Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Directorate for STEM Education

U.S. National Science Foundation$200,000–$2,000,000Closed

Researchers Schools & universities Nonprofits Broad eligibility Large award

Deadline: Jul 15, 2026
Posted: Oct 20, 2022
Award amount: $200,000–$2,000,000
Focus areas: Science and Technology and other Research and Development

In plain English

The NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE: EDU) program funds projects that improve undergraduate STEM teaching and learning, open primarily to institutions of higher education and associated organizations. The program states eligibility is unrestricted (open to any entity type), subject to additional clarifications. Awards range from about $200,000 to $2,000,000. The deadline is July 15, 2026, within about a month.

AI-generated summary to help you decide quickly — verify the official eligibility rules before applying.

Who can apply

Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility"

About this grant

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.

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