Innovate America Act

Innovate America Act

This bill requires the Department of Education (ED), in coordination with the National Science Foundation (NSF), to award grants to state educational agencies to establish or expand the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, including computer science, (STEM) secondary schools from approximately 100 to approximately 200.

Among other things, the bill requires

• ED, in coordination with the NSF, to study how to improve retention rates of students in STEM programs at institutions of higher education;
• funding for research opportunities for postsecondary students;
• The NSF Partnerships for Innovation Program to administer a Technology Commercialization Awards Pilot Program through which promising technology advances derived from NSF research grants shall be eligible for funding;
• the Department of Commerce to establish a manufacturing assistance program for small and medium-sized domestic manufacturers to promote the manufacturing of goods in the United States and enable them to be competitive in global markets; and
• Commerce to report to Congress on the global competitiveness of 20 U.S. industries that export the most goods or services and the domestic and foreign regulatory and policy barriers to increasing their exports.

The National Science Foundation Authorization Act of 2002 is amended to expand the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program to include informatics and computer science.