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Grants / Department of Defense / Office of Naval Research

N00014-21-S-F007: FY2022 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) Program

Closed Closed March 11, 2022 Opportunity N00014-21-S-F007

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Department of War Multidisciplinary Research Program of the University Research Initiative (MURI) (N0001426SF002). Status: Closes April 9, 2027 (153 days left). It is in our archive of Office of Naval Research notices from 2021.

Office of Naval Research offered grants of up to $3.0 million to colleges and universities. It expected to make about 10 awards worth $24.0 million in total. Applications closed on March 11, 2022.

From the official notice on Grants.gov, last changed December 14, 2021. Checked November 7, 2026.

Key dates

PostedAugust 19, 2021
DeadlineMarch 11, 2022
Archived by Grants.govApril 10, 2022

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to colleges and universities.

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Is this a realistic fit?

What the grant funds

Before World War I, Dr. Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) was a professor and Dean of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and founded a large defense and electronics company. He was a forward-thinking policymaker who, during World War II, went on to serve as the director of the U.S. Defense Department’s Office of Scientific Research and Development, coordinating the work of thousands of scientists in the service of ending the war. In his 1945 report to the President of the United States, Science, “The Endless Frontier”, Bush called for an expansion of government support for science, and he pressed for the creation of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. Bush was concerned about how the scientific research supported by the Department of Defense (DoD) during WWII could be sustained with a focus on peacetime goals. He believed that basic research was “the pacemaker of technological progress”. “New products and new processes do not appear full-grown”, Bush wrote. “They are founded on new principles and new conceptions, which in turn are painstakingly developed by research in the purest realms of science”. Dr. Bush’s life work embodies the spirit of this research program, formerly known as the National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship (NSSEFF). Therefore, in his in his honor, the name was changed to the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) program (https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/955536/dod-debuts-vannevar-bush-faculty-fellowship). Please see full opportunity announcement attached for additional information and instructions.

Category: Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Who has won Basic and Applied Scientific Research grants before

From fiscal 2021 to 2025, Basic and Applied Scientific Research (12.300) awarded $4.1 billion across 6,165 grant awards, an average of $670,297 per award.

Largest recipients, fiscal 2021 to 2025
RecipientStateAwardsAmount
University of California San DiegoCalifornia172$191 million
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts155$153 million
University of WashingtonWashington166$123 million
Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionMassachusetts88$104 million
University of Connecticut Health CenterConnecticut50$96.4 million

Top states: California ($577 million), Massachusetts ($365 million), Florida ($187 million), Maryland ($185 million), Pennsylvania ($185 million).

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, N0001426SF002, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.

Questions people ask

Is N00014-21-S-F007 still open?

No. It closed on March 11, 2022. A newer notice is open: N0001426SF002, closes April 9, 2027 (153 days left).

Who can apply for FY2022 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) Program?

Office of Naval Research accepted applications from colleges and universities.

What is the deadline for FY2022 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF) Program?

Closed March 11, 2022. Applications are no longer accepted; the program's newer notices are on this page when there are any.

How much funding is available?

Awards of up to $3.0 million each. About $24.0 million in total across about 10 awards.

Who has won Basic and Applied Scientific Research grants before?

The largest recipients over five fiscal years were University of California San Diego, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Washington. The program made 6,165 awards worth $4.1 billion in that time.

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