National Science FoundationContracts, grants and other awards of this agency
- Awarding agency
- USAspending abbreviation NSF
The National Science Foundation obligated $6.0B to awards in FY2026.
The obligations since FY2023 are $33B.
That is under 1% of all award obligations on USAspending from FY2023 to FY2027.
Grants were the largest award type in FY2026, with 93% of the obligations.
The obligations in FY2027 to date are $0.
An outlay occurs when federal money is actually paid out, not just promised to be paid ("obligated").
Procurement data (such as for contracts and indefinite delivery vehicles (IDV)) for the Department of Defense (DOD) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) are published on a 90-day delay in the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS).
These are the words of USAspending. Sources: USAspending.gov, About the Data (PDF, last updated 19 November 2025) and USAspending.gov, Glossary. The site copied them on .
The amounts on this page are obligations. An obligation is a promise to pay. It is not a payment. Contract records of the Department of Defense come late, so a recent month can be low.
USAspending loaded the data on .
Obligations by award type and fiscal year
- Contracts $401M, 7%
- Grants $5.6B, 93%
| Fiscal year | Contracts | Grants | Direct payments | Loans (subsidy cost) | Other assistance | All awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2023 | $631M | $8.4B | $0 | $0 | $0 | $9.1B |
| FY2024 | $776M | $8.1B | $0 | $0 | $0 | $8.9B |
| FY2025 | $711M | $8.2B | $0 | $0 | $0 | $8.9B |
| FY2026 | $401M | $5.6B | $0 | $0 | $0 | $6.0B |
| FY2027 to date | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Where the awards go
| State | For each resident, each year | Obligations |
|---|---|---|
| California | $26 | $4.0B |
| New York | $29 | $2.3B |
| Massachusetts | $78 | $2.2B |
| Texas | $17 | $2.1B |
| Virginia | $56 | $2.0B |
| Colorado | $69 | $1.7B |
| Illinois | $29 | $1.5B |
| District of Columbia | $457 | $1.3B |
| Pennsylvania | $24 | $1.3B |
| Florida | $11 | $1.0B |
| Arizona | $33 | $1.0B |
| Michigan | $24 | $972M |
| North Carolina | $21 | $945M |
| Ohio | $18 | $874M |
| Georgia | $18 | $801M |
Recipients
$163M of the 60 largest entries went to recipients that the site does not show: records for many recipients together, and names of persons.
Industries, programs and competition
| Program | Obligations |
|---|---|
| 47.049 Mathematical and Physical Sciences | $6.7B |
| 47.076 STEM Education (formerly Education and Human Resources) | $5.5B |
| 47.050 Geosciences | $4.3B |
| 47.070 Computer and Information Science and Engineering | $4.2B |
| 47.074 Biological Sciences | $3.3B |
| 47.041 Engineering | $3.2B |
| 47.084 Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships | $2.2B |
| 47.083 Integrative Activities | $1.8B |
| 47.075 Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences | $844M |
| 47.078 Polar Programs | $464M |
| 47.079 International Science and Engineering | $312M |
| Extent competed | Obligations | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Full and open competition | $2.2B | 80% |
| Full and open competition after exclusion of sources | $235M | 9% |
| Not available for competition | $199M | 7% |
| Not competed under simplified acquisition procedures | $63M | 2% |
| Not competed | $35M | 1% |
| Competed under simplified acquisition procedures | $7.7M | under 1% |
Awards of $1 million or more
| Recipient | Type | Award value | Start date | Place | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | GrantProject Grant (B) | $31M | 6 Aug 2026 | MA | USAspending |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | GrantProject Grant (B) | $23M | 6 Aug 2026 | MA | USAspending |
| The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | $20M | 6 Aug 2026 | FL | USAspending |
| The Regents of the University of California | GrantProject Grant (B) | $15M | 6 Aug 2026 | CA | USAspending |
| New Tech Solutions, Inc. | ContractDelivery Order | $12M | 23 Jun 2026 | VA | USAspending |
| University of California, San Diego | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | $11M | 22 May 2026 | CA | USAspending |
| University of Alaska Fairbanks | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | $11M | 14 Jul 2026 | AK | USAspending |
| Carnegie-Mellon University | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | $10M | 31 May 2026 | PA | USAspending |
| University of California, San Diego | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | $10M | 31 May 2026 | CA | USAspending |
| Thornton Tomasetti, Inc. | ContractDelivery Order | $10.0M | 10 Sep 2026 | NM | USAspending |
| Recipient | Awards | Award value |
|---|---|---|
| University of Texas at Austin | 41 | $515M |
| Battelle Memorial Institute | 3 | $275M |
| Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | 23 | $228M |
| Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. | 4 | $206M |
| University of Illinois | 43 | $196M |
| California Institute of Technology | 19 | $192M |
| Earthscope Consortium Inc. | 9 | $186M |
| Florida State University | 9 | $179M |
| University of Washington | 48 | $162M |
| Arizona State University | 39 | $158M |
| Booz Allen Hamilton Inc | 1 | $149M |
| Georgia Tech Research Corp | 43 | $148M |
| The Regents of the University of Colorado | 47 | $145M |
| The University of Chicago | 31 | $141M |
| The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York | 36 | $134M |
Official records
- USAspending advanced searchUSAspending.gov. The search of all award records, with filters for recipient, agency, place and time period.
- USAspending recipient profilesUSAspending.gov. The list of all recipient profiles, with a search by name or UEI.
Each link opens a page of a federal agency in a new tab. The site examined the links on .
Cite this page
Fed Spend Map. "National Science Foundation: contracts, grants and recipients". Data: USAspending.gov, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, loaded .
https://fedspendmap.com/agency/national-science-foundation/
The address of this page is permanent.
Where the figures come from
USAspending.gov API v2: spending by category (awarding agency, sub-agency, recipient, NAICS, assistance listing) and spending by geography. The tables by recipient, state, industry and program have the closed fiscal years FY2022 to FY2025. USAspending loaded the data on 30 Sep 2026.
The figures count award obligations only. See how the atlas is made.
Questions
Which state has the most obligations of this agency?
In FY2022 to FY2025 the largest amount by place of performance was in California: $4.0B.
How much of the contract amount had competition?
89% of the $2.7B in contract obligations of FY2022 to FY2025 has the "extent competed" code A, D, F or CDO.
These codes of the Federal Procurement Data System show competition. The table on this page gives all codes, as the agency reported them.
Are outlays in these figures?
No. The figures are award obligations. USAspending shows budget authority and outlays in its agency profile.
The obligations of FY2026 on this page are $6.0B.