NSF RET: Research Experiences for Teachers

NSF RET is the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Teachers in Engineering and Computer Science program. It pays university and college teams to host K-14 educators in authentic summer research, so teachers bring engineering and computing content back to their classrooms. This guide covers the program from the faculty and institution side: what NSF funds, who may submit, the Site and Supplement mechanisms, and the rules that are easy to miss. Everything below is as described on the official NSF pages on 2026-10-29; solicitations change, so check the current text before you plan a submission.

What it is and who runs it

RET “supports authentic summer research experiences for K-14 educators to foster long-term collaborations between universities, community colleges, school districts, and industry partners,” according to solicitation NSF 24-503. The exchange runs both ways: educators gain disciplinary knowledge and turn it into classroom activities, while host faculty learn about classroom practice. The Directorate for Engineering (ENG) leads the program in collaboration with the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (see NSF CISE).

The program page lists NSF 24-503 as the current solicitation (last updated 2026-10-06 on that page). The solicitation states that it replaces NSF 21-606 and is the current version. Two mechanisms exist: RET Sites and RET Supplements.

RET Site vs RET Supplement

Feature	RET Site	RET Supplement
What it is	A stand-alone proposal to host a cohort of educators	A request added to an active ENG or CISE award, or included in a new or renewal proposal
Participants	8-10 or more K-14 educators	Typically one or two K-14 STEM educators (centers may request more)
Duration	Up to 3 years; at least six weeks of summer research each year	One year
Funding limit	Up to $600,000 total, up to $200,000 per year	Up to $15,000 per participant
Anticipated awards	About 9 per year	Not stated as a count
Deadline	Annual full-proposal deadline (see timeline below)	None in the solicitation

NSF anticipates about $5.8 million per year across Sites and Supplements together.

For teachers vs for faculty

Teachers do not apply to NSF for an RET stipend. The solicitation is addressed to institutions: a funded Site recruits and selects its own educators, and each Site sets its own application process. Educators who want a placement should look for a funded RET Site; faculty and institutions are the ones who submit to NSF. Participants are described as teaching STEM or being “interested in strengthening computer science and/or engineering,” and they “should be able to commute to a given site easily each day” unless residency is justified.

Eligibility

Per the solicitation, RET Sites may be proposed by two- and four-year accredited institutions of higher education, including community colleges, with a campus in the United States. The Site PI must be a full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty member in an engineering or computer/information science department, with research and teaching (not administration) as primary responsibilities. There is no limit on the number of proposals per organization, but an individual may be PI or co-PI on no more than one Site proposal per annual deadline.

RET Supplements are for active ENG or CISE awardees (one supplement per existing award) or can be built into a new or renewal proposal. The official source is the NSF 24-503 solicitation.

What it funds or requires

Site budget rules

Total of up to $600,000 over up to three years, and no more than $200,000 in a single year.
Teacher stipend of up to $15,000 per teacher per year, which includes up to $2,000 for materials and supplies. The solicitation notes the maximum was raised from $10,000 to $15,000, so older university pages quoting $10,000 reflect earlier solicitations.
In-residency sites may request more per teacher for housing, provided the total stays within $200,000 per year.
External evaluator salary of $3,000 to $5,000 per year.
Travel for the annual PI meeting should be in the budget.
Voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited.
The Site title must begin with “RET Site:”.

Supplement budget rules

Teacher costs are entered as Participant Support Costs, with no indirect costs on them, up to $15,000 per participant. The request description may run up to three pages.

Content requirements

A Site Project Description may not exceed 15 pages and must have a separate “Broader Impacts” section. It must address: the research focus and a participant component; logistics and timeline across summer and the academic year; team experience, mentor training, a harassment policy and participant orientation; recruitment and selection; development of curricular modules; participant professional development; academic-year follow-up; evaluation and dissemination; and results of prior NSF support for renewals or recent RET hosts. Sites “cannot involve registration in courses either online or on-site.”

Application or compliance steps

Decide the mechanism. A new cohort program is a Site proposal; funding one or two educators on research you already have is a Supplement.
Confirm the PI. Check the tenure-line and department requirements and the one-Site-proposal-per-deadline limit.
Build the team. Senior personnel are one PI, up to three co-PIs, and others as Other Senior Personnel. Up to 12 biographical sketches are allowed.
Secure letters of collaboration from school or college leadership. “Letters of endorsement from individual teachers/community college faculty are not permitted.”
Write the Project Description to the items listed above, within 15 pages, with a Broader Impacts section.
Submit. Sites go in by the annual deadline. Supplements go through Research.gov or are embedded in a new or renewal proposal. For NSF’s general proposal rules, see the NSF PAPPG.

Proposals are reviewed on NSF’s two merit review criteria, Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts (see NSF merit review panel), with added emphasis on the value of the research experience for educators, the research environment, recruitment, curricular module strategy, academic-year follow-up, budget and evaluation, and, for renewals, the effectiveness of the prior Site.

Typical timeline phases

Proposal preparation. The program page states a recurring full-proposal deadline of the second Wednesday in October, annually, at 5 p.m. submitting organization’s local time; the next date shown on that page on 2026-10-29 was October 13, 2027. Treat the page as the authority for the current date.
Review and award. Merit review follows submission.
Recruitment and orientation. The Site recruits and selects educators and orients them, including training in responsible conduct of research and lab safety.
Summer research. At least six weeks of summer research.
Module development. Educators build classroom modules tied to their own curricula and to state or national standards; submission to Teach Engineering or other repositories is encouraged.
Academic-year follow-up. Research faculty or graduate students “should visit the classrooms of their K-14 educator participants,” and sites hold conferences or outreach during the school year.

Common mistakes

Budgeting teacher stipends from an older solicitation. The current ceiling is $15,000 per teacher including up to $2,000 for materials.
Designing the summer as a set of courses. Site programs cannot involve course registration.
Attaching letters of endorsement from individual teachers or community college faculty, which are not permitted.
Submitting more than one Site proposal as PI or co-PI at the same deadline.
Putting the PI role on a faculty member who is not tenure-line or whose primary duties are administrative.
Omitting the “RET Site:” title prefix.
Adding voluntary committed cost sharing, which is prohibited.
Skipping academic-year follow-up, which is a required Project Description item, not an extra.

The solicitation also states that NSF may, all else equal, prefer institutions with lower indirect cost rates under Executive Order 14332, and that DOE co-funding is possible for Site proposals relevant to DOE’s mission.

Related programs

Program	Participants supported	Mechanisms	CASRAI page
RET in Engineering and Computer Science (NSF 24-503)	K-14 educators	Sites and Supplements	This guide
REU, Sites and Supplements (NSF 23-601, as described on the official page on 2026-10-29)	Undergraduate students	Sites and Supplements	NSF REU