Science (43.001)
Science (Assistance Listing 43.001) is run by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It awarded $4.8 billion in 10,293 grants from fiscal 2021 to 2025, about $463,619 per award on average. 12 funding opportunities are open or forecast now.
The typical award was $197,245. Half of the 10,292 awards fell between $87,638 and $439,218, and they ranged from $7 to $104 million.
- Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$4.8 billion
- Grant awards10,293
- Typical award$197,245
- Awarded in FY 2025$1.2 billion
- Size rank95 of 1824
- Type of assistanceCooperative agreements, cooperative agreements (discretionary grants), project grants, project grants (capacity building and complaint processing, training), project grants (cooperative agreements), project grants (discretionary), project grants (fellowships), project grants (for collaborative design of curriculum, production of, project grants (for specified projects), project grants (including individual awards), project grants (including travel grants), direct payments for specified use, direct payments for specified use (cooperative agreements), use of property, facilities, and equipment, training
Key findings
- Annual funding rose from $848 million in fiscal 2021 to $1.2 billion in fiscal 2025.
- It is the 95th largest of 1,824 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
- The 20 largest recipients received 46% of the money.
- Awards went to recipients in 52 states and territories.
What the program funds
NASA’s FY 2026 Annual Performance Plan and Evaluation Plan (APPEP) located at URL https://www.nasa.gov/ocfo/performance-report/ describes the Agency’s Performance Goals, including the underlying milestone targets, consistent with the FY 2025 Operating Plan and FY 2026 President’s Budget Request. As noted on page 2 of the APPEP, “NASA will develop a new mission statement and make more significant changes to its performance framework as part of the forthcoming 2026 NASA Strategic Plan.” Historically, The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) pursues NASA's strategic objectives, particularly Strategic Goal 1: “Expand Human Knowledge through new Scientific Discoveries”, using aircraft, balloon, and spaceflight programs to enable the execution of both remote-sensing and in-situ investigations. Investigations in Earth orbit, as well as to or even beyond objects in the Solar System, and through ground-based research activities that directly support these space missions. SMD also supports basic and applied research and technology in order to understand naturally occurring space and Earth phenomena, human-induced changes in the Earth system, and to develop Earth and space science-related technologies. In March 2022 NASA released a new Strategic Plan. Per that 2022 plan SMD’s Assistance Listing aligns to this Goal Statement: “NASA’s enduring purpose is scientific discovery and exploration for the benefit of the United States and all of humanity. NASA seeks to discover the secrets of the universe, search for life elsewhere, and protect and improve life on Earth and in space. Finding answers to these profound science questions requires support for national priorities in science and exploration, enhancing new opportunities for cross-disciplinary science, and expanding the societal benefits of our science programs. It also requires continued progress on the scientific priorities, including those identified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine through their decadal surveys.” SMD uses NASA's Strategic Goals and Objectives and the high-level objectives that flow from them as the performance component to its research grant program notices of funding opportunity. The high-level objectives are derived from “Decadal Surveys” created by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) every ten years and reviewed every five years. NASEM reports summarize the state of the performance for SMD’s science awards. Decadal Surveys inform the NASA’s strategic and SMD science plan and allow grant programs to be kept up to date rather than be completely reliant on agency produced program goals and objectives and performance measures. SMD’s research awardees individually set appropriate, NASA-relevant project level objectives, goals and measures.
Open opportunities
- ROSES25: A.15 Biosphere
- ROSES25: C.4 Planetary Science Enabling Facilities
- ROSES 2025: C.2 Solar System Science
- ROSES25: A.14 Atmosphere
- ROSES 2025: D.4 Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics Networks
- Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute Cooperative Agreement Notice-5 (SSERVI CAN-5)
- ROSES 2025: A.16 Cryosphere
- ROSES 2025: A.4 Rapid Response and Novel Research in Earth Science
- ROSES 2025: A.18 Geosphere
- ROSES 2025: A.17 Hydrosphere
- ROSES 2025: B.8 Heliophysics Spaceflight Science Foundations
- ROSES 2025: B.7 The Heliophysics Low-Cost Access to Space
Rules from the program listing
Who can apply
Categories of organizations that may be eligible for NASA grants and cooperative agreements include: • Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) – A two- or four-year university or college (including U.S. community colleges), public or private, accredited to confer degrees beyond that of the K-12 grade levels. 29 • Educational Institutions – Non-higher-education entities, such as K-12 education groups or institutions of informal education, are classified as Educational Institutions.2 • Non-profit Organization – An organization that: o Is operated primarily for scientific, engineering, educational, research, or similar purposes in the public interest; o Is not organized primarily for profit; o Uses net proceeds to maintain, improve, or expand the organization’s operations; and o Is not an IHE. Non-profit organizations generally exclude (i) colleges and universities; (ii) hospitals; and (iii) state, local, and Federally recognized Indian tribal governments. • For-profit Entity – An organization of any size that is organized primarily for profit. • Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) – FFRDCs are under a broad charter by a Government agency for performing, analyzing, or conducting research for the United States Government. NASA sponsors JPL as the Agency’s sole FFRDC, and JPL is not an eligible applicant to receive a NASA-funded grant or cooperative agreement as a recipient or subrecipient3 .
