Institutionalizing grant-funded interventions: a multiple case study examining long-term investments in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM)

Background context and purpose: Although funding agencies make large investments and encourage program adoption, little is known about the process of institutionalizing grant-funded efforts in higher education. This multiple case study examined how grant-funded awardees of a biomedical training grant worked toward institutionalizing program activities. Cases included 10 diverse postsecondary institutions (368 study participants) across the United States charged with implementing a federal grant aimed at comprehensive and multi-level approaches to engage and retain students from diverse backgrounds in biomedical research. Findings: Employing prior frameworks on institutionalization in higher education, we examined how embedded campus agents appealed to two determinants of institutionalization: compatibility and mutualism. We identified institutional resources as an additional determinant. Compatibility is most commonly sought after as early as the grant proposal stage, while agents typically appealed to mutualism in the later stage of implementation. Institutional resources are sought throughout all stages of the grant. Within each determinant, we describe strategies and tools that embedded agents use to facilitate long-term institutionalization of grant-funded efforts. We also describe common challenges sites faced as they worked to obtain compatibility, mutualism, and resources. Conclusions: Leaders of postsecondary science training initiatives who aim to institutionalize efforts can utilize a variety of strategies to enhance compatibility, mutually shared benefits, and committed resources to continue, embed, and/or scale the original initiative. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40594-026-00620-3.