NSF S-STEM

Pitt Nomination Limit: 2 proposals per campus (Oakland, Bradford, Johnstown, and Greensburg can all submit independently); cannot overlap in eligible discipline. 
Website: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/s-stem-nsf-scholarships-science-technology-engineering-mathematics/nsf25-514/solicitation
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (25-514)
Pitt Internal Deadline: October 15, 2026
Sponsor Deadline: March 2, 2027
Award Amount: Up to $2M over 6 years (Track 1 or 2); up to $5M over 6 years (Track 3)
Pitt Select Funder: No.

About the Program

S-STEM funds institutions — not individuals — to provide scholarships to academically talented, low-income undergraduate and graduate students in STEM fields, paired with evidence-based curricular and co-curricular supports that improve retention and graduation. Awards fund both direct scholarships and the infrastructure (mentoring, advising, cohort-building) needed to support recipients.

Funding Information

Three tracks are available: Track 1 (Institutional Capacity Building, up to $2M/6 years, for institutions without a recent S-STEM or STEP award), Track 2 (Implementation, up to $2M/6 years, open to any eligible institution), and Track 3 (Inter-institutional Consortia, up to $5M/6 years). At least 50–60% of the budget (depending on track) must go directly to student scholarships, capped at $15,000/year for undergraduates and $20,000/year for graduate students. Indirect costs follow Pitt's federally negotiated rate.

Eligibility

• PI must be a faculty member currently teaching in an S-STEM eligible discipline, or an academic administrator who has taught in one
• Eligible degree fields are broad — anything NSF funds — but exclude clinical degrees (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, etc.), teacher certification programs, and business administration degrees
• Track 1 is only open to institutions without an active S-STEM or STEP award anywhere on campus in the past 5 years
• Track 3 requires a multi-institution consortium and a distinct research component

What the Sponsor Will Not Fund

• Clinical degree programs (medicine, nursing, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy)
• STEM teacher certification/licensure programs (covered instead by the Noyce program)
• Business administration degrees at any level
• Voluntary cost sharing (explicitly prohibited)
• Scholarships used as payment for work or required participation in project activities

Internal Selection Process

Pitt must nominate faculty for this opportunity. If you are interested in being considered as a nominee, please see the limited submission guidelines before submitting a pre-application to InfoReady. 

1. Interested investigators should submit the following materials via InfoReady by: October 15, 2026
   • Track selection. Indicate whether you are submitting for Track 1, Track 2, or Track 3, and identify the Pitt campus from which the proposal would be submitted. 
   • PI Team. Please name all of your co-PIs and their affiliations. 
   • A biosketch of primary PI (five pages max) 
   • A one-page project summary that MUST include:  
     • An overview of the project. Provide a description of the proposed S-STEM project, including the estimated number of scholarships, the disciplinary areas the scholarships will serve, the objectives of the project, and basic information about student outreach and engagement activities. As part of the overview, briefly describe the educational or programmatic challenges facing your target population that scholarship dollars by themselves would not resolve, and outline the evidence-based curricular or co-curricular interventions your project would pair with those scholarships to address those challenges. 
     • A statement on Intellectual Merit. 
     • A statement on Broader Impacts. 
   • A one-page preliminary project plan that briefly addresses:  
     • A draft management plan, including the role of faculty in the relevant disciplines in the operation of the project. Track 3 applicants should also describe how leadership will be coordinated across consortium partners. 
     • Evidence of a viable scholar pool. Provide a preliminary estimate of the number of academically talented, domestic low-income students with demonstrated unmet financial need currently enrolled at your campus in the target discipline(s), along with a brief description of how you arrived at that estimate. If drawing on institutional data, indicate the source. This is not expected to be the full NSF-required analysis, but should demonstrate that the population is large enough to sustain the project's proposed cohort size.
     • The specific challenge your project is designed to address and the evidence supporting it. Identify the particular problem affecting your target population (e.g., a retention gap at a specific point in the curriculum, a transfer bottleneck, insufficient mentoring or cohort infrastructure) and briefly describe what evidence — institutional data, prior program outcomes, or research literature — supports the existence of that challenge. 
        
2. Internal applicants will be peer-reviewed on the following criteria:
   • Intellectual Merit 
   • Broader Impact 
   • Management Plan
   • Evidence of the Scholar Pool
   • Team Members and Qualifications of the PI

Key Dates