Geosciences

The National Science Foundation funds basic research in atmospheric, earth, and ocean sciences through the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050), with the most recent grant award dated June 1, 2027.

The program has sustained high activity over the past several years, though recent award volume has declined sharply. The portfolio shows 1,187 awards in 2023, 1,154 in 2024, 852 in 2025, 611 in 2026, and only 27 awards recorded through June 2027, suggesting a slowdown or data lag at the time of this report. Overall, the program has distributed $22.11 billion in federal dollars across 45,333 awards since its inception in 1991. Nearly all funding derives from NSF itself: the NSF as a whole agency provided 35,153 awards ($16.12 billion), while the Division of Ocean Sciences (2,592 awards, $2.47 billion), Division of Earth Sciences (3,503 awards, $1.41 billion), Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (2,359 awards, $1.23 billion), and Office of Integrative Activities (1,351 awards, $678 million) collectively account for the remainder. The assistance-type distribution is heavily weighted toward Project Grants, which comprise 97 percent of the portfolio, with Cooperative Agreements making up the remaining 3 percent.

Recent awards reflect a research portfolio spanning fundamental Earth system science. Representative projects include investigations of seafloor phosphorus weathering and its role in climate perturbations; subduction zone earthquake mechanics using laboratory friction experiments and numerical modeling; machine-learning approaches to predict marine snow composition from underwater imagery to track nutrient and pollutant transport; wildfire prediction by integrating atmospheric science, ecology, and machine learning; coastal hypoxia dynamics using physics-informed neural networks; and advanced applications of AI to map active faults, characterize nearshore bathymetry from remote sensing, and infer hidden urban flood controls. Award magnitudes in recent examples range from approximately $45,000 for conference support to over $1.6 million for multi-year oceanographic field experiments. Postdoctoral fellowships, REU sites, and collaborative research predominate among project types.

Several grant opportunities remain open or recently posted. The Geosciences Core Research solicitation (26-516) with a due date of October 5, 2076 calls for proposals in Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, Earth Sciences, and Ocean Sciences. Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships (22-521, posted October 8, 2026) funds exceptionally innovative, complex research requiring large-scale, long-term awards through Cooperative Agreements, targeting faculty at institutions with doctoral research programs. The Unlocking Dataset Value for AI-Enabled Scientific Discovery program (26-512) has a November 4, 2026 due date and supports dataset curation and AI application across scientific fields, including geosciences. Physical Oceanography (PD-98-1610) accepts proposals on ocean structure, circulation, and transport with a February 17, 2027 deadline.