The ssaa program provides the research experience necessary to maintain a cadre of trained scientists and engineers at U.S. Universities to meet the nation's current and future SSP needs, with a focus…

The Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration awarded Texas Tech University $748,768 under the Stewardship Science Grant Program (CFDA 81.112) on September 1, 2026, for research in one or more of the designated technical areas: properties of materials under extreme conditions and material processing, low energy nuclear science, and radiochemistry.

The award runs through August 31, 2028, with place of performance in Lubbock, Texas. The Stewardship Science Grant Program supports fundamental science and technology research at universities relevant to nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship, maintains a cadre of trained scientists and engineers to meet the nation's current and future stockpile stewardship priorities, and builds long-term recruiting capacity for NNSA Defense Programs laboratory operations. Awards are made through the Office of Defense Programs following merit review focused on scientific and technical merit, innovativeness, expected impact, feasibility, alignment with technical scope, and interaction with NNSA/DP laboratory personnel and student training pipelines.

The ssaa program provides the research experience necessary to maintain a cadre of trained scientists and engineers at U.S. Universities to meet the nation's current and future SSP needs, with a focus on those areas not supported by other federal agencies. IT supports the DOE/nnsa's priorities both to address the workforce specific needs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and to support the next generation of professionals who will meet those needs. The office of defense programs announce their interest in receiving applications for new or renewal financial assistance awards for research grants in the ssaa program. Researchers seeking renewals of their current ssaa grant should apply to this nofo. The research areas of interest in the ssaa program for this announcement are properties of materials under extreme conditions and material processing, low energy nuclear science, and radiochemistry.