NIH / NIBIB Interfaces Initiative for Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Training (T32) - Limited Submission Internal Due Date
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The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) solicits grant applications for recently established interdisciplinary research training programs that integrate the biomedical sciences with the physical sciences and engineering. By fostering these interdisciplinary training programs in their critical early years, NIBIB expects to develop highly effective interdisciplinary curricula, including coursework and laboratory research. It is anticipated that this will lead to an increase in the number of interdisciplinary researchers working at the intersection of these disciplines and a transformation of institutional programs to support interdisciplinary training.
Interdisciplinary training programs must be structured to train students from the biomedical sciences, physical sciences, and engineering in an integrated program. Trainees are expected to participate in a formal multi-year curriculum that provides cohesive, integrated, and novel approaches to interdisciplinary research, including the theories, techniques, methodologies, and application strategies of emerging interdisciplinary research environments. Trainees appointed to the training program must receive supervised education and research training that is interdisciplinary in nature. The primary objective of this program must be to promote the recruitment, training, advancement, and retention of new investigators in interdisciplinary science. These programs should support a variety of new and innovative didactic and research experiences designed to provide predoctoral students with the knowledge and research experience necessary to develop interdisciplinary solutions to complex health problems.
Training Program Director(s) (PDs) should limit appointments to individuals who are committed to a career in research and who plan to remain on the training grant for a cumulative minimum of two years. Attention should also be given to recruiting trainees from racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in the biomedical sciences, individuals with disabilities, and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. PDs should encourage and provide training in the skills necessary for trainees to apply for subsequent support through individual fellowship and mentored career development award programs as well as independent research project grants. PDs are encouraged to develop methods for ongoing evaluation of the quality of the training program and to develop plans to obtain feedback from former trainees to help identify weaknesses in the program and provide suggestions for program improvements. All applications must describe an evaluation and tracking plan that will review and determine the effectiveness of all aspects of the program.
NIBIB recognizes that multidisciplinary collaborations may be a necessary step in the evolution of interdisciplinary training, and the NIBIB currently offers traditional opportunities and mechanisms to support multidisciplinary training. However, for the purposes of this RFA, applications that propose training in multidisciplinary approaches as a precursor to interdisciplinary training or facilitate communication among different disciplines and promote, but do not achieve a seamless integration of different disciplines in the proposed project period, will be considered non-responsive and will not be reviewed.
A National Research Service Award (NRSA) institutional training grant must be used to support a program of full-time research training. It may not be used to support studies leading to the M.D., D.D.S., or other clinical, health professional training except when those studies are part of a formal combined research program, such as the M.D./Ph.D.
