Mentored Research and Career Development Program

Scholars will be recruited from a wide range of health professions and related fields, including medicine and surgery (including all subspecialties and various graduate medical science departments), nursing, psychology and other behavioral sciences, dentistry, pharmacy, pharmacology, epidemiology, biostatistics, bioinformatics, systems biology, allied health sciences, health services research, biomedical engineering, and other postdoctoral professions.

Applicants dually employed by UT Health San Antonio and the Department of Veterans Affairs may be restricted from the scholar award, depending upon the extent of commitment (percent effort) to the VA. Federal salaries cannot be considered part of the required ADRC-REC institutional commitment.

Candidates for the scholar program must:

• Be early career faculty (Instructor or Assistant Professor) who have a professional doctoral degree or are completing postdoctoral training with an impending academic appointment that is not contingent on receipt of this award. Associate professors within their first two years of appointment could apply and must provide a clear rationale for their desire to transition to Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias research.
• Have evidence of strong academic achievement, scholarship and personal attributes such as a strong work ethic and integrity.
• Be U.S. citizens, non-citizen nationals or must have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence and possess an Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151 or I-155) or some other verification of legal admission as a permanent resident. Applications will be accepted from persons whose residence application is pending, but the residency requirement must be met before receiving a REC award. Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible.
• Be able to commit at least 50% and preferably 75% of full-time professional effort to this Career Development Program and its related clinical/translational science research activities.
• Not be or have been a principal investigator on an R01 award or a project leader or designated core leader on a subproject of a Program Project (P01), Center (P50, P60, U54) grant, or another equivalent research grant award.
• Not have another mentored research career development (K-series including KL2, K08, K23, and K01) grant application under consideration when they receive an ADRC-REC award. Eligible applicants may have received prior support on an Institutional or Individual NRSA grant (F or T) or NIH small grant (R03, R21).

The letter of intent section consists of a summary no longer than one page outlining the applicant’s career development objectives, mentor(s) and mentorship plan and research objectives.

It is preferred that the letter of intent include a letter of support from your Department Chair or Division Chief. If applicants do not include a letter of support from their chair as an attachment to their letter of intent, they can include the letter of support when they submit their complete application.

Applicants are also requested to submit the most updated version of their NIH biosketch with their letter of intent.

Templates, samples and instructions on how to prepare your NIH biosketch can be found at NIH.gov. 

The letter of intent will be reviewed, and applicants will be provided with verbal feedback by November 30, 2024.

The letter is optional but is strongly encouraged. Applicants will not be excluded based on the letter of intent evaluation.

The letter of intent must be received by 5:00 pm (CST) on November 18, 2024.

The review of completed applications is performed in two phases: (1) scientific review and (2) applicant interview.

Completed applications will be reviewed by two to four scientific reviewers (one of whom may come from an outside institution having an ADRC-REC program), who will score the applications following our program guidelines.

During the final phase, applicant scores will be tabulated and ranked, and REC program leaders will interview the top applicants.

Following interviews, REC program leaders will meet to discuss and determine awardees.
Critiques from the scientific review will be provided to the applicants after awards are announced.

Scholars must identify a primary mentor and at least one other co-mentor.

In general, proposed primary mentors should:

• Be currently funded (generally, at least $300,000 of grant funding per year)
• Be recognized as independent investigators who are actively involved in clinical or translational research in Alzheimer’s Disease or other neurodegenerative conditions
• Have a track record as a successful mentor (as exemplified in a table of trainees)
• Have adequate protected time (generally at least 5% effort) for mentoring.

Primary mentors will interact closely with the scholar and provide guidance to develop a tailored career development plan as part of an interdisciplinary mentoring team.

Primary mentors are expected to have completed (or to complete in the first year of the ADRC-REC award) a mentoring workshop facilitated by the faculty development offices at UT Health San Antonio. This 8-hour program (four 2-hour sessions held each semester) covers the following competencies:

• Maintaining effective communication
• Aligning expectations
• Assessing understanding
• Addressing equity and inclusion
• Fostering independence and promoting professional development

Furthermore, applicants and their proposed mentors are required to submit with the ADRC-REC application a written mentoring agreement/individual development plan specifying:

• The applicant’s planned research activities (planned abstracts, papers, grant applications)
• Planned educational activities
• Planned professional/career development activities (e.g., skills development, progress towards promotion, networking, work-life balance, plans for independence from mentor)
• Support for the applicant (protected time, resources, advocacy, emotional support)
• Communication (e.g., frequency and structure of meetings, progress reports, feedback, confidentiality)
• Personal conduct/interpersonal relationships (e.g., plans for managing conflicts, authorship order)

The effectiveness of the mentoring relationship will be evaluated during the course of the scholar’s award period.

View a template for a mentorship agreement.

View a sample of an individual development plan.

Each scholar is expected to attend ADRC-REC peer-mentoring sessions, career development sessions and individual meetings with ADRC-REC program directors, all scheduled on Thursday mornings.

The scholar must also submit an individual K or R (or equivalent, such as PCORI or VA merit) application during year two.

To ensure that all scholars have or develop competency in critical areas of translational research, UT Health San Antonio offers didactic courses through our Master of Science in Clinical Investigation – Translational Science (MSCI-TS) program and Certificate in Translational Science.

Demographic Questionnaire

Mentorship Agreement

Individual Development Plan

2025-2027 South Texas ADRC-REC Junior Faculty Grant Application Instructions