Air Force Fiscal Year 2027 Young Investigator Program (YIP)

Deadline

Dec 4, 2026 (40 days left)

Who can apply

For-profit organizations other than small businesses

Award range

$150,000 to $450,000

Expected awards

50

Total program funding

$4.5 million

Your own money required

No cost sharing or matching required

Opportunity number

FA955026S0003

Posted

Sep 8, 2026

Assistance listing

12.800

What it funds

This is a special Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcement (NOFO) sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), which will hereafter generally be referred to as “we”, “us”, “our”, or “AFOSR.” The Fiscal Year 2027 Air Force Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) intends to support individual early career scientists and engineers who have received their Ph.D. or equivalent degrees by 01 April 2019 or later showing exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. The program objective is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering; enhance early career development of outstanding young investigators; and increase opportunities for the young investigators to recognize the Air Force and Space Force mission and related challenges in science and engineering. Individual awards are made to U.S. institutions of higher education, industrial laboratories, for- profit, or non-profit research organizations where the principal investigator (PI) is employed on a full-time basis and holds a regular, non-contractor position. A YIP PI must be a U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident. Researchers working at a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), or a Department of War (DoW) Laboratory are not eligible for this competition. YIP awards are funded up to $150,000 per year for three years, for a total of $450,000. No single year may exceed $150,000. Please review the remainder of this announcement for additional information. Under this competition, an anticipated thirty-seven (37) traditionally funded YIPs and three (3) YIPs funded in partnership with the Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS) in the Quantum Information Sciences research discipline may be awarded. There may be potential for an additional 37 YIPs …

What to do next

1. Open the official notice on Grants.gov and download the full announcement (the NOFO) and any attachments.
2. Check you can apply: the eligible applicants above, and any detail in the notice's eligibility section.
3. Register your organization in SAM.gov (choose "all awards") and create a Grants.gov account; allow several weeks the first time.
4. Apply through Grants.gov exactly as the notice says, before Dec 4, 2026. Late applications are usually not accepted.

New to this? Applying for a federal grant, step by step · Register to apply · How to read the notice · Write the narrative · Build the budget · Agency contact: afosryip@us.af.mil

From Grants.gov's official daily extract of Oct 25, 2026. The notice on Grants.gov and its attachments are what count. UX Contract is independent and not a government website.