May 15, 2009

Dear Colleagues:

We are delighted to inform you that we now anticipate that the CATER pre-doctoral training program will be renewed for another five years starting September 1, 2009. This prestigious training program in regenerative medicine brings together students from Pathology and Bioengineering in an exciting and comprehensive study program.

We have decided to implement a new policy for this grant cycle.  This policy will require all faculty members to be involved in the training process.  If you are not currently mentoring a student, you will need to nominate potential student(s), serve on one of the program’s committees or present at the CATER seminar (this is a credit class taught by Dr. Monga who is responsible for what materials are presented.)  NIH will continue to measure our success by how effectively we manage the relationship between faculty status and participation.   Each member will be individually evaluated using the above criteria to determine faculty status. 

As stated before, the funding will be different than previous years; NIH is only funding five students each year so we are adjusting our funding accordingly.  To allow the program to fund students for a two year term (in the second and third year of their graduate studies), we will institute the following changes: (summarized on the attached table A)

• Fund the current (unfunded) students for their third year (only) and add two new second year students starting September 2009.
• Alternately, add two or three second year students depending on the number of third year students that carry-over from the previous year.
• This cycle of new and old students each year will enable the program to have a mix of second and third year students.

The monthly stipend level will be $2054.  The mentor will be responsible to cover the difference between the monthly stipend and the NIH funding level, $306/month. Please note this cost can not be paid from a federal funding source.  For details, please see attached table B.

The grant will provide funding for training related expenses (which includes reimbursement of health insurance to the Trainee). The training related expenses are estimated at $4,200/year along with $1,000/year for travel.  In addition, the grant will provide a portion of tuition reimbursement estimated at $16,000/year (for out-of-state.) The School of Medicine and the Swanson School of Engineering will provide resources to share in the cost of tuition beyond the resources provided by NIH.

Eligible students must be second year students in the fall of 2009, all of whom will remain associated with the program until graduation. The program is designed to give trainees a career advantage through coursework and networking. It is not designed as solely a source of funds.   

Trainee selection will be announced in July, and training activities will begin with the academic term for the fall of 2009; funding will start September 1, 2009.  Please note that students MUST be either US citizen or permanently registered alien of the United States and have no NIH support to be eligible to participate in the program.

Sincerely,

     Alan J. Russell, PhD
     Director, CATER program