Scholarships in STEM Network | 22 544

Opportunity Information: Apply for 22 544

The National Science Foundation (NSF) grant opportunity titled Scholarships in STEM Network (S-STEM-Net), Funding Opportunity Number 22-544, is designed to strengthen and connect the national community involved in NSF’s Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) efforts. At its core, the solicitation is about building a coordinated, well-supported network that can generate, evaluate, and share practical knowledge about what helps domestic low-income students succeed in STEM education and move into STEM careers. The broader vision behind the S-STEM program and this networking initiative is that economic circumstances should not prevent capable students from contributing to the U.S. innovation economy. In other words, the goal is not only to fund scholarships or isolated projects, but to grow a national infrastructure that improves outcomes and expands opportunity at scale.

To make that network real and functional, NSF proposes two complementary types of investments. First, it will fund a central S-STEM Resource and Evaluation Center (S-STEM-REC), which serves as a backbone for the network by supporting coordination, evaluation capacity, and the synthesis of lessons learned across many S-STEM projects. Second, NSF will fund several S-STEM Research Hubs (S-STEM-Hubs), which are intended to focus on targeted research and learning agenda(s) that examine barriers, effective interventions, and conditions that influence success for low-income STEM students. Together, the REC and the Hubs are meant to create shared infrastructure: they do not just collect stories of success, but work to identify effective design principles, explain why certain practices work in certain contexts, and build evidence that can be used by institutions and partners nationwide.

A major emphasis of the solicitation is collaboration and knowledge dissemination. NSF expects the S-STEM-Net to create synergies across projects and partners so that progress does not remain siloed at individual campuses or within single research groups. The network is also meant to be adaptable and responsive to changing learning needs, while staying focused on access and inclusion for the student population at the center of the program. An important part of the work is to synthesize what has already been achieved through existing S-STEM projects and to investigate new or evolving barriers that may affect persistence and graduation in STEM. The end product NSF is pushing for is actionable knowledge: clear guidance about the context and circumstances in which specific interventions lead to improved retention, graduation, and career preparation for domestic low-income STEM students.

The intended audience for the outputs of S-STEM-Net is broad and deliberately multi-sector. NSF wants findings, tools, and effective practices to reach higher education institutions and faculty, scholars and researchers, and evaluators who study student success. At the same time, the dissemination is aimed at local and regional organizations, industry partners, nonprofits, and government entities at the federal, state, and local levels that have a stake in the STEM talent pipeline. This reflects the solicitation’s underlying idea that student success is shaped by ecosystems, not just classrooms, and that improving outcomes for low-income STEM students benefits from coordination across education, workforce, and community partners.

Administratively, this is a discretionary NSF opportunity in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category, using the grant funding instrument, associated with CFDA number 47.076. NSF anticipated making around 11 awards, with an award ceiling listed at $15,000,000. The opportunity was created on December 27, 2021, and the original closing date was March 22, 2022. Eligibility is listed broadly as “Others,” with additional eligibility details referenced in the full solicitation. Overall, the solicitation is best understood as a national capacity-building effort: it aims to connect and professionalize the S-STEM community, improve the evidence base for supporting domestic low-income STEM students, and ensure that successful approaches are documented, evaluated, and shared in ways that other institutions and partners can realistically adopt.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Scholarships in STEM Network" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.076.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 27, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 22, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $15,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 11 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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