NSF FuSe

The Future of Semiconductors (FuSe / FuSe2) initiative is a major competitive research program established by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) to accelerate breakthroughs in semiconductor hardware, processing, and system architectures. Framed against the national priorities articulated in the CHIPS and Science Act, the program addresses fundamental physical and technological limits as traditional semiconductor scaling reaches historical boundaries. In modern electrical engineering research, advancing past standard scaling laws requires simultaneous innovation across multiple interdependent technological tiers rather than isolated component improvements.

What It Is and Who Runs It

The Future of Semiconductors program is managed as a cross-directorate partnership within the U.S. National Science Foundation. The initiative coordinates resources and intellectual oversight across five primary NSF directorates:

• Directorate for Engineering (ENG): including the Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) and the Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS).
• Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE): including the Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF).
• Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS): including the Division of Materials Research (DMR).
• Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP): including the Division of Innovation and Technology Ecosystems (ITE).
• Directorate for STEM Education (EDU): guiding curriculum design, institutional capacity building, and experiential workforce training.

The program operates under competitive solicitations (initial FuSe under solicitation NSF 23-552 and FuSe2 under solicitation NSF 24-521). It explicitly requires collaborative teams to pursue “co-design”—the simultaneous, synergistic formulation of materials, physical devices, and computing architectures—to create compact, power-efficient, robust, and secure microelectronic technologies.

Eligibility

Eligibility requirements for FuSe program solicitations are governed by strict institutional and investigator criteria:

• Eligible Institutions: Proposals may be submitted by accredited two-year and four-year U.S. institutions of higher education (including community colleges and minority-serving institutions), non-profit non-academic research organizations (such as independent laboratories and professional societies), and federally recognized Tribal Nations. For-profit organizations and overseas branch campuses of U.S. institutions are not eligible to submit.
• Investigator Requirements: Each proposal requires a team structure with a minimum of one Principal Investigator (PI) and one co-Principal Investigator (co-PI). Any PI, co-PI, or senior personnel must hold either a tenured or tenure-track appointment, or a primary, full-time, paid research or teaching position at the submitting institution.
• Submission Limits: An investigator may serve as PI, co-PI, or senior personnel on only ONE proposal per competition cycle. Furthermore, investigators who served as PI or co-PI on an active grant under previous FuSe solicitations (such as NSF 23-552) are restricted from serving as PI or co-PI on subsequent rounds, though they may participate as unfunded senior personnel or collaborators.
• Collaborative Structure: If multiple organizations participate, proposals must be submitted as a single unified proposal with subawards administered by the lead organization. Multi-institution submissions formatted as independently submitted collaborative proposals are not accepted.

What It Funds or Requires

FuSe awards provide up to $2,000,000 in total direct and indirect costs for a performance period of up to three years. The total program funding allocation for FuSe2 is approximately $40,000,000, supporting an anticipated cohort of 15 to 20 multi-investigator teams. Research scopes must address at least one of three primary thematic areas and must span at least two levels of the technology stack:

1. Topic 1: Domain-Specific Computing: Tailored computing architectures, hardware accelerators, interconnects, and algorithm-hardware combinations designed for specialized computational paradigms and energy-constrained environments.
2. Topic 2: Heterogeneous Integration: Advanced functional integration, multichip packaging, chiplets, thermal dissipation strategies, and high-performance interconnects combining disparate material platforms.
3. Topic 3: New Materials for Energy-Efficient, High-Performance Systems: Novel semiconductor materials, two-dimensional structures, topological insulators, wide-bandgap compounds, and sustainable synthesis methods engineered for direct device translation.

Every proposal is required to embed a dedicated education and workforce development plan. Proposals must articulate how students, postdoctoral researchers, and technicians—particularly across diverse institutions and community colleges—will receive structured technical training and exposure to microelectronics design and fabrication.

