Racial Equity in STEM Education | PD 21 191Y

Opportunity Information: Apply for PD 21 191Y

The National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), is offering the Racial Equity in STEM Education grant opportunity to support bold, potentially transformative projects that directly confront systemic racism and advance racial equity across STEM education and workforce development. The program is designed to fund work that generates credible knowledge and practical change, combining research (both fundamental and applied) with on-the-ground practice. At its core, this opportunity is explicitly centered on the people and communities most harmed by enduring racial inequities, with an expectation that proposals are led by, or genuinely co-led in authentic partnership with, those communities. That expectation is not symbolic; the opportunity stresses that impacted voices and lived experience should shape the project from start to finish, including leadership roles, the framing of the problem, decision-making structures, how evidence is interpreted, and how results are shared.

A strong proposal under this program is expected to take systemic barriers seriously and make them visible and actionable. NSF is looking for work that explains and addresses how structural inequities affect access to STEM opportunities, retention and persistence in STEM pathways, and success in STEM learning environments, research settings, and the broader STEM workforce. Because the terms "racial equity" and "systemic racism" can be defined differently depending on context, competitive proposals should clearly state what those constructs mean in the applicant's setting and then show, in a concrete and testable way, how the proposed work will advance equity and reduce or dismantle racist structures, practices, and outcomes.

NSF indicates that funded projects should include a rigorous plan for creating knowledge and producing outcomes. This can include building or extending theory, developing or refining methods, designing and testing approaches and interventions, and evaluating the potential, efficacy, effectiveness, and scalability of those interventions. The solicitation also highlights work that establishes, cultivates, and evaluates authentic partnerships, recognizing that durable equity progress often depends on trust, shared power, and accountability between institutions and communities. In addition, projects may focus on changing institutional, organizational, and structural policies and practices, or on examining affective, behavioral, cultural, and social factors that shape STEM participation and belonging. Overall, the program is open to a wide range of strategies, but it is not limited to small-scale programs; it is aiming for work that can plausibly shift systems, not just support individuals within unchanged systems.

The program is intentionally broad in terms of where the work can take place. Proposed projects may occur in preK-12 settings; two-year and four-year colleges and universities; graduate education environments; municipal or civic organizations; STEM workplaces; and informal STEM learning contexts such as museums, community-based organizations, and STEM-related media spaces. This wide scope reflects NSF's view that racial inequities in STEM are produced across multiple connected systems, so meaningful solutions may need to engage schools, higher education, employers, and community ecosystems together rather than treating them as isolated domains.

Dissemination is treated as a required and proactive part of the project design, not an afterthought. Proposals should include a clear plan for sharing what is learned with the individuals and communities most impacted, along with leaders, policymakers, and other stakeholders who can use findings to influence practice and policy. The emphasis is on ensuring that knowledge and benefits do not remain locked inside academic publications or institutional reports, but are accessible, relevant, and useful to the communities whose lives and opportunities are most affected.

From an administrative and funding standpoint, this is a discretionary grant program (CFDA 47.076) open to unrestricted applicants, meaning it is broadly available to many entity types as long as any eligibility clarifications in the official solicitation are met. Awards can be as large as $5,000,000, with NSF anticipating roughly 45 awards. Budgets and project durations are not fixed and should be matched to the scope of the work, following NSF's Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG). The opportunity was created April 11, 2021, with an initial deadline of July 13, 2021, and recurring deadlines on the second Tuesday in October and the fourth Tuesday in March thereafter. A specific submission instruction is also included: principal investigators should begin the proposal title with the words "Racial Equity," signaling that the project is being submitted under this program.

In practical terms, this opportunity is best understood as NSF funding for high-impact, community-centered, research-backed efforts to identify, challenge, and change the systems that produce racial inequities in STEM learning and career pathways. Projects are expected to treat impacted communities as partners with real authority, produce measurable and meaningful benefits, and generate evidence that can inform broader changes in institutions, policies, and practice.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Racial Equity in STEM Education" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.076.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 11, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 13, 2021 2nd Tuesday in October thereafter 4th Tuesday in March thereafter. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $5,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 45 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for PD 21 191Y

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