DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of our proposed IMSD Program is to increase the number of minority students who enter careers in biomedical and behavioral research in which they are under-represented. Our proposed comprehensive program will play a significant role in overcoming the still-existing disparities, between minority and non-minority undergraduate and doctoral students at Rutgers, in their progressing into careers in biomedical/behavioral research. Through accomplishing this goal, our proposed IMSD Program will improve our overall Institutional outcomes. To accomplish this goal, our objectives are to provide the undergraduate and doctoral students in our Program with the academic and research skills, self-efficacy, motivation, and credentials that are essential to developing their competitiveness toward entering the next phases of their career - i.e., doctoral programs or post doctorates, respectively. In order to accomplish these objectives and attain our goal, our proposed IMSD Program will: Provide the undergraduate and doctoral students with a carefully-mentored, rigorous research experience that includes supervised conceptualization, formulation, performance, analysis, presentation at professional scientific conferences, and publication of their own research or doctoral dissertation project; *Provide a sequentially-coordinated, closely and continuously monitored spectrum of academic and personal support components to promote the students' highest academic performance levels, including, e.g., our "Research Career/Fellowship Writing Workshop", mentored graduate school and postdoctoral application processes, an academic skills workshop, psychological counseling services, academic enrichment classes in gate-keeper courses, etc., all designed to develop the students' professional self- efficacy, ensure their personal wellbeing and retention through to completion of their undergraduate or doctoral training on campus, and facilitate their entry into doctoral or postdoctoral programs; "Mainstream" the students into the academic campus community by articulating our IMSD Program with other relevant University programs, prominent among which are the "Garden State LS-AMP Program" and the Honors College. The lead institution for this major new Program is Rutgers-Newark, so our campus plays a major role in its functioning, and it will continue to be a major interaction opportunity for our IMSD Program. *Cast a wide net to recruit potential IMSD students -- especially doctoral students, who are particularly underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral-related departments on our campus -- from multiple venues both on and off-campus, including the Garden State LS-AMP Program and its participating New Jersey institutions, and the greater metropolitan New York City institutions (e.g., Hunter College, LIU, Medgar Evers) with significant underrepresented minority student populations totaling several hundred IMSD-eligible stude...