Engineering students with financial need at the University of Oklahoma could receive up to $15,000 a year through a new federally funded scholarship program.

The U.S. National Science Foundation awarded OU a $1,998,621 grant to create the Interdisciplinary Mentoring and Pathways for Academic Transitions (IMPACT) Scholars program, the university announced Sept. 1. The program will fund about 24 undergraduates pursuing degrees in biomedical, civil, chemical, and petroleum and geoenergy engineering. Students will come from the Gallogly College of Engineering and the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy.

Two cohorts of roughly 12 students each will enter the program in fall 2027 and fall 2028. Each scholarship lasts up to five years.

The grant runs from January 2027 through December 2032.

Sarah Breen, an associate professor of biomedical engineering in the Gallogly College and the program's principal investigator, said the idea grew out of OU's Engineering Summer Bridge program, a one-month experience for incoming first-year engineering students. That bridge program will provide community-based cohort experiences for IMPACT Scholars as well.

"We see this as both a way to bring in new students who otherwise wouldn't have access, and to support students who are here but financially strained," said Jacob Pleasants, an associate professor of science education in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education and the program's co-principal investigator.

Beyond tuition help, IMPACT will pair scholars with sustained mentoring, research opportunities, career development workshops and cohort-based learning focused on engineering challenges such as sustainability and public health.

Brandon Abbott, director of the Engineering Summer Bridge program and an IMPACT senior team member, said the structure reflects the realities low-income students face. Abbott grew up as a first-generation university student from a low-income household. He said students from those backgrounds do not always have the same options, timelines or access to information that universities assume they do.

The IMPACT team is working to integrate the scholarships into OU's application system for the Class of 2031. A graduate research assistant funded by the grant will track student outcomes over the program's six-year span.

The award arrives as OU reports record enrollment. The university's incoming Class of 2030 totals 6,437 freshmen, the sixth consecutive record-setting class, according to the Journal Record. Twenty-eight percent of those freshmen are first-generation college students, also an OU record.

OU reported that need-based aid has increased 39% and scholarship support for resident undergraduates has risen 38% over the past seven years.

No application deadline or income threshold for the IMPACT scholarships has been published.