PFE: Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (PFE: RIEF)

The National Science Foundation, through its Directorate for Engineering and Engineering Education and Centers, administers the PFE: Research Initiation in Engineering Formation program. The program supports the Professional Formation of Engineers initiative, which seeks to create and sustain an innovative and inclusive engineering profession. PFE: RIEF has two central goals: supporting research on the professional formation of engineers and increasing the community of researchers conducting this work. The program is specifically intended for engineering faculty with little or no experience conducting social science or education research. It is not intended to provide an additional funding channel for established engineering education, social science, or education researchers. PFE: RIEF supports a wide range of research topics concerning the formal and informal processes, experiences, knowledge, identities, values, and systems through which people become engineers. Potential research may address holistic engineering formation, pathways to and through engineering, citizen engineering, credentialing and expertise, engineering-specific theories of formation, and how changes in engineering formation processes travel, translate, transfer, diffuse, or scale. Projects should combine engineering approaches with learning and cognitive sciences, engineering education, social sciences, humanities, or related fields in synergistic ways. The program is designed both to produce research and to enable engineering faculty to develop expertise in engineering education research. The anticipated program funding amount is 3000000, with approximately 15 awards expected, subject to the availability of funds. Awards may be standard grants or continuing grants. The maximum award amount is 200000, and the maximum award duration is 24 months. Voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited, so applicants are not required or permitted to provide voluntary committed matching funds. Other budgetary limitations apply under the solicitation and applicable NSF policies. Engineering education research involving human subjects must receive approval from the proposer's Institutional Review Board before funds will be awarded. EEC also sponsors grantee meetings at which principal investigators are encouraged to present project results. Eligible submitting organizations are accredited two-year and four-year institutions of higher education, including community colleges, that have a campus located in the United States, as well as U.S. nonprofit, non-academic organizations associated with educational or research activities, including independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies, and similar organizations. At least one PI or co-PI must be a member of an engineering department and must not have received engineering education or professional formation funding through EEC during the previous three years. Faculty with active disciplinary research programs and faculty seeking to shift their research focus are especially encouraged. There are no restrictions on the number of proposals that may be submitted by an organization or by a PI or co-PI. Full proposals may be submitted through Research.gov or Grants.gov and must follow the applicable NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide or NSF Grants.gov Application Guide requirements. Collaborative proposals submitted as separate submissions from multiple organizations must use Research.gov. The proposal title must begin with Research Initiation:. In addition to applicable NSF proposal requirements, the Project Description must address the problem definition and research questions, detailed research design including sampling, data collection and analysis methods, formative and summative evaluation, a PI mentoring plan, and the PI's motivation and future plans. The mentoring plan must describe communication frequency and modality, topical areas for mentorship, and a method for monitoring the health and effectiveness of the mentoring relationship. Letters of intent and preliminary proposals are not required. Proposals are evaluated using NSF's Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts criteria as well as solicitation-specific criteria. Reviewers consider the extent to which a project will expand the community of engineering education researchers and examine the prior experience of the engineering faculty PI, who is expected to have little or no experience conducting education or social science research. Reviewers also evaluate the mentoring plan for clarity, practicality, mentor qualifications, and its ability to develop the PI's capacity for independent engineering education research. Proposals may undergo ad hoc review, panel review, or both. After an initial compliance check, proposals are reviewed by an NSF Program Officer and, in most cases, three or more external experts. The current full proposal deadline is November 10, 2026, at 5 p.m. submitter local time. The solicitation establishes the second Tuesday in November annually thereafter, making the opportunity recurring. No separate letter of intent, concept paper, preliminary proposal, or other pre-application gating deadline is required. Standard NSF reporting requirements apply to awards, including annual reports for multi-year grants, a final project report, and a project outcomes report. General program inquiries may be directed to Matthew A. Verleger at mverlege@nsf.gov or 703-292-2961. Research.gov technical assistance is available at 1-800-673-6188 and rgov@nsf.gov, while Grants.gov technical support is available at 1-800-518-4726 and support@grants.gov.

Emphasize how the project will expand the community of engineering education researchers and demonstrate that the engineering faculty PI has little or no prior education or social science research experience. Present a clear and practical mentoring plan with appropriately qualified mentors and explain how mentoring will develop the PI's capacity for independent engineering education research. Ground research questions in literature gaps and an appropriate theoretical framework, provide detailed sampling, data collection, and analysis methods, and connect project activities to future competitive research proposals.