Website Nations Science Foundation (NSF)
The NQNI program will support open-access user facilities called NQNI Sites. NQNI Sites will be distributed across the U.S. to create a shared national resource for the research and business communities. Each Site will serve regional communities, with a focus on community members that lack access to advanced micro- and nano-fabrication and characterization equipment, training, and expertise.
The Sites should aim to provide access to users from local and regional institutions, industry, and government who are not themselves formally part of the NQNI Site (“external users”). Potential external users could be from other academic institutions as well as startups, small and large businesses, and government. To advance the open-access mission, external academic user fees at Sites must be identical to internal academic fees. Similarly, Sites should explore ways to reduce barriers to entry for industrial and small business/startup users. Submitting teams are asked to describe plans to reach untapped populations and bring benefits to a wide range of communities.
NQNI awards will primarily support personnel to run activities to recruit and train new external users to access tools and expertise at Sites. While access to computational resources and remote use of tools can be incorporated, Sites should prioritize hands-on experiences for external users. Additionally, education, training, workforce development, and outreach efforts are expected. Funds may be used for activities related to the creation of educational materials, student researchers, postdoc training exchanges, and such.
Proposals should advance one or more of the following measures of success:
- Publications from research
- Data sets established or expanded
- New technologies or techniques established
- Undergraduate and graduate students trained in a specific critical area
- Research facility usage
Technical Capabilities
NQNI Sites could enable promising research directions such as: new system design and materials for energy conversion, harvesting and storage, dissipation of heat, precision sensing, and local actuation; bio-inspired, self-healing materials; structures and devices supporting research in the life sciences and biomedical applications; study of nanotoxicity; sensors for environmental science and monitoring; sensors for imaging and recording of chemical, physiological, neurobiological, and biochemical processes; energy-efficient devices and circuits for communication, storage, and processing of information including AI hardware; and devices and circuits for new information processing such as neuromorphic computing, quantum computing, and optical/photonic computing.
Considerations for Individual Site Proposals
NQNI Sites should have strong underlying internal research programs that provide a critical knowledge base to develop new processes, methods, and instruments; they should demonstrate how these resources will be used to support training and development of new users. They should have a plan for supporting technical staff with the expertise to enable external users to plan and carry out experiments, and to instruct in laboratory safety, methods, and usage.
Sites must embrace a culture of open access, with protection of intellectual property, to researchers for any research project of merit. They also must embrace mechanisms that encourage non-traditional users from a broad range of disciplines and communities. They should have an organizational structure that allows coordination of complex process steps and tools for integrated tasks. They should also accept experimental risks associated with non-standard processes and materials.
Regional Connections and Partnerships
NQNI Sites are expected to be leaders in their regions, helping to create, grow, and lead open laboratory networks. They should show how they will complement and connect to other resources in the region. Sites may partner with facilities at regional or smaller institutions to bring new capabilities to users and enhance student research and postdoc training. Sites are encouraged to create partnerships that leverage investments between universities, non-profit organizations, industry associations, and government user facilities.
Proposals should clearly describe how these partnerships will expand available resources for users. Proposals should justify how coordination within the NQNI Site, with partners (both funded and unfunded), and with the broader community would stimulate research, education, training, workforce development, and outreach activities beyond what could accomplished without NQNI funding. Partnering with Federal, state and local organizations and with industry can help grow the national workforce and ensure that education and training meet the needs of industry and small businesses.
UCI Internal Competition Guidelines
The DOE has provided institutions will a very small window by which to select its authorized team and to have that team submit the required Letter of Intent.
UCI may submit only one LOI; therefore, interested applicants should submit (via the UCI Review application system) the following by Wednesday, March 4th:
- One-page project description that outlines the proposed vision and goals for the center, and the center’s key components and main activities. Please note that there will be a number of research teams competing to be selected to apply to the NQNI program, so please make a strong argument for the significance of the center and how it will encourage open access and innovative research and activities.
- A list of the PI and Co-PIs and Senior/Key Personnel. Please provide the faculty rank of all identified members, and the position title of those in industry or in sectors outside of academia.
An ad hoc committee will then be convened to review the internal one-pages, and the selected team will be notified during the last half of the week of March 9, 2026, which will give candidates approximately 5 days to submit an LOI to NSF. However, please note that the information provided in the internal one-pager will be nearly identical to the information that needs to be provided in the LOI to the NSF.
Questions about our internal campus review process may be directed to Director of Research Development, Mike Gallo at magallo@uci.edu .