Application or Compliance Steps

Preparing a competitive proposal for the FuSe program follows formal NSF procedures:

1. Assemble Cross-Disciplinary Leadership: Form an investigator team that spans at least two domains among materials chemistry/physics, device fabrication, and systems/software architecture. Confirm that no team member appears on another FuSe proposal in the same cycle.
2. Structure Collaborative Subawards: Establish subaward agreements and institutional commitments early, adhering to NSF collaborative proposal guidelines for single-submission projects.
3. Draft the Co-Design Narrative: Explicitly state in the Project Summary overview which technical topics are targeted and specify the exact levels of the technology stack integrated. Follow standard applying for an NSF grant requirements in Research.gov.
4. Integrate the Workforce Plan: Develop concrete curriculum modules, lab internships, or industry-mentored training pathways directly connected to the proposed experimental aims.
5. Verify Style and Citations: Format citations, bibliographies, and reference lists cleanly according to professional standards such as the IEEE reference format.
6. Institutional Review and Submission: Route all documents through the university sponsored programs office for compliance sign-off and submit electronically through Research.gov or Grants.gov prior to the solicitation deadline.

Typical Timeline Phases

As described on the official program pages, the lifecycle of a FuSe award progresses through predictable administrative and technical stages:

• Solicitation Release and Teaming Phase (Months 1–3): Program guidelines and priorities are published; universities assemble cross-departmental teams and formalize subaward budgets.
• Review and Panel Evaluation (Months 4–8): Interdisciplinary review panels convened by CISE, ENG, MPS, TIP, and EDU evaluate proposals against standard NSF merit review criteria (Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts) and solicitation-specific co-design criteria.
• Award Negotiation and Launch (Months 9–12): Selected institutions finalize subaward contracts and data management protocols; initial project funding commences.
• Execution and Annual Reporting (Years 1–3): Research teams execute experimental milestones, submit annual Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPR) detailing cross-layer co-design achievements, and implement educational modules.

Common Mistakes

Proposers encountering difficulty during FuSe review frequently exhibit one of several recurrent structural defects:

• Single-Layer Focus: Submitting a proposal that focuses exclusively on novel material discovery without meaningful co-design interactions with device engineers or computing architects.
• Superficial Workforce Plans: Treating the required education plan as generic outreach rather than integrating rigorous, hands-on microelectronics training into the research methodology.
• Improper Collaboration Format: Attempting to submit as separate collaborative proposals rather than a unified lead submission with formal subawards, resulting in return without review.
• Investigator Overcommitment: Listing a researcher who is already named on another FuSe proposal in the same review cycle, violating the strict limit of one proposal per investigator.

Related Programs

Program	Managing Agency / Directorate	Core Focus	Award Scale
Future of Semiconductors (FuSe / FuSe2)	NSF (ENG, CISE, MPS, TIP, EDU)	Holistic co-design across materials, devices, and architectures with workforce development	Up to $2,000,000 over 3 years
NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC)	NSF (MPS/DMR)	Long-term interdisciplinary materials research centers and shared facilities	Multi-million institutional center grants
NSF Engineering Research Centers (ERC)	NSF (ENG/EEC)	Convergent engineering systems, technology translation, and academic-industry consortia	Up to $26,000,000 over 5–10 years
CHIPS National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC)	U.S. Department of Commerce (NIST) / Natcast	National semiconductor prototyping, advanced packaging facilities, and industrial scale-up	Major federal consortium allocations

Frequently Asked Questions

What does co-design mean in the context of the NSF FuSe program?

In FuSe, co-design refers to the simultaneous and iterative design of materials, physical electronic devices, and computing architectures. Proposers cannot work sequentially or in isolation; materials synthesis must be informed by architectural needs, and circuit architectures must exploit unique material properties.

Can community colleges receive funding under NSF FuSe?

Yes. Accredited two-year colleges are explicitly eligible institutions and are strongly encouraged to participate, particularly through subawards focused on semiconductor technician training and workforce development pathways.

Are international collaborators permitted on FuSe projects?

Researchers from international institutions may participate as collaborators or senior personnel if they provide essential technical expertise, but they cannot receive direct financial support from NSF grant funds.

Sources

• National Science Foundation (NSF). Program Solicitation NSF 24-521: Future of Semiconductors (FuSe2). URL: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf24521. Read November 8, 2026.
• National Science Foundation (NSF). Funding Opportunity: Future of Semiconductors (FuSe2). URL: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/future-semiconductors-fuse2. Read November 8, 2026.