Building on the foundation grounded in an interdisciplinary and multi-university collaborative research network and research program addressing health-related problems through basic and translational neuroscience, we will develop a comprehensive training and mentoring program that serves both faculty and students. There is a need on the Island to prepare competitive neuroscience researchers, and our program aims to fill this gap with Puerto Rican residents, who represent a considerable part of all authentic Hispanic Americans. Furthermore, due to the current economic situation on the Island, a significant number of our potential trainees come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Thus, creating on the Island a strong and efficient training and mentoring center in neuroscience has the potential to significantly promote workforce diversity in the U.S., which is clearly in accord with the goals of the SNRP. In the core of the program, we will have a group of productive senior faculty employed inside and outside UCC, who will provide mentoring to program participants and, along with others, will oversee training and career development activities. We will select the most promising junior faculty members and students as program participants, provide them with individual mentoring, and monitor their progress. We will work with participants to prepare individual career development plans. This will, include regular presentations both internally and at national and international meetings, placements for research practice experience in research intensive institutions, individual plans for grant proposal submission, and career guidance. Such plans will be worked out cooperatively by a program participant together with his/her mentoring committee and the Enrichment Core leadership. Besides individual mentoring, we will organize 1) expert workshops both on basic skills, such as grant writing and publication preparation, and cutting edge approaches in neuroscience, and 2) lectures, seminars, and career orientation sessions. Although these events, in part, will be targeted to train a small number of participants, they will also include sessions available to the broader neuroscience community as well as students, and thus will serve the neuroscience community of the Island. The details of our Enrichment Program are presented in the Enrichment Core section.
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