Topic: Education — Higher
Subject: Science, technology, communications
Date: 2015-01-22 00:00:00

STEM Opportunities Act of 2015

Directs the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to provide federal science agencies with guidance on establishing specified policies to accommodate the needs of caregiver researchers who receive their research awards.

Requires each federal science agency to annually collect and submit to the National Science Foundation (NSF) institution-level data on demographics, primary field, award type, review rating (as practicable), budget request, funding outcome, and awarded budget for all applications for merit-reviewed research and development grants to institutions of higher education (IHEs) and federal laboratories. Requires NSF to publish a statistical summary of that data.

Directs OSTP, in collaboration with NSF, to identify and disseminate to federal science agencies information and best practices useful in educating program officers and members of standing peer review committees at federal science agencies about: (1) research on implicit gender, race, or ethnic bias; and (2) methods to minimize the effect of such bias in federal research grant reviews.

Requires federal science agencies to maintain or develop and implement policies and practices to minimize the effects of implicit bias in federal research grant reviews.

Directs NSF, within three years of this Act's enactment and at least every five years thereafter, to conduct a survey to collect institution-level data on the demographics of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty, by broad fields of STEM, at different types of IHEs. Requires NSF to publish a statistical summary of that data.

Requires NSF to develop written guidance for IHEs on the best practices for: (1) conducting periodic campus culture surveys of STEM departments; and (2) educating STEM faculty and administrators about implicit bias in recruiting, evaluating, and promoting STEM students and faculty.

Directs NSF to broadly disseminate that guidance to IHEs that receive federal research funding.

Directs OSTP to develop written guidance for federal laboratories to develop and implement practices and policies to: (1) conduct periodic laboratory-wide culture surveys of research personnel at all levels; and (2) educate STEM research personnel about implicit bias in recruiting, evaluating, and promoting researchers at federal laboratories.

Requires federal science agencies to maintain or develop and implement such policies for their laboratories.

Directs NSF to recommend a uniform policy for federal science agencies to carry out workshops to educate STEM department chairs at IHEs, senior managers at federal laboratories, and other federally funded researchers about methods of minimizing the effects of implicit bias in the career advancement of academic and federal STEM researchers.

Requires NSF to award research grants and conduct dissemination activities consistent with this Act's goal of ensuring that federal science agencies and IHE research grant recipients are fully engaging their talent pool.

Directs NSF to award competitive grants to IHEs to develop innovative reform efforts designed to increase the recruitment, retention, and advancement of individuals from underrepresented minority groups in academic STEM careers.

Requires NSF to award competitive grants to IHEs to implement or expand research-based reforms in undergraduate STEM education to recruit and retain minority students who are underrepresented in STEM fields, with a priority focus on the natural science and engineering fields.

Requires each grant to include an education research component so that reform efforts can be evaluated and, if shown to be effective, replicated to improve the participation of minority students in STEM fields at other schools.