NSF EPSCoR: Eligibility, Funding and Track-1

NSF EPSCoR is the National Science Foundation’s program for building research competitiveness in states and territories that have historically received less NSF research funding. Eligibility belongs to the jurisdiction, not to an individual researcher, and the largest funding line, the Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-1 program, is submitted once per jurisdiction under a cooperative agreement. This guide sets out who is eligible, what Track-1 required, and where an individual investigator fits. Everything below is as described on the official NSF pages, checked on 2026-10-29.

What NSF EPSCoR is and who runs it

EPSCoR stands for the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. NSF’s program page says its aim is to “enhance the research competitiveness of targeted jurisdictions” (states, territories and commonwealths) by building STEM capacity, and that NSF EPSCoR has served this community through investment across the STEM enterprise since 1979. The program is run from NSF’s Office of Integrative Activities in the Office of the Director, and the program page lists [email protected] as the contact.

NSF reports the scale of the 2020-2025 investment on the same page: roughly 25,000 individuals reached, including about 8,800 researchers (263 of them early-career) and 16,200 students; more than 12,200 K-12 teachers; 63 new patents; and more than $2.4 billion in additional research funding leveraged. These are NSF’s own reported figures, not independent measurements.

Eligibility: which jurisdictions qualify

Why eligibility is currently fixed

NSF’s eligibility page states that the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 “effectively freezes NSF EPSCoR jurisdiction eligibility through Fiscal Year (FY) 2027,” so no new jurisdictions will be considered eligible for EPSCoR funding through FY 2027. The page was published May 13, 2022 and last updated April 8, 2024.

The 28 eligible jurisdictions

NSF lists these 28 jurisdictions: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, US Virgin Islands, West Virginia and Wyoming.

How the underlying eligibility test works

The Track-1 solicitation (NSF 23-582) explains that EPSCoR eligibility is based on a jurisdiction’s most recent five-year history of total funds awarded by NSF, compared with NSF’s total research budget. The same document says only jurisdictions that meet the EPSCoR eligibility criteria may submit. NSF’s eligibility page lists the jurisdictions but does not state a threshold percentage.

What NSF EPSCoR funds

The Track-1 solicitation describes funding for research-driven improvements to a jurisdiction’s physical and cyber infrastructure and human capital, in topics chosen by the jurisdiction’s EPSCoR steering committee and aligned with its approved Science and Technology Plan (the S-and-T Plan). Its main terms were:

Instrument: a cooperative agreement.
Size and length: up to $20 million in total over exactly five years; the solicitation anticipated up to three awards, about $12 million in FY 2024.
Cost sharing: 20 percent of the NSF request, stated as an eligibility requirement rather than a review criterion.

NSF’s news release of May 8, 2023 announced six Track-1 awards of $20 million each over five years, to Iowa, Idaho, Montana, South Carolina, Vermont and West Virginia. NSF’s EPSCoR news items also record later awards, including $39.9 million across 16 jurisdictions announced on August 24, 2026.

Status note: NSF 23-582 is archived. Its page says the program will not fund new awards after the August 23, 2023 full proposal deadline. Read it as the documented template for how Track-1 worked, not as an open competition.

Application and compliance steps for Track-1

These steps come from the archived NSF 23-582 solicitation. They show what a jurisdiction had to have in place, and they are a useful checklist for how NSF structures jurisdiction-level proposals.

Confirm the jurisdiction is eligible. Only EPSCoR-eligible jurisdictions may submit, and there is one Track-1 proposal per jurisdiction.
Hold a current Science and Technology Plan. The plan must have been approved within the past five years; proposals without one were returned.
Name the project director and fiscal agent. The fiscal agent is the Project Director’s employer, and the Project Director must be the PI. An investigator could be PI or co-PI on only one Track-1 project.
Submit as a single proposal. The title had to begin “RII Track-1:”, the Project Description was limited to 35 pages, and separately submitted collaborative proposals were returned without review.
Attach the required supplements. These included participant and organization lists on EPSCoR templates, letters of collaboration, the Science and Technology Plan, a Data Management Plan, and a Postdoctoral Mentoring Plan if postdoctoral researchers are supported. An external evaluator was to be engaged as a consultant.
Prepare for review. NSF’s Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts criteria applied, together with a solicitation-specific criterion on Jurisdictional Impacts.

