Linguistics

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Linguistics Program is a federal grant initiative housed within the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences, specifically the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences. NSF is a United States government agency responsible for advancing the progress of science. The Linguistics Program serves as part of its mission to promote fundamental research and discovery, specifically targeting the scientific study of human language. The program aligns with NSF’s broader commitment to basic research, deliberately excluding applied or clinical practice as a primary focus. This funding opportunity supports foundational research in linguistics, encouraging investigations into the grammatical structure of individual languages and the principles governing natural language more broadly. It includes key areas of linguistic inquiry such as syntax, semantics, phonetics, phonology, and morphology. The program welcomes interdisciplinary projects, especially those that intersect with fields like cognitive science, psychology, neurobiology, and computational linguistics. Sample research questions supported by this program include the psychological processes involved in language use, computational mechanisms underlying language comprehension and learning, the acoustic and physiological dimensions of speech, the role of neurobiology in grammar, lifespan language development, and sociocultural factors in language variation and change. NSF’s Linguistics Program accommodates multiple proposal types. Eligible submission formats include standard research proposals from PhD holders or equivalent, Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement awards (LING-DDRI), CAREER proposals for early-career faculty, and proposals for conference support in accordance with NSF’s Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG). The program collaborates with the National Endowment for the Humanities on related efforts such as the Dynamic Language Infrastructure – Documenting Endangered Languages (DLI-DEL) and DLI-DDRI, which prioritize the study and documentation of understudied and endangered languages. Eligibility for the program includes individuals with appropriate academic qualifications and institutional affiliation. There is no indication of specific geographic limitations, suggesting nationwide eligibility for U.S.-based researchers. Applications must strictly follow submission guidelines outlined in the PAPPG. Applications can be submitted through Research.gov or Grants.gov. Researchers must adhere to the most current version of the PAPPG and ensure their proposals are complete and compliant with NSF’s standards, irrespective of the submission timing. For the Linguistics Program, proposal deadlines follow a recurring cycle. The two annual target dates are January 15 and July 15. If these fall on a weekend or a federal holiday, the due date shifts to the next federal business day. Evaluation panels typically convene in April and November, and applicants are notified of results in the months following panel meetings. Proposals submitted on or after October 1, 2024, will be governed by revised financial assistance award conditions in line with updated federal guidance. The program has also incorporated new research security policies, including training and reporting requirements effective from July 2025. Applicants may seek assistance from any of the four listed program contacts. These include Rachel M. Theodore (rtheodor@nsf.gov, 703-292-4770), Wilson de Lima Silva (widelima@nsf.gov, 703-292-7096), Jorge Valdes Kroff (jvaldesk@nsf.gov, 703-292-7920), and Kenyatta Johnson (kenjohns@nsf.gov, 703-292-4850). Additional program guidance, workshops, and past recipient data are available through the NSF website.