Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Directorate for STEM Education
Posted by U.S. National Science Foundation
Opportunity snapshot. This Grants.gov announcement — Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Directorate for STEM Education — is cataloged under number 23-510 and tied to CFDA assistance listing 47.076, posted by U.S. National Science Foundation. Grants.gov currently shows the opportunity as open, first posted on October 20, 2022 and last updated on February 3, 2026. The funding category is Discretionary, delivered as a grant.
Award economics. The award range on file is $200,000 -- $2,000,000. The agency has projected $61.0 million in total estimated funding for this announcement. Cost sharing is not required, so applicants do not need to commit matching funds to be competitive on this opportunity. Federal award ranges are often upper bounds; actual allocations reflect program appropriations, the strength of the applicant pool, and the evaluation committee's scoring.
Deadline and action path. Applications close on July 15, 2026 — roughly 40 days from today. Every Grants.gov submission requires an active SAM.gov registration and a Unique Entity ID. Review the Eligibility section below carefully — federal eligibility categories (nonprofit, state or local government, tribal, individual, educational institution, small business) have distinct registration and reporting requirements. Pre-application outreach to the listed agency contact is permitted and often welcomed — it helps clarify scope and scoring priorities.
Award Range
$200,000 -- $2,000,000
Close Date
July 15, 2026
Institutional and Community Transformation (Level 2) proposals and Engaged Student Learning (Level 2 and Level 3) proposals; Institutional and Community Transformation (Capacity-Building and Level 1) proposals and Engaged Student Learning (Level 1) proposals
Posted
October 20, 2022
Est. Total Funding
$61,000,000
Instrument
Grant
Description
Synopsis of Program: The fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) hold much promise as sectors of the economy where we can expect to see continuous vigorous growth in the coming decades. STEM job creation is expected to outpace non-STEM job creation significantly, according to the Commerce Department, reflecting the importance of STEM knowledge to the US economy. The National Science Foundation (NSF) plays a leadership role in developing and implementing efforts to enhance and improve STEM education in the United States. Through the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) initiative, the agency continues to make a substantial commitment to the highest caliber undergraduate STEM education through a Foundation-wide framework of investments. The IUSE: EDU is a core NSF STEM education program that seeks to promote novel, creative, and transformative approaches to generating and using new knowledge about STEM teaching and learning to improve STEM education for undergraduate students. The program is open to application from all institutions of higher education and associated organizations. NSF places high value on educating students to be leaders and innovators in emerging and rapidly changing STEM fields as well as educating a scientifically literate public. In pursuit of this goal, IUSE: EDU supports projects that seek to bring recent advances in STEM knowledge into undergraduate education, that adapt, improve, and incorporate evidence-based practices into STEM teaching and learning, and that lay the groundwork for institutional improvement in STEM education. In addition to innovative work at the frontier of STEM education, this program also encourages replication of research studies at different types of institutions and with different student bodies to produce deeper knowledge about the effectiveness and transferability of findings. IUSE: EDU also seeks to support projects that have high potential for broader societal impacts, including improved diversity of students and instructors participating in STEM education, professional development for instructors to ensure adoption of new and effective pedagogical techniques that meet the changing needs of students, and projects that promote institutional partnerships for collaborative research and development. IUSE: EDU especially welcomes proposals that will pair well with the efforts of NSF INCLUDES (https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsfincludes/index.jsp) to develop STEM talent from all sectors and groups in our society. For all the above objectives, the National Science Foundation invests primarily in evidence-based and knowledge-generating approaches to understand and improve STEM learning and learning environments, improve the diversity of STEM students and majors, and prepare STEM majors for the workforce. In addition to contributing to STEM education in the host institution(s), proposals should have the promise of adding more broadly to our understanding of effective teaching and learning practices. The IUSE: EDU program features two tracks: (1) Engaged Student Learning and (2) Institutional and Community Transformation.
Eligibility
99
Official Listing on Grants.gov
View full details, application forms, and submission instructions.
Parent Grant Program
STEM Education Grants
National Science Foundation
Agency Contact
NSF grants.gov support<br/>grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov
Key Dates
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Disclaimer: This information is sourced from Grants.gov and SAM.gov and is for informational purposes only. Opportunity details, deadlines, and eligibility requirements change frequently. Always verify current information directly on Grants.gov before applying. PlainGrants is not affiliated with any federal agency.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
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| Sources | Public official public datasets |