Aligned with the goals above, the ITYC program features two tracks: (1) A Focus on the Academic Experiences of Two-Year College Students and (2) Leveraging Two-Year College Strengths and Innovation. Each Track can support projects requesting up to $500,000 for a duration of up to three years.  For institutions that have not received NSF funding in the past five years, an additional $100,000 may be added to the budget which may be used by the institution to support and carry out grant-funded activities over four years.  This would result in a total maximum budget of $600,000 for a project over four years.   Institutions that have been funded as part of a collaborative award with their own NSF Award Number are not eligible for this incentive, however, institutions that have had a subaward from another institution are eligible.

This program is open to two-year colleges, which includes the following institutions, as described by Carnegie Classifications:

• Associate’s Colleges:  Institutions at which the highest-level degree awarded is an associate degree.  This may include transfer as well a career and technical oriented colleges.
• Baccalaureate / Associate’s Colleges:  Institutions that award at least one baccalaureate degree but confer at least 50% of their degrees at the associate level.

The ITYC program is aligned with NSF's Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) framework, which is a comprehensive effort to accelerate improvements in the quality and effectiveness of undergraduate education in STEM fields.