Over the past several years the investigators involved in the application provided a one-month enrichment experience to small groups of underrepresented minority graduate students in neuroscience, including many women, at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. The workshops included an opportunity to attend the initial month of lectures in one of the NIH-funded courses in neuroscience; small group research seminars led by workshop faculty, visiting speakers, and members of the MBL community; discussions on issues of specific relevance to minorities and women; and explicit training in such academic survival skills as writing, oral communication, teaching, obtaining funding, seeking and retaining employment, and responsible conduct in science. This proposal seeks to (1) significantly increase the number of trainees that can participate in this series, (2) improve the quality of training program through the addition of faculty, improvement of the curriculum, and purchase of a small amount of equipment, and (3) disseminate this training more broadly.
