Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM)

Overview

The S-STEM program provides institutions of higher education (IHEs) with funds for scholarships to encourage and enable domestic low-income students with academic ability, talent or potential and demonstrated financial need to enter the U.S. workforce following completion of associate, baccalaureate, or graduate degrees in S-STEM eligible disciplines. To enable social mobility of these students with academic talent, funds should be allocated to support scholars in areas of regional or national need. Funds also enable IHEs to establish a coherent ecosystem of effective evidence-based practices (curricular and co-curricular activities taking place during the academic year and over the summer and winter break months if appropriate) and to assess the effects of those practices and other factors on retention, student success, academic/career pathways, and degree attainment, including transfer, and entry into the U.S. workforce or graduate programs in STEM. See Section II.B.2 for details on some common elements of all Track 1, 2 and 3 proposals and Section V.A.11 for additional details on required supplementary documents.

S-STEM awards in Tracks 1, 2 and 3 facilitate the establishment of infrastructure and collaborations to: (1) provide scholarships to domestic low income academically promising students with demonstrated financial need pursuing a degree in one of the S-STEM eligible disciplines; (2) adapt and implement evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities to support NSF S-STEM scholars; (3) increase retention, student success, and graduation of these low-income students in STEM; (4) test strategies for systematically supporting student academic and career pathways in STEM in ways that are congruent with the institutional context and resources; and (5) disseminate findings on what works related to the supports and interventions undertaken by the project, in particular to other institutions working to support low-income STEM students.

In addition to providing funds for scholarships, the S-STEM program also supports the implementation and testing of an ensemble of existing effective evidence-based curricular and co-curricular activities featuring: (1) close involvement of faculty in S-STEM eligible disciplines, (2) one-on-one mentoring for students, (3) provisions and adaptation of activities that support student success, including the formation of student cohorts and other effective practices (e.g., student support services; professional and workforce development activities), (4) covering of academic expenses that become barriers for success for low-income students (e.g., graduation fees, standardize testing fees, graduate school application fees, etc.)

Proposals with a strong focus on workforce development are encouraged to partner with business, industry, local community organizations, national labs, or other federal or state government organizations to provide appropriate opportunities to scholars, including but not limited to internships, research and service-learning activities and other opportunities above and beyond the financial support provided through scholarships.

[For description of the three Program Tracks, see sponsor's full Funding Announcement.]

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: 2

An institution may submit up to two proposals (either as a single institution or as a subawardee or a member of an inter-institutional consortia project (lead or co-lead) for a given S-STEM deadline. Multiple proposals from an institution must not overlap with regard to S-STEM eligible disciplines.

Institutions with a current S-STEM award should wait at least until the end of the third year of execution of their current award before submitting a new S-STEM proposal focused on students pursuing degrees in the same discipline(s).

The above restrictions do not apply to collaborative planning grant proposals.

Award Information

• Anticipated Funding Amount: $80,000,000 to $120,000,000
• Awards for Track 1 (Institutional Capacity Building) projects may not exceed $1,000,000 total for a maximum duration of 6 years.
• Awards for Track 2 (Implementation: Single Institution) projects may not exceed $2,000,000 total for a maximum duration of 6 years.
• Awards for Track 3 (Inter-institutional Consortia) projects may not exceed $5,000,000 total for a maximum duration of 6 years.
• Collaborative Planning projects may not exceed $100,000 for a maximum duration of 1 year.