Science as a Team Sport: Leveling the playing field and setting the rules of engagement.

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Project Summary/Abstract The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health SA) is one of the nation’s leading Health Universities and is a chief catalyst for San Antonio’s $42 billion bioscience and health care industry, the leading sector of the largest minority (Latino)-majority city in the United States. The institution is committed in all its missions to diversity, inclusive excellence and accessibility. The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is one of the five component schools and has 21 graduate programs. The flagship doctoral program is the Integrated Biomedical Sciences (IBMS) Program that has strategically progressed from 6 departmental programs, through a transitional umbrella program, and finally to its current state of a truly single, integrated, multidisciplinary program. It is the IBMS program serves as the pool of underrepresented (UR) students that have fed two rounds of the current IMSD R25 and will continue to be the feeder for the new IMSD (T32) program. This proposal builds upon a highly successful intervention program that has resulted in exceptional metrics. These include UR representation increasing from 17% to 39% in the last decade, and parity with non-UR trainees in average publications (5) and retention (96%). Time to degree for UR, while shorter than the national average, remains lagging behind the general IBMS population, likely due to the focus on scientific output. Undergirded by an asset-based theoretical framework of action that integrates Social Cognitive Career Theory and Community Cultural Wealth, our strategies in recruitment, research training, faculty development, and career exploration, will serve to extend our successes and strengthen our contributions to diversity in the biomedical sciences workforce. Enhanced focus and support related to timely translation of progress into written outputs (fellowship applications, manuscripts, dissertation etc.) will shorten the time to degree. By the end of this cycle, we are optimistic we can reach our original goal of graduating a culturally diverse, yet scientifically-uniform, pool of IBMS (including IMSD UR) students all of whom, by virtue of this diversity, empowering training experience, and innovative co-curricular activities, are exceptional in their professional skills and attributes and positioned for career success and leadership in the biomedical sector.