The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the largest source of biomedical research funding in the United States, cut a $60 million program based around inclusive STEM education in February 2025.
The Wellesley College HHMI Inclusive Excellence Initiative funded various STEM and community-building programs, including the Change Agent program, which provided faculty training around “diversity, equity, access, and belonging in STEM fields.” Other programs included internships in STEM departments to increase mentoring opportunities for students, as well as STEM-focused conferences and workshops.
On Feb. 5, 2025, awardees of the HHMI Inclusive Excellence (IE) Initiative at 104 institutions, including Wellesley College, received emails from HHMI informing them that the program would end immediately. This meant that institutions that were promised multi-year grant awards no longer had access to further funding.
HHMI launched the Inclusive Excellence Program in 2017 to address obstacles that prevent underrepresented groups from succeeding in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The initiative funded 57 institutions total in its first two five-year cohorts and 104 institutions in its third cohort. In 2018, as part of the initiative’s second cohort, Wellesley College received $1 million for the September 2018 to September 2022 period.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many funded programs were not executed as scheduled, resulting in leftover funds near the end of the five-year timeline. In May 2023, the College submitted a two-year no-cost extension request to HHMI, asking to spend the remaining funds over the following two years. The request was approved, moving the end of the grant period to February 2025.
Near the end of that two-year period, on Feb. 5, 2025, the HHMI organization told all its IE grantees that it had “decided to bring the Inclusive Excellence program to a close.” The communication directed all grantees with any remaining funds in their IE grant to use those funds for “charitable and educational activities consistent with your institution’s tax-exempt status and applicable law.”
By May 2023, much of Wellesley’s remaining HHMI funds had been spent. The remaining amount was redirected to other College initiatives, under the direction of the Provost’s Office, consistent with the HHMI-provided guidance.
“We were fortunate to be able to extend an originally 5-year grant to nearly seven years of support for inclusive excellence efforts at the College,” said Professor Oscar Fernandez, who was the grant advisor for the HHMI-Wellesley Initiative.
Professor Fernandez emphasized the importance of keeping aspects of this program alive in College departments.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” said Fernandez. “There’s always a way to find funding internally at the college for these important and impactful programs.”
Contact the editor in responsible for this article: Noufeesa Yahyaoui
