Announcing Our First Round of U.S. STEM Grants
U.S. STEM Immigration Grantee Spotlight
The Talent Mobility Fund (TMF) is a philanthropic fund. Our thesis is that it is possible to increase the ability of talent to move to opportunity by uptake of existing pathways like the O-1A, J-1, EU student visa, Japan Special Skilled Worker visa, and others. The fund has two tracks: U.S. STEM Immigration and Global Mobility. Since our launch in March, we’ve received dozens of high-quality applications. We are excited to announce our first round of U.S. STEM grants focused on increasing the number of scientists and technical talent who are able to come or stay in the United States.
Collaboration with IIE and the Council on International Educational Exchange to increase awareness and use of the J-1 Research visa category, an uncapped pathway for researchers to spend up to 5 years living and working in the United States. They launched a new informational website this week: ResearcherUSA.com, and are close to launching a matchmaking site for employers and researchers.
Conducting a study on whether implementation of the O-1A, STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) and National Interest Waiver (NIW) guidance announced in 2022 has been fully implemented by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), whether new or more training of USCIS staff is needed, and what barriers remain for fulsome agency implementation of STEM talent policies, including impacts to parallel policies, such as those for the EB-1A green card.
Scale up of a customer-focused software product for O-1A and EB-1A visa preparation. Education of individuals and companies on alternate visa pathways beyond the H-1B visa. They have achieved over 100 O-1A approvals and their goal is to complete an additional 725 O-1A and EB-1A petitions by the end of the year.
Production of resources and work with university leadership to educate non-citizen students and alumni on alternate pathways to pursue employment in the U.S. post-graduation. They launched an online resource hub this summer: www.higheredimmigrationportal.org/lptw/.
Prototyping and launching O-1A Pathways, an AI-driven eligibility checker for O-1A status which will also provide suggestions on how O-1 aspirants can enhance their qualification.
Building a screening tool for non-citizen university students and graduates. The tool will initially focus on H-1B visa eligibility and D-3 waiver needs, educating applicants about U.S. employment-based visa options.
Increasing adoption of the J-1 Researcher Visa through marketing efforts and direct sponsorship of visas. Cultural Vistas is on track to sponsor 150 J-1 Research scholars by June 2025.
Creating an International Student Retention National Peer Learning Cohort. The Cohort will bring together leaders of international student retention programs to learn from peers about underused pathways.
Acknowledgments and Call for Ideas
The Talent Mobility Fund is an initiative of Renaissance Philanthropy. We are grateful for funding from Open Philanthropy, Eric and Wendy Schmidt, the Livelihood Impact Fund, and Founder’s Pledge members. If you are interested in supporting the fund, send a note to diane@talentmobility.fund.
A group of expert advisors helped to evaluate grants. They include Parth Ahya, Jeff Alstott, Fanta Aw, Lawrence S. Bacow, Amanda Baran, William Kerr, Leo Rafael Reif, Rajat Suri, Julia Willemyns, and Lisa Zieger. A number of informal advisors played a key role in inspiring and shaping the fund and its early grants. They include Caleb Watney, Kumar Garg, Dan Berger, and Jonathan Grode.
We are still looking for good ideas to fund! Apply with your idea here.
All very inspiring!