ENRICH Summer Cancer Research Experience

The ENRICH (ENhancing Research In Cancer-related Health professions) Program is a new intensive mentored 10-week in-person summer research program supported by the National Cancer Institute to educate and train currently enrolled graduate-level students in cancer research. The goal of the program is to immerse trainees in the scientific process, foundational discovery, multidisciplinary translation frameworks, and the breadth of opportunities for careers that include cancer research, while capitalizing on the environment and commitment from the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Things to Know

  • ENRICH is a new program similar to the legacy-program known as CaRES (Cancer Research Experiences for Students), which is no longer active.
  • ENRICH begins in May 2024 and ends August 2024.
  • The ENRICH Program will support up to 30 medical, dental and master-level graduate students per year.
  • ENRICH Trainees must be United States citizens or permanent residents. All currently enrolled medical, dental, and master-level graduate students from a diverse spectrum of disciplines including public health, basic science, health professions, nursing, and pharmacy from UAB and Samford University are eligible to apply. Current students must be between years 1 and 2 of their respective programs. We are unable to fund students from institutions other than UAB or Samford at this point.
  • ENRICH Mentors are faculty with an active cancer research focus scientifically integrated in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.
  • The ENRICH program is stipend is $4,650 for 10 weeks of full-time, on-site effort with Weeks 1 and 10 being remote to accommodate student schedules. Students will be paid biweekly via direct deposit. Students must complete ethics training and responsible conduct of research training before starting their research in May.
  • The foundation of the ENRICH Program is the mentored summer research experience, which is complemented by a structured forum focused on innovative content for communication, personal and professional development. During the summer, ENRICH students are required to participate in these in-person weekly seminars.
  • At the end of the summer, trainees will present their research at the ENRICH Program Research Symposium. Scientific merit awards will be bestowed to 2 ENRICH trainees per year for their cancer research presentations. Awards are determined by peer-review and will be used to attend a scientific conference of choice to present their research at the national level.
  • The ENRICH Program Research Symposium will be held on Thursday, July 25, 2024.
  • ENRICH Research Experiences will open before March 1st. Ethics training and onboarding will need to be completed by April 30th. Mentored research experiences will formally begin in May and end in August.
  • ENRICH mentors will submit project descriptions in January to the ENRICH website. Trainee candidates will submit applications starting at the same time in January. Trainee candidates are responsible to identify ENRICH mentored projects of interest, connect with associated project mentors, and select their ENRICH mentored research project. ENRICH mentors will contact the ENRICH Program when the trainee has been identified and that particular ENRICH mentored research project will be closed to other applicants.
  • ENRICH mentors are responsible for all regulatory approvals (i.e. IRB, IACUC, etc.) and must obtain approval for the trainee by April 30th.
  • POTENTIAL ENRICH STUDENTS: PLEASE SEE AVAILABLE RESEARCH EXPERIENCES HERE.

Please direct any questions to UABENRICH@uabmc.edu. Thank you for your interest in ENRICH!