Neuroscience Graduate, Resilience, Affirmation and Diversity Program at the University of Puerto Rico
What is the NeuroGRAD Program?
A program that focuses on boosting neuroscience research in Puerto Rico by
training a new generation of neuroscientists committed to academic and professional excellence.
The Neuroscience Graduate, Resilience, Affirmation and Diversity Program at the University of Puerto Rico (NeuroGRAD@UPR) was launched on May 27, 2022, at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. The program is an opportunity for graduate students that enroll in their first or second year of doctoral program like biology or psychology at Río Piedras Campus or Medical Science Campus and have a research interest in the Neuroscience field.
Main Goals
Has the mission to successfully impact, educate, train, and develop a the new generation of neuroscience graduate scholars within the UPR-RP in collaboration with prestigious neuroscience research programs across the US and by using evidence-based successful strategies founded on three key strands:
1) To develop an impactful neuroscience training blueprint based on cutting-edge and hands-on research experiences.
2) To establish an effective career pathway mentoring network through strong partnerships with top-notch neuroscience researchers in Research 1(R1) institutions in the mainland.
3) To design a series of transformative skill set activities that will yield a new cohort of URM neuroscientists role models and leaders with an influential and impactful career path in the 21st Century Neuroscience workforce.
Opportunities:
- To develop your professional and research skills during a 2-year intensive training.
- Prove students with resources to be able to expand your research project, be it by additional training in techniques, access to specialized equipment and other possible challenges that the student might face during his/her doctoral career.
- Participate in research seminars and training activities in person and virtual platforms from the partnering institutions.
- Grow the career path of trainees who will succeed in PhD programs in the Neurosciences.
- Work under the close supervision of a mentoring team
- Learn to prepare and submitte a NRSA Proposal
Mentor Commitee
A fundamental goal of the NeuroGRAD program is to build strong synergistic collaborations and mentoring teams between a group of Neuroscience research mentors from UPR and our R1 partnering institutions. These mentoring teams successfully support and provide helpful guidance throughout the career path of each student. Being mentored by a variety of peers in STEM may assist them in developing productive work relationships. Relationship building activities between the NeuroGRAD students, and their mentors establishes a sustainable and strong mentoring network thus charting pathways to successful PhD completion and career advancement.
Each mentoring network is custom-made for each student based on his/her research interests. To accomplish an effective mentoring network, the selected R1 researcher is an external member of the thesis committee of the student.
NeuroGRAD student Mentor/s External mentor Graduate Peer/s Program PIs
Travel:
- Visit a collaborator or external mentor’s lab to learn a technique and enhance research and networking skills within our partner institutions.
- Participate and present his/her research at annual conferences like the Neuroscience Conference by Society for Neuroscience.
- Off-site internship opportunity
Benefits:
- $13,200 stipend per year
- Funds for travel and research materials
- Access to a mentoring team and visit to labs in the partnering institutions
- Tuition credits covered by the program (9 credits per semester)
- Networking
Requirements:
- Enrolled in a doctoral program at UPR-Río Piedras o UPR-Medical Sciences
- Online application, CV, transcripts and three letters of recommendation required to apply
- Research interests in Neuroscience
- US citizen or permanent resident