LONG BEACH – California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) has received its largest award ever -- $22.7 million over five years -- from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish an innovative research program that prepares underrepresented students for doctoral programs.  This initiative, Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD), will allow CSULB to establish the most comprehensive and transformative research training program in its history. “This award has the potential to become a national model and secure Cal State Long Beach’s place as a biomedical and behavioral research training ground,” said CSULB President Jane Close Conoley. “We are very excited and proud to have been chosen for this potentially transformative award. The opportunities it will bring about for our faculty and students are truly unprecedented for this university.”

Through the BUILD program, underrepresented undergraduate students will receive mentoring and research training at CSULB and two research partner institutions -- University of California, Irvine (UCI) and University of Southern California (USC) -- to help them succeed in doctoral programs in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. When the program is at capacity in year five it will be able to support more than 200 students each year. The university also will establish a research curriculum that increases the number and the diversity of undergraduates going on to doctoral programs.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity for our students and our faculty. As the largest award in the university’s history, it provides funding for stipends or hourly pay for students engaged in the training programs and research and allows us to renovate shared research spaces on campus and buy research instruments.  In addition, our faculty will be able to create new partnerships at Research I Universities, enhancing their research competitiveness,” said Laura Kingsford, dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at CSULB.

There will be 10 BUILD awardees selected nationally. The idea is that underrepresented minorities will likely be more interested in studying the critical issues that affect them, such as health disparities and different health problems.

In an effort to help students to think about this early, CSULB is partnering with Long Beach Unified School District and Long Beach City College as well as with Cerritos College and Golden West College.

USC’s role will focus on public health, and UCI will focus on science, behavioral sciences and engineering. In addition, CSULB has a research partner at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Long Beach where there are staff with joint faculty appointments with UCI.  Students in their junior or senior year will be required to do summer research at a Research I Universities as defined by the Carnegie Foundation, but it doesn’t have to be at UCI or USC. There will be two student tracks -- one for students who are likely to graduate in four years and one for students who may need more support or for transfers.  Finally, if students aren’t accepted in a doctoral program right away, CSULB can continue to enroll them for 10 months as a post-baccalaureate student.

The first year of this grant is a ramp-up year where CSULB will be hiring staff, establishing the training programs and curriculum and developing partnerships. The goal is that by summer 2015, CSULB will be ready to start student training. This will include working with students’ families to help them understand more about the career options. The students selected for the program will get paid and, as a result, faculty will benefit from having students who have time to work in their labs. CSULB faculty will help these students get into research doctoral programs.

NIH has defined a real need to get more underrepresented individuals into research careers in biomedical sciences – anticipating that they will be very interested in doing research in areas that address health disparities and are funded by the NIH.  BUILD also provides many resources for faculty development to enhance research competitiveness and success in getting major funding in the biomedical sciences.

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Published: Oct. 23, 2014 - Volume 13 - Issue 28