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Air Force Office of Scientific Research · Department of Defense

Air Force Fiscal Year 2027 Young Investigator Program (YIP)

Open · Opportunity FA955026S0003 · Assistance Listing 12.800

Key facts

Deadline
Due Dec 4, 2026 · 58 days left
Award size
$150K – $450K
Total available
$4.5M · about 50 awards
Cost share / match ?
Not required
Who can apply
Nonprofit with 501(c)(3), Private college or university, Public college or university, Larger business, Nonprofit without 501(c)(3)
Where
Anywhere in the U.S., including Tennessee

Before you apply: federal grants require an active SAM.gov registration (Unique Entity ID) and a Grants.gov account. Registration is free but can take weeks, so start now, not when the deadline is close. Grant-ready checklist

How this fits you

  • Available in Tennessee (nationwide program)
  • No cost share required
  • Tennessee recipients since 2023: 22

Tell us who you are to see whether you're eligible.

More from Air Force Office of Scientific Research

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About this grant

This is a special Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcement (NOFO) sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), which will hereafter generally be referred to as “we”, “us”, “our”, or “AFOSR.” The Fiscal Year 2027 Air Force Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) intends to support individual early career scientists and engineers who have received their Ph.D. or equivalent degrees by 01 April 2019 or later showing exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. The program objective is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering; enhance early career development of outstanding young investigators; and increase opportunities for the young investigators to recognize the Air Force and Space Force mission and related challenges in science and engineering. Individual awards are made to U.S. institutions of higher education, industrial laboratories, for- profit, or non-profit research organizations where the principal investigator (PI) is employed on a full-time basis and holds a regular, non-contractor position. A YIP PI must be a U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident. Researchers working at a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), or a Department of War (DoW) Laboratory are not eligible for this competition. YIP awards are funded up to $150,000 per year for three years, for a total of $450,000. No single year may exceed $150,000. Please review the remainder of this announcement for additional information. Under this competition, an anticipated thirty-seven (37) traditionally funded YIPs and three (3) YIPs funded in partnership with the Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS) in the Quantum Information Sciences research discipline may be awarded. There may be potential for an additional 37 YIPs funded from other AFOSR research funding. All actions are based on the availability of funds. Proposers are encouraged to confer with the designated AFOSR Program Officer(s) prior to submitting a full proposal. We will evaluate proposals using an internal review panel. AFOSR reserves the right to select and fund all, some, or none of the proposals from any of the topics below. AFOSR provides no funding for direct reimbursement of proposal development costs. Technical and budget proposals (or any other material) submitted in response to this NOFO will not be returned. It is the policy...

Who in Tennessee has won this program

22 awards to Tennessee recipients in 3 counties since federal FY2023. Largest shown:

Past Tennessee recipients
RecipientWhereAmountFY
University Of TennesseeTullahoma, Franklin County$17.9M2024
Vanderbilt UniversityNashville, Davidson County$5M2022
University Of TennesseeKnoxville, Knox County$2.2M2022
University Of TennesseeKnoxville, Knox County$2M2021
University Of TennesseeKnoxville, Knox County$980K2019
Vanderbilt UniversityNashville, Davidson County$897K2020
Vanderbilt UniversityNashville, Davidson County$731K2023
University Of TennesseeKnoxville, Knox County$601K2020
University Of TennesseeKnoxville, Knox County$541K2023
University Of TennesseeKnoxville, Knox County$450K2021
University Of TennesseeKnoxville, Knox County$447K2022
University Of TennesseeKnoxville, Knox County$435K2021

Source: USAspending.gov. Past awards show who this program funds; they don't guarantee future awards.

About the program (12.800)

Air Force Defense Research Sciences Program

How applications are judged

Awards decisions will be based on a competitive selection of proposals resulting from a peer and/or scientific review.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Examples of funded projects

Not Applicable.

Program listing on SAM.gov

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