The goal of these grants is to sustain robotics programs in underserved communities, facilitate recent start-up teams, and encouraging teams engaging in STEM outreach. Successful applications will address a diverse socio-economic school environment; increased student engagement in STEM education through FIRST Robotics; commitment to the development of student teams; recruitment of volunteer mentors; designing and building of remote-controlled robots; and, participation in one of the Kansas City FIRST Regional Competitions or one of the FIRST Tech Challenge Qualifiers in the Kansas City area.
Examples of allowable expenses and activities include: team registration for competitions and tournament fees, team travel expenses, materials or tools required by the team in order to construct their robot, stipends for coaches or mentors, outreach expenses including costs associated with recruiting students and increasing parental and community support for the program.