Pennsylvania State University leads with 36 awards ($16.3 million federal dollars), followed by University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin System, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, each with 31 to 32 awards. By federal dollars obligated over the same window, Florida State University leads with $165.6 million across 20 awards, followed by University of California, Santa Barbara ($44.6 million) and Regents of the University of Michigan ($37.7 million). Recipient concentration is highly fragmented by both count (top five hold 11% of recent awards) and by dollars (top five hold 10% of federal obligated). Grants are structured overwhelmingly as Project Grants (99% of awards) with occasional Cooperative Agreements (1%).

No recent contract opportunities or grant opportunities are recorded in the source data. The most recent grant award is dated October 1, 2026, indicating current funding activity, but no open solicitation records are available for evaluation.

Research supported by the Division of Materials Research (DMR) focuses on advancing materials discovery, design, synthesis, and characterization. DMR awards enable understanding of the electronic, atomic, and molecular mechanisms and processes that govern nanoscale to macroscale properties; manipulation and control of these properties; discovery of emerging phenomena of matter and materials; and creation of novel design, synthesis, and processing strategies that lead to new materials with unique characteristics. These discoveries and advancements transcend traditional scientific and engineering disciplines.