Archaeometry | 23 573

Opportunity Information: Apply for 23 573

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Archaeology Program runs an annual grant competition called "Archaeometry," with a typical target submission date of December 1 (the listed closing date for this cycle is 2024-12-02). This opportunity supports research and infrastructure that advance the scientific measurement and laboratory methods used in archaeology, with a clear emphasis on work that strengthens archaeometric capability for the broader field rather than projects that simply use established methods to address a particular site or research question.

Funded projects generally fall into two main categories. The first category focuses on developing or refining archaeometric techniques that are explicitly anthropologically relevant. In practice, this means method innovation or significant improvement, such as creating new approaches to identify specific organic residues preserved on ceramics, improving how certain materials are detected or characterized, or designing analytical techniques that can be applied in the field rather than only in specialized laboratories. The second category supports laboratories and shared resources that provide archaeometric services to the research community. This can include service labs that perform widely used analytical work such as dating, trace element analysis, isotopic analysis, or dendrochronology, as well as data archives that curate and provide access to archaeometric datasets. NSF treats these facilities and archives as part of the core infrastructure of archaeology, so proposals that strengthen reliability, capacity, access, standardization, or long-term availability of these services and data can be a good fit.

A key boundary in the program description is that proposals centered on applying standard, well-established archaeometric methods to answer a specific archaeological or anthropological question are expected to go to a different NSF competition, specifically the Archaeology Senior Research Awards program, rather than this Archaeometry solicitation. In other words, this opportunity is aimed at methodological advances and community-facing capability (labs, services, archives), not routine applications of existing techniques for a single research case.

Proposals are reviewed through a combination of ad hoc (mail) peer reviewers and a formal review panel. The panel is intentionally composed of experts who collectively cover both archaeology and archaeometric science, which signals that successful proposals should speak clearly to technical rigor and innovation while also demonstrating why the work matters for broader anthropological and archaeological research.

Eligibility to serve as Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI is limited to researchers with a Ph.D. or equivalent education and experience sufficient to conduct independent basic research. While the program encourages inclusion of undergraduate and graduate students as part of the research team and training environment, students should not be listed as PI/co-PI or as senior personnel under this competition.

Administratively, this is a discretionary NSF grant opportunity in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category (CFDA 47.075), titled "Archaeometry," funding opportunity number 23-573. The posting lists "Others" under eligible applicants, which typically indicates that eligibility depends on NSF-wide institutional and organizational rules rather than a narrow applicant type, but the PI requirement is clearly stated as independent-research qualification at the individual level. The notice does not specify an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the provided fields, so applicants would normally confirm typical budgets and program fit by consulting the full NSF solicitation and, if needed, discussing scope with the program prior to submission.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Archaeometry" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.075.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-04-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-12-02. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for 23 573

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