# Elizabeth City State University Minority Access to Research Careers (E-MARC)

> **NIH NIH T34** · ELIZABETH CITY STATE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $122,254

## Abstract

Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) is a historically black institution located in Northeastern
North Carolina (NENC), one of the most economically distressed regions of North Carolina.
ECSU requests NIH/NIGMS support to continue its successful MARC U*STAR Training
Program designed to impact the challenges for students to PhD pathway, especially for students
in biomedical sciences, through the long-term goals of: (i) providing exceptional student
research training; (ii) increasing academic support; and (iii) broadly impacting the ECSU
community to promote student success with the ultimate goal of PhD degree matriculation.
During the current period of support, we have made significant progress towards achieving
these goals. The program supported 24 URM undergraduates in both on-campus and off-
campus mentored research at such prestigious RO1 universities, like Vanderbilt and Duke, and
provided academic and career counseling to these individuals toward competitive PhD
application submissions. A notable 65% MARC supported students are making solid progress
towards completing doctoral degrees and 90% of MARC scholars overall have completed their
Bachelor’s degree and are pursuing PhD and post-Baccalaureate programs in advanced
biomedical and related fields to accomplish those goals, the specific aims of this competitive
renewal are to build on the past successes by: (i) selecting scholars that possess excellent
credentials and bona-fide desire to obtain PhDs; (ii) continuing to provide one-on-one
mentorship in research and PhD application submissions that increases the likelihood of
successful program acceptance; and (iii) provide institutional financial support alleviating
students from the distraction and potential derailment of working external jobs while pursuing
academics and research. The latter is important since many of our students are from families of
high economic need. This renewal application has targeted 8 research-intensive institutions as
external summer research training sites and these collaborators serve as prospective
institutions for EMARC scholars to pursue PhDs. This renewal request will support 4 trainees
per cohort, and minimum 12 trainees over the life of the renewal, and scholars will receive full
tuition, monthly stipend to alleviate outside work obligations, and additional support for research,
presentations, publications and conference travel and GRE training. Expected outcome: Within
the 5 years of the grant period, we anticipate a minimum of 8 of the program’s 12 participants
(67%) will have entered PhD programs. This number is realistic consider the current ECSU
EMARC program’s successful PhD admission rate is nearly 65%.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10176515
- **Project number:** 5T34GM100831-09
- **Recipient organization:** ELIZABETH CITY STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** HIRENDRA N BANERJEE
- **Activity code:** T34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $122,254
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2012-06-01 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10176515

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10176515, Elizabeth City State University Minority Access to Research Careers (E-MARC) (5T34GM100831-09). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10176515. Licensed CC0.

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