What this program funds
The CISE Research Initiation Initiative (CRII) is a first-grant mechanism for new faculty in computer and information science and engineering. It funds a modest two-year project — realistically, one graduate student plus the PI's effort — so that researchers who don't yet have federal funding can generate the preliminary results and mentoring track record that larger proposals (especially CAREER) demand. It is deliberately small and deliberately early.
Eligibility in plain English
- Your research falls within the scope of NSF's CISE directorate (computing, information science, networking, and closely allied areas).
- You are in the first few years of your first long-term academic position — the solicitation defines the exact window, which has typically covered roughly the first two to three years.
- You have not yet received federal research funding as a PI (small seed, travel, or dissertation-stage support generally doesn't count, but the fine print matters).
- Your doctorate is recent — recent solicitations have set a limit of roughly five years.
- The eligibility windows here are precise and unforgiving — confirm with your sponsored-programs office and the current solicitation before you invest a summer in writing.
What you'll need to submit
- Project Summary (1 page) with separate intellectual-merit and broader-impacts statements.
- Project Description — a focused two-year research plan, including how the award establishes your independent research program.
- Biographical Sketch (SciENcv format) and Current and Pending Support.
- Budget and Budget Justification sized to the cap — typically one student, summer effort, and modest equipment or travel.
- Data Management and Sharing Plan and Facilities/Equipment.
- Any solicitation-specific eligibility documentation (e.g., start-date confirmation) the current solicitation calls for.
Tips for this mechanism
- Scope it like a two-year, one-student project. The most common failure mode is submitting a compressed CAREER proposal. Reviewers fund CRIIs that a new lab can actually finish; ambition shows in the question, not the task list.
- Demonstrate independence from your PhD and postdoc advisors. Panels read CRII proposals asking "is this the applicant's own line of work?" Say explicitly how this direction departs from your training.
- Treat CRII as the on-ramp to CAREER. Name the preliminary results this award will produce and what larger program they feed. That framing matches exactly what the mechanism exists to do.
- Check the eligibility clock before writing. Appointment dates, PhD dates, and prior-funding definitions each have precise cutoffs that have shifted between solicitations; a near-miss is an administrative rejection, not a review.
Related programs
- NSF CAREER (the natural next step, with a five-year integrated plan)
- Core CISE small-project programs in your research area (no career-stage limit)
- DARPA Young Faculty Award and service-branch Young Investigator Programs (ONR, AFOSR, ARO) for computing work with defense relevance