PFE: Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (PFE: RIEF)
This grant supports engineering faculty with little research experience to begin studying how engineers are trained, aiming to expand the community researching professional formation in engineering.
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation
Due Dates: November 10, 2026 (Full proposal)
Funding Amounts: $200,000 award floor; maximum duration 24 months; $3 million estimated program funding
Summary: Supports engineering faculty new to education or social science research in studying the professional formation of engineers.
Key Information: At least one PI or co-PI must belong to an engineering department and have received no EEC engineering education or professional formation funding in the last three years.
Description
NSF’s Directorate for Engineering runs PFE: RIEF to support research on the professional formation of engineers and expand the community of engineering faculty conducting that research. The program helps faculty known for teaching, mentoring, or campus educational reform develop engineering education research expertise through mentored research. Professional formation encompasses formal and informal education, professional values and identity, and engineers’ ethical responsibility to sustain and grow the profession.
Projects may address a wide range of topics rather than a prescribed research theme. Areas of interest include holistic engineering formation, pathways into and through engineering, citizen engineering and credentialing, engineering-specific theories of formation, and how educational change spreads or scales. Projects should combine engineering approaches with learning and cognitive sciences, engineering education, social sciences, or related fields to support an innovative and inclusive engineering profession.
