What This List Covers
NSF's remaining summer deadlines cluster tightly from July 21 through August 25. The Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) lands July 22 and comes once a year. Miss it and the next annual deadline is in 2027. This article is a deadline list, not an agency overview. For broader agency changes, see our NSF grants guide. Everything below answers the practical question: which posted dates are still ahead, and which date rules apply. This list was rechecked on July 15, 2026. NSF can revise or replace solicitations, so confirm the date and eligibility on the linked official page before committing staff time. Several dates are target dates rather than hard deadlines, and one prominent October deadline is available only to HBCUs that met the earlier letter-of-intent gate. Search current National Science Foundation opportunities
Late July 2026: Dates Still Ahead
Each entry links to the official posting. Award figures come from the posted solicitation where stated. July 21: CyberAICorps Scholarship for Service (CyberAI SFS). AI and cybersecurity workforce development. Scholarship Track proposals submitted after July 21 will not be accepted. July 21: EPSCoR E-CORE. Research infrastructure cores in EPSCoR-eligible jurisdictions. July 22: Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER). Integrated research and education awards for eligible early-career faculty. The deadline recurs annually on the fourth Wednesday of July. July 24: NSF Trailblazer Engineering Impact Award. Individual investigators proposing novel directions in fundamental or applied engineering research. One proposal per PI. July 27: SBIR/STTR Phase I, Phase II, and Fast-Track (NSF 26-510). Deep-technology R&D at U.S. small businesses. A companion scientific-instrumentation pilot has the same July 27 deadline. The next posted cycle is November 4, 2026. July 28: Integrated Data Systems & Services (IDSS). Operations-level national cyberinfrastructure for data-intensive and AI-driven science. The July 28 date applies to Category II submissions. What is no longer an open lead: the Archaeology Senior Research Awards date was July 1. The HBCU-EiR letter of intent was due July 9. The IUSE and Arctic dates are July 15, the date of this update, so they are deadline-day matters for teams already prepared, not credible new application opportunities.
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August 2026: Twelve Due Dates
August 4: Mathematical Sciences Infrastructure Program. Projects that support the mathematical sciences research community as a whole. Target date; it recurs the first Tuesday of February and August. August 7: CREST Research Infrastructure for Science and Engineering (CREST-RISE). Research capability building at minority-serving institutions that are emerging research institutions. Awards from $100,000 to $2 million; $6 million in total program funding. August 11: four programs share this deadline, the second Tuesday in August: Correctness for Scientific Computing Systems (CS2), a joint NSF and Department of Energy program on the correctness of scientific software. Research Training Groups in the Mathematical Sciences (RTG), training grants of $400,000 to $600,000, with $12 million in total program funding. EPSCoR E-RISE, research incubators in EPSCoR jurisdictions. Up to $31.5 million annually, supporting four-year awards with budgets up to $8 million. ECLIPSE, plasma science and engineering research. August 13: Scholarships in STEM Network (S-STEM-Net). Networks and hubs that connect S-STEM projects and disseminate what works in supporting low-income STEM students. August 17: three ocean sciences programs share a target date: Biological Oceanography, Chemical Oceanography, and Physical Oceanography. The next cycle is mid-February 2027. August 19: Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU). Sites and supplements that put undergraduates into active research. Awards from $5,000 to $500,000; $84.8 million in total program funding. August 25: Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. Recruiting and preparing STEM majors and professionals to teach K-12 mathematics and science. Awards from $100,000 to $3.25 million; $68 million in total program funding. Search open STEM education grants
Deadlines, Target Dates, and Letters of Intent
Three kinds of dates appear above, and they behave differently. Hard deadlines mean late proposals are not accepted. CAREER, CyberAI SFS, E-CORE, the SBIR/STTR solicitations, CS2, RTG, E-RISE, ECLIPSE, and REU use deadlines. NSF generally applies the submitting organization's local time, but the official solicitation controls. Target dates identify the current review cycle. The Mathematical Sciences Infrastructure Program and the three oceanography programs use target dates. A proposal received after a target date may be accepted for a later panel, but applicants should confirm that treatment with the program contact. Required letters of intent are gates. For HBCU-EiR, only institutions that filed the required July 9, 2026 letter may proceed to the October 20, 2026 full-proposal deadline. NSF's current page lists July 8, 2027 as the next letter-of-intent date. Always read the Due Dates section of the current solicitation. Do not rely on a recurring pattern when the official page has been revised.
Where to Focus
If you are an eligible early-career faculty member with an institution-ready package: CAREER is July 22. Confirm your internal research-office deadline before treating the federal date as your working date. If you are at an HBCU: teams that filed the July 9 letter can continue toward the October 20 full proposal. Teams that did not should plan for the next letter-of-intent date, July 8, 2027, rather than trying to enter the current cycle late. If you are in an EPSCoR jurisdiction: E-CORE on July 21 and E-RISE on August 11 are distinct infrastructure competitions. Read both scopes before choosing one. If you work on undergraduate STEM education: the July 15 IUSE date is now deadline-day only. The next dates in this list are S-STEM-Net on August 13, REU on August 19, and Noyce on August 25. If you run a small business: the posted SBIR/STTR deadline is July 27, with another posted date on November 4. Review the SBIR/STTR reauthorization status and the live solicitation before committing. If your field is AI or cybersecurity education: CyberAI SFS is July 21. At this distance from the deadline, it is an execution priority for prepared teams, not a realistic starting point for a new applicant.
If the Summer Dates Are Too Soon
Most of these programs recur on a fixed annual rhythm, stated in each solicitation: CAREER on the fourth Wednesday of July, IUSE on the third Wednesday of July, E-RISE on the second Tuesday of August, REU on the third Wednesday of August. SBIR/STTR returns November 4, 2026 and again March 4, 2027. The oceanography and mathematical sciences target dates cycle again in February 2027. NSF also runs many programs with no deadline at all. Standard research proposals in much of physics, chemistry, engineering, and ecology are accepted year-round, and the RAPID and EAGER mechanisms take submissions any time with program officer approval. The NSF grants guide covers those mechanisms and the agency's current review process. Search CAREER and early-career funding Search EPSCoR programs
Before You Submit
Four compliance items disqualify NSF proposals administratively, regardless of merit: 1. Research security training. All senior and key personnel must complete NSF's training modules before submission. Proposals without it are rejected unreviewed. 2. Active SAM.gov registration, not expiring mid-review. See the SAM.gov registration guide. 3. A current Research.gov account with institutional permissions in place. Most institutions also impose internal deadlines 5 to 10 business days ahead of NSF's. 4. A data management plan updated for the data-sharing-at-publication requirement that took effect with NSF 26-200. Then the single highest-value step: email the program officer listed in the solicitation before you write. Several NSF programs changed scope or schedule during the agency's 2025-2026 reorganization, and the posted solicitation does not always reflect the latest internal reality. Last: deadlines change. Before committing weeks of work, open the linked solicitation on nsf.gov and confirm the date yourself. If a date in this article and the nsf.gov page ever disagree, nsf.gov wins. Search all open National Science Foundation grants