A. Background

A. Background diagram

The Background is the first section of the main 25-page Program Plan and should include an overview of the program’s rationale and training environment, including:

  • Rationale, relevant history, and need for this particular research training
  • How the program relates to other training activities at UCLA (synergy is encouraged)
  • Note: Each program may compliment other ongoing research training programs, but they must be clearly distinct from other programs currently receiving federal funding
  • Summarize proposed activities for the major participating unit(s)/department(s) by referencing information from the Data Tables.

Note: The training program must clearly fit within the IC's focus area/disease concern.

Page Limit: Must fit within the Program Plan’s 25 page maximum. About 5 pages.

Format: Section header: “A. Background”

Data Table References

Incorporate the following into the "A. Background" section of your Program Plan. Learn more about Data Tables on the Data Table Support webpage.

Table 1. Census of Participating Departments and Interdepartmental Programs

  • Describe the organization of the proposed training program
  • Describe the participating departmental programs (visit our FAQs for the definition of "participating departmental programs")
  • Describe the extent to which mentors and trainees participate in the research training activities

Table 2. Participating Faculty Members

  • Describe distribution of mentors by academic rank, department/program, and areas of research emphasis
  • Describe rationale for the mentors selected to participate
  • Analyze data in terms of the overall experience of the mentors in training pre- or post-docs
  • Comment on the inclusion of mentors with limited recent training experience
  • Demonstrate sufficient number of faculty with the appropriate level of expertise

Table 3. Federal Institutional Research Training Grant and Related Support Available to Participating Faculty Members

  • Summarize the level of research training support at UCLA and any potential restrictions on that support
  • Comment on instances where there may be substantial overlap of mentors serving on other training grants that may compete with existing recruiting pools

Component Instruction Index

Access detailed instructions for each component of the Research Training Program Plan. If you have further questions contact GSUTraining@mednet.ucla.edu.