Multi-Track Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (MT PREP)

PROJECT SUMMARY Multi-Track Post-Baccalaureate Research Education (MT PREP) The College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVMBS) at Colorado State University (CSU) proposes to create the first national Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) (R25) that will provide a unique training opportunity in veterinary and translational medicine research that will enable recent baccalaureate science (BS) graduates from underrepresented minority (URM), disabled and/or socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds to enter either a PhD or DVM/Ph.D. degree program. Data over the last 20 years from National Academy of Sciences, National Institutes of Health, and other biomedical research organizations reveal an insufficient number of individuals are being trained in translational medical science, despite the significant increase in job opportunities currently and in the future. In particular, the lack of training opportunities for Under-represented individuals interested in STEM severely limits the capacity to fill this national need. The proposed MT PREP will incorporate existing pre-doctorate DVM research training program activities as well as Ph.D. training program elements with specific postbaccalaureate activities to achieve the goals. Former postbaccs currently enrolled in graduate programs in CVMBS, trainees appointed to our CSU IMSD T32 and DVM/PhD students will serve as peer mentors. Well-qualified faculty mentors with diverse backgrounds and research disciplines, with over $15M in extramural funding, and demonstrated success in undergraduate and graduate training, have been recruited to provide experiential research opportunities for trainees. The goals of this program are to 1) recruit and support postbaccs from under-represented backgrounds with interest and aptitude for foundational, translational and/or clinical research in our MT PREP , 2) develop MT postbaccs’ independent critical reasoning, creative ideation, observation and rigorous experimental design and analytical skills, 3) provide faculty and peer mentorship for these candidates to practice responsible and ethical conduct of research and develop and implement their own mentoring philosophy and plan and 4) provide support to leverage postbacc’s PREP experience in writing federal GRFP applications, PhD and DVM/PhD program applications and presentation of results. Our long-term goal is to increase competitiveness of URMs for nationally recognized graduate programs and contribute to the talent pool of well-trained biomedical URM scientists.