Attracting undergraduates to science is an ongoing challenge, particularly for small liberal-arts institutions that lack access to federal research dollars. But once they engage students, smaller schools focused on teaching create a surprisingly strong source of scientists for graduate schools. In April, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), a non-profit philanthropic biomedical organization, announced a grant of $60 million to be split between 48 such undergraduate institutions to create innovative ways to engage students in the biological sciences.

Although this funding programme has been in place since 1988, Peter Bruns, HHMI vice-president for grants and special programmes, says that the focus this year has been on diversity. Bruns says that the HHMI specifically sought to capture a mix of ethnic, gender and academic backgrounds in this year's awardees. More than one-quarter were first-time HHMI grantees. And to bolster the number of historically black colleges receiving HHMI monies, which has declined in recent years, the institute held a pre-competition workshop to review proposal particulars. Five historically black colleges were funded.

One of those was North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in Durham. At present, only 5% of NCCU's students major in science. With HHMI funds, NCCU will craft summer lab-based research programmes for middle and high schools, and link them to its existing undergraduate research and mentoring opportunities. “We will pave a 10-plus-year path from middle school to college and graduate professional schools,” says Gail Hollowell, the university's HHMI programme co-director.

In a bid to reverse a recent 20% to 15% dip in science majors, Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, is using its HHMI funds to capitalize on regional assets that introduce students to real-world scientific challenges. It has devised 'science and society' seminar courses and symposia featuring executives from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

Bruns says that the HHMI funding has an added bonus: awardees comprise a de facto network. Meetings of HHMI programme directors from different schools are often the genesis for additional grants. For example, Davidson College in North Carolina received additional HHMI funds to put in place a full-service microarray data-analysis infrastructure — allowing fellow undergraduate colleges to conduct high-tech experiments at lower cost.