The NSF Research Experience and Mentoring (REM) program supports hands-on research and ongoing mentorship in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) for high school students, STEM teachers, undergraduate STEM students, faculty, and veterans.

REM activities are designed to enhance the academic and career trajectories of participants who may not otherwise become engaged in a research project, and to advance research supported by the NSF Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) program, Engineering Research Centers (ERC), and Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC). REM activities may also enable the building of long-term collaborative partnerships among EFRI-, ERC-, and IUCRC-supported researchers, community colleges, local four-year colleges, and local school districts.

REM participants engage in authentic research projects during the summer and professional development activities through the academic year, working side by side with their REM mentors.

Participants have the opportunity to present their research findings and gain career insights at the NSF REM Grantees Meeting and the annual Emerging Researchers National (ERN) Conference in STEM, hosted by NSF and AAAS. Mentors also attend this conference to support the REM participants and to share best practices in research/career mentoring with their colleagues.

Learn more
Find out about REM, funding eligibility, and how to apply in the NSF Dear Colleague Letter for Research Experience and Mentoring (NSF 23-012). In each fiscal year, REM supplement proposals will be accepted between August and the first Monday of November, 5:00 p.m., submitter's local time.

An informational webinar was held on September 29, 2023. The webinar recording and slides are linked below for your reference.

• Webinar Recording
• Webinar Slides

Interested participants may review active REM projects, below, and contact NSF about current opportunities.

NSF contacts for REM are program managers Alias Smith, Dana Denick, and Prakash Balan. 

REM activities
In 2023, REM activities were hosted by the following fifteen NSF EFRI, four ERC, and four IUCRC teams:

Alabama
EFRI E3P: End of Life Plastics as Starting Materials for Filtration and Barrier Applications
Principal Investigator: Steven Weinman
Co-Principal Investigator: Jason Bara, Milad, Esfahani, Stephen Ritchie, Paul Rupar
University of Alabama Tuscaloosa

Arizona
EFRI E3P: GOALI: Waste Management and Circularity of Crosslinked Polyurethane Foams
Principal Investigator: Timothy Long
Co-Principal Investigator: Matthew Green, Kailong Jin, Keith Kirkwood, Jennifer Russell
Arizona State University

Arkansas
Phase II IUCRC at University of Arkansas: Center for Membrane Science, Engineering and Technology (MAST)
Principal Investigator: Ranil Wickramasinghe
Co-Principal Investigator: Xianghong Qian
University of Arkansas

California
Phase II IUCRC at University of California, Irvine: Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM)
Principal Investigator: Abraham Lee
University of California Irvine

ENG-EPSRC EFRI ELiS: Developing probiotic interventions to reduce the emergence and persistence of pathogens in built environments
Principal Investigator: Jack Gilbert
Co-Principal Investigator: Shaochen Chen, Rebecca Fielding-Miller, Karsten Zengler
University of California San Diego

Connecticut
EFRI BioFlex: Electrically Mediated Complex Tissue Regeneration
Principal Investigator: Cato Laurencin
Co-Principal Investigator: Sangamesh Kumbar, Wai Hong Lo
University of Connecticut Health Center

EFRI E3P: Engineering Suspension Feeder Systems for Separation and Elimination of Microplastics from Water
Principal Investigator: Leslie Shor
Co-Principal Investigator: Kelly Burke, Daniel Gage, Baikun Li, J. Evan Ward
University of Connecticut

Georgia
NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT)
Principal Investigator: Krishnendu Roy
Co-Principal Investigator: Sean Palecek, Steven Stice, Madeline Torres-Lugo, Ben Wang
Georgia Institute of Technology

Illinois
EFRI CEE: Epigenetic Cell Reprogramming In Situ: A Novel Tool for Regenerative Engineering
Principal Investigator: Guillermo Ameer
Co-Principal Investigator: Panagiotis Ntziachristos, Hariharan Subramanian
Northwestern University

EFRI CEE: Macrogenomic engineering via modulation of chromatin nanoenvironment
Principal Investigator: Vadim Backman
Co-Principal Investigator: Michael Kennedy, Hemant Roy, Igal Szleifer
Northwestern University

Indiana
Engineering Research Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources - CISTAR
Principal Investigator: Fabio Ribeiro
Co-Principal Investigator: Rakesh Agrawal, Joan Brennecke, Linda Broadbelt, Thomas Degnan
Purdue University

Maryland
EFRI-PSBR: Channeling Carbon Flows in Algal Productions Systems from the Molecular to Bioprocessing Scales
Principal Investigator: Michael Betenbaugh
Co-Principal Investigator: Maceij Antoniewicz, Royce Francis, Stephen Miller, Bernhard Palsson
Johns Hopkins University

Michigan
EFRI DCheM: Distributed Manufacturing of Personalized Medicines
Principal Investigator: Max Shtein
Co-Principal Investigator: Ronald Larson, Geeta Mehta, Nair Rodriguez-Hornedo, Anish Tuteja
University of Michigan

New York
EFRI NewLAW: Novel Approaches to RF Non-Reciprocity in Semiconductor Systems
Principal Investigator: Harish Krishnaswamy
Columbia University

EFRI E3P: Valorization of Plastic Waste via Advanced Separation and Processing
Principal Investigator: Paschalis Alexandridis
Co-Principal Investigator: Karthik Dantu, Javid Rzayev, Marina Tsianou, Luis Velarde
SUNY Buffalo

Ohio
EFRI CEE: DNA origami tools to engineer chromatin structure and function in live cells
Principal Investigator: Carlos Castro
Co-Principal Investigator: Gaurav Arya, Melike Lakadamyali, Michael Poirier, Laszlo Tora
Ohio State University

South Dakota
IUCRC Phase I: South Dakota School of Mines and Technology: Center for Solid-State Electric Power Storage (CEPS) Principal Investigator: Alevtina Smirnova
Co-Principal Investigator: Duane Abata, Grant Crawfor, Abu Md Numan-Al-Mobin
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Texas
EFRI E3P: High-throughput synthetic biology approaches for mixed plastic degradation and reutilization
Principal Investigator: Arum Han
Co-Principal Investigator: Won-Bo Shim, Qing Sun, Aifen Zhou, Xuejun Zhu
Texas Engineering Experiment Station

IUCRC Phase II: Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnology (BRAIN)
Principal Investigator: Jose Contreras-Vidal
University of Houston

GOALI: EFRI NewLaw: Non-reciprocal effects and Anderson localization of acoustic and elastic waves in periodic structures with broken P-symmetry of the unit cell
Principal Investigator: Arkadii Krokhin
Co-Principal Investigator: Arup Neogi, Tae-Youl Choi, Ezekiel Walker
University of North Texas

NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nantechnology Enabled Water Treatment Systems (NEWT)
Principal Investigator: Pedro Alvarez
Co-Principal Investigator: Menachem Elimelech, Naomi Halas, Qilin Li, Paul Westerhoff
William Marsh Rice University

Utah
NSF Engineering Research Center for Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification (ASPIRE)
Principal Investigator: Regan Zane
Co-Principal Investigator: Christopher Fawson, Konstantina Gkritza, Qin Lv, Soheil Nazarian
Utah State University

Washington
EFRI DCheM: Distributed Photosynthetic Recovery of Livestock Waste Nutrients for Sustainable Production of Fertilizers
Principal Investigator: Victor Zavala Tejeda
Co-Principal Investigator: Rebecca Larson, Brian Pfleger, Matthew Ruark
University of Wisconsin Madison