Institutional Research & Academic Career Development Award
The Minnesota IRACDA Program is an NIH-funded collaboration between the University of Minnesota and the nearby community colleges of Normandale Community College and North Hennepin Community College. This program provides a diverse cohort of recent PhD scholars with rigorous scientific research training, instruction, mentoring, and experience in teaching, and career development guidance. This program enables scholars to transition to tenure-track faculty positions and research-related employment upon completion of their fellowship. In turn, the scholars serve as mentors, role models, and research instructors for undergraduate students. Many of these undergraduates from our partner institutions transfer to the University of Minnesota to complete their bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields.
Sample MN IRACDA Program
Current Scholars
Program Alumni
Overview of IRACDA
The long-term goal of the Minnesota IRACDA Program is to develop and implement successful and creative strategies to promote and facilitate the transition of talented postdoctoral researchers from diverse backgrounds into independent faculty careers in biomedical research and education. The overall objectives of the Minnesota IRACDA Program are to:
- Recruit postdoctoral scholars from backgrounds that have been historically excluded from STEM research and education and provide them with strong multi-tiered mentoring in cutting-edge biomedical research.
- Provide the postdoctoral scholars with pedagogical training in modern teaching techniques that incorporate diverse populations, and mentored practice in evidence-based teaching at the undergraduate level at two teaching-intensive institutions that predominantly serve students from minority and low-income urban populations—Normandale Community College and North Hennepin Community College.
- Equip postdoctoral scholars with a multitude of career and professional development opportunities and programs including, participation in workshops that address scientific communication, publication, job searches, grant writing, professional advancement, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in biomedical research.
- Provide undergraduates from the teaching-intensive partner institutions with paid authentic research opportunities at the University of Minnesota in which they are mentored by the postdoctoral scholars.
IRACDA cohort and Vice Dean Dr. Ana Núñez, Dec 2023.
