North Carolina Space Grant’s FY2027/FY2028 Faculty Research Engagement Grant is now accepting proposals supporting faculty research that meaningfully engages students in the work. This award is aimed at both emerging and established researchers whose work is aligned to one or more of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Directorates: human space flight, research and technology, and science.

“We are excited to offer another year of funding that encourages faculty to build research that engages their students,” said Sandy Canfield, NC Space Grant assistant director. “These awards offer North Carolina faculty and students opportunities to do research that supports NASA related projects ranging from AI workforce development to the Artemis missions.”

NC Space Grant has research funds to consider proposals that align to NASA strategic priorities. Research focused examples include but are not limited to spacecraft mission planning; autonomous driving (e.g. Perseverance rover on Mars); autonomous technology sampling (e.g. Curiosity rover’s laser sampling efforts); data analytics and predictive modeling for space weather or other NASA applications; and the refinement of Large Language Models (LLMs) for astrophysics studies, etc. 

The Faculty Research Engagement Grant will be awarded for up to a 2-year (24 months) period of performance (POP) at a level of up to $40,000 per award (up to $20,000 per year). The full period of performance is June 1, 2027 – May 31, 2029. 

Proposal submissions are due Friday, December 11, 2026, 5:00 p.m., EST. Anticipated Award Announcement Date is April 1, 2027.

For detailed information about the proposal process and requirements, see the request for proposals.

For questions or information about this award, contact Sandy Canfield:

SC

Sandy Canfield

Assistant Director

(919) 515-5943 [email protected]