Official funding announcement — preliminary draft
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation
Opportunity number: 20-558
Official listed status: posted
Closing information: 2026-11-10 (official deadline clock time and time zone must be checked in NOFO)
Award disclosure: Applicant-level ceiling not stated in the retrieved federal synopsis; verify in full NOFO.
Applicant categories in federal synopsis: Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)
Federal synopsis
The PFE: Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (PFE: RIEF) program has two goals: 1) Support research in the Professional Formation of Engineers (PFE), and 2) Increase the community of researchers conducting PFE research. PIs are expected to have little or no experience conducting social science or education research. PFE: RIEF is not intended for established researchers in engineering education or other social science fields to initiate new projects. Those researchers should consider the Research in the Formation of Engineers program (https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/rfe-research-formation-engineers). The NSF Engineering (ENG) Directorate has launched a multi-year initiative, the Professional Formation of Engineers, to create and support an innovative and inclusive engineering profession for the 21st Century. Professional Formation of Engineers (PFE) refers to the formal and informal education and value systems by which people become engineers. It also includes the ethical responsibility of practicing engineers to sustain and grow the profession. The engineering profession must be responsive to national priorities, grand challenges, and dynamic workforce needs; it must be equally open and accessible to all Americans. Engineering faculty possess both deep technical expertise in their engineering discipline and the primary responsibility for the process of professional formation of future engineers. As such, engineering faculty are in a unique position to help address critical challenges in engineering formation. The Professional Formation of Engineers: Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (PFE: RIEF) program enables engineering faculty who are renowned for teaching, …
Draft intake record. Eligibility, program terms, current amendments and applicant ceiling must be independently verified before publishing.