Agencies

NSF invests $25.5M in research to drive new U.S. manufacturing technologies and talent pipelines

Published: 24 June 2025
Categories: National Science Foundation

RSS feed source: National Science Foundation

The U.S. National Science Foundation has announced a $25.5 million investment to support fundamental research and workforce development aimed at enabling future generations of U.S. manufacturing. This year’s awards will support seven research grants and nine seed projects across 36 institutions and companies through the NSF Future Manufacturing (NSF FM) program.

The NSF FM program focuses on areas such as biomanufacturing, cyber manufacturing and ecomanufacturing, with some efforts exploring intersections with quantum manufacturing. The program emphasizes convergence, bringing together teams from across disciplines to create new, potentially transformative manufacturing capabilities, going far beyond improvements to current manufacturing processes.

“The FM program targets critical technical gaps and lays the foundation for emerging sectors, including technologies that haven’t yet been imagined,” said Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF director. “NSF is investing in teams that bring together scientific, engineering and manufacturing expertise to equip the American workforce for leadership in advanced manufacturing.”

This year’s FM awards include:

Seven research grants, each receiving up to $3 million over a four-year period, to support multidisciplinary teams conducting fundamental research to enable new manufacturing capabilities, materials, or systems. Projects span a range of topics, including bioengineering in resource-constrained environments, “recyclofacturing” using artificial intelligence to create products from metal scrap, and using robotics and digital twins for additive manufacturing of multi-material systems.Nine seed grants, each receiving up to $500,000 over

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NSF Graduate Research Fellow’s work on light contributes to nanodot breakthrough 

Published: 24 June 2025
Categories: National Science Foundation

RSS feed source: National Science Foundation

Americans spend a lot of time on their screens. The images on those screens are made of pixels — tiny dots that represent a single point of color. Scientists from Penn State, including NSF Graduate Research Fellow Nicholas Trainer, recently discovered a process that can make the images on phones, monitors and TVs even brighter.

The Penn State research shows that light emitted from 2D materials can be changed by embedding a second, very small (80,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair) 2D material inside them, called a nanodot. By controlling the size of the nanodot through a process called quantum confinement, scientists can change the color and frequency of the emitted light.

Credit: Nasim Alem, Penn State University

On the left is an illustration of the experimental setup from this study. Molybdenum diselenide nanodots, represented by red triangles, are embedded in tungsten diselenide and encapsulated by hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) on top and bottom. A focused electron beam, shown in green, in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) is aimed at the structure. The emitted light is collected to generate an intensity map. On the upper right is a dark-field STEM image of the molybdenum diselenide nanodot embedded inside tungsten diselenide. The contour of the nanodot is marked by

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30 Days Left to Apply for FEMA Assistance

Published: 23 June 2025
Categories: FEMA News

RSS feed source: National Science Foundation

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma residents who have been affected by the March wildfires and straight-line winds have 30 days left to apply for FEMA assistance.

Homeowners and renters in Cleveland, Creek, Lincoln, Logan, Oklahoma, Pawnee, and Payne counties who were displaced or have property damage from the March 14-21 wildfires and straight-line winds have until Tuesday, July 22, to submit an application for FEMA assistance. After the deadline, survivors can still upload information and submit paperwork to their FEMA account.

To date, FEMA has approved more than $6 million in federal and state assistance for Oklahoma survivors.

There are many types of assistance available for survivors who need help covering costs for things like rental expenses, home repairs, vehicle damage, medical expenses, moving and storage, and reimbursement for temporary housing.

There are three ways to apply:

To view an accessible video about how to apply visit: Three Ways to Register for FEMA Disaster Assistance – YouTube

Residents and businesses in the seven eligible counties can also apply for a low-interest disaster loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to help recover. Oklahoma residents can apply for a disaster loan online at SBA.gov/disaster or by calling 800-659-2955. To find an Oklahoma location for in-person assistance, visit appointment.sba.gov/schedule/. No appointment is necessary.

For more information about the loans available and how to apply, visit: Oklahoma Survivors Can Apply for SBA Loans.

For the latest information about Oklahoma’s recovery, visit  fema.gov/disaster/4866. Follow FEMA Region 6 on social

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