Training-based Workforce Development for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (CyberTraining)
🏛 U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)
✓ Free, no account · Source: Grants.gov · Last verified Jul 16, 2026
Can you apply?
This grant is for training and curriculum development in cyberinfrastructure (CI) for the scientific research community. Eligible applicants are academic institutions, research organizations, and organizations with expertise in advanced CI and at least one relevant science/engineering discipline. Proposals must include at least one PI/co-PI with OAC expertise and at least one with relevant domain expertise if targeting multiple disciplines. Projects range from two-year pilots ($300K) to four-year implementations ($1M).
NSF serves as the funding body. All proposed training, education, or curriculum must address clear community needs and be broadly available to researchers. International collaboration is permitted where relevant to cyberinfrastructure advancement.
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Program description
This program seeks to prepare, nurture, and grow the national scientific research workforce for creating, utilizing, and supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) to enable and potentially transform fundamental science and engineering (S&E) research and education and contribute to the Nation’s overall economic competitiveness and security. The goals of this solicitation are to (i) ensure broad adoption of CI tools, methods, and resources by the research community in order to catalyze major research advances and to enhance researchers’ abilities to lead the development of new CI, and (ii) integrate core literacy and discipline-appropriate advanced skills in advanced CI as well as computational and data-driven methods for advancing fundamental research, into the Nation’s undergraduate and graduate educational curriculum/instructional materials. Proposals responding to this solicitation may target one or both solicitation goals. For the purpose of this solicitation, advanced CI is broadly defined as the set of resources, tools, methods, and services for advanced computation, large-scale data handling and analytics, and networking and security for large-scale systems that collectively enable potentially transformative fundamental S&E research and education.
This solicitation calls for innovative, scalable training, education, and curriculum/instructional materials—targeting one or more of the solicitation goals—to address emerging needs and unresolved bottlenecks in the S&E research workforce development, from the postsecondary level to active researchers to CI professionals. The funded activities, spanning targeted, multidisciplinary communities, should lead to transformative changes in the state of research workforce preparedness for advanced CI-enabled research in the short- and long-term. This solicitation also seeks to broaden CI access and adoption by (i) increasing the adoption of advanced CI and computational and data-driven methods to a broader range of S&E disciplines and institutions and (ii) effectively utilizing individual capabilities. Proposals from, and in partnership with, the aforementioned communities are especially encouraged.
There are two project classes as defined below:
- Pilot Projects: up to $300,000 total budget with durations up to two years; and
- Implementation Projects: Small (with total budgets of up to $500,000) or Medium (with total budgets of up to $1,000,000) for durations of up to four years.
Section II. Program Description provides a more complete description of the project classes. Section V.A. Proposal Preparation Instructions describes the proposal elements required for the various project classes in order to address the suitable set of solicitation-specific review criteria.
The CyberTraining program is led by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC) in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and has participation from other NSF directorates/divisions, as described in Section II. Program Description, Programmatic Areas of Interest. Not all directorates/divisions are participating at the same level, and some have specific research and education priorities. The appropriate contact for the CyberTraining program in any directorate/division is the Cognizant Program Officer (PO) for the respective directorate/division/office/program listed below.
All projects are expected to clearly articulate how they will address important community needs and provide resources that will be widely available to and usable by the research community.Prospective principal investigators (PIs) are strongly encouraged to contact the Cognizant Program Officers in CISE/OAC and in the participating directorate/division relevant to the proposal to ascertain whether the focus and budget of their proposed activities are appropriate for this solicitation. Such consultations should be completed at least one month in advance of the submission deadline. PIs should include the names of the Cognizant Program Officers consulted in a Single Copy Document as described in Section V.A. Proposal Preparation Instructions. The intent of the CyberTraining program is to encourage collaboration between CI and S&E domain disciplines. (For this purpose, units of CISE other than OAC are considered domain disciplines.) To ensure relevance to community needs and to facilitate adoption, those proposals of interest to one or more domain divisions must include at least one PI/co-PI with expertise relevant to the targeted research discipline. All proposals shall include at least one PI/co-PI with expertise relevant to OAC.
Prospective PIs contemplating submissions that primarily target communities relevant to directorates/divisions that are not participating in this solicitation are directed to instead explore the education and workforce development programs of the respective directorates/divisions.
Who can apply
Eligible applicants
How to apply
Application links
Key dates & requirements
Required documents
- NSF Proposal Form (SF 424 R&R)
- Project Narrative (proposal text addressing review criteria)
- Budget and Budget Justification
- Curriculum/instructional materials (if applicable, as appendix)
- Letters of commitment from partner institutions
- Biographical sketches of all PIs and key personnel
Program contact
- 👤 U.S. National Science Foundation
- 📧 grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov
- 📞 703-292-4203
Funding track record
Recent awards under CFDA 47.075 from the last 3 years — real organizations that won funding through this same program.
Top 10 Largest Recent Awards
-
$38,357,018
-
$18,499,999
-
$13,999,656
-
$10,999,998
-
$8,043,354
-
$7,998,747
-
$5,500,000
-
$5,237,549
-
$5,200,000
-
$5,047,151
Top States by Funding
- MI 9 awards $94.1M
- DC 6 awards $20.0M
- AZ 7 awards $19.6M
- NY 9 awards $17.0M
- IL 4 awards $16.4M
Source: USAspending.gov — federal spending transparency. Data covers last 3 years.
Funding history
Annual funding for this program — Federal obligations (CFDA 47.075). How funding has trended year over year.
| 2024 | $292,390,000 | |
| 2025 | $219,410,000 | |
| 2026 est. | $92,200,000 |
FAQ
Who can serve as PI on this grant?
You need at least one PI/co-PI with expertise relevant to the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC). If your proposal targets other NSF research domains, add a PI/co-PI with expertise in that discipline.
What are the funding levels and project durations?
Pilot projects receive up to $300,000 for up to two years. Implementation projects are small (up to $500,000, four years) or medium (up to $1,000,000, four years).
What types of projects does this program fund?
Innovative training programs, curriculum development, and educational materials in advanced cyberinfrastructure. Projects should target researchers, students, or CI professionals.
Is cost-sharing required?
No cost-sharing is required for this grant.
Should I contact the program officer before applying?
Yes. Contact the OAC Cognizant Program Officer and relevant domain officers to confirm your proposal focus and budget fit. Do this at least one month before the deadline.
💡 Tips for applicants
- Contact the OAC Program Officer early. This is strongly encouraged and helps ensure your proposal aligns with current priorities and community needs.
- Clearly articulate the community need your training addresses. Reviewers want to see how your project will solve real workforce gaps in CI adoption.
- Plan for broad dissemination and adoption. Emphasize how your training materials, curriculum, or methods will be available and usable across institutions and disciplines.
- Include interdisciplinary partnerships. Proposals that bridge multiple science/engineering domains and include both CI and domain experts score higher.
- Address both short-term and long-term workforce impact. Show how your project builds CI workforce capacity now and transforms preparation for future researchers.
⚠️ Common mistakes
Proposals fail when they lack clear community need or adoption strategy. Insufficient detail on how training will be disseminated and sustained beyond the grant period causes rejections. Missing required PI expertise in both OAC and relevant research domain is a frequent eligibility problem.
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