42 U.S.C. § 18997 — Microelectronics workforce development activities

(a) Creating helpful initiatives to produce personnel in needed growth industries. (1) The Director must award grants to colleges, nonprofits, or consortia of them, for research, development, and related activities advancing innovative, evidence-based education and workforce development in microelectronics-related fields, at all education levels. (2) These activities must support growing, retaining, and developing a diverse and sustainable microelectronics workforce, to meet the needs of programs established under section 4656(c)(2)(C) of title 15, matching the evolving needs of industry, academia, government, and federal laboratories. (3) Award funds must support activities such as: (A) developing industry-oriented curricula and teaching modules, including hands-on learning experiences; (B) disseminating those materials, including through a publicly accessible database and online portal; (C) developing and running teacher training, research, and professional development programs, including innovative pre-service and in-service programs; (D) supporting physical, simulated, or remote access to training facilities and industry-standard processes and tools, including equipment and software; (E) increasing microelectronics content in STEM curricula at all education levels; (F) growing academic research capacity by incentivizing hiring faculty in fields critical to microelectronics; (G) supporting industry pathway programs connecting high school, vocational, military, college, and graduate programs; and (H) providing informal, hands-on microelectronics learning for PreK-12 students in different settings, including competitions. (4) Advanced microelectronics traineeships. (A) The Director must award grants to colleges or nonprofits (or consortia) to establish traineeship programs for graduate students pursuing microelectronics research toward a master's or doctorate, providing funding, other assistance, and research opportunities in government or industry. (B) This funding must be used for: (i) tuition, fees, and stipends for trainees who are citizens, nationals, or lawful permanent residents; (ii) facilitating microelectronics internships at private industry, nonprofit research institutions, or federal laboratories; and (iii) other program administration costs. (5) Microelectronics skilled technical workforce programs. The Director must award grants under the Scientific and Advanced-Technology Act of 1992 to support STEM skilled-worker programs aligned with the microelectronics industry's workforce needs, leading to an associate's degree or equivalent certification, including internship and hands-on industry opportunities. (6) Microelectronics research experiences through existing programs. The Director must seek to increase microelectronics research opportunities for students and trainees at all levels, by encouraging proposals through existing programs, including: (A) undergraduate research experiences; (B) postdoctoral fellowship programs; (C) graduate fellowships; (D) informal STEM education programs; (E) the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program; (F) major research instrumentation programs; and (G) a low-income scholarship program. (7) Industry partnerships. The Director must encourage awardees to partner with industry and other private sector organizations, to expand workforce pipelines and give students access to industry-standard equipment and software. (8) Interagency coordination. The Director must collaborate with the Subcommittee on Microelectronics Leadership of the National Science and Technology Council, the National Semiconductor Technology Center, and other relevant federal agencies, to keep these workforce development activities effective across agencies. (b) National Network for Microelectronics Education. (1) The Director, coordinating with the Commerce Secretary, must make competitive, merit-reviewed awards to colleges and nonprofits (or consortia) to establish partnerships that enhance and broaden participation in microelectronics education. (2) These awards must be used for: (A) training and education activities, coordinated with a Network Coordination Hub, including curricula design, development, dissemination, assessment, and sharing information and best practices across the network; (B) developing regional partnerships among two-year and four-year colleges, workforce development programs, labor organizations, and industry, to build a diverse national technical workforce and match evolving industry needs; (C) developing local workforce pipelines aligned with industry and federal capacity investments, including vocational and high school training, community college degrees and certificates, veteran opportunities, and mentoring; (D) facilitating partnerships with employers offering apprenticeships, internships, or applied learning experiences; (E) developing shared infrastructure for experiential learning and access to training facilities and industry-standard tools; (F) creating and disseminating public outreach on microelectronics education and career opportunities, including to PreK-12 schools and STEM organizations; and (G) collaborating and coordinating with existing public and private microelectronics education and workforce development efforts. (3) The Director must make a competitive, merit-reviewed award to a college or nonprofit (or consortium) to establish a "National Network for Microelectronics Education," coordinating activities, best practice sharing, and facility access across these partnerships. (4) The Director must, to the extent practicable, encourage participation in this Network by coordinating activities and award distribution described in subsection (a). (5) The Director must encourage proposals led by, or partnered with, historically Black colleges, Tribal Colleges or Universities, and minority-serving institutions, to increase recruitment of students from groups historically underrepresented in STEM into graduate microelectronics studies. (6) The Director must require award proposals to describe how the applicant will develop and implement outreach increasing participation by women and other students from groups historically underrepresented in STEM. (7) The Director must ensure awardees coordinate with, and avoid unnecessary duplication of, related programs like the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, the National Quantum Initiative Act, and Division E of a 2021 defense law, and other related programs, as appropriate. (8) The Director must collaborate with the Subcommittee on Microelectronics Leadership and the National Semiconductor Technology Center.