FY2024 CHIPS R&D National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP) Materials & Substrates | 2024 NIST CHIPS NAPMP 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for 2024 NIST CHIPS NAPMP 01

The FY2024 CHIPS R&D National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP) Materials & Substrates funding opportunity is a discretionary federal grant/assistance program run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the CHIPS Research and Development (CHIPS R&D) Program. Its purpose is to push forward semiconductor research and development in ways that strengthen U.S. competitiveness, with this particular solicitation focusing on a very specific and strategic bottleneck in the microelectronics supply chain: advanced packaging substrates and the materials used to make them. In practical terms, the government is looking to fund new R&D efforts that can help build and speed up domestic capability to design, develop, and manufacture the substrates and substrate materials that modern chip packages rely on, since packaging is increasingly central to performance, power efficiency, and system integration.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is described as the first funding announcement under the broader CHIPS R&D Program, which signals that it is meant to set direction and momentum for later CHIPS R&D investments. The emphasis on "advanced packaging substrates and substrate materials" reflects how packaging has shifted from being a back-end assembly step to a leading-edge technology area, especially as the industry pursues chiplets, heterogeneous integration, high-bandwidth interconnects, and other advanced architectures. Substrates are the foundational platform that connects silicon devices to the rest of the system, and improvements in substrate materials, manufacturing processes, reliability, and scaling can directly translate into higher-performing and more manufacturable microelectronics systems. This opportunity is therefore aimed at R&D that results in credible, scalable pathways to domestic production capacity, rather than purely academic exploration.

Eligibility is broad but still clearly bounded. Applicants can include domestic for-profit organizations, domestic non-profit organizations, and accredited U.S. institutions of higher education, including community colleges and technical colleges. Governmental entities are also eligible, including state, local, territorial, and Indian tribal governments. The opportunity is listed under Assistance Listing (formerly CFDA) number 11.042, and the activity category is Science and Technology and other Research and Development, consistent with a technology maturation and capability-building focus.

There are notable submission and teaming limits that applicants need to plan around early. Each eligible applicant may submit only one full application under this NOFO, which means organizations with multiple internal teams must consolidate their approach into a single proposal. In addition, an entity cannot be included as a subrecipient on more than two applications, a restriction that affects teaming strategies and the ability of highly specialized partners (for example, a unique materials supplier, university lab, or process development group) to participate widely across many consortia. These constraints are intended to reduce proposal duplication, spread participation, and keep the competition manageable.

Key administrative details from the listing include the opportunity title "FY2024 CHIPS R&D National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP) Materials & Substrates" and funding opportunity number "2024 NIST CHIPS NAPMP 01." The agency is NIST, the opportunity category is Discretionary, and the funding instrument type is listed as "Other." The original closing date is July 3, 2024, and the posting (creation) date is February 28, 2024. The public listing does not provide an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the provided source fields, so those specifics would need to be confirmed in the full NOFO documentation.

Overall, this grant opportunity is best understood as a CHIPS Act-era investment aimed at strengthening the U.S. advanced packaging ecosystem by funding targeted R&D that can translate into real domestic capacity for substrate technologies. The government is signaling that packaging substrates and materials are not a supporting detail but a critical enabling technology for next-generation microelectronics, and it is seeking proposals that can move the needle on capability, scale, and competitiveness within the United States.

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY2024 CHIPS R&D National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP) Materials & Substrates" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 11.042.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-02-28.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-07-03. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for 2024 NIST CHIPS NAPMP 01

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