Funder: National Science Foundation
Due Dates: July 16, 2025 (CAREER) | Proposals accepted anytime (unsolicited, RAPID, EAGER, GOALI)
Funding Amounts: Typical awards: up to 3 years for unsolicited proposals; 5 years for CAREER; budgets usually support 1 grad student and 1 month PI time/year; larger budgets possible for multi-investigator projects.
Summary: Supports fundamental research in electrochemistry or photochemistry for scalable, sustainable energy and chemical production using environmentally benign and renewable processes.
Key Information: Proposals must comply with the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) or will be returned without review.
Description
The National Science Foundation's Electrochemical Systems program funds fundamental engineering research to enable innovative electrochemical or photochemical processes for the sustainable production of electricity, fuels, chemicals, and other products. The program emphasizes projects that are scalable, environmentally benign, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and utilize renewable resources.
Research should address fundamental phenomena that impact system or component-level performance, such as energy efficiency, product yield, and process intensification. Projects on energy storage should focus on fundamental barriers relevant to renewable electricity storage, transport propulsion, or climate change mitigation. Proposals involving energy storage materials must include testable hypotheses linking device or component performance to fundamental understanding of transport, kinetics, or thermodynamics. Advanced chemistries beyond lithium-ion are encouraged.
The program welcomes multidisciplinary and collaborative projects, including those with industrial partners (via GOALI), and those integrating experimental and theoretical approaches.
Topics of Interest
- Electrochemical energy storage and production/conversion systems
- High-energy and high-power density batteries for transportation and renewable energy storage (e.g., metal anodes, solid-state electrolytes, nonaqueous/aqueous systems beyond lithium, multivalent chemistries)
- Advanced fuel cell systems/components for transportation or grid storage
- Flow batteries for stationary storage (including alternative redox chemistries and operating strategies)
- Photocatalytic or photoelectrochemical processes for water splitting (hydrogen production) or CO₂ reduction to fuels
- Novel electrochemical/photochemical systems for chemical and high-value product synthesis, especially those improving process intensification and modularization
Projects focused on commercially available battery systems (e.g., lead-acid, nickel-metal hydride, or lithium-ion for consumer/medical devices) are not supported.
Proposals should clearly articulate the novelty, transformative potential, and societal/industrial impact of the research, and compare the proposed work to the current state of the art.
Due Dates
- Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) proposals: July 16, 2025 (estimated; typically mid-July each year)
- Unsolicited, RAPID, EAGER, and GOALI proposals: Accepted anytime
Funding Amount
- Unsolicited proposals: Up to 3 years duration
- CAREER awards: 5 years duration
- Typical single-investigator budgets: Support for one graduate student (or equivalent) and up to one month of PI time per year
- Multi-investigator projects: Larger budgets possible; discuss with Program Director if proposing a much larger budget
- Estimated total program funding: $13,096,000 (recent year)
Eligibility
- Open to U.S. institutions and researchers, including universities, colleges, and other eligible organizations
- No cost sharing or matching required
- Multidisciplinary and collaborative proposals (including with industry) are encouraged
- Proposals outside the listed topics may be considered, but PIs should contact the Program Director before submission
Application Process
- Proposals must be submitted in accordance with the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG)
- Non-compliant proposals will be returned without review
- For RAPID, EAGER, and GOALI proposals, discuss with the Program Director before submission
- Proposals for conferences, workshops, and supplements should also be discussed with the Program Director
- Submission is via NSF FastLane, Research.gov, or Grants.gov
Additional Information
- Proposals focused on electric-field driven separations (e.g., dielectrophoresis): submit to Interfacial Engineering (CBET 1417)
- Proposals on thermal management of energy storage: submit to Thermal Transport Processes (CBET 1406)
- Proposals on photovoltaic device/system performance: submit to Electronics, Photonics, and Magnetic Devices (ECCS 1517)
- PV materials science: consider Division of Materials Research
- Solar thermal energy generation: submit to Thermal Transport Processes (CBET 1406)
- View recently funded projects for budget and topic guidance
External Links
Contact Information