Submitting Competitive Proposals to the NSF S-STEM Program

This interactive workshop will focus on the National Science Foundation’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) Program. This program makes awards to institutions to allocate scholarships to low-income students with demonstrated financial need who are academically talented. Its overarching motivation is to improve the STEM workforce of the United States to ensure our competitiveness in the global marketplace. It will describe the defining characteristics of the program as well as some prominent awards in the S-STEM portfolio. Program characteristics which have evolved recently and the motivations for these changes will get special emphasis. Guidance will be provided on potential areas of confusion including: the role of diversity, motivations underlying the strand structure, adapting versus creating materials for support structures, and the need for all projects to be knowledge-based and knowledge-generating. S-STEM instructional materials as well as examples of successful proposals submitted to the program will be available.