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
Current Special Calls:
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Career Education Innovation Grants. The Office of STEM Education Excellence (STEMx) is now accepting proposals for grants exploring innovative approaches to integrating career readiness and professional development into CNS courses. Grant proposals can be submitted until November 6th. Awardees will be provided a $3000 honorarium for their contributions to undergraduate education. Full details of the grant, selection criteria, and expectations can be found on the Career Education Innovation Grants Overview.
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AI in Education Grants (2026–2027). STEMx is pleased to announce a special call to support CNS faculty and staff who would like to explore, assess, and share effective uses of AI in undergraduate teaching and learning. Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis through January 2027, for implementation during the 2026–2027 academic year, as early as fall 2026. Full details of the grant, selection criteria, and expectations can be found on the AI in Education Grants Overview.
Past Special Calls:
- 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.