Requires the Director of the National Science Foundation to establish a program to award competitive grants, in coordination with the Secretary of Education, to institutions of higher education (IHEs) for increased education and job training of U.S. nationals who are undergraduate or graduate students in mathematics, science, engineering, and technology.
Requires such grants to be provided to IHE applicants that demonstrate they will institute creative and innovative methods of encouraging students to study and enter into careers focused on those disciplines. Requires IHE applications to include: (1) financial incentives to students; (2) commitment to expose students to different industries; and (3) commitment to increase the number of traditionally underrepresented students in those disciplines.
Allows IHE recipients to use grant funds: (1) for major research equipment, facilities construction, repair and upgrades, textbooks, and other purposes necessary to create a quality academic program in one or more of those disciplines; and (2) to create interdisciplinary programs in those disciplines to better meet rapidly changing needs in emerging fields.