§18999 Programs to address the STEM workforce

Summary

The Director must give scholarships (including for community colleges), graduate fellowships and traineeships, postdoctoral awards, and other awards to help fill gaps in the STEM workforce. Programs can include ways to recruit, keep, and move students toward a STEM bachelor’s degree at the same time they finish high school, using partnerships with State educational agencies. The Director must also promote new postdoc training ideas, support a diverse STEM workforce, and study the results. Postdoc awards can fund fellowships or short rotations up to 2 years. Those spots are for people who earned a doctoral degree no more than 5 years before the start and who will do research at Federal, State, local, or Tribal research sites. Federal agencies may directly hire eligible former award recipients into competitive service if they meet OPM rules, and must do so within 2 years after the person finishes the fellowship or rotation. The Director can use existing programs, including postdoc awards; graduate fellowships like the NSF Research Traineeships and Graduate Research Fellowship Program; scholarships, research experiences, and internships (including community college scholarships and programs under sections 1862p–5, 1862p–6, and 1862p–7); and awards to colleges to fund new or improved programs and evaluate them.