The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced semifinalists for a signature federal funding program to promote economic growth around advanced and emerging technology sectors such as artificial intelligence, biotechnologies, quantum science, and advanced manufacturing. Earlier this month, the science agency announced that 29 teams are semifinalists for the Regional Innovation Engines awards–narrowing down candidates from nearly 300 letters of interest in the program of which 71 teams were invited to submit proposals for the national competition.
Authorized under the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and spearheaded by NSF’s new Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships Directorate, also created under the law, the NSF Engines program aim to spur public-private partnerships to boost U.S. regions that have the potential to be globally competitive hubs for emerging technology industries.
NSF Engines provide up to $160 million over ten years to support place-based consortiums of a broad coalition of groups. Under the awards, universities and community colleges, businesses, state and local governments, economic development organizations, non-profit R&D institutes, labor unions, and other entities unite to accelerate economic development and spur job creation in regional innovation ecosystems by advancing a combination of R&D, technology development, and workforce development efforts.
With a footprint spanning thirty-three states from Alaska to Arkansas, the semifinalists for the second cohort NSF Engine award proposals emphasize projects that aim to grow industry clusters around a number of Trump administration tech priority areas ranging from boosting critical mineral mining to quantum information science to competing in the global race to lead in artificial intelligence.
“Each team was selected because it brought strong public and private partners to the table and outlined a promising vision for research, innovation and workforce development in their respective regions of service, thereby advancing U.S competitiveness, national security and economic growth,” said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF’s assistant director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, the agency’s tech arm created under the CHIPS Act.
The announcement comes as the first cohort of nine NSF Engines report early outcomes over the past two years of work including securing more than $1 billion in matching commitments to the $135 million in public funding the agency awarded to the teams. A key goal of the program is to attract non-governmental investment into technology-driven economic development from industry and philanthropic partners. A breakdown of the semifinalists, their locations, and technology focus areas can be found in the chart belo.
Regions Seek NSF Engines Funding as NSF’s Budget Hangs in the Balance
The announcement is welcome news among science and tech leaders who have worried that the signature program could be subject to funding cuts sought by the Trump administration. Although the CHIPS Act provided some of the initial funding, the program has not received the full appropriations to match the authorizations Congress set out in the bill.
In congressional budget processes, authorizations establish or modify government programs while appropriations provide the actual funding for those programs. Different congressional committees preside over appropriations and authorizations in the house and senate. Without increased appropriations for the Engines and the technology directorate at NSF, NSF Engines partners, current and future, may be at risk.
Since the Trump administration returned to power in January, the NSF has been subjugated to an intense round of layoffs, grant cancellations, and scrutiny from ex-Trump advisor Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative. The turmoil led to the early resignation of Trump-appointed NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan in April.
In May, the Trump administration proposed gutting the NSF with a 56% budget cut which led to outcry from a broad bipartisan coalition of economists, national security experts, universities, community colleges, science groups, and industry leaders who say that such cuts would undermine global competitiveness and domestic economic development by shortchanging STEM workforce training and research.
A recent report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation detailed some of the early outcomes of the NSF’s technology directorate presiding over NSF Engines and urged Congress to appropriate all of the $20 billion it was authorized under the CHIPS Act. To date, Congress has only provided a 2% appropriations of that amount.
NSF Engines Teams on Program’s Economic Impact
Congress is still weighing the final budget for the NSF, but house and senate appropriators are poised to maintain or cut the agency’s budget. NSF Engines semifinalists are holding out that the many hours of coalition building and proposal development pay dividends.
While many of the first NSF Engines cohort members were anchored in metro regions such as Tempe, Arizona and Orlando, Florida, the second cohort of applicants comprise many rural and rural-serving proposals which seek NSF Engines funding to help their regions benefit from the innovation economy.
Arjun Sanga, president of WiSys, a non-profit economic development organization based in Madison, Wisconsin, is a lead of one of the proposals selected as an NSF Engines semifinalists. Their NSF Engine proposal, Forward Agriculture, would position Wisconsin as a national leader in the circular bioeconomy with a focus on strengthening the state’s agricultural industry.
“We are the Dairy State, and agriculture is central to Wisconsin’s economy. We must innovate and find new areas to support the farming industry, to make sure the people who feed us can stay in business as there continues to be incredible pressure on farmers across the country,” Sanga shared in an email statement.
According to Sanga, what’s unique about the Engines program is its focus on long-term investments and its focus on public and private partnerships. He hopes his coalition could utilize technology to revitalize the local economy. “Agriculture is important to Wisconsin and accounts for 12% of the labor force but we are seeing 25% fewer small farms which impacts rural economies and jobs,” he told me.
“That’s not a statistic that unique to Wisconsin. Our initial estimates tell us that winning an Engine could have $60 million in impact in the first two years that will generate new jobs.”
Peter Dorhout, Vice President for Research at Iowa State University, holds a similar hope for his NSF Engine proposal, Rural STAMINA, is also focused on growing the bioeconomy in rural Iowa and Nebraska. He emphasized the connectivity of its proposal on both regional tech-based economic growth and contributing to national security priorities.
“The President’s recent National Farm Security Action Plan states that, the production of key agricultural inputs and materials’ is of vital importance, and reliance on other countries for inputs to give American consumers access to food and other valuable agricultural products is a national security concern,” Dorhout emphasized.
The Rural STAMINA Engine proposal aims to create an interconnected regional network of advanced biomanufacturing facilities and promote workforce training to address those concerns.
As congressional budget debates rages on, the Engines competition continue on for the foreseeable future. During the next stage, NSF will conduct additional assessments of the semifinalist teams to gain a better understanding of their regional coalitions, the alignment of their proposed leadership teams and partners, and their vision for tethering technology and talent development through the award.
While the total number of awards is contingent on final funding appropriations from Congress, the NSF anticipates announcing the final winners of NSF Engines awards in early 2026.
