NSF invites public participation in identifying evolving topics in STEM workforce development
NSF EDU invites your input regarding important research questions that explore frontier topics in education and workforce development for the industries of tomorrow, including the use of emerging technologies in the workplace. Participants will be encouraged to share insights from the field, new approaches to evolving questions, and to connect with others exploring similar topics. The conversations are not intended as a basis for recommendations to NSF, but to think aloud with NSF about the changing nature of STEM workforce development research.
The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program supports projects that explore ways for graduate students in research-based master’s and doctoral degree programs to develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas, through a comprehensive traineeship model that is innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate education is poised to undergo major transformations. There are multiple drivers for such change including: (i) recent major national reports on the state of STEM graduate education; (ii) the accelerating pace of science and engineering discoveries and technological innovations, (iii) national STEM workforce and demographic trends; (iv) the growing globalization of science and engineering; and (v) the potential to align graduate education practices and models with an increasing understanding of how people learn. In addition, there is increasing recognition that addressing the grand challenges in science and engineering requires interdisciplinary and convergent approaches, as well as broader professional training that is not characteristic of most graduate programs.
These realities and the increasing calls for new approaches to STEM graduate education represent an extraordinary opportunity. Accordingly, the NRT program encourages researchers to test, develop, and implement innovative and effective STEM graduate education models, promote interdisciplinary and broad professional training of graduate students, broaden participation in the STEM workforce, and foster fundamental research advances in support of national priorities.