Federal funding is being directed toward Indigenous students in post-secondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, but it is concentrated at the graduate level, modest in scale, and not part of a single federal program specifically targeting Indigenous undergraduate STEM enrolment. The most directly responsive program is the Indigenous Scholars Awards and Supplements Pilot Initiative, launched in September 2022 by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), which top up CGS-M awards for Indigenous applicants in NSE, health, and social science disciplines. NSERC also delivers the Indigenous Student Ambassadors (NISA) program and PromoScience grants that support Indigenous engagement in STEM. The Interdepartmental Indigenous Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (I-STEM) Cluster, established in December 2019 and now covering 15 federal departments and agencies, coordinates federal STEM activity related to Indigenous Peoples, including a stated goal to attract more Indigenous youth into university STEM programs, although it is a coordination body rather than a student funding stream.
Beyond STEM-specific programming, federal funding flows to Indigenous post-secondary students more generally through Indigenous Services Canada’s Post-Secondary Student Support Program (PSSSP), the distinctions-based Indigenous post-secondary education strategies funded through Budget 2019 ($814.9 million over ten years), and federal matching support to Indspire’s Building Brighter Futures bursary program through Employment and Social Development Canada’s Supports for Student Learning Program. Indigenous students enrolled in STEM disciplines benefit from these general supports, but the supports are not directed to STEM as Call 17 specifies. Status is recorded as Active (Partial) because there is responsive activity that meets the literal terms of the Call but it is small in scale relative to the size of the gap, weighted toward graduate study, and not built around an overarching federal commitment to Indigenous STEM enrolment.
