Assistance program
STEM Education (formerly Education and Human Resources)
$10.4 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- National Science Foundation, National Science Foundation
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 47.076
- What it does
- To provide leadership and ensure the vitality of the Nation's science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education enterprise. The STEM Education component of the National Science Foundation sponsors programs that support the development of models and strategies for providing all students with access to high-quality STEM education, and research about those models and strategies. In addition, support is provided for scholarships and fellowships for STEM students. The portfolio of programs in STEM education comprises efforts spanning pre-K to 12, undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral levels, as well as informal education and life-long learning. Long-term goals include: supporting infrastructure and institutional capacity building that will enable development of high-quality educational experiences for all students; ensuring that our educational pathways yield an adequately educated and diverse corps of individuals for the highly technical workplace, the professional STEM community, and society; developing a cadre of professionally educated and well-trained teachers and faculty; and providing the research necessary to inform and improve educational practice. Many programs are conducted in partnership with NSF’s other directorates. Programs include research and development support for improving STEM learning and learning environments, including learning technologies, both in formal and informal learning settings; STEM workforce development, including the development of teachers; and broadening participation. Programs are subject to continuous improvements based on program reviews, evaluation, dissemination of best practices, and educational research.
- Who benefits
- Not applicable.
- Who applies
- Except where a program solicitation establishes more restrictive eligibility criteria, organizations in the following categories may submit proposals: Institutions of Higher Education; Non-profit, non-academic organizations; For-profit organizations and State and local governments. See the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), Chapter I.E., for a full description of eligibility requirements: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=pappg
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