Science and Technology Centers

The National Science Foundation funded Science and Technology Centers (CFDA 47.073), with the most recent grant award disbursed on June 1, 2004—over 22 years ago. The program is not currently active; no grant opportunities are posted and no awards have been issued since 2004.

The program funded research infrastructure and workforce development activities centered on Science and Technology Centers. Recent awards supported embedded networked sensing, biophotonics research, and related undergraduate research experiences (REU sites). Supplemental awards also funded diversity initiatives targeting underrepresented minorities in science and technology careers, as well as capacity-building projects such as proposal-writing workshops and large research facility planning.

NSF was the sole funding agency, obligating $2.9 million across nine awards issued between 2002 and 2004. The assistance-type mix was predominantly Project Grants (67 percent, six awards) paired with Cooperative Agreements (33 percent, three awards). Award magnitudes ranged from $87 thousand to $1.06 million. The largest single award—$1.06 million for the Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology as a Cooperative Agreement—represented over one-third of total program dollars.

Representative recent awards include the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, funded as a Cooperative Agreement for $306 thousand and $240 thousand in separate tranches (both August 2002), and an internship program for underrepresented minorities at Science and Technology Centers, awarded $556 thousand as a Project Grant in April 2003.

Organizations evaluating whether to pursue this program should note that no solicitations or funding has been active for more than two decades. NSF's current Science and Technology Centers program, if it continues under this or another CFDA number, requires separate research.