STEM Education (formerly Education and Human Resources)

The National Science Foundation funds undergraduate and graduate STEM education, teacher development, and education research through CFDA 47.076, with $27.03 billion in combined federal obligations across 34,700 awards dating to 1991 and a most recent award on August 1, 2027.

The program funds concrete education activities across the STEM pipeline: undergraduate scholarships for low-income students in physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and data science; graduate fellowships in emerging fields like quantum science and artificial intelligence; curriculum development projects that integrate AI and computational thinking into introductory courses; teacher preparation and professional development in science and mathematics education; and education research on student learning, broadening participation in STEM, and workforce pathways. Recent awards support hands-on research experiences for undergraduates, game-based cybersecurity learning modules, geoarchaeology programs for rural high school students, and faculty training in institutional change models for computational physics instruction. The program also funds infrastructure for discipline-specific learning—immersive virtual reality in astrophysics, intelligent tutoring systems for quantitative methods, and simulation-based environments for security training.

Awards are predominantly Project Grants (96%, or 33,478 awards), with a smaller share of Cooperative Agreements (4%, or 1,222 awards). The National Science Foundation dominates funding: NSF-wide accounts for 27,483 awards and $18.19 billion in federal dollars obligated. Within NSF, the Division of Graduate Education leads by federal dollars at $3.34 billion across 1,151 awards; the Division of Undergraduate Education follows with 3,486 awards totaling $2.64 billion; and the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings accounts for 1,620 awards and $1.87 billion.

Recent award activity shows mixed signals. The portfolio reflects steady historical volume—1,361 awards in 2024 and 1,165 in 2023—but a sharp decline to 732 awards in 2025 and just 527 in 2026. Only 16 awards appear in 2027, though that year is incomplete. Representative recent awards include: Marshall University's $2 million scholarship program for 36 low-income chemistry, geology, and data science undergraduates (August 2027); University of Nevada, Reno's $318 thousand EPSCOR graduate fellowship in ecology and conservation biology (March 2027); a $730 thousand project at an unnamed institution combining geoarchaeology, geophysics, and remote sensing to engage rural high school students in scientific inquiry (March 2027); and University of Colorado Boulder's $2 million scholarship program for 24 low-income undergraduates in quantum science, AI, robotics, and biotechnology (January 2027). Federal dollars per award range widely—from roughly $100 thousand for conference support to over $4.6 million for multi-institutional engineering pathways projects.

Recent grant opportunities remain active. IUSE: Innovation in Two-Year College STEM Education (ITYC) closed on December 9, 2026, supporting up to $500 thousand (or $600 thousand for unfunded institutions) over three years for two-year colleges improving foundational STEM courses and pathways. EDU Core Research (ECR:Core) closed on October 1, 2026, supporting fundamental STEM education research at three funding levels up to $2.5 million over 3–5 years. CyberAI Scholarship for Service (CyberAI SFS) remains open with an April 5, 2027 deadline, funding scholarship tracks and innovation tracks in AI and cybersecurity education. NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) is the dominant unfunded pipeline opportunity, supporting recruitment, retention, and graduation of low-income STEM undergraduates through scholarships averaging $15 thousand and evidence-based co-curricular activities.