§19155 Cultural and institutional barriers to expanding the academic and Federal STEM workforce

Summary

The Director must, not later than 12 months after August 9, 2022, and working with the interagency working group on inclusion in STEM, share best practices with groups that get Federal research money. The guidance must cover doing regular climate surveys of STEM departments to find and fix cultural or institutional barriers that block recruitment, retention, or promotion of groups historically underrepresented in STEM. It must also cover training like workshops so STEM professionals learn evidence-based, unbiased ways to recruit, evaluate, and promote students and research staff. Following that guidance, the Director of the National Science Foundation must make a policy that covers at least doctoral degree–granting institutions getting Federal research funds. Each such institution must, not later than 3 years after August 9, 2022, report to the NSF Director about actions they took under the guidance. Each Federal research agency with a Federal laboratory must have practices for its labs and each lab must, not later than 3 years after August 9, 2022, report to the agency head on those practices. Not later than 4 years after August 9, 2022, the NSF Director must send Congress a report summarizing and analyzing the types and frequency of actions and policies reported under this plan.