Deadline: 12-Jun-23
The STEM Talent Challenge seeks to develop or expand regional workforce capacity to support high-growth, high-wage entrepreneurial ventures, industries of the future (which usually includes industries that leverage emerging technologies), and other innovation—driven businesses that have a high likelihood of accelerating economic competitiveness and job creation in their respective regions and in the United States.
The STEM Talent Challenge aims to build STEM talent training systems to strengthen regional innovation economies. This competition seeks applications from eligible applicants that are creating and implementing STEM talent development strategies that complement their region’s innovation economy, particularly as such strategies relate to critical, emerging technologies and transformative industries such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, semiconductor fabrication, advanced manufacturing and robotics, space exploration and commerce, broadband expansion, bioscience, quantum information science, climate technologies, the built environment, and aqua- and agricultural technologies.
The STEM Talent Challenge is designed to help communities with implementing programs that align with the assessed needs of the region and its innovative businesses. Projects should implement or scale STEM competency-based, work-and-learn education and training models that are directly connected with the needs of employers in a regional economy. These needs should be evaluated, through a formal or informal needs assessment, meant to determine the types of skills needed by the drivers of regional innovation, including innovative businesses that employ STEM talent. Projects should be responsive to these assessed needs and should clearly indicate how workers will be prepared for employment.
Funding Information
- Funding in the total amount of $4,500,000 has been appropriated for grants authorized by section 30 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, consisting of $2,000,000 pursuant to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 20223 and $2,500,000 pursuant to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023.4
- The funding periods and funding amounts referenced in this NOFO are subject to the availability of funds at the time of award as well as to DOC and EDA priorities at the time of award. DOC and EDA will not be held responsible for application preparation costs. Publication of this announcement does not obligate DOC or EDA to make any specific grant award or to obligate all or any part of available funds.
- The maximum federal share of each STEM Talent Challenge award is $500,000. This funding must be used for program implementation during the period of performance.
Outputs and Outcomes
- Proposed projects should aim for all the following outputs and outcomes:
- STEM Work-Based Learning and Training: Projects should focus on an interdisciplinary approach and utilize training models that provide workers with the experience and skills they will need to succeed on-the-job and in real-world applications. These may include, but are not limited to, innovative industry-driven Registered Apprenticeships, fellowships, internships, and other cooperative employer-educator partnerships and are not limited to existing industry definitions—experimentation and innovation is encouraged.
- Increase Regional Capacity to Hire in Innovative Industries: Projects should increase the capacity of those driving innovation in the region by connecting regional innovation stakeholders and employers with workforce and talent development leaders or training providers. Programs should emphasize enabling the region’s technology startups and innovative companies with high growth potential to hire locally and to decrease the costs and lead time of filling positions, allowing them to grow their teams and scale their businesses faster.
- Increase Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility in STEM: Projects should focus on enabling all members of a community to have equitable access to and participate in the innovation economy. Projects should seek to provide historically underserved and underrepresented communities with access to training and other tools to succeed. Project outcomes should include placement of program participants in well-paying, quality jobs in the STEM-related industry in which they receive training.
- Equity Investment Priority: Consistent with Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government, and EDA’s Equity Investment Priority, EDA expects projects to advance equity to underserved populations to the extent practicable.
Example Activities
- Projects should aim to identify opportunities in industries with potential for new, STEM-centric, quality jobs and to expand and empower the innovation economy workforce with a focus on employer engagement. Examples include:
- assessing and forecasting current and future talent needs and developing collaborative, work-based programs with regional employers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and the organizations that support them;
- building a highly skilled STEM workforce and connecting it to technical opportunities that foster professional development and provide continuing advanced skills training to meet employer demand;
- securing and offering wrap-around services for workers to participate in skills training programs (e.g., transportation, childcare, and career coaching/navigation services);
- establishing durable collaborations among entrepreneurs, industry leaders and employers, educational organizations, established corporations, economic or workforce development organizations, labor unions, and the public sector to develop access to skilled workers and demand-driven workforce pipelines for the innovation economy;
- partnering with innovative employers, training providers, and/or workforce organizations to develop a strategy to develop or otherwise lead to a Registered Apprenticeship program that meets the standards set by Department of Labor; and
- placing job seekers, including those from underserved populations, into immediate quality job openings with regional employers in need of STEM talent, increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM fields.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants for and eligible recipients of EDA investment assistance under this NOFO include:
- a State;
- an Indian tribe;
- a city or other political subdivision of a State;
- an entity whose application is supported by a State, a political subdivision of a State, or a native organization and that is—
- a nonprofit organization,
- a public-private partnership,6
- an institution of higher education
- a science or research park,
- a Federal laboratory, or
- an economic development organization or similar entity; or
- a consortium of any of the aforementioned entities.
- EDA is not authorized to provide assistance to individuals or other entity types that are not eligible under this NOFO, and such requests will not be considered for funding.
- If an organization is currently implementing a prior-year EDA STEM Talent Challenge award and submitting an application to the 2023 STEM Talent Challenge under this NOFO, EDA will not consider that application for award unless all activities under the existing award, including but not limited to final reporting requirements, are completed and submitted to EDA prior to November 1, 2023.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.