The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has announced grants totaling nearly $5 million to bolster equitable pathways into STEM graduate study for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students.

Twenty grants were awarded in support of partnerships between Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and other educational institutions to build, expand, or enhance effective, equitable pathways into STEM graduate study. According to the foundation, although MSIs account for a large share of the undergraduate STEM degrees granted to Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students, many remain underresourced and under-invested in, contributing to disparities in STEM infrastructure, graduate education offerings, and research opportunities for their students and faculty, as compared to their predominately white institutional counterparts.

Grants will support both direct (i.e., guaranteed admissions or dual-enrollment opportunities) and indirect (i.e., research opportunities and application support) means. Recipients include Spelman College, Tuskegee University, Diné College, and the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley.

“This is an exciting new chapter in the Sloan Foundation’s long history of supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the sciences and engineering,” said Sloan Foundation president Adam F. Falk. “We're proud to be investing in new and existing partnerships between MSIs and graduate programs across the country in an effort to strengthen graduate pathways that have too often shut out talented Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o students.”

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