Assistance program
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Educational Program: Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART)
$648.5 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Immediate Office of the Secretary of Defense, Dept of Defense
- Assistance
- Cooperative Agreements;Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 12.631
- What it does
- To partner with like-minded organizations in managing the SMART scholarship program and in award scholars to students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in any of the 24 STEM disciplines of critical importance to the national security mission. The SMART Scholarship Program also offers internships to all scholars and a guaranteed placement into a civilian scientist or engineer position after completion of academic degree.
- Who benefits
- Organizations with a shared mission in developing the U.S. STEM talent through a scholarship program in support of the national security mission. All applicants for scholarships must be at least 18 years of age and U.S. citizens. Applicants must be an undergraduate or graduate student majoring in a DoD-relevant STEM field. Applicants participate in internships at DoD laboratories. Participants will be required to obtain and/or maintain a security clearance. Upon completion of their degree, applicants are expected to work full-time for the DoD.
- Who applies
- Subject to language in funding opportunity announcement.
- Authorized by
- Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Defense Education Program
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments