The Research on Research Security Program (RoRS)

The Research on Research Security Program, or RoRS, is administered by the National Science Foundation through the Office of the Director and the Office of the Chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy. NSF describes securing the nation's research enterprise as part of its core mission. The program is informed by National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 and associated materials, research security provisions of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, a JASON study concerning the development of a research program on research security, and a 2024 NSF-funded workshop on the emerging discipline. RoRS is intended to advance scholarly, evidence-based understanding of the scope, potential, challenges, and nature of research on research security while helping establish a strong academic field focused on this subject. The program supports interdisciplinary, evidence-based research addressing research security risks, practices, and policies. Collectively, funded work is expected to build a broad community connecting the STEM research community, research security researchers, and research security practitioners. NSF encourages interdisciplinary approaches and expects proposers to explain how their teams will use relevant expertise, theories, and methods to conduct evidence-based research. Proposers are also encouraged to identify collaborators across a wide range of sectors and, when appropriate, consider collaboration with international partners that share U.S. concerns regarding research security. RoRS encourages Conferences and Workshops, Planning Grants, and Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research, or EAGER proposals. Potential topics include the nature and pervasiveness of research security threats; methods for identifying, preventing, and mitigating research security risks; methods for strengthening research security protocols and approaches; relationships between human behavior and research security policies; implications of research security policies; organizational change involving systemic and cultural factors; research security within particular fields or disciplines, especially high-risk areas; and international dimensions of research security. The program seeks projects that produce data, analysis, theory, and tools useful for current and future U.S. research security decision-making, use rigorous empirical methods, build on established methodologies from diverse fields, and develop innovative strategies for using previously unidentified, unconnected, or inaccessible data sources. The source does not state award minimums, maximums, total program funding, an anticipated number of awards, a cost-sharing requirement, or a defined period of performance. It also does not provide a program-specific list of eligible applicant organization types. Accordingly, applicants must consult the applicable NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide and the requirements associated with the specific proposal type they intend to submit. The program page does not identify state-specific or sub-state geographic restrictions and frames RoRS around the nation's research enterprise and U.S. research security. International collaboration may also be considered when appropriate with partners sharing U.S. research security concerns. Full proposals are accepted at any time, so the program is currently open on a rolling basis rather than operating under a stated final application deadline. Proposals should be submitted under PD 25-275Y. Proposals submitted through Research.gov must follow NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide proposal preparation requirements. Proposals submitted through Grants.gov must follow the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide, with additional information available through NSF guidance concerning Grants.gov proposal processing in Research.gov. No letter of intent, concept paper, pre-proposal, notice of intent, or other program-specific pre-application gating deadline is stated on the supplied program page. No program-specific award notification date or award start date is provided. Prospective principal investigators are strongly encouraged to review NSF Research Security resources and contact the cognizant RoRS program directors before submitting. Competitive project development should reflect the characteristics emphasized by NSF, including interdisciplinary expertise, rigorous empirical methods, useful data and analysis, methodological grounding in relevant fields, collaboration between research and research-security communities, and innovative approaches to obtaining and using data. General program inquiries may be sent to NSFRoRS@nsf.gov. The program page was originally published April 11, 2025 and was last updated September 1, 2026. Because full proposals are explicitly accepted at any time, there is no recurring annual or periodic deadline to calculate from the supplied information.

Use an interdisciplinary team and explain how its expertise, theories, and methods support evidence-based research; use rigorous empirical methods; build on established methodologies from diverse fields; pursue innovative strategies for previously unidentified, unconnected, or inaccessible data; consider cross-sector and appropriate international collaboration; review NSF Research Security resources and contact the cognizant RoRS program directors before submission.