President Donald Trump announced a $100 million initiative to train American STEM researchers at a White House summit on Thursday, 28 June 2026.
The initiative includes reviving the National Science Foundation’s Young Scholars program with $30 million federal funding and an additional $50 million from private investors such as Jane Street. Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said the investment would help keep America at the forefront of scientific discovery.
The push comes as the administration tightened visa restrictions, with the Department of Homeland Security proposing a $70,000 fee for foreign students seeking a postgraduate work visa and an extra $30,000 for STEM extensions. This crackdown has already cut admissions to PhD programs by 15%, and international students—who comprised nearly 40% of science and engineering PhDs last year—have seen their numbers dwindle.
The funding also addresses a broader shortfall in federal support for research institutions: MIT lost roughly 20% of its federal grants this year, while Johns Hopkins saw a 45% drop. In addition, the administration announced $100 million in compute credits for the Department of Energy to advance AI research, underscoring a strategic emphasis on artificial intelligence.
Trump will also award tech leaders Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, Jensen Huang and Lisa Su at the summit, signaling a partnership with industry. The administration plans to roll out the new funding framework next month, with a priority review of NIH early‑career researcher positions to counter the loss of more than 10,000 STEM PhDs in the first year of the Trump administration.