Project Summary/Abstract The California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is one of 23 campuses of the California State University (CSU) system, the largest 4-year public university system in the US. Designated a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) since 2005 and an Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI) since 2011, it is committed to effectively serve the socioeconomically diverse urban populations in southern California. It has been highly successful in attracting, retaining and graduating underrepresented and underserved (UR/US) students and provides an ideal environment for identifying and fostering the growth of a diverse group of students who are interested in future academic careers in biomedical research. The mission of the current CSULB Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (U-RISE) (T34) proposal is to increase diversity in future scientific and biomedical research by training undergraduate (UG) students to enter and succeed in graduate programs and beyond. The rationale for the proposed program is that the university has a rich pool of UG students from diverse backgrounds, and a large pool of faculty members conducting high quality research funded by federal and private programs, with UGs as frontline researchers being a brand name for the university. Further, CSULB was recently re-classified as an R2 university with high research activity as per Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education and as a research-active university based on the NIH definition of eligibility tracks for funding of diversity enhancing programs. The university has ~30 years track record of integrating research into education, with students supported through diversity training programs such as the NIH MARC and RISE. The last 5-year record shows ~80% of CSULB MARC and RISE trainees entered graduate programs. More recently the BUILD program further laid the groundwork for UG research work led by faculty members who have been increasingly adopting best mentoring practices by undergoing training as part of Advancing Inclusive Mentoring (AIM) program. Together, these programs inform the current U-RISE proposal of effective mentoring practices for training UR/US students in research. The design of the CSULB U-RISE program involves training 24 UG students (at any given point during the five-year cycle) from diverse backgrounds in research over a two-year period. Scholars with high academic record and research interest and who have two years left to graduation in their academic status (typically in their junior year), and those bearing high potential for research and demonstrating resilience and persistence will be recruited and trained to be competitive and successful in graduate school. The objectives of the program are to offer: i) elevated research-infused academic education, ii) immersive research experience, and iii) graduate school preparation and professional development...