NSF Reveals Semifinalists for Regional ‘Engines’
Still image from an interactive map of semifinalists in NSF’s Regional Innovation Engine competition.
(NSF)
The National Science Foundation announced 34 semifinalists on June 14 in the first competition of its Regional Innovation Engines program, which aims to foster public-private collaborations in key technology and societal challenge areas concentrated in specific geographic regions.
Most of the semifinalist proposals relate to advanced manufacturing, sustainability and clean energy, or health and bioscience. There is also one semifinalist in each of the areas of quantum and microelectronics research.
From the semifinalists, the agency expects to select five proposals to receive “Engine” grants of up to $160 million over 10 years. The remaining semifinalists will be eligible for smaller grants of $1 million over two years to further develop their proposals.
The program awarded 44 of such grants this spring to applicants who did not compete for the larger grants.
