Federal grant programs / Department of Energy

Office of Science Financial Assistance Program (81.049)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$7.7 billion
• Grant awards6,205
• Typical award$604,980
• Awarded in FY 2025$1.4 billion
• Size rank62 of 1824
• Type of assistanceProject grants (cooperative agreements)

Key findings

• Annual funding was roughly flat, $1.4 billion in fiscal 2021 and $1.4 billion in fiscal 2025.
• It is the 62nd largest of 1,824 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 41% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 53 states and territories.

What the program funds

SC is the Nation’s largest Federal sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences and the lead Federal agency supporting fundamental scientific research for our Nation’s energy future. SC is an established leader of the U.S. scientific discovery and innovation enterprise. Over the decades, SC investments and accomplishments in basic research and enabling research capabilities have provided the foundations for new technologies, businesses, and industries, making significant contributions to our nation’s economy, national security, and quality of life. Additional descriptions of recent science discoveries can be found at https://science.osti.gov/Science-Features/Science-Highlights. SC accomplishes its mission and advances national goals by supporting: - Science for energy, economic and national security?building a foundation of scientific and technical knowledge to spur discoveries and innovations for advancing the Department’s mission. SC supports a wide range of funding modalities from single principal investigators to large team-based activities to engage in fundamental research on energy production, conversion, storage, transmission, and use, and on our understanding of the earth systems. - The frontiers of science—exploring nature’s mysteries from the study of fundamental subatomic particles, atoms, and molecules that are the building blocks of the materials of our universe and everything in it to the DNA, proteins, and cells that are the building blocks of life. Each of the programs in SC supports research probing the most fundamental disciplinary questions. - The 21st Century tools of science—providing the nation’s researchers with 28 state-of-the-art national scientific user facilities, the most advanced tools of modern science, propelling the U.S. to the forefront of science, technology development, and deployment through innovation.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

• The Genesis Mission: Transforming Science and Energy with AI
  Open · Closes December 17, 2026 (47 days left) · up to $16.0 million
• Genesis Mission Graduate Fellowship Pilot
  Open · Closes January 12, 2027 (73 days left) · up to $20.0 million
• FY 2027 Continuation of Solicitation for the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program
  Open · Closes September 30, 2027 (334 days left) · up to $10.0 million

Rules from the program listing

Who can apply

Except where a program solicitation establishes more restrictive eligibility criteria, individuals and organizations in the following categories may submit proposals: Institutions of higher education; National Laboratories; Nonprofit and for-profit private entities; State and local governments; and consortia of entities described above.

What the money can and cannot pay for

See information at https://science.osti.gov/Science-Features/Science-Highlights for features about our research activities. A full listing of past and current awards is available at https://pamspublic.science.energy.gov/WebPAMSExternal/interface/awards/AwardSearchExternal.aspx Financial assistance, in whole and in part, may be provided for such purposes as salaries, materials and supplies, equipment, travel, publication costs, services, and other direct and indirect costs required for conducting research, research-related activities, and advanced technology projects or assessments described in the selected application. Restrictions on use of funds are specified in the governing federal and agency-specific financial assistance regulations and terms and conditions incorporated in individual financial assistance awards.;

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Award range and average, in the agency's words

$10,000 to $2,500,000; $250,000.

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

Colleges and universities received 69% of the money, small businesses 17% and businesses 6.5%.

By state

Each state below has its own page for this program, with its recipients and yearly totals.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.