Overview
The College of Natural Sciences (CNS) Pathways Grants Program is an annual internal funding opportunity open to all CNS tenured, tenure-track and professional-track faculty in CNS seeking to enhance the learning experience for undergraduate students across one or more courses. This program supports projects that align with the CNS strategic plan and have the potential to improve the college’s ability to offer excellent experiences for undergraduate students.
There are several different Pathways Grant opportunities:
- Dean’s Teaching Fellowships support individual faculty seeking to enhance their pedagogical skillset and implement changes to one, or more, of their courses.
- Bridging Impact Grants support individual faculty in developing, assessing, or publishing scholarly projects that demonstrate evidence of impact on undergraduate teaching and learning.
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Collaborative Innovation Grants support groups of faculty working to effect change and improvement of undergraduate learning experiences and success across multiple sections and courses.
Current Faculty
Visit our faculty and staff page to learn about opportunities and apply.
Special Calls
Periodic opportunities targeting specific college-wide initiatives. Stay tuned for upcoming opportunities.
Past Special Calls:
- Career Education Grants (2026) is currently supporting 10 faculty to explor innovative approached to integrate career readiness and professional development into fall 2026 CNS courses.
- AI in Education Grants (2024) supported CNS faculty and staff to explore effective uses of AI in post-secondary education. These efforts culminated in the collaborative e-book Enhancing STEM Higher Education with Artificial Intelligence. STEMx supports other AI in Education initiatives as well.
Past Awardees
STEMx Celebrates 2025 Pathways Awardees
Awards range from creating a chemistry hub to expanding access to product design resources.
STEMx Celebrates 2024 Pathways Awardees
Awards range from improving early neuroscience lab experiences to designing capstone opportunities in integrative biology.
STEMx Celebrates 2023 Pathways Awardees
Twelve Pathways Fellows will be funded to work on six projects over the next two years.
Contact
Additional questions about the Pathways program and proposal preparation and submission should be directed to stemx@cns.utexas.edu.