NSF Tech Labs Will Award Up to $50M Per Year to Research Teams
February 27, 2026 · 2 min read
Arthur Griffin
The National Science Foundation is preparing to hand out the largest grants in its history — not to universities, but to independent research teams willing to leave their current institutions behind.
The NSF Tech Labs initiative, launched by the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, will award $10 million to $50 million per year per team for a minimum of four years. The first solicitations are expected in spring 2026, with team selections anticipated by mid-year.
A New Model for Research Funding
Unlike traditional NSF grants, Tech Labs awards will be structured as Other Transaction (OT) contracts — bypassing the standard federal uniform guidance that governs most research funding. That means fewer administrative constraints, greater operational flexibility, and funding tied to technical milestones rather than publication counts.
NSF plans to select approximately three topic areas "in which the U.S. must retain or regain technical dominance." Leading candidates include quantum technology, artificial intelligence, critical materials, semiconductor manufacturing, and biotechnology.
The scale is unprecedented for the agency. A single Tech Labs award at the upper end — $50 million annually for four or more years — would exceed $200 million total, dwarfing the typical NSF grant of $200,000 to $500,000.
Who Should Pay Attention
The initiative targets "entrepreneurial teams of proven scientists" working outside traditional academic, startup, and industry constraints. After a nine-month initial phase, all key researchers must commit full-time to the effort. NSF will reimburse their current employers for salaries and benefits during the transition.
This is a deliberate bet on a different kind of research organization — one with the independence of a startup, the mission focus of a national lab, and the federal backing to operate at scale. A companion Tech Accelerators initiative is expected to follow, targeting later-stage technology development in specific sectors.
Scientists and engineers considering nontraditional research paths can track the solicitation timeline and related federal opportunities through Granted, which monitors NSF and other agency announcements as they publish. Deeper analysis of NSF's shifting funding strategy is available on the Granted blog.