DEI Dissertation Completion Award

This Award is designed to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the anatomical sciences by providing dissertation completion awards to underrepresented minority (URM) graduate students who are current or new members of AAA. This mechanism will support URM graduate students at a key transition, from PhD completion to either postdoctoral studies or a first academic job, thus, promoting their retention in science and the AAA.

Eligibility

• Must be a graduate student who self-identify as an underrepresented minority.
• Must be a member of AAA at the time of application and expected to remain a member through the duration of the fellowship.
• Must be in the last year of the PhD program and plan on submitting a thesis at the end of the fellowship.
• Project must be relevant to the anatomical sciences or anatomy education that is within the scope and rigor of one of the AAA family journals.

Criteria

Application Materials from the Mentee

• CV or NIH-Style biosketch (max. 5 pages)
• The Application package should include Research Proposal including the following (max. 3 pages)
  • Specific Aims and (if applicable) hypotheses
  • Background and rationale
  • Preliminary data/progress to-date (if applicable)
  • Research design and approach
• Background and goals for fellowship training (max. 2 pages) 
  
  • Background: Describe any past research  experience or any other relevant experience to the current application
  • Training goals and objectives: Address overall training goals, how the fellowship will help your professional development.
• Research training Plan (max. 2 pages)
  
  • Relate research to your career goals
  • Explain the relationship between the applicant's research on the fellowship award and the mentor's ongoing research program.
  • Should be tailored to your experience and allows you to develop career advancing skills.
• Letters of Recommendation (2 required) 
  
  • Letters must be from individuals who are not primary research advisor, but can speak of the research and potential of the applicant.
• Letter from the Department Chair (or advisor)
  
  • This letter must attest the status of the student and departmental support (if any)
• Facilities, environment, and other resources (max. 1 page) 
  
  • How the research site contributes to the probability of success, like institutional support, physical resources, and intellectual rapport. 
• Institutional commitment to training (max. 1 page) 
  
  • Describe the graduate program, including coursework requirements, teaching requirements (if any), dissertation guidelines, and any other relevant departmental requirements.
• Selection of sponsor and institution (max. 0.5 page) 
  
  • Rationale for the choice of the institution and the sponsor

*Formatting requirements for letters of support

• No more than 500 words
• Must include institutional or professional letterhead (if available)
• Must include name, title, department, and institution of reference writer
• Must include applicant's full name

**Formatting requirements for application materials

• Standard 8.5 x 11-inch page size
• No smaller than 11-point font Arial (10-point font may be used for footnotes, figure captions, and text within figures)
• No smaller than 0.5-inch margins
  
  

Application Materials from the Mentor/Advisor/Sponsor

• CV or NIH-style biosketch (max. 5 pages)
• Sponsor statement (max. 3 pages)
  
  • Current research support
  • Previous experience with trainees
  • Training plan for the mentee
  • Number of trainees supervised
  • Trainee's qualifications and potential for a professional career

Deadline 

To be determined for late 2024

Funding

$37,000 total funding available to be used as a stipend for students in the final year of Ph.D. program
$1,500 travel support to attend the Annual Meeting in the year funded and 2 years after. Must submit and present abstract to be eligible for funding
Up to $1,000 for one professional development course or workshop annually for 3 years