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The International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program supports international research and research-related activities for U.S. science and engineering students. The IRES program contributes to development of a diverse, globally engaged workforce with world-class skills. IRES focuses on active research participation by undergraduate and/or graduate students in high quality international research, education and professional development experiences in NSF-funded research areas. The overarching, long-term goals of the IRES program are to enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering research and education and to strengthen economic competitiveness through training the next generation of science research leaders. IRES focuses on the development of a world-class U.S. STEM workforce through international research experiences for cohorts of U.S. students. Student participants supported by IRES funds must be citizens, nationals, or permanent residents of the United States. Students do not apply directly to NSF to participate in IRES activities. Students apply to NSF-funded investigators who receive IRES awards. To identify appropriate IRES projects, students should consult the directory of active IRES awards. All PIs, co-PIs and Senior Personnel on IRES proposals must be from U.S. based organizations. Personnel from international partners should be listed as "non-NSF funded collaborators." Guidance on information to provide for "non-NSF funded collaborators" is found in Section V.A. IRES projects engage a group of undergraduate and/or graduate students in active high-quality collaborative research, in principle at an international site with mentorship from international researchers. IRES projects must be organized around a coherent overarching intellectual theme that may involve a single discipline or multiple disciplines funded by NSF. For all IRES proposals, PIs are strongly encouraged to outline a variety of virtual, hybrid or other alternative approaches to strengthen and maintain international collaboration in addition to travel. It is expected that these approaches will extend collaboration beyond the actual international trip and strengthen IRES proposals overall.

In 1998 Congress enacted the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act which provided funds to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a mechanism whereby the hiring of foreign workers in technology-intensive sectors on H-1B visas would help address the long-term workforce needs of the United States. Initially, scholarships were only provided for students in mathematics, engineering, and computer science. Later legislation authorized NSF to expand the eligible disciplines at the discretion of the NSF director. Undergraduate and graduate degrees in most disciplinary fields in which NSF provides research funding (with some exclusions described elsewhere in this document) are eligible as long as there is a national or regional demand for professionals with those degrees to address the long-term workforce needs of the United States. The main goal of the S-STEM program is to enable low-income students with academic ability, talent or potential to pursue successful careers in promising STEM fields. Ultimately, the S-STEM program seeks to increase the number of academically promising low-income students who graduate with a S-STEM eligible degree and contribute to the American innovation economy with their STEM knowledge. Recognizing that financial aid alone cannot increase retention and graduation in STEM, the program provides awards to institutions of higher education (IHEs) not only to fund scholarships, but also to adapt, implement, and study evidence-based curricular and co-curricular [1] activities that have been shown to be effective supporting recruitment, retention, transfer (if appropriate), student success, academic/career pathways, and graduation in STEM. Social mobility for low-income students with academic potential is even more crucial than for students that enjoy other economic support structures. Hence, social mobility cannot be guaranteed unless the scholarship funds the pursuit of degrees in areas where rewarding jobs are available after graduation with an undergraduate or graduate degree. The S-STEM program encourages collaborations, including but not limited to partnerships among different types of institutions; collaborations of S-STEM eligible faculty, researchers, and academic administrators focused on investigating the factors that affect low-income student success (e.g., institutional, educational, behavioral and social science researchers); and partnerships among institutions of higher education and business, industry, local community organizations, national labs, or other federal or state government organizations, as appropriate. To be eligible, scholars must be domestic low-income students, with academic ability, talent or potential and with demonstrated unmet financial need who are enrolled in an associate, baccalaureate, or graduate degree program in an S-STEM eligible discipline. Proposers must provide an analysis that articulates the characteristics and academic needs of the population of students they are trying to serve. NSF is particularly interested in supporting the attainment of degrees in fields identified as critical needs for the Nation. Many of these fields have high demand for training professionals that can operate at the convergence of disciplines and include but are not limited to quantum computing and quantum science, robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, computer science and computer engineering, data science and computational science applied to other frontier STEM areas, and other STEM or technology fields in urgent need of domestic professionals. It is up to the proposer to make a compelling case that a field is a critical need field in the United States. S-STEM Eligible Degree Programs Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, Associate of Engineering, and Associate of Applied Science Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Applied Science Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Engineering Doctoral (Ph.D. or other comparable doctoral degree) S-STEM Eligible Disciplines Disciplinary fields in which research is funded by NSF, including technology fields associated with the S-STEM-eligible disciplines (e.g., biotechnology, chemical technology, engineering technology, information technology, etc.). The following degrees and disciplines are excluded: Clinical degree programs, including medical degrees, nursing, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, and others not funded by NSF, are ineligible degrees. Business school programs that lead to Bachelor of Arts or Science in Business Administration degrees (BABA/BSBA/BBA) are not eligible for S-STEM funding. Masters and Doctoral degrees in Business Administration are also excluded. Proposers are strongly encouraged to contact Program Officers before submitting a proposal if they have questions concerning degree or disciplinary eligibility. The S-STEM program particularly encourages proposals from 2-year institutions, Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), predominately undergraduate institutions, and urban, suburban and rural public institutions. [1] an activity at a school or college pursued in addition to the normal course of study.

Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs)are animportant component of the nation’s higher education ecosystem and play a critical role in realizing the National Science Board’s vision for a more diverse and capable science and engineering workforce1,2.Aligned with this vision and the NSF Strategic Plan3, the goals of the NSF HSI Program are to: Enhance the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at HSIs. Increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of students pursuing associate’s or baccalaureate degrees in STEM at HSIs. Meeting these goals requiresinstitutions to understand and embrace their students’strengths, challenges, and lived experiences. While this can happen in many ways and across many parts of an institution, theHispanic Serving Institutions: Enriching Learning, Programs, and Student Experiences (HSI:ELPSE)solicitationis specifically focused on studying and improving the student experience in the following settings: STEM courses, particularly for students pursuing STEM degrees; Certificate, minor, and/or degreeprograms; Academic departments or divisions; and Schools and colleges that represent a partof the entire institution (e.g., a School of Engineering or a College of Natural Sciences). Institutions are encouraged to consider how their mission and designation as anHSI could reimagine and/or strengthen courses, degree programs, departments, or divisions. The HSI:ELPSE solicitation welcomes projects that look to implement, test and refine promising practices and/or conduct research related to broadening participation or improving recruitment, retention, graduation and other positive outcomes for undergraduates in STEM. The HSI:ELPSEsolicitation supportsprojects that are purposefully designed to meet students where they are, accounting for both their assets and the challenges they may face. Identities and experiences are not determined solely by membership in a single monolithic population of students (e.g., Hispanic, first-generation, commuter, etc.). Consequently, institutions are expected to use institutional datato identify equity gaps, identify areas of need,and unpack the factors that shape students’ individual realities and shared experiences. Perspectives gained from these data should be central to the design of the project. This solicitation includes the following tracks: Implementation and Evaluation Projects (IEP): Levels 1 and 2 Educational Instrumentation (EI) Please see below for specific information about each track. Generally, proposals to theIEP track will center on one or more of the following: courses; curricular improvements; pedagogy; support structures inside and outside of the classroom; degree programs; and student pathways. The HSI:ELPSE solicitation will also consider proposals designed to increase access to computing resources and/or laboratory instrumentation needed to provide high-quality undergraduate STEM education at the following types of institutions: (1) HSIs in EPSCoR jurisdictions; and (2) HSI Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs) in all other (non-EPSCoR) jurisdictions.Please see the discussion of the Educational Instrumentation Track below for specific details.