What the money can and cannot pay for
Assistance is for basic and applied research, Technology, Citizen Science, etc. in the area(s) of Astrophysics, Biological Sciences Earth Science, Heliophysics, Physical Sciences, and Planetary Science. SMD may establish additional uses in a particular notice of funding opportunity (NOFO). When SMD sets restrictions on how assistance may be used, such restrictions are based on appropriations and other legislation; the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and other regulations; or to address recommendations from the Government Accountability Office. The NOFO will list any specific restriction.;
Matching requirements
This program has no statutory formula. Most awards have no matching requirement. Specifics about cost sharing and matching resources are described in the NOFO.MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.
Deadlines
On an occasional basis SMD may use stand-alone cooperative agreement notices (CAN) for complex activities that involve the sustained participation by NASA personnel, facilities, etc. SMD releases stand-alone Cooperative Agreement Notices (CANs), NASA Research Announcements (NRA)s, or other NOFOs as needed. These are open for 60-to-90 days.
Award range and average, in the agency's words
Total individual award sizes will vary based on scope from a minimum of about $5,000 to multi-year awards in the tens of millions of dollars.
Examples of funded projects
Fiscal Year2025: The focus of the BioS-ENDURES Consortium is innovation, acceleration, and implementation of space biology specific knowledge and technology centered on human-plant-microbiome relationships to enable a durable human presence in low Earth orbit and beyond. Studying fundamental relationships between humans, plants, and their microbiomes under space flight conditions will reveal new biological mechanisms that will address needs for sustainability and risk mitigation in space exploration. A more thorough understanding is needed of mechanisms underlying responses to space-relevant stressors (ionizing radiation, microgravity, circadian disruption, abiotics, and biotics) to both humans and plant food sources and what role microbiomes may play in shaping those responses. Relationships between microorganisms and humans in isolated and constrained environments such as space habitats must be better understood to enable successful long-term habitation in space. Human/animal, plant, and microbial biologists will work together to ensure an integrated view of the space flight biosphere by enhancing data acquisition, modeling, and testing.Fiscal Year2026: SMD publishes selection abstracts on the internet associated with the awarding, individual Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), NASA Research Announcement (NRA) or Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN).
Funding history and past recipients
From fiscal 2021 to 2025, Science (43.001) awarded$4.8 billion across 10,293 grant awards, an average of $463,619 per award.
Who usually wins
Nonprofits received 49% of the money, state and local governments 28% and colleges and universities 15%.
| Recipient type | Awards | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonprofits | 4,356 | $2.3 billion | 49% |
| State and local governments | 3,126 | $1.4 billion | 28% |
| Colleges and universities | 2,008 | $723 million | 15% |
| Other | 362 | $149 million | 3.1% |
| Businesses | 196 | $134 million | 2.8% |
| Small businesses | 243 | $87.7 million | 1.8% |
| Tribal governments and organizations | 2 | $720,999 | less than 0.1% |
By state
Each state below has its own page for this program, with its recipients and yearly totals.
| State | Awards | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| California | 1,495 | $703 million |
| Maryland | 1,067 | $676 million |
| Colorado | 870 | $361 million |
| Massachusetts | 757 | $330 million |
| Arizona | 598 | $294 million |
| Texas | 586 | $269 million |
| New York | 524 | $201 million |
| District of Columbia | 280 | $174 million |
| Florida | 268 | $170 million |
| Alabama | 150 | $150 million |
| Virginia | 260 | $143 million |
| Hawaii | 134 | $104 million |
| Illinois | 191 | $100 million |
| Michigan | 343 | $98.7 million |
| Washington | 214 | $92.8 million |
| Pennsylvania | 224 | $76.1 million |
| New Hampshire | 139 | $64.3 million |
| Missouri | 106 | $60.4 million |
| Wisconsin | 167 | $59.8 million |
| Ohio | 119 | $51.2 million |
| New Jersey | 127 | $49.7 million |
| Georgia | 126 | $49.2 million |
| Indiana | 109 | $33.0 million |
| Utah | 85 | $32.8 million |
| North Carolina | 107 | $32.7 million |
| Alaska | 94 | $30.7 million |
| Oregon | 102 | $30.6 million |
| Minnesota | 80 | $30.1 million |
| Iowa | 85 | $28.2 million |
| New Mexico | 65 | $27.1 million |
| Maine | 40 | $24.1 million |
| Montana | 60 | $23.9 million |
| Rhode Island | 82 | $21.8 million |
| Delaware | 63 | $20.9 million |
| Oklahoma | 62 | $19.8 million |
| Connecticut | 75 | $16.6 million |
| South Carolina | 93 | $15.9 million |
| Louisiana | 43 | $15.7 million |
| Nevada | 52 | $15.5 million |
| Idaho | 52 | $14.5 million |
| Tennessee | 40 | $11.0 million |
| West Virginia | 25 | $7.1 million |
| Kansas | 23 | $6.3 million |
| Puerto Rico | 15 | $6.1 million |
| South Dakota | 11 | $4.8 million |
| Mississippi | 15 | $4.6 million |
| Wyoming | 14 | $4.3 million |
| Arkansas | 14 | $3.8 million |
| Kentucky | 15 | $3.4 million |
| North Dakota | 9 | $3.2 million |
| Nebraska | 7 | $2.9 million |
| Vermont | 6 | $1.5 million |