# Enhancing Research Training through Empowerment, Resilience, and Civic Engagement

> **NIH NIH R25** · UNIVERSITY OF PR CAYEY UNIVERSITY COLL · 2020 · $517,612

## Abstract

UPR-IPERT Project Summary
The US faces the urgent need to develop a diverse biomedical science workforce, trained with
the breadth and flexibility necessary to meet unpredictable future challenges in health science.
The University of Puerto Rico system is the bachelor's source institution of ~15% of US
Hispanic PhDs in the natural and social sciences, although only ~4.5% of US Hispanic
undergraduates in these disciplines attend UPR. Therefore UPR is well positioned to help meet
this national need. With IPERT the UPR will be able to prepare more undergraduates and junior
faculty to meet the nation's biomedical research needs. The program targets undergraduate
students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and disciplines not usually linked to
biomedical research, as well as junior faculty members at Predominantly Undergraduate
Institutions (PUIs) who have not benefited from training programs commonly available at
research-intensive institutions. UPR-IPERT will expand and enhance existing training efforts by
developing participants (not just selecting talent) with innovative activities that have a multi-
campus reach and that fill unmet gaps in existing research training programs to achieve system-
wide impacts. UPR-IPERT will be administered by UPR-Cayey in collaboration with UPR-
Humacao, the two undergraduate units in UPR with most experience in research training
programs. A collaborative partnership with a) the other nine UPR campuses; b) the Yale-
CienciaPR network and the NIH National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN); and c) the
multi-campus training programs NIH-Puerto Rico-INBRE and NSF-Puerto Rico Luis Stokes
Alliance for Minority Participation gives UPR-IPERT a wide reach across public and private
universities, and among Puerto Ricans/ Hispanics at mainland institutions. The larger objective
of UPR-IPERT is to enhance responsiveness to the changing needs of the biomedical workforce
with a wide-reaching, multi-faceted, and multidisciplinary training model suited for PUIs. UPR-
IPERT will complement existing training programs with a phased approach that goes from
recruitment, to retention, to skills development, and to dissemination and outreach. Diversity,
resilience, multidisciplinarity, empowerment, and social commitment will be the guiding
principles. The Specific Aims are: 1) Recruit for diversity, by targeting undergraduates from
socioeconomically disadvantage backgrounds, and students and faculty from non-traditional
disciplines using innovative activities including the IPERT Theater Co. 2) Build resilience for
perseverance through the pipeline through online support networks, coaching, mentoring, and
writing groups. 3) Build multidisciplinary skills for empowerment and versatility, through a
module series and more intensive courses on research skills for different social and natural
sciences, and quantitative skills workshops. 4) Provide social insight for increased social and
scientific commitment, through modules on the social ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9968366
- **Project number:** 5R25GM121270-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PR CAYEY UNIVERSITY COLL
- **Principal Investigator:** Mariluz Franco
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $517,612
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-15 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9968366

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9968366, Enhancing Research Training through Empowerment, Resilience, and Civic Engagement (5R25GM121270-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9968366. Licensed CC0.

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