Essential Tools & Resources

📊 Active Training Grants Dashboard: Real-time TG portfolio access.

This dashboard provides an up-to-date list of active training grants at UCI, eliminating the need to search through NIH RePORTER. It is ideal for quickly identifying current institutional training efforts and helps you strategically position your proposal within existing funded initiatives

🧩 Institutional Training Grants and Faculty list: Searchable and current.

This template offers essential institutional data—including a list of active training grants and associated mentors—needed for preparing NIH Table 3. It streamlines the collection and organization of the active grant, saving time and ensuring accuracy and consistency across submissions, renewals, and progress reports.

📋 Training Grant Tracking and Compilation Template: A centralized workbook designed to streamline T32 data management and reporting.

In response to NIH’s updated training data requirements (effective January 25, 2025), this tool helps programs collect and organize essential information. This includes publications, trainee activities, demographics, outcomes, and more for use across RPPRs, renewals, and NIH tables (5A/B, 8A/B, and beyond). It also centralizes key trainee and grant data, saves time, ensures accuracy, and keeps reporting consistent and submission-ready

Institutional Incentives

Note: Non-Dunlop School faculty members are not eligible for these incentive funds.

School of Medicine Incentives: The SOM Office of Research has established the Training Grant Incentive Program for first-time submissions of new or competing renewal applications.

Lead principal investigators (PIs) will receive a one-time allocation of $5,000 unrestricted funds for the submission of a training grant application, if the following conditions are met:

• Only training grant proposals for which a one-page pre-proposal summary (including a list of participating faculty mentors) is submitted and approved by the SOM Office of Research will be considered for this incentive.
• Pre-proposals (summary and list of participating faculty) must be uploaded to this form at least four to six weeks in advance of the FOA deadline to ensure adequate time for Dean’s office review/approval.
• Should first-time new or competing renewal applications be funded, lead PIs will receive an additional one-time allocation of $10,000 unrestricted funds

For more information, please contact the Research Development Unit.

Graduate Division Incentives:
• Faculty Incentives for New and Renewal Submissions: Faculty receive $5,000 upon training grant submission, and an additional $5,000 upon award.
• 25% Match for Student Support: The Graduate Division provides a 25% match for both stipend and tuition/fee expenses for students appointed on training grants.
• $25,000 in Flexible Award Funds: Each awarded training grant receives $25,000 in flexible funds. These may be used for activities such as evaluation, retreats, and professional development that fall outside the formal training grant budget.

For the latest details on these incentives and other training grant support services, visit the Graduate Division Training Grants webpage.

Faculty Development & Mentoring Programs

These initiatives embed mentorship into institutional practice, aligning with NIH priorities and strengthening the research training culture. UCI offers structured, evidence-based mentorship programs tailored to NIH standards.

Faculty Mentoring Academy

Mentorship is a recognized driver of academic productivity, career satisfaction, and grant competitiveness. The Faculty Mentoring Academy is UCI’s flagship mentoring program, designed to build mentoring competencies aligned with NIH expectations. It provides a structured series of interactive workshops covering:
• Establishing clear goals and expectations
• Building culturally responsive and inclusive mentoring relationships
• Navigating difficult conversations
• Promoting mentee independence and career development

Faculty who complete at least three sessions within two years earn a Certificate of Mentorship Excellence, recognizing their commitment to effective, evidence-based mentoring. The Academy also supports early-career faculty pursuing K- and T-series awards and helps strengthen UCI’s institutional culture of mentorship.

Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences Faculty Mentoring Program

Within the Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences, the mentoring program supports faculty at all career stages—from pre-tenure to mid-career—helping mentees build research programs, publication strategies, grant competitiveness, and professional networks. More information is available through the school’s website and the Academic Personnel Office.

School of Medicine Mentoring Framework

The School of Medicine offers mentoring for both Senate and Health Sciences faculty. This includes welcome sessions for assistant and associate professors, dedicated Slack and Zoom communities, hands-on guidance in promotion preparation, regular meetups and workshops, and an annual awards program recognizing outstanding faculty mentors.

GPS-STEM Career Development

GPS-STEM at UCI is a comprehensive, institutionally supported professional development initiative (originally NIH-BEST funded) for STEM PhD students and postdocs. It prepares them for diverse careers through four pillars: Explore, Train, Experience, and Transition. The program offers career panels, workshops on soft skills (leadership, science communication, mentoring), internships, certificate tracks (e.g., business concepts, science policy), and networking, complemented by one-on-one mentoring and continuing education. GPS-STEM cultivates polished professionals ready for careers beyond academia. For the most up-to-date information and full program details, visit the GPS-STEM website.

