Achievement

During our Life Academy (IGERT summer retreat) investigators and IGERT faculty identified professional skills and core competencies for our trainees. This year, our professors began methodically introducing these areas during the required Aging Traineeship Forum (ATF). Students can earn 3 credits for this forum during the academic year. Topics this year included presentation skills (Basics of Effective Slide Presentations); Grant Funding & Budgets (why grant funding is important; components of the budget of a grant proposal); Obtaining Research Funding (potential sources of research funding; the review process; experiences and advice for success in obtaining research funding) and communicating sciences to general audiences (best practices). Presenters included IGERT advisors, engineering faculty and external experts. The ATF forum is also a base for IGERT trainees to keep in touch with each other and provides cohesion necessary for a successful training program.