El Paso, Texas - The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded nearly $3 million to support the launch of the S-STEM Hub: Translating Undergraduate Success into Graduate Opportunity, a five-year national collaborative research initiative that will investigate how colleges and universities can strengthen graduate STEM pathways for low-income students. The project is scheduled to begin in October 2026.
The Hub will bring together researchers from research-intensive universities across the country to conduct collaborative, multi-institutional research examining how institutional practices, undergraduate experiences, and organizational environments influence graduate aspirations, readiness, and post-baccalaureate pathways. The initiative will also strengthen institutional research capacity and translate findings into evidence-informed practices that can be adapted by colleges and universities nationwide.
The project is led by Dr. Jesús Cisneros, Principal Investigator, and Dr. Azuri González, Co-Principal Investigator, at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities (HSRU). They are joined by Co-Principal Investigators Dr. Assata Zerai (The University of New Mexico), Dr. Igor Paprotny (University of Illinois Chicago), and Dr. Vanessa E. Woods (University of California, Santa Barbara), who collectively bring expertise in higher education, STEM education, institutional transformation, interdisciplinary research, and collaborative network development.
Rather than examining individual programs in isolation, the Hub will investigate how institutional ecosystems—including advising, mentoring, undergraduate research, transfer pathways, professional development, and other student support strategies—shape graduate STEM pathways. Through comparative research conducted across multiple research-intensive universities, the Hub will identify institutional practices that are broadly transferable while recognizing those that depend upon institutional context.
"Graduate opportunity is shaped not only by individual programs, but by the broader institutional environments in which students learn, conduct research, and prepare for their futures," said Dr. Jesús Cisneros, Principal Investigator. "The S-STEM Hub creates an unprecedented opportunity for researchers to work collaboratively across institutions to better understand those conditions and generate evidence that strengthens graduate pathways for students nationwide."
"One of the HSRU's greatest strengths is our ability to bring research-intensive universities together around questions that no single institution can answer alone," said Dr. Azuri González, Executive Director of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities and Co-Principal Investigator. "By studying graduate pathways collaboratively across institutions, we can generate richer evidence, learn from one another's experiences, and translate that knowledge into practices that strengthen opportunity not only for our institutions, but for higher education more broadly."
The Hub builds upon the collaborative infrastructure of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities while intentionally engaging a broader national community of researchers, institutional leaders, and higher education partners. Through annual convenings, collaborative research teams, comparative institutional studies, and dissemination activities, the Hub will create a national learning community dedicated to strengthening graduate STEM opportunity for low-income students.
Findings from the project will be shared through scholarly publications, conferences, implementation resources, and national partnerships to support institutional improvement and inform graduate education policy and practice.
About the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities (HSRU)
The Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities (HSRU) is a national network of research-intensive universities committed to advancing research excellence, graduate opportunity, student success, and institutional collaboration. Through multi-institutional partnerships and collaborative initiatives, the Alliance works to address shared challenges and expand opportunity across higher education.
