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Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships

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The U.S. National Science Foundationโ€™s Science and Technology Centers: Integrative Partnerships program supports innovative, complex and potentially transformative research and education projects that require large-scale, long-term awards.

 

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Science and Technology Centers Informational Webinars

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Science and Technology Centers Informational Webinar
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The NSF STC program team presented a webinar about the STC program, with an emphasis on key leadership considerations for potential STC Principal Investigators / future Center Directors. Topics included highlights from the STC solicitation, a presentation on common challenges experienced by Center Directors and a panel discussion with current STC Directors, followed by a Q&A session.
Credit: U.S. National Science Foundation

 

Thursday, October 17, 2024

STC Informational Webinar ~ About Partnerships: Overview & Insights
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The STC Team held a webinar with emphasis on partnerships with different types of organizations. Topics included an NSF overview of partnerships within the STC program, partnership examples from current STCs and partner organizations, and a Q&A session.
Credit: U.S. National Science Foundation

News

NSF Science technology center hero

NSF announces $120 million in funding to create 4 new Science and Technology Centers

The U. S. National Science Foundation has announced a $120 million investment over five-year to support four new Science and Technology Centers (STCs). Since program inception in 1987, the STC: Integrative Partnerships program has supported exceptionally innovative, complex research and education projects that have opened up new areas of science and engineering and developed breakthrough technologies.  

"Scientific discovery is the engine that drives human progress and underlies all of the technologies that we benefit from today," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "NSF's Science and Technology Centers enable our most creative scientists and engineers to open new vistas of scientific inquiry and make the discoveries that will keep the U.S. in the forefront of scientific discovery. I am delighted to see the impressive originality in ideas and approaches in these new STCs and know they will have a tremendous impact." 

The new centers will support advances in fields ranging from cell biology and complex materials to new applications of sound waves and environmental change. Each awardee will receive approximately $6 million per year over a five-year period, with the possibility of continual funding for up to five additional years. 

Click on the Center to learn more about them:  

About

The Science and Technology Centers program has grown from a new idea into a vital, interdisciplinary network. It has catalyzed breakthroughs, built bridges of exchange with industry, spun off new technologies and businesses, and trained young scientists and engineers.

The Science and Technology Centers (STC): Integrative Partnerships program supports exceptionally innovative, complex research and education projects that require large-scale, long-term awards. STCs focus on creating new scientific paradigms, establishing entirely new scientific disciplines and developing transformative technologies which have the potential for broad scientific or societal impact. STCs conduct world-class research through partnerships among institutions of higher education, national laboratories, industrial organizations, other public or private entities, and via international collaborations, as appropriate. They provide a means to undertake potentially groundbreaking investigations at the interfaces of disciplines and/or highly innovative approaches within disciplines. STCs may involve any area of science and engineering that NSF supports. STC investments support the NSF vision of creating and exploiting new concepts in science and engineering and providing global leadership in research and education.

NSF's Science and Technology Centers:

  • Conduct world-class research through partnerships among academic institutions, national laboratories, industrial organizations and other entities, both domestically and internationally.
  • Undertake significant investigations at the interfaces of disciplines and/or using fresh approaches within disciplines.
  • Can involve any areas of science and engineering that NSF supports.

History

In 1989, the National Science Foundation (NSF) established the Science and Technology Research (STC) Centers Program to help maintain U.S. preeminence in science and technology and ensure the requisite pool of scientists with the quality and breadth of experience required to meet the changing needs of science and society-ingredients essential to successful economic competitiveness.

The original objectives of the program were to:

  • Exploit opportunities in science and technology where the complexity of the research problems or the resources needed to solve these problems require the advantages of scale, duration , and/or equipment and facilities that can only be provided by a campus-based research center.
  • Involve students and research scientists and engineers from academia, nonprofit organizations, industry, and Federal laboratories in order to enhance the training and employability of professionals with an awareness of potential applications of scientific discoveries and to provide a mechanism for increasing the transfer of knowledge among sectors of society.
  • Provide stable, long-term funding.

Developing STEM Talent

Three researchers stand around a work bench covered in research equipment

Credit: Arka Majumdar, University of Washington

Centers provide a rich environment for encouraging future scientists, engineers, and educators to take risks in pursuing discoveries and new knowledge. STCs foster excellence in education by integrating education and research, and by creating bonds between learning and inquiry so that discovery and creativity fully support the learning process.

NSF expects STCs to both involve individuals who are members of groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering at all levels within the Center (faculty, staff, students, and postdoctoral researchers) as well as be a leader in broadening participation in STEM.  Individuals who may be underrepresented in STEM include those who identify as women, persons with disabilities, Blacks and African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Other Pacific Islanders. The terms for these racial and ethnic populations are derived from the US government's guidance for federal statistics and administrative reporting (OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting).  Although these social identities are listed separately, they do not exist in isolation from each other and the intersection of one of more of these social identities may need to be considered when designing plans for diversity, equity, and inclusion within the STC Center.  Centers may use either proven, or innovative mechanisms based on the relevant literature, to address issues such as recruitment, retention, success, and career progression of all individuals in the Center.

Active centers

Class of 2023

  • Science and Technology Center for Quantitative Cell Biology (QCB)
  • New Frontiers of Sound Science and Technology Center (NewFoS) 
  • Center for Complex Particle Systems (COMPASS)
  • Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CBIKS)

Class of 2021

  • Center for Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet (C-CoMP)
  • Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability Center (STEPS)
  • Center for Learning the Earth with Artificial Intelligence and Physics (LEAP (link is external) )
  • Center for OLDest Ice EXploration (COLDEX)
  • Center for Research On Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS)
  • Center for Integration of Modern Optoelectronic Materials on Demand (IMOD)

Class of 2016

Class of 2013

Graduated Centers

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