Tribal and Native-serving colleges and universities offer rigorous programs in STEM education and sponsor research responsive to their communities. The TCUP Hub seeks to enhance and promote these efforts.

Founded in 2025, the TCUP Hub supports the growth and development of STEM within tribally controlled and other Native-serving colleges eligible for support from the National Science Foundation’s Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP).

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Hub sponsors activities that strengthen teaching, support development of new academic programs, build research capacity, and nurture partnerships with federal agencies and mainstream universities. In these and other ways, the TCUP Hub works to expand educational opportunities for students, build local economies, and empower Native nations.

The Role of STEM in Native nations

STEM is now the most dynamic part of the tribal college curriculum. Our member colleges and universities offer two-year, four-year and—increasingly—graduate degree programs in such diverse fields as advanced manufacturing, behavioral sciences, cyber security, and marine biology. Additionally, many institutions now host their own multi-million dollar interdisciplinary research centers. These NSF-funded “Tribal Enterprise Advancement Centers” investigate environmental, economic, and cultural issues critical to the development of their local communities. 

Collaboration is our strength

Based at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota, the Hub is led by a team of  educators, administrators, and researchers with decades of experience in tribal and Native higher education.

The Hub’s true strength, however, comes from the talent and expertise found within its member colleges and universities. Although most TCUP Hub institutions are small, they collectively hold a deep reservoir of practical experience. Building on a long tradition of mutual support within the tribal college movement, the Hub serves as a facilitator—a point of connection—by providing opportunities for faculty and administrators from more than three dozen colleges to share what they have learned about the hard work of conducting research, teaching students, and starting new degree programs in rural and under-resourced communities.

Origins of the Hub

The TCUP Hub is a new project with a long history. Its origins can be found in a series of NSF-funded workshops and professional development seminars developed in the early 2000s for  institutions with active NSF-TCUP awards. These periodic meetings eventually grew into an annual “Leaders’ Forum,” where principal investigators gathered to discuss projects, learn about new grants, meet with NSF program staff, and (of nearly equal importance) find inspiration from like-minded colleagues. Concurrently, NSF-TCUP provided funding for the development of Native Science Report, an online journal reporting on trends in STEM education within tribal and Native-serving colleges. Collectively, this work helped build a strong and supportive community of STEM educators.

What we offer

The Hub continues this tradition of collaboration and information-sharing, but also offers much more, including:

• Workshops (both in-person and virtual) on proposal writing, grant management, trends in federal funding, as well as professional development on topics ranging from AI to best practices in student academic support
• Special Interest Groups (SIGs) organized around the interest of our constituency. Several groups are now active, and more are forming.
• Rapid Response Teams, providing consultation and support at critical moments, such as the loss of a PI, or turnover within an institution’s leadership. Consultants are frequently from within the TCUP community.
• Faculty fellowships with the NSF and other relevant federal agencies on a short-term basis with the onsite component scheduled during the summer months if possible.
• Shared courses, allowing institutions to expand their STEM curriculum at little cost
• Faculty  and student exchanges, providing opportunities for collaborative research at partnering universities.
• White papers on significant trends affecting the work of tribal colleges and Native-serving institutions

In these and other ways, the Hub supports capacity-building, nurtures professional relationships, and helps its member institutions navigate the increasingly complex landscape of federal grant-making.

Room for all

Originally, NSF-TCUP Leaders’ Forums were limited to institutions with active TCUP awards. However, the TCUP Hub invites the involvement of all TCUP-eligible institutions, including those that do not currently have an NSF award. Faculty who work in any discipline eligible for NSF funding, including the social sciences, are welcome.

How to get involved

We greatly encourage your participation. If you are not currently on our mailing list, sign up for news and notifications of upcoming events. If you have an idea for a workshop, Special Interest Group, or other activity, please let me know.

On behalf of the Hub leadership team and our distinguished advisory board, I want to thank you for your vital work, and I look forward to working with you.

Scott Morgan, Director