Career Success Through Transdisciplinary Biomedical Science Training - Proposed by the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), the purpose of the proposed T32 program, entitled “Career Success Through Transdisciplinary Biomedical Science Training”, is to train doctoral students in the biomedical and behavioral (collectively termed biomedical) sciences. The program will develop and implement evidence-based approaches to enhance our trainees' recruitment, mentoring and wellness, retention; depth of professional, operational, and technical training; and career path trajectory. The program will promote students' recruitment and admission, retention, mentoring support, and wellness during their studies that guide them towards biomedical careers. It will support trainees in Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Cell, and Molecular Biology, Computer Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Psychology Ph.D. programs. Three new Ph.D. students will be inducted and mentored in the first 2 years, and five new Ph.D. students will be inducted and mentored in the last 3 years; 21 students are expected to receive training over the five-year program. The Graduate School will support two additional slots per year for a total of 10 students. The total number of students supported for this program will be 31 students for 5 years of funding. The proposed interventions will promote 85% retention of its trainees and reduce time-to-degree from 4.8 to 4.6 years. Training focused on Psychosocial Wellness, Mentoring, Career Development, and Instruction in Methods for Enhancing Reproducibility are integrated throughout the training cycle. The proposed T32 program has key features that make it innovative and stage-dependent, with sessions each summer designed to focus trainees' attention on critical milestones of the following year; some training will be provided earlier to Psychology students who are in a 3-year program. It leverages institutional resources, with partnerships in place for trainees to receive training from the UTSA Career Center, Leadership and Volunteer Services and Wellbeing Services, the UTSA Office of Research Integrity, and Graduate School. The proposed T32 Training is progressive, beginning with foundational topics designed to level the playing field , providing data science courses, commercialization, and entrepreneurship courses as foundations for all subsequent training within the program. All proposal/dissertation writing and presentation workshops, wellness, intellectual property protection and commercialization/entrepreneurship, as well as resume writing and mock career interviews will be provided in the summer, except first-semester foundational training. Academic year training and presentations are associated with the multi-focus Weekly Group Sessions that incorporate Psychosocial Training, Alumni and Role Model Scientist Visits, introductory training in Budgeting, Leadership, Clifton StrengthsFinder, and College-Level Teaching. Mentoring is a significant component of this training program, involving being mentored by scientists at various career stages. Trainees will have opportunities to practice their scientific communication skills in progressively rigorous environments for poster, oral, and Three Minute Thesis presentations.
