Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Awards (IRACDA) - UNC Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

The IRACDA-UNC program proposes to continue its 22+ year history by partnering with 4 institutions in North Carolina to provide specialized research and academic career development training for postdoctoral scholars. Each of the 4 partner institutions has a mission to educate students in the biomedical sciences (North Carolina Central University, North Carolina A&T State University; UNC Pembroke and Johnson C Smith University). Through these partnerships, the IRACDA-UNC program will a) provide rigorous research and teaching training for a postdoctoral scholars in the STEM disciplines b) develop the professional, mentorship, and management skills needed for scholars to transition into independent academic careers, and c) enrich the undergraduate teaching and mentoring environment at the partner institutions. Specific Aim 1 provides cutting edge postdoctoral research training within laboratories on the UNC-CH campus with emphasis on the development of innovative research ideas, manuscript preparation, laboratory management, and grant writing. Specific Aim 2 provides an in-depth teaching experience that includes the latest advances in classroom pedagogical techniques, including the development of CUREs (Classroom-based Undergraduate Research Experiences). In addition, the IRACDA-UNC program will expand the scholars’ career development with a curriculum in various formats of teaching and learning environments. Specific Aim 3 provides each scholar with extensive experience mentoring students in research projects while strengthening the research and teaching/mentoring missions at our partner institutions. IRACDA-UNC will organize virtual research symposia that highlight topics of common interest to our partner institutions and to UNC-CH’s biomedical laboratories. The scholars’ training as research mentors will also be enhanced through two opportunities that simultaneously enrich the research training for STEM undergraduates at the partner institutions. First, scholars will mentor in our Summer Research Program, which brings undergraduate students from the partner universities to UNC’s research laboratories. Second, IRACDA-UNC scholars will have the opportunity to co-mentor with a faculty member of the partner institution an undergraduate’s honors (or independent study) research project. The program proposes a steady state of 12 scholars, with 4 new scholars admitted to the program each year. Scholars will be appointed for 3 years, with a 4th year of support available within their research mentors’ laboratories. Upon completion of the program, scholars are well prepared for academic positions at a range of institutions, including research-intensive and primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs).