Combustion, Fire, and Plasma Systems | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Combustion, Fire, and Plasma Systems program (Funding Opportunity Number PD 13-1407) funds fundamental research and education focused on the underlying science of combustion, fires, and plasma systems. The program is explicitly aimed at building basic knowledge rather than supporting near-term applied development. The idea is that stronger foundations in theory, measurement, and computation ultimately enable better real-world technologies for cleaner combustion, safer buildings and communities, and advanced manufacturing. NSF highlights broad societal benefits tied to this work, including cleaner local and global environments, improved public safety, stronger energy and homeland security, new or improved materials, and more efficient manufacturing processes.

A central theme of the program is the creation of broadly useful tools and insights that can transfer across many problem settings. That includes new experimental methods, advanced diagnostics, and computational approaches that help researchers understand complex reacting flows, fire growth and spread, and plasma-assisted processes. While plasma topics are included, NSF notes an important boundary: the plasma research supported here is generally the kind that enables applications in combustion or materials processing. Plasma areas such as atmospheric science plasmas or fusion-energy plasmas are typically supported through other NSF programs.

The program identifies several main research areas. In basic combustion science, NSF is interested in both laminar and turbulent combustion across gas, liquid, and solid fuels, and across different combustion modes including premixed, non-premixed, partially premixed, and homogeneous regimes. Work can span a wide range of temperatures, pressures, and length scales, with strong emphasis on developing models and diagnostic tools that improve predictive capability. In combustion science related to climate change, relevant topics include improving efficiency while reducing pollutants, advancing renewable fuel production and use, and exploring lower-carbon approaches such as oxy-fuel combustion for carbon sequestration and chemical looping combustion. In fire prevention, the program seeks improved scientific understanding of both building fires and wildland/forest fires, with the goal of preventing spread, inhibiting growth, and enabling suppression. In plasma systems, NSF is interested in plasma science that supports combustion, plasma science needed for industrial applications, and plasma processing science relevant to materials synthesis and nanomaterials.

NSF also spells out desired outcomes that proposals should connect to in a credible way, even though the research is fundamental. These outcomes include science and technology foundations for clean and efficient power generation (both stationary and mobile), combustion science that enables energy-efficient manufacturing, research that improves the efficient production and use of renewable "green" fuels, and research that supports cleaner environments through reduced combustion-generated pollutants such as greenhouse gases, NOx, and soot. Fire-related research is framed as directly contributing to public safety and homeland security by improving understanding of fire growth, inhibition, and suppression. Education and workforce development are also a priority, with emphasis on training researchers and engineers for power, transportation, and manufacturing sectors.

On award structure and typical funding levels, unsolicited awards are generally one to three years in duration, with an average annual award size of about $90,000. NSF cautions that proposals requesting substantially more than this average, without prior discussion with the Program Director, risk being returned without review. The program will also consider small equipment proposals under $100,000, but these must be submitted within the program's announced submission windows. Proposals submitted outside the specified window dates are returned without review, making timing a strict compliance point for applicants.

Even though NSF provides specific interest areas, it leaves room for genuinely innovative ideas that do not fit neatly into the listed topics. At the same time, the guidance is clear that investigators should contact the Program Director before submitting an off-topic or unusually budgeted proposal to reduce the risk of administrative return without review. As with many NSF programs in the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) cluster, proposals are expected to clearly state what is novel and potentially transformative relative to the state of the art, and to explain why the work matters to engineering science as well as what broader impacts could follow if the research succeeds. NSF expects the novelty or transformative aspect to be stated at minimum in the Project Summary.

The opportunity is a discretionary NSF grant program (CFDA 47.041) with no cost sharing requirement and eligibility listed as unrestricted (open broadly, subject to any clarifications in the full announcement). For the cycle described in the source text, NSF anticipated about 28 awards and an estimated total funding level of $5.1 million, with an award floor listed at $270,000 (consistent with multi-year awards at typical annual levels). The solicitation referenced submission windows running from January 15, 2013 to February 19, 2013 (by 5 p.m. local time of the proposer), with the posting date April 19, 2012 and an archive date of March 19, 2013.

NSF also points applicants to related mechanisms and expectations common across CBET. CAREER proposals are strongly encouraged for early-career faculty; these awards run for five years and follow the NSF Engineering CAREER deadline (typically in July). Proposals for conferences, workshops, and supplements are generally expected during the regular annual window and should be discussed with the Program Director ahead of time. NSF RAPID and EAGER mechanisms may be used when appropriate, but they require prior discussion with the Program Director before submission. Finally, NSF notes that funding decisions depend on more than reviewer scores alone, including portfolio balance across subfields, funds availability, overlap with other support, and broader NSF policies and priorities, which is a reminder that strong alignment with program scope and clear articulation of significance can matter as much as technical merit.

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