The University of Arizona (UA) seeks to continue and expand the effective implementation of a comprehensive training program to increase the number of underrepresented minority students (URMs) who enter and successfully complete doctoral degrees in the biomedical sciences and pursue biomedical research careers. In this grant, we propose 1) to increase the number of URM graduate students enrolled in 16 participating UA Ph.D. programs to 12 students per year or 60 in the 5 years of the grant, and ensure that 90% of them complete the Ph.D.; 2) to enlarge the pool of UA URM undergraduates who have the grades, research experience, preparation and motivation to enter biomedical Ph.D. programs to 12 per year or 60 in the 5 years of the grant, with the expectation that 60% of them will directly enter a Ph.D. program upon completion of the bachelor's degree; 3) to increase our understanding of the motivational, psychological and other factors that allow our IMSD graduate students to consistently maintain a lead in the completion of their Ph.D., compared to other graduate students not in the IMSD program in each of the participating 16 UA biomedical Ph.D. programs; 4) to develop online modules and podcasts to help URM IMSD Ph.D. students improve their understanding of biomedical science, learn allied skills, and develop teaching skills, thus further preparing them for an academic or research career, in partnership with Brown University; 5) to identify best practices on mentoring of URM undergraduate and graduate students by convening a group of exemplary MORE Division program directors and writing a manuscript, in partnership with the University of New Mexico IMSD program.
Acknowledging and supporting NIH's powerful and compelling role in broadening the participation of the underrepresented in the biomedical sciences research workforce, the main goals of the University of Arizona's IMSD proposal are to increase the number of underrepresented minority students (URM) in biomedical sciences that graduate from Ph.D. programs and go to pursue careers in biomedical research, strengthening the pipeline of URM undergraduates who are well prepared to enter Ph.D. programs, and to change the climate of biomedical departments to increase the number of tenure-track URM faculty at the University of Arizona.
