Accountable Institutions and Behavior

The Accountable Institutions and Behavior (AIB) Program offered by the National Science Foundation supports foundational scientific research on topics broadly related to public governance, policy, and service delivery. The program is grounded in theoretical motivation and aims to generate conceptually precise, methodologically rigorous, and empirically driven scholarship. Research funded under this program focuses on governance-related attitudes, behaviors, and institutions in both democratic and non-democratic settings, particularly in areas such as voting, elections, preference formation and expression, and decision-making related to public policy. The purpose of the AIB program is to enhance understanding of the mechanisms and outcomes of political and administrative processes. It supports work that investigates how individuals and groups make decisions, how political institutions operate—whether appointed or elected—and how public administration and policy are formulated and implemented. Studies may focus on a single case or adopt a comparative approach across countries or time periods. While theoretical rigor is essential, the program excludes applied research from consideration. The AIB Program allows for a broad scope of funding usage. In addition to supporting basic scientific research, it also funds research experiences for undergraduate students and infrastructural development, particularly projects that foster methodological innovations. The program encourages applicants to also explore other relevant NSF initiatives, such as Law and Science, Security and Preparedness, and Research Infrastructure in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Eligible applicants must adhere strictly to the guidelines provided in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) or the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide, depending on the submission platform used. The proposal must fully comply with these requirements regardless of submission date or deadline. FastLane is no longer an acceptable platform for submission. Applications for this program follow a regular annual schedule, with the next target date for full proposal submissions being August 15, 2025. This date recurs annually, making the program a recurring funding opportunity. Proposals must be submitted via Research.gov or Grants.gov, with no indication that this is a rolling opportunity. Evaluation criteria are not explicitly detailed in the announcement but, based on standard NSF practices, applicants are expected to present proposals that are innovative, theoretically grounded, and methodologically sound. The contact persons for this program are Program Directors Jan E. Leighley and Lee D. Walker, who are affiliated with the Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SBE/SES) under the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE).