The National Institutes of Health has awarded a grant to Cal State San Bernardino that is aimed at increasing the diversity of students earning their bachelor’s degrees and moving on to complete research-focused, biomedical advanced degrees.

The Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement, or U-RISE, is seeking undergraduate students who plan to continue their academic careers and gain a Ph.D. in research-based disciplines that have relevance to health, including biology, psychology, chemistry/biochemistry, nutrition, kinesiology, and health science and human ecology. 

Sanders McDougall and Cynthia Crawford, both CSUSB professors of psychology, wrote the grant for U-RISE, which was awarded in March. The multi-million-dollar grant was funded for a full five years at $497,000 per year.

The goal of U-RISE is to increase the diversity of students earning advanced degrees, such as a Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D.

The program will accept seven students each year who will participate for two full years, eventually having as many as 14 students participating in any given year. To be eligible, students must have a strong GPA, goals consistent with the purpose of the U-RISE grant, a desire to be actively involved in research, and have two years remaining in their undergraduate careers.

Students with an interest in basic or more applied research are encouraged to apply. Students selected for the U-RISE program will receive a stipend of more than $1,100 per month while working with a CSUSB faculty researcher, travel money for conferences, a tuition waiver that will cover approximately 50 percent of tuition expenses, and summer placement in a research laboratory at a major university.

In the past students have gained summer research experience at Harvard, Princeton, MIT, University of Washington, University of Michigan, MIT, Stanford University, UCLA, UC Irvine, UC San Diego and Northwestern University, and other noteworthy institutions and research centers.

Interested students should contact Sanders McDougall, program director, at smcdouga@csusb.edu, or Cynthia Crawford, program associate director, at ccrawfor@csusb.edu.

For more information, visit the Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement website.