Programme Thesis
The EPMQD program funds fundamental research on next-generation electronic, photonic, magnetic, and quantum devices, aiming to drive innovations in computing, communications, healthcare, energy, and other critical technologies. It exists to expand the frontiers of micro-, nano-, and quantum-devices through design, theory, simulation, fabrication, and scaling, with an emphasis on miniaturization, integration, and energy efficiency.
Selection Criteria
- Intellectual Merit: potential to advance knowledge in device physics, design, or modeling
- Broader Impacts: benefits to society, education, and underrepresented groups
- Eligibility: U.S. institutions (universities, colleges, nonprofits) only; no direct funding to individuals or foreign entities
- Review criteria: strength of research plan, novelty, feasibility, PI qualifications, and integration of theory/simulation with experimental validation
- Budget justification: must align with NSF standard cost principles and be hosted by a U.S. organization
Past Winners / Cohort Profiles
Past winners are typically U.S.-based faculty or research groups at universities (e.g., MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley) or national labs, focusing on solid-state physics, nanofabrication, or quantum engineering. Named examples are not listed on the page, but typical awardees include early-career and senior PIs in electrical engineering, materials science, or applied physics.
Ideal Candidate Fingerprint
A U.S.-based tenure-track or tenured professor in electrical engineering, physics, or materials science with a strong track record in device fabrication, simulation, and characterization. The ideal applicant leads a lab with access to cleanroom facilities, cryogenic measurement systems, and collaborates with industry or national labs on scalable quantum or photonic devices.
Recommended Framing
Eniola should not apply to this NSF program due to ineligibility (requires U.S. institutional affiliation). Instead, he should target NSF's International Science and Engineering (ISE) or Global Centers programs that accept international collaborators, or pursue funding from the Wellcome Trust, ERC Starting Grants, or the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for his CCT addiction model. His strongest angle is positioning his computational pharmacology and Bayesian modeling work as a novel healthcare device concept (e.g., a predictive algorithm for addiction liability) that aligns with the program's healthcare innovation theme, but only if he partners with a U.S. PI.
Watch Out
Ineligible as an independent researcher without a U.S. institutional affiliation; NSF EPMQD grants are only awarded to U.S. organizations (universities, colleges, nonprofits). No direct funding to individuals or foreign entities. Eniola's research focus on addiction neuroscience and computational pharmacology does not match the program's core device physics (electronic, photonic, magnetic, quantum).