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

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

Below is a summary assembled by the Research & Innovation Office (RIO). Please see the full solicitation for complete information about the funding opportunity. The internal call is being updated to reflect NSF’s new solicitation issued December 15, 2024.

CU Boulder is ineligible for Track 1; per NSF, "Track 1 projects seek to increase the participation of institutions that have never had an award from the S-STEM program or the STEM Talent Expansion (STEP) program. This requirement applies to the institution as a whole. A prior S-STEM or STEP award to any department or school within the institution makes the entire institution ineligible for a Track 1 award."

If you are applying as a subawardee, you still must submit to the internal competition, per NSF guidelines limiting the university to two submissions either as the lead/single institution or subawardee.

Program Summary

The main goal of the S-STEM program is to enable low-income students with academic ability, talent or potential to pursue successful careers in promising STEM fields. Ultimately, the S-STEM program seeks to increase the number of academically promising low-income students who graduate with a S-STEM eligible degree and contribute to the American innovation economy with their STEM knowledge. Recognizing that financial aid alone cannot increase retention and graduation in STEM, the program provides awards to institutions of higher education (IHEs) not only to fund scholarships, but also to adapt, implement, and study evidence-based curricular and co-curricular¹ activities that have been shown to be effective supporting recruitment, retention, transfer (if appropriate), student success, academic/career pathways, and graduation in STEM.

Social mobility for low-income students with academic potential is even more crucial than for students that enjoy other economic support structures. Hence, social mobility cannot be guaranteed unless the scholarship funds the pursuit of degrees in areas where rewarding jobs are available after graduation with an undergraduate or graduate degree.

The S-STEM program encourages collaborations, including but not limited to partnerships among different types of institutions; collaborations of S-STEM eligible faculty, researchers, and academic administrators focused on investigating the factors that affect low-income student success (e.g., institutional, educational, behavioral and social science researchers); and partnerships among institutions of higher education and business, industry, local community organizations, national labs, or other federal or state government organizations, as appropriate.

To be eligible, scholars must be domestic low-income students, with academic ability, talent or potential and with demonstrated unmet financial need who are enrolled in an associate, baccalaureate, or graduate degree program in an S-STEM eligible discipline. Proposers must provide an analysis that articulates the characteristics and academic needs of the population of students they are trying to serve. NSF is particularly interested in supporting the attainment of degrees in fields identified as critical needs for the Nation. Many of these fields have high demand for training professionals that can operate at the convergence of disciplines and include but are not limited to quantum computing and quantum science, robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, computer science and computer engineering, data science and computational science applied to other frontier STEM areas, and other STEM or technology fields in urgent need of domestic professionals. It is up to the proposer to make a compelling case that a field is a critical need field in the United States.

There are multiple tracks and the NSF solicitation should be reviewed for full details:

• Track 1 (Institutional Capacity Building) - CU Boulder is ineligible for this track due to a previous award.
• Track 2 (Implementation: Single Institution)
• Track 3 (Inter-institutional Consortia)
• Collaborative Planning Grants to Develop an Inter-institutional Consortium

Deadlines

CU Internal Deadline: 11:59pm MST January 29, 2024

Sponsor Deadline: 5:00pm MST March 11, 2024

Internal Application Requirements (all in PDF format)

• Program Track
  • Track 2 (Implementation: Single Institution)
  • Track 3 (Inter-institutional Consortia)
  • Collaborative Planning Grants to Develop an Inter-institutional Consortium
• Project Summary (3 pages maximum): Please include 1) an overview of the S-STEM project being proposed; 2) a statement on Intellectual Merit; 3) a statement on Broader Impacts; 4) for Tracks 2 and 3, include the number of scholarships to be provided, the number of unique scholarship recipients, the disciplinary areas to be served by the scholarship funds, the objectives of the project, the expected retention or transfer and graduation rates, and basic information about the student recruitment, application processes, selection, support, and career counseling and placement services to be provided as part of the S-STEM project.
• PI Curriculum Vitae
• Budget Overview (1 page maximum): A basic budget outlining project costs is sufficient; detailed OCG budgets are not required.

To access the online application, visit: https://cuboulderovcr.secure-platform.com/a/solicitations/6919/home

Eligibility

For Track 2 (Implementation: Single Institution) projects, the Principal Investigator must be (a) a faculty member currently teaching in an S-STEM eligible discipline, or (b) an academic administrator who has taught in an S-STEM eligible discipline in the past two years. The Principal Investigator must be able to provide the leadership and time required to ensure the success of the project. Projects involving more than one department within an institution are eligible, but a single Principal Investigator must accept overall management and leadership responsibility. Faculty from all departments involved need to have roles in the project as either Co-Principal Investigators, senior/key personnel or scholar mentors. Other members of the S-STEM project senior leadership and management team may be listed as Co-Principal Investigators.

For Track 3 (Inter-institutional Consortia) projects, the Principal Investigator must be (a) a faculty member currently teaching in an S-STEM eligible discipline, (b) an academic administrator who has taught an S-STEM eligible discipline in the past two years, or (c) a non-teaching institutional, educational, or social science researcher investigating questions related to low-income student success. The Principal Investigator must be able to provide the leadership and time required to ensure the success of the project. Track 3 consortium proposals must have a Principal Investigator who accepts overall management and leadership responsibility across all consortia members. Faculty from all institutions and departments involved need to have roles in the project as either Co-Principal investigators, senior/key personnel or scholar mentors. Other members of the S-STEM project senior leadership and management team may be listed as Co-Principal Investigators or as Principal Investigators on collaborative research proposals.

Collaborative Planning grants are intended to help a collection of institutions plan for a future Inter-institutional Track 3 proposal. For Collaborative Planning grants, the Principal Investigator must be (a) a faculty member teaching in any S-STEM eligible discipline, or (b) a STEM administrator (department head or above) at one of the institutions within the envisioned inter-institutional consortia, or (c) a non-teaching institutional, educational, or social science researcher investigating questions related to low-income student success. The Principal Investigator on a Collaborative Planning grant must demonstrate the capacity to convene and lead a team of inter-institutional S-STEM eligible faculty, social science or educational researchers, and administrators focused on low-income student success to write the desired proposal in a 1-year timeframe.

CU Boulder is ineligible for Track 1; per NSF, "Track 1 projects seek to increase the participation of institutions that have never had an award from the S-STEM program or the STEM Talent Expansion (STEP) program. This requirement applies to the institution as a whole. A prior S-STEM or STEP award to any department or school within the institution makes the entire institution ineligible for a Track 1 award."

Limited Submission Guidelines

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).

Award Information and Duration

The program supports different types of projects subject to availability of funds:

• 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.

Review Criteria

In addition to the standard NSF Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts Criteria, reviewers will be asked to consider the extent to which the project is aligned with the spirit of the legislation that created the program in view of:

• The case made about the regional or national need for professionals with degrees being awarded in this project.
• The information provided about the likelihood of low-income scholars to find a rewarding job in the STEM workforce upon graduation with either an undergraduate or graduate degree.