Major Research Instrumentation Program | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program is designed to expand access to shared, state of the art scientific and engineering instruments that are used for both research and research training. Its central purpose is to strengthen the quality of research and broaden the range of projects that institutions can pursue by funding instrumentation that would otherwise be out of reach because it is too expensive or not a good fit for support through other NSF programs. A defining feature of MRI is the emphasis on shared use: the instruments funded are meant to serve multiple investigators, research groups, departments, and in some cases multiple organizations, helping create research intensive environments where education and hands on training are closely integrated with active research.

MRI supports two main types of projects: acquisition and development. Acquisition proposals focus on purchasing a single major instrument or an integrated system of related instruments with a common research purpose. Development proposals focus on building, substantially upgrading, or creating new instrumentation capabilities, including efforts that increase an institution's long term capacity to design and develop instruments. The program explicitly encourages collaborations that involve shared inter-organization or intra-organization use, and it also encourages leveraging private sector strengths, for example by partnering with companies that can contribute technical expertise or help institutions build instrument development capability. Regardless of whether the project is for acquisition or development, MRI expects the instrument to be fully operational for regular research use by the end of the award period, underscoring that funds are intended to result in usable, deployed research infrastructure rather than indefinite or open ended prototyping.

This specific opportunity reflects a special competition associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (often referred to as ARRA), which NSF ran separately from the regular MRI competition. One reason highlighted for the expansion was a National Academies recommendation that NSF broaden support for "mid scale" instrumentation, particularly instruments with capital costs above $2 million that are still not appropriate for NSF's Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction account. Under this MRI R2 competition, NSF accepted proposals for instrument development or for acquisition of a single instrument or a related instrument system with a defined, common research focus. Funding request ranges depended on institutional category and disciplinary area: Ph.D. granting institutions of higher education and non degree granting organizations could request between $100,000 and $6,000,000, while non Ph.D. granting institutions of higher education could request up to $6,000,000 with no minimum request. The solicitation also notes special coverage for the mathematical sciences and for the social, behavioral, and economic sciences, indicating eligibility for proposals in those areas at any eligible organization under the stated limits.

In terms of scale and basic award mechanics, the opportunity was a discretionary NSF grant program in the science and technology and other research and development category. NSF anticipated roughly 400 awards, with an estimated total funding amount of $200,000,000 and an award ceiling of $6,000,000. Cost sharing or matching was required, meaning applicants were expected to contribute a portion of the total project cost from non NSF sources, consistent with MRI's typical structure for ensuring institutional commitment and long term sustainability of shared instrumentation.

Eligibility was limited to specific organization types grouped into three categories: Ph.D. granting institutions of higher education, non Ph.D. granting institutions of higher education, and non degree granting organizations (such as certain museums, science centers, and not for profit research organizations, as described in the broader MRI framework). Organizations outside these categories were not eligible to submit. The notice also included ARRA related restrictions, including that ARRA funds could not be used by any state or local government or private entity for certain types of facilities (for example casinos or other gambling establishments, aquariums, zoos, golf courses, or swimming pools), and it indicated that the full solicitation should be consulted for complete restrictions and details that did not fit into the summary field.

Key dates and administrative details reflect that this was a time bound, archived opportunity. The funding opportunity number was 09-561, posted May 11, 2009, with a full proposal deadline of August 10, 2009, and an archive date of March 5, 2010. The program was administered by the National Science Foundation, and applicants were directed to NSF Publication 09-561 for the complete solicitation and to NSF's Grants.gov support contact for technical access issues.

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