To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this NOFO
will support educational activities with a primary focus on:

• Courses for Skills Development
• 
  
  Research Experiences
• 
  
  Mentoring Activities

The fully integrated educational activities should
prepare undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds, including those from
groups underrepresented in biomedical and behavioral sciences, to enter Ph.D.
degree programs in the neurosciences. To accomplish this goal, this initiative
will provide institutional awards to develop neuroscience research education
programs comprised of collaborative partnerships integrated across different
educational institution types.

Each partnership must include:

a) one or more institutions that either: 1) have a
historical and current mission to educate students from any of the populations
that have been identified as underrepresented in biomedical research as defined
by the National Science Foundation (NSF), see http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/)
(i.e., African Americans or Blacks, Hispanic or Latino Americans, American
Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, U.S. Pacific Islanders, and persons
with disabilities) or 2) have a documented track record of recruiting, training
and/or educating, and graduating underrepresented students as defined by NSF
(see above), which has resulted in a 
historically documented contribution by the institution to the national pool
of graduates from underrepresented backgrounds who pursue biomedical research
careers; 

b) a research-intensive institution that has an
established neuroscience or neuroscience-related program;

c) integrated curriculum/academic enhancement and research
experience activities designed to increase participants' preparation to enter
doctoral programs in the neurosciences; and

d) well-described plans to provide early communication
and interaction between participating students and graduate neuroscience programs
across the country.

The proposed program needs to align with the neuroscience
mission of the NIH Blueprint and/or BRAIN Initiative research areas and cannot
have a general STEM focus.

Award Budget: Although the size of award may vary with
the scope of the research education program proposed and there are no specific
budget limitations, the requested direct costs must be reasonable, well
documented, fully justified and commensurate with the scope of the proposed
program. The average cost per program is estimated between $300K - $400K.

Project Period: The total project period for an
application submitted in response to this funding opportunity may not exceed 5
years.