NSF Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Oct-2026 11:17 ET (23-Oct-2026 15:17 GMT/UTC)

3-Aug-2026

 

Turning molecules into reliable electronic devices

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

MIT researchers developed a scalable fabrication platform for damage-free integration of molecular materials into nanoscale functional electronic devices, which could enable applications in emerging computing, sensing, and quantum technologies.

Journal

Nature Nanotechnology

Funder

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Semiconductor Research Corporation, MathWorks Fellowship, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research

3-Aug-2026

A public health challenge has led to a more efficient way to allocate all sorts of resources

North Carolina State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers have demonstrated a way to drastically reduce the computing power needed to run large-scale optimization models while still producing near-optimal results.

Journal

Sustainability Analytics and Modeling

3-Aug-2026

Researchers improve day-ahead solar forecasting for energy sector by up to 13%

North Carolina State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated techniques that can improve day-ahead solar forecasts by up to 13% over the most consistently performing individual model. The work also emphasizes the importance of taking regional variables into account when creating forecast models.

Journal

Journal of Cleaner Production

3-Aug-2026

 

Texas A&M to build first national self-driving laboratory for metals, open to researchers nationwide

Texas A&M University
Grant and Award Announcement

A six-year, $24.9 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) will establish the Autonomous Robotic Metallurgist Materials Innovation Platform (ARM-MIP) at Texas A&M University — a national user facility where robots and artificial intelligence take on the repetitive labor of alloy discovery, freeing scientists to focus on discovery itself. 

3-Aug-2026

 

Portland State biologist wins NSF CAREER Award to study the ocean's most abundant microbe

Portland State University
Grant and Award Announcement

Anne Thompson, an associate professor of biology, won a nearly $1.2 million NSF CAREER Award to answer a basic question about the ocean that science has largely left open: who eats the most abundant photosynthetic life form on Earth?

1-Aug-2026

 

Martian meteorite helps to bridge a 1.8-billion-year data gap in magmatic and volcanic activity on the Red Planet

Boston College
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Boston College scientists have determined a newly discovered meteorite from Mars is 1.27-billion years old and derived from a previously unsampled, pristine region of the Red Planet, the team reported recently in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Revealing the age of the meteorite, discovered in Algeria in 2019, adds a previously uncharacterized rock type within a 1.8-billion year data gap in the magmatic and volcanic history of Mars.

Journal

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

31-Jul-2026

 

Interactive modules make semiconductor physics click for engineering students

Kennesaw State University
Grant and Award Announcement

Researchers are studying whether interactive computer visualizations can improve students' understanding of complex semiconductor concepts. Many of the processes occur at the subatomic level and cannot be seen with the naked eye.

31-Jul-2026

How children talk can indicate risk for future mental health problems

Stanford University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A Stanford-led study showed that analyzing children’s speech could predict whether they developed mental health conditions, such as depression or anxiety, six years later.

Journal

Nature Mental Health

30-Jul-2026

A one-two punch: Using lipid nanoparticles to transform oral cancer treatment

University of Pennsylvania
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania has developed a platform that delivers a combination of cancer-fighting therapies to treat oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Journal

Advanced Materials

Funder

University of Pennsylvania, American Cancer Society

30-Jul-2026

 

FSU geologists discover North, South American mammals mingled before continental connection

Florida State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Florida State University researchers are part of an international team whose work reveals that North and South American mammals interacted before the Panamanian land bridge formed about 3 million years ago.

Journal

Science