What this program funds
The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is NSF's most prestigious award for early-career faculty. It funds a five-year plan that integrates research and education — not a research project with an education paragraph bolted on. Reviewers look for a coherent career vision: how your research program and your teaching, mentoring, or outreach strengthen each other.
Eligibility in plain English
- You hold a tenure-track (or tenure-track-equivalent) position as an assistant professor (or equivalent) at a U.S. institution.
- You are untenured as of the deadline.
- You hold a doctoral degree in a field supported by NSF.
- You may submit up to three times across your career; you can hold only one CAREER award, ever.
- No postdocs, no research faculty in non-tenure-track lines (with narrow tenure-track-equivalent exceptions your sponsored-programs office can confirm).
What you'll need to submit
- Project Summary (1 page) — overview plus separate intellectual-merit and broader-impacts statements.
- Project Description (15 pages) — the integrated research and education plan, including how you'll assess the education component.
- Departmental Letter — from your chair, confirming your eligibility and the department's support for your career development. This letter is CAREER-specific and takes longer than people expect.
- Biographical Sketch (SciENcv format).
- Budget and Budget Justification — five years, at or above your directorate's minimum.
- Current and Pending Support, Facilities/Equipment, Data Management and Sharing Plan, and any directorate-specific supplements.
Tips for this mechanism
- Talk to the program officer months early. CAREER proposals go to a specific program; a short email with a one-page summary tells you whether your framing fits before you spend the summer writing.
- The education plan is scored, not skimmed. Weak proposals treat it as outreach garnish. Strong ones give it real assessment: what will you measure, and what does success look like in year five?
- Ask for the departmental letter first. It's the piece you don't control, and a generic letter reads as weak institutional support.
Related programs
- NSF Standard Grants in your disciplinary program (no career-stage limit)
- NSF CRII (CISE Research Initiation Initiative) for the first two years
- DOE Early Career Research Program, ONR/AFOSR/ARO Young Investigator Programs