Major Research Instrumentation Program | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) is a discretionary grant program designed to expand access to shared, high-end scientific and engineering instruments that support research and research training. The core idea is to strengthen the quality and reach of research and education by funding instrumentation that can be used broadly across a campus, among multiple departments, or even across multiple organizations. MRI emphasizes environments where research and learning are tightly connected, so the instrument is not just for producing results, but also for building hands-on, research-intensive training opportunities for students and other trainees.

MRI supports either the acquisition of a single major instrument or the development of a single major instrument. In cases where multiple components are requested, they must function together as one integrated research instrument, whether physical or virtual. The program is explicit about what it will not fund: it does not support buying a general suite of unrelated instruments to outfit a laboratory or facility, and it does not fund collections of equipment that would mainly enable separate, independent research efforts to run in parallel. A key expectation is that the instrument funded through MRI will be fully operational and available for regular research use by the end of the award period, underscoring that proposals should include realistic plans for implementation, installation, staffing, access, and user support.

A major theme in the solicitation is shared use. Proposals are encouraged to describe how the instrument will be managed as a shared resource and how it will benefit a broader community of users, either within the organization (intra-organizational) or across organizations (inter-organizational). MRI also welcomes instrument development efforts that leverage private-sector partnerships, particularly when those collaborations help build instrument development capacity within academic settings. In other words, NSF is not only interested in purchasing advanced equipment, but also in strengthening the ability of institutions to participate in or lead sophisticated instrument design and development efforts when appropriate.

In terms of funding levels, MRI generally accepts proposals requesting NSF support from $100,000 up to $4,000,000 for all eligible organizations. There is a limited exception allowing proposals under $100,000: those smaller requests are accepted for mathematics or for social, behavioral, and economic sciences from any eligible organization, and they are also accepted from non-Ph.D.-granting institutions for any NSF-supported discipline. The award ceiling for the program is $4,000,000, and the estimated total funding referenced in the opportunity is about $90,000,000, with an anticipated 175 awards.

Cost sharing is an important condition for certain applicants. Ph.D.-granting institutions of higher education and non-degree-granting organizations are required to provide cost sharing equal to 30 percent of the total project cost. Non-Ph.D.-granting institutions of higher education are exempt from this cost-sharing requirement. Because eligibility categories and definitions can be nuanced, the solicitation directs applicants to consult the full text for the precise organizational definitions used by MRI.

Administratively, this opportunity is run by the National Science Foundation and is listed under Funding Opportunity Number 11-503. It is categorized under science and technology and other research and development, and it aligns with a wide range of NSF disciplines, as reflected by the multiple CFDA numbers spanning engineering, mathematical and physical sciences, geosciences, computer and information science and engineering, biological sciences, social and behavioral sciences, education, polar programs, international science and engineering, cyberinfrastructure, and EPSCoR. The program historically uses a recurring deadline pattern, with full proposals due on the fourth Thursday in January each year (for example, January 27, 2011 and January 24, 2013 are listed in the notice). For detailed guidance on what constitutes an appropriate instrument request and how NSF interprets the program rules in practice, applicants are pointed to the MRI Frequently Asked Questions and the official solicitation (NSF Publication 11-503).

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