Department of Defense Awards $190 Million Cooperative Agreement to Deliver National STEM Education and Outreach Programs

The Department of Defense today announced the award of the Defense Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Consortium (DSEC) Cooperative Agreement to the Research Triangle Institute and its consortium of over 25 regional and national partners to provide STEM education and outreach programs in communities across the nation. These programs are foundational to the department's strategy to build a 21st century workforce with the skills and talent to meet evolving defense challenges.

The consortium will receive up to $190 million over the course of 10 years to implement a diversity of STEM programming, allowing the department to increase the permeability of ideas into its science and engineering workforce. These partnerships will deliver far‐reaching sustainable and scalable programs, providing unique hands-on learning experiences where students can work side-by-side with the nation's best scientists and engineers on cutting-edge research and development.

"Outreach is incredibly important for the Defense Department, and we continue to seek out the best and brightest minds across the nation," said Dr. Aprille Ericsson, assistant secretary of defense for science and technology. "Our men and women in uniform depend on talent and expertise within our science and technology workforce to out-innovate our peer adversaries, and I consider development, recruitment, and retention of STEM talent to be one of my top priorities."

DSEC, part of the National Defense Education Program (NDEP), is a vehicle for DoD to partner with like-minded organizations to identify and support effective activities for pre-K-12 students, educators, and parents, as well as activities that continue to engage students at the undergraduate level. Under this cooperative agreement, RTI will address five required DSEC Fundamental Elements with a qualified team of organizations, including American Institutes for Research, Left Bank Consulting, and Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM. These five elements require the consortium to leverage partnerships to amplify awareness of opportunities and broaden impact, evolve programming based on data and evaluations, provide coherent and interconnected Pre-K-12 STEM education and outreach, and, where feasible, engage DoD scientists and engineers with students and educators.

Headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, RTI will receive an initial award of up to $37 million over a two-year base period, with the possibility of four two-year option periods of up to $37.5 to $39 million per period. Awards to the remaining 20-plus partner organizations will be announced in the coming months.

About DoDSTEM

Department of Defense Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (DoDSTEM) comprises the Department's collective efforts in STEM talent development, including programs from the Departments of the Army, Navy, Air Force, other Defense Agencies, and NDEP. The DoDSTEM mission is to inspire, cultivate, and develop exceptional STEM talent through a continuum of opportunities across the Pre-K-20 grade levels, to enrich the nation's current and future DoD workforce poised to tackle evolving defense technological challenges. Learn more at https://dodstem.us/.