# The Training and Outreach Core

> **NIH NIH U19** · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $264,949

## Abstract

The Training and Outreach Core
We propose to create a new “Training and Outreach Core'' which will take advantage of the diverse scientific
directions and technologies represented by our team, as well as the unique properties of the larval zebrafish as
model organisms for outreach and training. The mission of this core is to increase diversity and support
trainees in scientific research. This mission will be carried out by three interlaced programs - Summer
Connectomics Internship for Outreach Neuroscience (SCION), BioBus, and Postbac Life Science Fellowship
(PLSF). The SCION and PLSF programs integrate students with the U19 research projects and shape them
into competent scientific contributors through an active learning framework. The two programs lower the barrier
to science research by engaging underrepresented students who do not have research experience and who
would otherwise not consider scientific research. SCION recruits motivated high school and college students
as contributors to mapping the zebrafish nervous system, combining citizen science with education and career
development. PLSF fellows will be primarily recruited from historically black colleges and universities, and will
be trained and integrated within a U19 research project with high likelihood of publication. The program places
emphasis on work experience and engages postbacs who want to pursue a profession in the life sciences, but
lack laboratory experience. The BioBus program interfaces with the local K12 schools to engage middle and
high school students with zebrafish neuroscience and to promote STEM education. It serves as a recruitment
pipeline for SCION and for the training of postdocs and graduate students as Outreach Fellows. BioBus and
SCION both provide frameworks for education and training of graduate students and postdocs in outreach,
pedagogy, project management and public speaking. In turn, these pedagogical and mentorship experiences
compel the postdocs and graduate students to regularly reevaluate their own research projects, becoming
better scientists by teaching.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10918146
- **Project number:** 5U19NS104653-08
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mariela Dimitrova Petkova
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $264,949
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-25 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10918146

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10918146, The Training and Outreach Core (5U19NS104653-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10918146. Licensed CC0.

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