Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST)

The National Science Foundation administers the Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology program through the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM within the Directorate for STEM Education. CREST Center awards are intended to enhance the research capabilities of Minority-serving institutions by establishing centers that integrate research and education. The program seeks to develop new knowledge, increase faculty research productivity, expand participation of students historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and strengthen institutional capacity for nationally competitive research. Centers are expected to demonstrate leadership in broadening participation, use evidence-based and innovative recruitment, retention, mentoring, and workforce development strategies, and build sustainable research enterprises capable of attracting non-CREST support from federal, state, and private sources. Phase I and Phase II CREST Center awards provide multi-year support to institutions with a strong research base. Phase I awards support five years of research on a specific NSF-supported topic, while eligible institutions may pursue Phase II support in the same disciplinary area after Phase I or pursue a substantially different Phase I disciplinary area under the conditions stated in the solicitation. CREST Centers generally consist of three to five scientifically meritorious and interrelated research subprojects connected by a central research focus and common administrative core. Collaborative efforts involving entities such as industry, other research universities, federally funded laboratories, K-12 organizations, museums, science centers, and other research and development institutions are required. Partnership supplements are also available to current CREST Center awardees to establish or strengthen qualifying collaborations. CREST Center awards are for up to 60 months and may provide up to 1500000 annually, for a maximum of 7500000 over five years. The solicitation anticipates total program funding of 8000000 and approximately five awards, subject to the availability of funds and sufficient meritorious proposals. CREST Partnership Supplements may not exceed 100000 per supplement. External partner institutions must be included as subawardees rather than through separately submitted collaborative proposals. Funding for an individual subawardee institution is limited to 150000 per year, and total funding to all subawardee institutions cannot exceed 10 percent of the cumulative budget going to the primary institution. Financial support may be provided to student participants who are U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents. Voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited, so no matching contribution is required. Eligible applicants are Minority-serving institutions that offer graduate degrees in NSF STEM areas and have enrollments of at least 50 percent students, based on total enrollment, from minority groups underrepresented among holders of advanced science and engineering degrees. Institutions of higher education meeting the 50 percent enrollment criterion and primarily serving populations of students with disabilities are also invited to apply. The Principal Investigator must hold a full-time faculty appointment at the submitting institution. Only one preliminary proposal may be submitted by an eligible institution per due date, and an institution may have only one active CREST Center award at a time. An eligible individual may serve as PI or co-PI on only one CREST Center proposal at the time of submission. CREST Partnership Supplement requests are restricted to current CREST Center awardees. A preliminary proposal is mandatory for Phase I and Phase II CREST Centers and must be submitted through Research.gov. A full CREST Center proposal may be submitted only after NSF issues an invitation following review of a successful preliminary proposal. Preliminary proposals include a cover sheet, one-page project summary, an eight-page project description containing the prescribed research, education, broader impacts, collaboration, management, and evaluation sections, references, biographical sketches, identification of partner institutions and project personnel, and required institutional support and collaboration letters. Full proposals may be submitted through Research.gov or Grants.gov and contain expanded project and subproject materials, budgets and justification, facilities and resources information, biographical sketches, current and pending support, ethics and data management materials, applicable mentoring plans, required support and collaboration letters, and other specified supplementary documents. Evaluation plans must include appropriate benchmarks or outcomes, formative and summative elements, and independent evaluation expertise. NSF evaluates proposals using the National Science Board criteria of Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts together with CREST-specific review considerations. Reviewers consider the potential to advance knowledge and benefit society, the creativity and transformative potential of the work, the quality and rationale of the implementation and assessment plan, qualifications of the team, and adequacy of available resources. CREST-specific considerations include institutional need for CREST funding, potential for national research competitiveness, representation and career development of groups underrepresented in STEM, integration of education and research, institutional commitments, sustainability through non-CREST funding, quality of collaborations and partnerships, and, for Phase II proposals, progress achieved during Phase I. NSF states that it strives to inform applicants whether proposals are declined or recommended for funding within six months, although complex proposals may require additional processing time. The solicitation established preliminary proposal deadlines beginning December 1, 2023 and recurring on the first Friday in December every other year, supplement deadlines beginning December 1, 2023 and recurring on the first Friday in December annually, and invited full proposal deadlines beginning December 6, 2024 and recurring on the first Friday in December every other year. As of August 27, 2026, the NSF program page states that the program is not currently accepting proposals and is awaiting a new solicitation. Under the stated recurrence pattern, the next preliminary proposal date would be December 3, 2027, while the published recurring full proposal date is December 4, 2026 and remains invitation only. Because NSF currently identifies the solicitation as not accepting proposals, prospective applicants should treat the opportunity as awaiting its next solicitation rather than as an open competition. General program inquiries may be directed to crest@nsf.gov or 703-292-8634.

Demonstrate a clear integrated research and education vision and why Center-scale CREST support is necessary; show potential for national research competitiveness and sustainable non-CREST funding; establish measurable broadening participation and workforce outcomes; provide strong institutional commitments and appropriate collaborations; use a robust evaluation design with benchmarks and formative and summative measures; ensure strict compliance with page limits and required documents because noncompliant preliminary proposals or proposals missing required support and collaboration letters may be returned without review