For the surrounding review machinery, see the CASRAI entries on the NSF merit review panel and on serving as an NSF panelist, and for the Broader Impacts side see NSF broadening participation.

Typical timeline phases

The solicitation describes the sequence rather than a fixed calendar: a letter of intent, then a full proposal, then NSF review, then a cooperative agreement that runs for exactly five years. Deadlines changed with each competition, so treat any date in an old solicitation as history. For a current schedule, use the solicitation or program page NSF lists for the competition you are targeting.

Where an individual researcher fits

Because the proposal is made by the jurisdiction and its topics are set by the EPSCoR steering committee under the Science and Technology Plan, an individual investigator engages through the jurisdiction’s EPSCoR project and its participant lists, not by submitting a standalone EPSCoR proposal. The program page links to jurisdiction websites for this purpose. Your institution’s office of sponsored programs is the usual first contact for checking how a project in your state connects to your own proposals. For individual-investigator NSF awards, see the NSF CAREER award.

Common mistakes

Treating the archived Track-1 solicitation as currently open.
Assuming a new state can become eligible before FY 2027; NSF says the list is frozen.
Planning a second Track-1 proposal for one jurisdiction, or listing an investigator as PI or co-PI on more than one Track-1 project.
Submitting collaborating institutions as separate proposals; the solicitation returned these without review.
Omitting a Science and Technology Plan approved within the past five years.
Treating 20 percent cost sharing as optional; the solicitation made it an eligibility requirement.

Related programs

Program or document	What NSF’s pages say
RII Track-1 (NSF 23-582)	Jurisdiction-level cooperative agreement, up to $20M over five years; archived, no new awards after the August 23, 2023 deadline.
EPSCoR Graduate Fellowship Program (EGFP)	Listed on the EPSCoR program page; solicitation NSF 24-588.
Dear Colleague Letter on planning grants	Listed on the EPSCoR program page; concerns planning grants for E-RISE and E-CORE.

Other NSF programs with their own CASRAI entries include the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, which is separate from EGFP, and NSF AI Institutes.

FAQ

Is my state eligible for NSF EPSCoR?

If it is on NSF’s list of 28 jurisdictions above, yes. NSF says no new jurisdictions will be considered eligible through FY 2027.

Can an individual researcher apply to EPSCoR?

The Track-1 proposal is submitted once per jurisdiction, with the Project Director as PI. Individuals take part through the jurisdiction’s project rather than a separate EPSCoR submission.

Does EPSCoR require cost sharing?

Track-1 in NSF 23-582 required cost sharing of 20 percent of the NSF request, as an eligibility requirement.

Is Track-1 still accepting proposals?

The NSF 23-582 solicitation is archived and says no new awards would be made after its August 23, 2023 full proposal deadline.

Sources

NSF, EPSCoR program page: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/epscor (checked 2026-10-29).
NSF, EPSCoR criteria for eligibility: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/epscor/criteria-eligibility (checked 2026-10-29).
NSF 23-582, RII Track-1 solicitation (archived): https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/rii-track-1-epscor-research-infrastructure-improvement-program-track-1/503429/nsf23-582/solicitation (checked 2026-10-29).
NSF news release, “NSF announces 6 new EPSCoR Track-1 awards to expand geography” (May 8, 2023): https://www.nsf.gov/news/nsf-announces-6-new-epscor-track-1-awards-expand-geography (checked 2026-10-29).

Related reading on other agencies: USDA NIFA AFRI program areas and submission.