National efforts to boost minority participation in the STEM disciplines have resulted in modest increases in doctoral recipients in science and engineering and national reports continue to highlight the urgency to increase the numbers of underrepresented minorities in scientific fields. This project will link the resources of three professional societies to develop innovative initiatives that will address the recruitment of undergraduate students from under-represented groups into graduate programs in integrative biological organismal fields and focus on the retention of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers from under-represented groups in integrative biological organismal fields. The initiatives concentrate on key transitions of the educational pathway, advanced undergraduates, early graduate students (within the first two years of graduate school), and the progression of post-doctoral researchers into faculty careers. This approach is innovative in that it addresses the URM individuals in biology across the entire educational pathway rather than treating each stage and transition in isolation. The three societies involved in this project are the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), the Leadership Alliance Program (TLA), and the American Physiological Society (APS). Over 1,000 individuals from under-represented groups will be directly impacted by the activities of this grant. More than 300 individuals from non-minority groups will also benefit from the activities in this project. Most importantly, a supportive community of faculty, administrators and staff committed to broadening participation in integrative biological will be developed.
