Two Virginia universities—Radford and Virginia Tech—have received individual $1 million grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to improve their science, technology, education and mathematics (STEM) programs.
A total of 511 schools across the country applied for the grant, and only 24 were selected.
The initiative was publicly announced more than two years ago and schools applied by submitting pre-proposals. The pre-proposals were then reviewed by science and science education experts.
Of the 91 schools invited to apply, only 89 submitted full proposals, which were then evaluated by other science experts who determined the 24 universities and colleges who won the award.
“Through this initiative, HHMI will support colleges and universities that commit to measurably increasing their infrastructure, resources, and expertise to involve undergraduate students in science, resulting in expanded access to excellence for all students, and especially those who belong to the ‘new majority’ in American higher education,” HHMI said in its public announcement. “Our long-term aim is for successful strategies pioneered by the grantee institutions to serve as models to be adapted and adopted by other institutions,”
“This will give our students in introductory science labs, specifically biology, chemistry and physics, unique learning opportunities so that they’ll learn how to solve problems, work together and create new ideas and new knowledge,” said Dr. Orion Rogers, dean of the Artis College of Science and Technology at Radford and is the program director for the university’s grant research team. “So it is a lot like original research with faculty, but it’s a hands-on approach and it’s at the introductory science lab level.”
