NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Clemson University announced this week that its Institute of Translational Genomics has been awarded a three-year grant from the US Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture to provide training in computational genomics for students from underrepresented groups.
With the $238,500 grant, the institute is aiming to recruit three graduate students from underrepresented and protected classes including African-American, Hispanic, and female students, Clemson said. The university added that it has also committed funds to cover the costs of a fourth student for the program.
"This will lay the foundation for developing interdisciplinary training for our new certificate program in translational genomics," Clemson investigator and project leader Stephen Kresovich said in a statement. "Our goal is to cross-train and mentor the next generation of leaders who will be promoting and enhancing a safe, sufficient, and nutritious food and/or energy supply for the US and the world."
Clemson will search for program participants from across the US using community resources and recruitment venues and tools. Applications for the first year of the training program will begin in late 2016 or early 2017. Selected students will each receive $73,500 in aid for a three-year period, as well as an additional $6,000 per year for a cost-of-education allowance. At the end of the three-year program, the students will receive additional funding from private and public sources to help them complete their education.
"We're not just sponsoring excellent students for our individual research programs," Clemson Associate Professor Amy Lawton-Rauh added in the statement. "We want this program to become the first step in leveraging more funds, resources, and experiences for training graduate students in computational genomics."