Promoting STEM Education and Youth Entrepreneurship | STEM ENT FY24 ARM 8

Opportunity Information: Apply for STEM ENT FY24 ARM 8

The "Promoting STEM Education and Youth Entrepreneurship" funding opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number: STEM ENT FY24 ARM 8) is a U.S. Mission to Armenia Public Diplomacy grant designed to strengthen Armenias economic resiliency and inclusive economic growth by expanding STEM learning tied to entrepreneurship, and by giving young Armenians practical tools to start and grow ventures. The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan frames this work as part of a broader goal of supporting a secure, prosperous, democratic Armenia that is more integrated with the Euro-Atlantic community. A major theme throughout the opportunity is bringing U.S. models, expertise, and partnerships into Armenian universities and the wider startup ecosystem, with a particular emphasis on the growing importance of Armenias IT and innovation sectors.

The opportunity is structured as a cooperative agreement and is intentionally written broadly to encourage creative program designs, but it clearly defines two separate projects applicants may propose around. Each project has its own ceiling and objectives, and both are meant to build capacity at the individual level (students, young entrepreneurs) and at the institutional level (universities, incubators, networks, and partnerships). The Embassy highlights the long-term labor market argument for this investment: STEM jobs are expected to grow faster than non-STEM jobs, so building STEM capability and connecting it to entrepreneurial problem solving is positioned as urgent and economically strategic.

Project 1, titled "U.S.-Armenia Higher Education Partnership in STEM and Social Entrepreneurship," has a project ceiling of USD 300,000. Its core purpose is to create a higher education collaboration that blends the technical rigor of STEM with entrepreneurship training, with 2024 priority attention on social entrepreneurship. In this context, social entrepreneurship is described as using for-profit business models and entrepreneurial approaches to produce measurable positive impact on social problems. The Embassy is looking for proposals that create active collaboration among universities, students, and the startup ecosystem, and that incorporate a U.S. perspective through a linkage with a U.S. higher education partner. The expectation is not just classroom learning but applied, hands-on experiences that help participants move from ideas to viable ventures and career-ready skills.

Project 1 proposals are expected to include two main activity components. The first is a "STEM for Social Good" incubator or StartUp Lab for Armenian undergraduate students, built around STEM and entrepreneurship projects aimed at addressing social issues in Armenia. This lab can be structured as a course, a summer mini-program, or another practical format, but it should provide resources, mentorship, and real opportunity to develop ideas into social enterprises, drawing on U.S. expertise and models. The second component is a Certificate in Social Entrepreneurship (suggested at 9 to 12 credit hours), aimed at graduate students and/or early career or aspiring entrepreneurs, and designed to equip participants to apply STEM learning, technology, and innovation to entrepreneurship initiatives, including social enterprises. The notice suggests subject areas like financial and resource management, social entrepreneurship skills, and design thinking, while leaving room for institutions to propose the most relevant curriculum for Armenias needs.

The stated objectives for Project 1 focus on strengthening Armenias higher education sector by integrating U.S. best practices and standards into STEM and social entrepreneurship education; expanding access to U.S. expertise and models by embedding entrepreneurship principles into STEM-related training; and providing broad training across STEM and social entrepreneurship concepts that helps undergraduates, graduate students, and aspiring entrepreneurs build practical skills and advance either a venture or a career pathway. The primary audiences are Armenian undergraduate and graduate students, plus early career aspiring entrepreneurs. Applicants are also required to include a monitoring and evaluation plan with clear output and outcome indicators, including baselines, targets, data sources, and data collection frequency, aimed at showing progress toward the proposals strategic objectives.

Project 2, titled "Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills for Armenian Youth," has a project ceiling of USD 175,000. It targets youth entrepreneurship more directly, emphasizing rural communities and inclusion of displaced persons and women entrepreneurs. The overall goal is to strengthen Armenias economic resiliency by nurturing innovation and entrepreneurial skills among young people, especially those who may have fewer opportunities or face barriers to participation. Proposals under this project are expected to reflect a serious commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, with attention to gender balance and participation from underrepresented and vulnerable groups.

Unlike Project 1, Project 2 offers a menu of suggested activities rather than fixed required components, but the direction is clear: applicants should propose programming that reaches scale and builds practical entrepreneurial capacity. Example activities include a youth-focused entrepreneurship competition or capacity-building initiative serving roughly 300 Armenian youths (generally ages 18 to 30, though the priority audience section also references ages 16 to 30), including displaced persons and women from rural areas, and encouraging solutions with sustainable social impact. Suggested formats include pitch competitions, hackathons, or other skill-building models focused on entrepreneurship and/or social entrepreneurship. The project also encourages building an entrepreneurs network to support peer learning, skill transfer, and resource sharing, especially among teams working on societal challenges. A final suggested pathway is creating a new partnership connecting U.S. and Armenian entrepreneurial ecosystems, such as linkages between hubs, incubators, training programs, or problem-solving competitions, specifically to bring U.S. innovation practices and entrepreneurial approaches to Armenian youth.

Project 2 objectives emphasize building entrepreneurship skills among youth, displaced persons, and women entrepreneurs from rural communities; expanding understanding and adoption of U.S. expertise in innovation, design thinking, and entrepreneurship; and creating new U.S.-Armenia ecosystem partnerships that increase local capacity to train and support aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly around creative problem solving and social innovation. Priority audiences are youth and aspiring entrepreneurs (especially rural) ages 16 to 30, displaced persons, and women. Secondary audiences include Armenian startups and the business community, with special interest in social entrepreneurship and sustainable business models. Monitoring and evaluation is again required, with specific examples of expected data collection such as participant demographics, interviews designed to capture the most significant changes participants experienced, and follow-up surveys at least three months after the project ends to see whether participants are applying what they learned. Interview confidentiality expectations are explicitly noted, and success-story interview summaries are expected to be translated into English.

Eligibility spans not-for-profit organizations (including think tanks and NGOs) from Armenia and the United States, higher education institutions from both countries, and foreign public entities based in Armenia. The agency is the U.S. Mission to Armenia, the activity category is listed as "Other" under CFDA 19.900, and the opportunity originally listed a closing date of 2024-03-28. Overall, the grant is geared toward proposals that demonstrate credible capacity to deliver training at scale, establish durable U.S.-Armenia institutional ties, and show measurable outcomes for participants, whether the focus is university-based STEM-to-entrepreneurship pathways (Project 1) or broader youth entrepreneurship development and ecosystem building (Project 2).

• The U.S. Mission to Armenia in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Promoting STEM Education and Youth Entrepreneurship" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.900.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-02-08.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-03-28. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $300,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 3 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for STEM ENT FY24 ARM 8

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