The College of Natural Sciences Catalyst Grants program is a College of Natural Sciences internal funding mechanism meant to inspire new interdisciplinary research collaborations in high-impact, emerging fields that will seed efforts to secure major external funding.

The Convergent Incubator program connects founders with engineers, designers, and business analysts needed to take ventures to the next level. Founders work with a technical project manager, a designer, and a team of engineers to build, add features, and scale the product. In unison, our team of business analysts set founders up for success in raising capital. We partner with organizations like Genesis to streamline the process for funding.

Annual grant for one faculty member to explore an industry related to their area of research with the goal of discovering near-term commercialization opportunities. Over a 12-month period, the faculty member receives a $30,000+ grant to lead a team consisting of a graduate student, undergraduate researchers / market analysts, and paired with an Industry Guide to support their efforts.

The E. Craig Nemec Elevator Challenge Award is a $1,000 prize given to the presenters of the top three elevator pitches at the Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition. The award is named after Edward Craig Nemec, who began his entrepreneurial pursuits while completing his business degree at UT. Over the next 25 years, he grew it into the commercial real estate firm Pearson Group Capital Management, owners and operators of office and industrial properties.

We are a full-service podcasting production house that gives students from across the campus a chance to build high-quality, long-form podcasts. Our first podcast, "The Orange Tree," was a true-crime story that has exceeded 4.5 million listens. We have multiple other podcasts in production. We are open to working on projects with entities across the campus to tell your stories for a mass audience. We are working with Planet Texas, a UT research consortium, on a podcast about climate change.

The KS WEL Institute hosts monthly EmpowHER Hours for the UT community. EmpowHER hours help equip and empower our students through 1-hour presentations presented by UT Austin Alumnae. In the past, EmpowHER Hour topics ranged from Picking a Team, Interview Tips, Women in Consulting, Finding a Mentor, Investing Basics, Personal Branding, etc. You can sign up to attend EmpowHER Hours by visiting KS WEL Institute website!

Our 4-module bootcamp helps undergraduate students learn an entrepreneurial approach to work and life. Topics include "Information Overload: How to Make Effective Decisions in Complex Environments," "Ideation: How Entrepreneurs Generate Compelling Ideas," "Customer Discovery: How to Pressure Test Your Ideas," and "Present Like an Entrepreneur: How to Pitch Yourself & Your Ideas."

The Entrepreneurship Minor teaches students how to become innovative leaders and make meaningful impact in their communities. Our curriculum requires students to learn fundamental skills in ideation creation, business plans, marketing, pitching, and product development. In summary, students learn how to plan and launch new projects, products and startups.

The mentor program instills a mentorship component that integrates professionals with current undergraduate students at UT Austin who are eager to learn more about professional development, entrepreneurial empathy, business planning, networking, and managing uncertainty. This mentor program is designed to enable student participants to proactively connect with both local and extended professionals, and discover feedback and insight into the startup community from seasoned professionals across the country.

Eureka is a searchable database supporting undergraduate participation in research and creative activity across The University of Texas at Austin. Students can find faculty members who regularly work on a given topic using the "Faculty" search, or browse a listing of posted research assistantships with the "Projects" search. All faculty members are encouraged to update their profiles regularly and post projects to better connect with students.