National Science Foundation Awards UW Tacoma $1.5 Million for Phase Two of ACCESS in STEM Program

The U.S. National Science Foundation, a major source of basic science research funding for American colleges and universities, has announced it will fund UW Tacoma’s ACCESS in STEM phase 2 program with a $1.5 million grant over the next seven years.

ACCESS in STEM is a multi-faceted program including student scholarships, mentoring, research participation and an optional on-campus STEM living/learning community. (STEM is an acronym standing for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It is often used as a short-hand way of referring to natural science and technology-based disciplines and careers.)

NSF funded an earlier phase at UW Tacoma that launched in 2018. Since then, four cohorts of students have received support and participated in research projects ranging from research on air pollution in Tacoma neighborhoods, to synthesizing novel drugs to treat the common cold and neglected diseases, to salmon habitat restoration planning.

The Phase 2 program represents an expansion on the first phase. Additional eligible majors will be added (see list above), first-year transfer students (fewer than 45 college credits) will be eligible to apply, and the definition of “low-income” will be broadened to include students in the “middle zone.” “These are students who are not quite eligible for federal Pell support, but who are still financially needy,” said EC Cline, associate professor in Science & Mathematics and the director of the ACCESS in STEM program at UW Tacoma.