Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation for the Astronomical Sciences | 22 627

Opportunity Information: Apply for 22 627

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation for the Astronomical Sciences (ATI) program funds research and development projects that create new technologies and instruments for ground-based astronomy and astrophysics. It supports both single-investigator and collaborative team proposals, with the core aim of enabling future scientific discoveries by building the tools that make new kinds of observations possible. The program is aligned with the science priorities of NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences, meaning proposals should connect their technical goals to clear astronomical observing capabilities and the scientific questions those capabilities would unlock.

A key feature of ATI is its emphasis on innovation, including efforts that may carry substantial technical risk. The program explicitly seeks technologies and instruments that are potentially transformative, not just incremental improvements. In practice, that means ATI is interested in developments that could materially change what astronomers can measure from the ground, how efficiently they can do it, or what regimes of sensitivity, precision, wavelength coverage, temporal resolution, or calibration stability become achievable. The focus is on the technology and instrumentation itself, but the motivating science case matters because it demonstrates why the new capability is worth the investment and how it fits within the broader astronomical landscape.

The types of projects ATI supports span multiple stages of maturity. Fundable categories include advanced technology development (pushing a component, subsystem, or method toward practical readiness), concept feasibility studies (showing that an idea is viable through modeling, prototypes, lab demonstrations, or early engineering work), and specialized instrumentation that can enable observations that are difficult or impossible with current tools. Proposals can involve hardware development, software development, or a combination, and they can also include analysis work when it is necessary to validate performance, demonstrate feasibility, or enable the new observational method. The program is geared toward ground-based use, so the intended deployment environment is typically observatories and telescopes operating from Earth.

Another major expectation is that ATI-funded outcomes should be accessible to the US astronomical community. Community access is described as an important metric of success, which signals that NSF is not only looking for a successful internal build but also for a pathway by which others can benefit from the technology. That could be through broadly usable instrument designs, deployable systems at shared facilities, openly available software and pipelines, published performance results, documented calibration methods, or other mechanisms that allow the wider community to adopt, replicate, or use the capability. In addition, the program anticipates holding an annual Principal Investigators meeting to share progress and lessons learned across funded projects, helping disseminate results and encourage cross-fertilization between technology efforts.

From the opportunity details, ATI is a discretionary NSF grant program (Funding Opportunity Number 22 627) in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category, listed under CFDA 47.049. Eligibility is unrestricted, which generally indicates a broad set of applicant organizations may apply as long as they meet NSF requirements. The opportunity lists an original closing date of 2024-11-15. An award ceiling and expected number of awards are not specified in the provided data, so applicants would typically consult the full solicitation and program guidance for typical budget ranges, durations, and any current-year constraints or priorities.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation for the Astronomical Sciences" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.049.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-08-18.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-11-15. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

Apply for 22 627

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