HBCS Predoctoral Training Program Admission Requirements
Hearing, Balance, and Chemical Senses Training Grant
The Hearing, Balance and Chemical Senses (HBCS) Training Grant aims to prepare 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 HBCS faculty laboratories.
NIH training grants will only support U.S. citizens or permanent residents holding a green card.
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. There is a five-year limit on the total length of funding from federal fellowship sources.
Applications for predoctoral positions are considered twice per year. Applications are due on March 15 and August 15. Applicants are evaluated and given a priority score by the HBCS Admissions Committee. Final decisions are made by the HBCS Executive Committee approximately 4-6 weeks following the application deadlines. Traineeships can begin at any time within the 12 months following final approval by the Executive Committee.
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 in the Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D./Ph.D. program) may also conduct their thesis work in hearing, balance or chemical senses.
New Applicants
Graduate students applying for first-year training grant support should complete the application materials as detailed in these instructions and submit as a single PDF file to [email protected]. Support letters should be sent directly from mentor(s), also in PDF form.
- Quality of the candidate’s academic and research accomplishments
- Potential for successful training in the fields of hearing, balance or chemical senses
- Quality of the training environment and career training plan
- Quality of the research training plan
Renewing Applicants
Graduate students applying for renewal of training grant support should complete the renewal application materials as detailed in these instructions and submit as a single PDF file to [email protected]. Support letter should be sent directly from mentor(s), also in PDF format.
Prior to review of these applications by the HBCS program, trainees are required to submit a separate application for an individual NRSA fellowship to the NIH (Due dates for individual NRSA applications are April 8, Aug. 8 and Dec. 8.). The U-M Proposal Application Form (PAF) associated with the individual NRSA submission and the NIH reviews, if available, should be provided in the HBCS application materials.
- Progress in the research training plan, based upon the applicant’s and mentor’s descriptions and the publications/presentations resulting from the preceding year’s training
- Progress in the career training plan
- Participation in HBCS training programs
Contact Us
You may direct inquiries not addressed here via e-mail to the program director, Michael Roberts, Ph.D. ([email protected]) or the program administrator, Nicole Rolland ([email protected]). Additional information regarding training fellowships is available in an NIH Grants Policy Statement (Dec. 2003) available on the NIH website.