National Academies: The Science of Effective Mentoring in STEMM

The National Academies’ Science of Effective Mentoring in STEMM website offers a robust collection of resources to support mentors across STEMM fields. It includes the foundational report, podcasts, videos, workshop materials, and evidence-based practices that emphasize culturally responsive and inclusive approaches.

Designed for mentors in STEMM fields, this resource provides access to reports, videos, podcasts, and workshop materials that support effective mentoring practices.

National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN)

NRMN is an NIH-funded initiative dedicated to fostering inclusive mentorship and supporting career advancement for individuals across all stages in biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences. Its platform, NRMNet, offers virtual mentoring, career tools, grant-writing support, and mentor training.

Available to mentors and mentees at all career stages in biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences, NRMN offers virtual mentoring, career tools, grant-writing support, and mentor training.

Research Integrity and Responsible Conduct

Research Reproducibility & Rigor

NIH expects a thoughtful description of how key principles of scientific rigor are taught and reinforced throughout training. These include evaluating prior foundational research, using rigorous experimental design, accounting for biological variables, authenticating resources, and transparent reporting. The plan should explain how these topics will be taught across multiple stages of trainee development using various formats—coursework, workshops, and mentorship—and how program faculty will reinforce these elements through the context of each trainee’s research project.

Format:
Follow the page limits outlined in the Plan for Instruction in Methods for Enhancing Reproducibility section of the NIH Table of Page Limits, unless otherwise specified in the NOFO. Attach this information as a PDF. See NIH’s Format Attachments page for details.

Content:
The plan must describe how trainees will be instructed in the principles important for enhancing research reproducibility. At a minimum, NIH expects instruction on the following core areas:
• Evaluation of foundational research (i.e., rigor of prior studies)
• Rigorous experimental design and data interpretation
• Consideration of relevant biological variables (e.g., sex as a biological variable)
• Authentication of key biological and/or chemical resources
• Transparency in research reporting

• Renewal Applications: Describe any changes in instruction over the past project period and plans that address any weaknesses in the current instruction.

Additional Resources:
NIGMS Clearinghouse: Training Modules for Data Reproducibility – Offers short, high-impact educational modules focused on key aspects of research rigor: transparency, blinding, randomization, sample size justification, and proper use of replicates. These materials are ideal for integrating into T32 training programs to meet NIH’s enhanced reproducibility standards.

UCI School of Medicine – Rigor & Responsibility Site – Promotes rigorous, transparent, and reproducible biomedical research in alignment with NIH guidelines. It offers detailed principles on unbiased experimental design and transparent reporting, along with grant resources, training modules, and workshops to support high-integrity research practices.

Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) is deeply committed to fostering a culture of the highest research integrity. We adhere strictly to both federal mandates and University of California policies, ensuring that all individuals engaged in research receive comprehensive education in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR).

The NIH has explicit and strict policy requirements for RCR instruction that must be addressed in every T32 application. These include five mandatory components, which must be described in detail:
• Format: Describe the required format of instruction, i.e., face-to-face lectures, coursework, and/or real-time discussion groups. A plan with only online instruction is not acceptable.
• Subject Matter: Describe the breadth of subject matter, e.g., conflict of interest, authorship, data management, human subjects and animal use, laboratory safety, research misconduct, and research ethics.
• Faculty Participation: Describe the roles of mentor(s) and other faculty involvement in the instruction.
• Duration of Instruction: Describe the total number of contact hours of instruction.
• Frequency of Instruction: Instruction must occur during each career stage and at least once every four years. Document any prior instruction during the applicant’s current career stage, including the inclusive dates instruction was last completed.
• Monitoring: Plan must also describe how participation in RCR instruction will be monitored.

• Renewal Applications: Describe any changes in formal instruction over the past project period and plans for the future that address any weaknesses in the current RCR instruction. All training faculty who served as course directors, speakers, lecturers, and/or discussion leaders during the past project period must be named in the application.

For further information and guidance on NIH RCR training, please visit:
• NIH Office of Intramural Research
• NIH Grants & Funding Notice

Boilerplates and Templates

Graduate Division Boilerplates

Graduate Division Boilerplates: If you have trouble accessing the boilerplate links above, please visit Graduate Division Training Grants Webpage. You’ll find these templates in the middle of the page under “Training Grants Boilerplates.”

• Boilerplate: Campus Resources for Graduate Students
• Boilerplate: Graduate Recruitment & Retention Templates
• Boilerplate: Postdoctoral Scholar Resources

Institutional Letter of Support Template

Graduate Division Boilerplates: If you have trouble accessing the boilerplate links above, please visit Graduate Division Training Grants Webpage. You’ll find these templates in the middle of the page under “Training Grants Boilerplates.”

• Boilerplate: Campus Resources for Graduate Students
• Boilerplate: Graduate Recruitment & Retention Templates
• Boilerplate: Postdoctoral Scholar Resources