Opportunity Information: Apply for PD 18 7222
The National Science Foundation (NSF) opportunity called Crosscutting Activities in Materials Research (XC) is a Division of Materials Research (DMR) funding pathway meant to support efforts that cut across multiple materials-focused programs, or that are broadly important to the materials research and education community but do not fit neatly into a single DMR topical program. Rather than serving as a home for standard, single-topic research projects, XC functions more like a coordinating and enabling program that helps DMR (and sometimes other NSF units) support activities with broad reach, shared infrastructure, shared community value, or cross-program relevance. Proposals are accepted at any time, and the program is listed as a discretionary grant opportunity under CFDA 47.049 with unrestricted eligibility, subject to any specifics described in the solicitation text.
The central emphasis areas for XC are diversity and inclusion, international cooperation (in limited and specific ways), and education, including hands-on experiential learning through Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Sites. In practice, XC is a place to propose activities that build capacity in the community, widen participation in materials research and training, and create learning environments or community structures that benefit more than one narrow subfield. The program also supports community-wide engagement activities such as summer schools, institutes, workshops, and conferences, especially when the topic spans several DMR programs or does not align cleanly with only one or two existing programs. If the request is for a conference or workshop, applicants are expected to follow NSF's Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) rules for conference proposals.
A key point is that XC is not intended for traditional research proposals that could be submitted to established DMR disciplinary or topical programs. Instead, it supports crosscutting and community-facing projects, and it sometimes becomes the administrative or co-funding home for projects that naturally span several DMR programs. In those cases, proposals might be shifted into XC or supported jointly, with an added goal of improving visibility of these crosscutting investments through DMR's XC website. Because fit can be nuanced, the XC team encourages early communication before submission, ideally including a one-page NSF-style project summary (or even a shorter concept write-up). They strongly recommend contacting an XC Program Director before submitting any full proposal with a budget over $50,000, which signals that program staff want to help ensure the idea is appropriately scoped and routed before a full application is built.
Within the diversity and inclusion emphasis, XC supports activities designed to broaden participation in materials research by underrepresented groups and to strengthen inclusion more broadly. This can include programs, training structures, community-building efforts, and other scalable models that improve access and success in materials education and research pathways. However, it is important to distinguish between new standalone projects and supplements: certain supplement mechanisms (such as CLB, AGEP-GRS, MPS-GRSV, and Research Opportunity Awards) are not handled by XC directly and instead are managed by the Program Director overseeing the original award. XC does, however, explicitly support Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities, following the relevant PAPPG guidance, which makes it a recognizable entry point for proposals focused on enabling access and participation for researchers with disabilities.
The international component is narrower than it might sound at first glance. The solicitation notes a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) issued in 2016 concerning collaborative projects with Israel through the Binational Science Foundation (BSF); that DCL remains active until it is archived. At the same time, XC specifies that full proposals with an international component should generally be submitted to the appropriate disciplinary programs rather than to XC itself, and that international supplements are handled by the Program Director of the original award. The opportunity also clarifies what is no longer supported: older international-focused programs such as International Materials Institutes (IMI) and the Materials World Network (MWN) were discontinued and are not currently supported through XC.
On the education side, XC is interested in creative, forward-looking materials education concepts that do not have a clear home elsewhere at NSF. The scope is broad and can include materials science and engineering, solid state and materials chemistry, condensed matter physics, integrated computational materials science and engineering, and materials data science or analytics. Beyond university-level efforts, XC explicitly encourages outreach and education proposals that serve underserved populations, including K-12 students in rural communities, and projects designed to improve public scientific literacy. This framing signals that XC values education efforts that are both substantively grounded in materials content and intentionally designed for scale, access, and broader societal benefit.
Finally, XC plays a coordinating role for REU and RET Sites within DMR. While XC coordinates these site activities, applicants must still follow the separate REU Site Solicitation for deadlines and program requirements. As with other supplements, REU/RET supplements attached to existing research awards are not managed by XC; they are handled by the Program Director responsible for the original research award. The solicitation also provides a direct contact point for REU/RET within DMR (reu.dmr@nsf.gov), reinforcing that this is a structured, ongoing portfolio rather than a one-off funding call.
Overall, XC is best understood as DMR's mechanism for high-leverage, community-oriented, cross-program activities that strengthen the materials ecosystem through inclusion, training, education, and convening, while also helping NSF coordinate efforts that span boundaries between subfields and sometimes between NSF units. It replaced the former Office of Special Programs in Materials Research (OSP) in 2016, reflecting a continued commitment to supporting the kinds of activities that make materials research communities more connected, more accessible, and better equipped to educate and collaborate at scale.Apply for PD 18 7222
- The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Crosscutting Activities in Materials Research" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.049.
- This funding opportunity was created on Sep 08, 2018.
- Applicants must submit their applications by Proposals accepted anytime. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
- The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 100 candidate(s).
- Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.
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