A US$5.9-million expansion of a National Science Foundation (NSF) programme aims to develop reliable career pathways in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) for people in under-represented minority groups, who comprise 8% of faculty appointments at 4-year US academic institutions. The Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate programme will provide funding to 14 universities to address issues, policies and practices that limit the advancement of people from these groups in academic science. Among the concerns that the NSF wants to address are the difficulties that people from minority groups have in navigating career transitions, such as from graduate student to postdoc and postdoc to faculty. Funded universities will collaborate on improving the advancement and retention of women of colour in faculty posts, increasing the success rate of under-represented-minority postdocs seeking STEM faculty posts and improving the experience of PhD students presenting their dissertations. The NSF offers both a Graduate Research Fellowship and a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.