# MARC at the University of Texas at San Antonio

> **NIH NIH T34** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SAN ANTONIO · 2022 · $410,078

## Abstract

Summary/Abstract
The United States needs a strong, diverse workforce of Ph.D.-level scientists and engineers to meet emerging
challenges to the nation’s health and to cultivate faculty and leaders who represent our heterogeneous national
population. It is well known that when people from different backgrounds and experiences come together, their
combined perspectives and creativity lead to new approaches to challenging problems. The purpose of the
proposed MARC Program at the University of Texas at San Antonio is to recruit and train a diverse group of
undergraduates who are from ethnic minority groups, are financially disadvantaged, or have a disability– all
groups that currently play a minimal role in our national biomedical workforce. Our goal is that MARC training
will allow them to undertake the highest levels of research training, leading to the award of the Doctorate in
Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree. Holding this degree opens the door to positions of great impact and responsibility in
the biomedical research industry, government institutions, and our nation’s universities. The MARC trainees will
be majors in Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Psychology, and
Mathematics. To prepare future trainees, MARC will develop a ‘pre-MARC” population of excellent applicants
and educate them about the Ph.D. careers in research, fundamental professional skills, help them connect with
faculty, and guide them towards research experiences and the MARC program. MARC will provide financial
support to trainees who enter as sophomores or juniors and complete the program as seniors, acquiring between
two and three years of experience. MARC will offer a wide array of training workshops and experiences for the
trainees and for additional “MARC-2” students who desire a Ph.D. but are not in one of the 24 MARC training
positions. MARC training for students and their faculty research mentors will ensure that the trainees have a safe
and welcoming laboratory experience; grow a network of peers, faculty, and former MARC trainees; develop the
many research and professional skills needed to be strong applicants for PhD programs; learn modern
computational techniques for working with data; and grow as leaders. Training workshops will guide the trainees
through important events in their development, among them writing an abstract (summary) of their research so
that they can present it at a scientific conference, making presentations in increasingly professional settings,
completing their first application to another school to obtain a summer research position, and finally, successfully
applying to, and interviewing for, Ph.D. programs. The MARC faculty, staff, mentors, and instructors have
supported hundreds of underrepresented students in programs for over 20 years; scores of these students have
been admitted to some of the most prestigious Ph.D. programs in the world. For this proposed five-year program,
our main goals are for all tra...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10412755
- **Project number:** 1T34GM145507-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SAN ANTONIO
- **Principal Investigator:** EDWIN J BAREA-RODRIGUEZ
- **Activity code:** T34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $410,078
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-06-01 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10412755

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10412755, MARC at the University of Texas at San Antonio (1T34GM145507-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10412755. Licensed CC0.

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