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NSF Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 23-Jan-2026 08:11 ET (23-Jan-2026 13:11 GMT/UTC)

Texas Tech professors awarded $12 million for data center and AI research

Texas Tech University
Grant and Award Announcement

Texas Tech University has secured a five-year grant totaling $12.25 million in NSF funding for the REPACSS project, which will design and develop advanced computing systems that integrate multiple energy sources while addressing automation, remote data control and scientific workflow management. This five-year effort positions Texas Tech as a national leader in large-scale computing, distinct from commercial data centers by focusing on diverse academic and scientific applications.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Kennesaw State associate professor receives NSF grant to improve student success in engineering

Kennesaw State University
Grant and Award Announcement

Kennesaw State University researcher Ordene Edwards is exploring how to help engineering students see the value in their studies and help improve their performance with the aid of a five-year, $700,000 National Science Foundation grant.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

UAlbany study finds disparities in risks for reading difficulties emerge by kindergarten

University at Albany, SUNY
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Early struggles with reading can have lifelong impacts on mental, physical and emotional health. Understanding who is most at risk of experiencing reading difficulties can inform strategies for early interventions to support students before they fall further behind. A new UAlbany study reports on disparities in the prevalence of early reading difficulties among U.S. elementary school students.

Journal: Journal of School Psychology
Funder: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. National Science Foundation

Scientists discover chameleon’s telephone-cord-like optic nerves once overlooked by Aristotle and Newton

Florida Museum of Natural History
Peer-Reviewed Publication

After millennia of study, modern imaging has revealed the secret of chameleons' ability to move their eyes in a nearly 360-degree rotation and look in two different directions at once. Behind their bulging eyes lie two long, coiled optic nerves — a structure not seen in any other lizard.

Journal: Scientific Reports
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Food after a flood

University of Texas at Austin

A new dataset that found key factors affecting post-Harvey retail and charitable food supply was awarded a 2025 NHERI DesignSafe Dataset Award.

Journal: Journal of the American Planning Association
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

A few words with a big impact: How one sentence can make classrooms more inclusive

Arizona State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new Arizona State University study shows that when instructors briefly disclose their LGBTQ+ identity, even in a single sentence, students report greater feelings of belonging and connection. Across nine university classrooms and more than 2,000 students, the vast majority viewed these disclosures positively, suggesting that small, authentic moments of visibility can foster inclusion in science education.

Journal: Cell Biology Education
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Defunct Pennsylvania oil and gas wells may leak methane, metals into water

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In the dense forests of northwestern Pennsylvania, hundreds of thousands of retired oil and gas wells — some dating back to the mid-1800s, long before modern construction standards — dot the landscape, according to geochemists in Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences who recently led a study in the region. Left uncapped and exposed to air and erosion, they break down, leaching harmful chemicals into the atmosphere and, the researchers reported, into the groundwater.

Journal: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Engineered randomness enhances connection speed and precision in next-generation wireless systems

Rice University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Rice researchers and collaborators have developed a way to generate and control radio wave patterns that can identify a signal’s direction about ten times better than existing approaches, paving the way for next-generation wireless systems.

Journal: Communications Engineering
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Army Research Office, U.S. Department of Energy

Climate intervention techniques could reduce the nutritional value of crops

Rutgers University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study in Environmental Research Letters reports that cooling the planet by injecting sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, a proposed climate intervention technique, could reduce the nutritional value of the world’s crops.

Journal: Environmental Research Letters
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation

Keeping engineered cells on script with nature’s playbook

Arizona State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Arizona State University researcher Xiaojun Tian and colleagues demonstrate a technique to protect synthetic gene circuits against cell growith dilution.

Journal: Cell
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, U.S. National Science Foundation

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