The Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland, has announced that it will award grants totaling $65 million over five years to help research universities improve the persistence of students studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines and reinvigorate their introductory science courses.

HHMI has invited more than two hundred universities to apply for grants of up to $2.5 million and expects to announce as many as thirty-five awards in the spring of 2014. The program complements two other initiatives launched by HHMI that are focused on investing in the best science education programs at leading research universities.

The objective behind all three initiatives is to help research universities address critical challenges in undergraduate science education. According to David Asai, senior director in science education at HHMI, one challenge looms particularly large: how to keep students engaged in STEM studies. "We know that many of the students who transfer out of STEM majors perform well in other disciplines," said Asai. "But they describe the teaching methods and atmosphere in introductory STEM classes as ineffective and uninspiring. We want to help change that."