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Kresge Hearing Research Institute

Department of Otolaryngology

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Pre-Doctoral Training Program Admission

GUIDELINES FOR APPLICANTS FOR PREDOCTORAL TRAINEESHIPS

Hearing, Balance, and Chemical Senses Training Grant

Quick jump:

The purpose of predoctoral support on the Hearing, Balance and Chemical Senses (HBCS) training grant is to train graduate students for careers in the fields of hearing, balance, and chemosensation in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. Incoming students must demonstrate a strong, long-term interest in training in the area of hearing, balance, or chemical senses and should receive their training in laboratories of the HBCS faculty.

  1. Eligibility: NIH training grants will only support U.S. citizens or permanent residents holding a green card.
  2. Duration: Predoctoral traineeships are awarded on a year-by-year basis. After two years of support, students are expected to obtain support from other institutional or individual fellowships, or from the mentor's research grant funds. Note that there is a five-year limit on the total length of funding from federal fellowship sources.
  3. Application deadlines and traineeship start dates: Applications for predoctoral positions will be considered two times a year. Applications will be due on the 1st working day of March or September. Applicants will be evaluated and given a priority score by the HBCS Admissions Committee. Final decisions will be made by the HBCS Executive Committee approximately four to six weeks following the application deadlines. Traineeships can generally begin at any time within 12 months following the final approval by the Executive Committee. Applicants should specify the desired start date in their application.

Students may obtain training in hearing, balance, and chemical senses by enrolling in the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Neuroscience or the Program in Biomedical Sciences, with which most of the training faculty are associated. Alternatively, students who prefer to study a different basic scientific discipline may enroll in other graduate programs in which training is available through HBCS faculty members. Students should indicate in their letter of application the field of their interest. For details of filing an application, contact either of the following:

Neuroscience Graduate Program
Neuroscience Laboratory Building
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1687

Program In Biomedical Sciences
University of Michigan Medical School
2960 Taubman Medical Library
1150 W. Medical Center Drive
Box 0619
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0619


or the respective graduate department at the University of Michigan.

Students in the Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D./Ph.D. program) may also conduct their thesis work in hearing, balance, or chemical senses. Information and application forms for this program can be obtained from the director of that program, 7310 Medical Science I, The University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0624.

New Applicants

Graduate students applying for a first year of training grant support should submit to the director of the HBCS program (David Kohrman, Kresge Hearing Research Institute, 1150 W. Medical Center Drive, Room 4605 Med Sci II, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5616) the following:

  1. Background Information:
    • Your name and contact information. Include mailing address, phone number(s) and e-mail address(es) where we can reach you reliably while the application is being evaluated
    • Citizenship. If you are not a U.S. Citizen, please include a copy of your Green Card that certifies 'permanent resident' status.
    • Proposed mentor for the HBCS predoctoral traineeship
    • Desired start date for the HBCS predoctoral traineeship
    • Number of months of previous predoctoral training (up to the time of the proposed HBCS start date)
    • Number of months of total previous NRSA predoctoral training support (up to the time of the proposed HBCS start date)
  2. A one-page statement outlining your research interests and long-term academic goals. This statement must explicitly indicate how your research interests relate to the field of hearing, balance, and chemical senses. This statement should also briefly summarize previous research done in graduate school and during undergraduate training.
  3. A Research Training Plan that concisely describes the planned research project and includes the following items (4-page limit):
    • Specific aims � an explicit list of the intended goals of the project, including the hypotheses to be tested
    • Background and significance � a brief description of the current knowledge base in the relevant area and the unresolved questions that are addressed by the Specific Aims; also include a brief statement summarizing the scientific and clinical significance of the plan and its relevance for research training in the fields of hearing, balance, or chemical senses
    • Preliminary studies, if applicable - take care in distinguishing your own contributions from those of others
    • Research design and methods � a brief summary of the experimental approaches to be used.
  4. A list of publications and/or presentations resulting from previous graduate work
  5. A letter from the mentor(s) outlining the qualifications of the student for the HBCS Program, specifying why training grant support is needed, and outlining the plan for support for the remainder of the student's graduate career
  6. A transcript of grades for courses taken during graduate training
  7. One copy each of relevant publications, including those in press. If there are more than three previous publications, the best representative three should be selected

Criteria for Review - New Applicants

Renewing Applicants

Graduate students applying for a renewal of training grant support should submit to the director of the HBCS program (David Kohrman, Kresge Hearing Research Institute, 1150 W. Medical Center Drive, Room 4605 Med Sci II, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5626) the following:

  1. Background Information:
    • Your name and contact information. Include mailing address, phone number(s) and e-mail address(es) where we can reach you reliably while the application is being evaluated.
    • HBCS predoctoral traineeship mentor.
    • Desired start date for the HBCS predoctoral traineeship
    • Number of months of previous HBCS predoctoral training (up to the time of the proposed HBCS start date)
    • Number of months of total previous NRSA predoctoral training support (up to the time of the proposed HBCS start date).
  2. A summary of your progress in research during the preceding period of support, based upon the original specific aims of the project, along with a brief summary of the research plan for the second year of support (3-page limit)
  3. A list of publications and/or presentations on which you are a co-author and that are associated with training during the preceding period of support (include copies of publications
  4. A letter from the mentor describing the applicant's progress during the during the preceding period of support
  5. A description of your participation in required HBCS training programs, including Hearing, Balance and Chemical Senses seminars, Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow luncheon meetings with invited speakers, and training in research responsibility.

Criteria for Review - Renewing Applicants

You may direct inquiries not addressed here via email to the program director, Dr. David Kohrman (dkohrman@umich.edu) or the program secretary, Mabel Render (mabelh@umich.edu). Additional information regarding training fellowships is available in a December 2003 NIH Grants Policy Statement, available on the NIH website.