Perception, Action & Cognition
This program supports research on human perception, action, and cognition, especially in real-world settings, with societal benefits, but excludes primarily neural or animal studies.
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation
Due Dates: August 1, 2026 | August 3, 2026 | February 1, 2027
Funding Amounts: ~$7.3M total program funding annually; ~35 awards/year; typical project duration 1–5 years.
Summary: Supports research to advance understanding of human perception, action, and cognition using diverse empirical and theoretical approaches.
Description
The Perception, Action & Cognition (PAC) program funds empirically grounded, theoretically engaged, and methodologically sophisticated research on human perceptual, motor, and cognitive processes and their interactions. The program welcomes a wide range of perspectives and methodologies, including computational modeling when aimed at expanding explanatory theories of human perception, action, or cognition. Projects that examine human behavior in real-world scenarios and include diverse subject populations are especially encouraged. The PAC program expects supported research to clearly benefit society and is open to co-review with other NSF programs.
Note: Proposals focused primarily on neural structure/function mapping, clinical populations per se, or non-human animals without direct relevance to human perception, action, or cognition may be returned without review.
