Faculty Research Engagement Grant
Deadline
December 11, 2026
5:00 PM ET
Open to
Faculty members from all four-year accredited colleges and universities in the State of North Carolina, public or private.
Research Topic
Faculty research that meaningfully engages students in the work, aligned to one or more of NASA’s Directorates (with optional focus on Artificial Intelligence).
Application Resources
Overview
The North Carolina Space Grant (NC Space Grant) Faculty Research Engagement Grant (FREG) program is designed to provide support for 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.
Program Goals
The goals of the Faculty Research Engagement Grant are to support faculty research that:
- Has strong scientific and technical merit
- Aligns to one or more NASA Directorates
- Meaningfully engages undergraduate and/or graduate students in faculty-led research endeavors
Research Focus & Artificial Intelligence (AI)
NC Space Grant has research funds to consider proposals that align to NASA strategic priorities specifically related to developing a skilled workforce that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to meet NASA and industry needs in mission planning, human spaceflight, Artemis execution, among many other applications.
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
- Refinement of Large Language Models (LLMs) for astrophysics studies
Note: Submitted research proposals do not have to incorporate AI to be competitive for this funding opportunity, as NC Space Grant will support a breadth of NASA-relevant research.
Funding
NC Space Grant may award up to five (5) Faculty Research Engagement Grants subject to sufficient federal funding and the quality of the proposals received.
- Award Amount: Up to $40,000 per award (up to $20,000 per year).
- Period of Performance: June 1, 2027 – May 31, 2029 (24-month total period of performance).
- Year 1: June 1, 2027 – May 31, 2028 (up to $20,000)
- Year 2: June 1, 2028 – May 31, 2029 (up to $20,000)
- Cost Match Requirement: Non-federal matching funds are required and must equal at least 50 percent of the federal funding request (0.5:1 match ratio).
- Indirect Costs: Facilities and Administrative (F&A or overhead) costs are not allowed as direct charges. Unrecovered indirect costs may be included to satisfy the match requirement.
Requirements
This solicitation is open to faculty members from all four-year accredited colleges and universities in the State of North Carolina, public or private.
- Awardees must be qualified to serve as a principal investigator (PI) at their respective institution.
- Faculty members participating in Faculty Research Engagement Grants are not required to be U.S. citizens.
- All student(s) financially supported with award funds must be U.S. citizens. Students otherwise engaged in the work but who do not receive funding directly from this award are not required to be U.S. Citizens.
- Submission is limited to one proposal per PI. There can only be one PI per proposal.
- PIs may only receive 1 award during the entirety of the NASA base grant period (2025-2028).
Please review the full Request for Proposals (RFP) before submitting your application.
Contact
Please send any questions about this opportunity to:
