The Presidential Young Investigators (PYI) program was initiated in 1983, and remained active until the NSF New Young Investigators (NYI) program replaced it in 1992. Both programs were research-oriented and funded an average of 200 faculty members per year. Another, more selective program began in 1992, when the White House asked NSF to institute the Presidential Faculty Fellows (PFF) program. It awarded young faculty up to $100,000 per year for five years, with no matching-fund option, and put more emphasis on education and outreach. In 1994, the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program was approved by NSF's National Science Board, and the first awards were presented in FY 1995. Several existing NSF programs and their objectives were merged into CAREER.
