NeuroGRAD@UPR- Neuroscience Graduate, Resilience, Affirmation and Diversity Program at the University of Puerto Rico

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Summary The Neuroscience Graduate, Resilience, Affirmation and Diversity Program at the University of Puerto Rico (NeuroGRAD@UPR) has the mission to successfully impact, educate, train, and develop a new cadre of promising underrepresented minority (URM) neuroscience graduate students within our premier Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in collaboration with top-notch neuroscience research institutions. It is important to clearly state that the NeuroGRAD program’s aspiration is to broaden, improve and facilitate the research experience/project of its scholars. The NeuroGRAD program will provide the students with resources to be able to expand his/her research project, be it by additional training in techniques, access to specialized equipment and other possible challenges that the student might face during his/her doctoral career. After completing the two years as NeuroGRAD scholars, students will still be eligible to participate in program enrichment activities, short courses, or brief internships in their collaborator’s laboratories. The NeuroGRAD program will offer an outstanding opportunity to grow the pipeline of trainees from diverse backgrounds who will succeed in PhD programs in the Neurosciences. Six doctoral programs in two different campuses of the UPR (Rio Piedras and Medical School) will be impacted by the proposed research plan. To prepare scholars for the rigors of conducting neuroscience research, and to ensure successful futures as neuroscientists, during the academic year, each NeuroGRAD scholar will work under the close supervision of a mentoring team. At least once during the two- year training, NeuroGRAD scholars will visit a collaborator’s lab to learn a technique and enhance research and networking skills within our partner institutions. All research mentors are established neuroscientists with extensive experience in training students at the graduate, and postgraduate level. NeuroGRAD scholars will be exposed to a broad spectrum of research topics, including basic neuroscience focused on the central nervous system, and the more translational/applied neuroscience areas. NeuroGRAD scholars will meet bi- monthly with the PDs and participate in several professional development seminars. During these seminars, scholars will receive training designed to increase their research competence in scholarly work, public speaking, grantsmanship, leadership skills and scientific rigor. Depending on the needs of a particular scholars’ cohort, we will develop specialized workshops. NeuroGRAD program will also support scholars travel for presentations at annual conferences. Scholars are expected to learn and contribute to the most current research in their field and have opportunities to network with established scientists. The overreaching goal of the NeuroGRAD program will be to take advantage on its strategic strengths and foster the necessary competencies to increase the numbers of URM students in successful and independent career paths. The present proposal is founded on strategies that significantly promote transformative mentoring, solid experimental rigor, impactful networking experiences linked to best practices in career leadership growth and identity building.