The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced this week the establishment of the first-ever NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines), awarding 10 teams a potential $1.6 billion over the next decade.
The NSF Engines program – authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act – awarded seven teams whose key technology areas will focus on advancing artificial intelligence (AI). President Biden’s recent AI executive order directed NSF to fund and launch AI-focused NSF Engines within 150 days.
NSF Engines represent one of the single largest broad investments in place-based research and development in the nation’s history – uniquely placing science and technology leadership as the central driver for regional economic competitiveness, NSF said in a Jan. 29 press release.
“The inaugural NSF Engines awards demonstrate our enduring commitment to create opportunity everywhere and enable innovation anywhere,” NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said in a statement. “Through these NSF Engines, NSF aims to expand the frontiers of technology and innovation and spur economic growth across the nation through unprecedented investments in people and partnerships. NSF Engines hold significant promise to elevate and transform entire geographic regions into world-leading hubs of innovation.”
Each NSF Engine will initially receive up to $15 million for two years. NSF’s initial $150 million investment in these 10 regions is being matched nearly two to one in commitments from state and local governments, other Federal agencies, philanthropy, and private industry, NSF said.
Teams that demonstrate progress toward well-defined milestones could potentially receive up to $160 million each from NSF over 10 years, as they seek to catalyze the NSF funding to draw additional investments into the overall region.
The 10 inaugural NSF Engines include:
- NSF Engines: Central Florida Semiconductor Innovation Engine
- NSF Engines: Colorado – Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine
- NSF Engines: Great Lakes Water Innovation Engine
- NSF Engines: Louisiana Energy Transition Engine
- NSF Engines: North Carolina Textile Innovation and Sustainability Engine
- NSF Engines: North Dakota Advanced Agriculture Technology Engine
- NSF Engines: Paso del Norte Defense and Aerospace Innovation Engine
- NSF Engines: Piedmont Triad Regenerative Medicine Engine
- NSF Engines: Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine
- NSF Engines: Upstate New York Energy Storage Engine
Beyond the 10 NSF Engines awards, a subset of the semifinalists and finalists will be invited to pursue NSF Engines Development Awards, with each receiving up to $1 million to further develop their partnerships and model for a future NSF Engines proposal.
