CPRIT Graduate Scholar Program

Program Details:

The MD Anderson CPRIT Research Training Program will support nine CPRIT Graduate Scholars per year. The funds will cover graduate student tuition, stipends, fringe benefits, and provide a modest travel allowance. CPRIT Graduate Scholars will be appointed for one year with competitive renewal option for up to three years. Renewals will be dependent upon successful academic and research progress, participation in activities related to the CPRIT Graduate Scholar Training Program (e.g., an annual CPRIT Symposium, journal club meetings), and competition with new applicants.

Eligibility:
Post-candidacy Ph.D. students affiliated with MD Anderson graduate (GSBS) faculty are eligible for the CPRIT Graduate Scholar Award. Successful candidates will have a competitive cancer research project and be directly supervised or co-mentored by a CPRIT Graduate Scholar Faculty Member.  

Applications will be limited to one per laboratory for each funding announcement cycle. While all students affiliated with MD Anderson graduate (GSBS) faculty member laboratories are eligible, the faculty member must nominate only one per his/her laboratory per funding announcement.  

MD Anderson students who are directly supervised by CPRIT Graduate Scholar faculty members have the option to choose a co-mentor from the training grant faculty.  

MD Anderson students who are supervised by other faculty, outside of the CPRIT Graduate Scholar program, have equal opportunity to receive a CPRIT Graduate Scholar Award. In these cases, the applicant must select a co-mentor from the CPRIT Graduate Scholar Training faculty to serve as a member of his/her advisory committee. In this case, the co-mentor should provide a letter of recommendation stating his/her commitment to serving as CPRIT Graduate Scholar co-mentor.

Applications are no longer being accepted for the FY25 program. Please check back in the spring for information on the FY26 program.

Application Instructions: Required documents must be compiled into a single PDF file (less letters of recommendation) in the order listed (under “Required documents”) and submitted via email to Dr. Lewis: keleonard@mdanderson.org

Page formatting: 1-inch margins on all 4 sides. Font: Arial or Helvetica, 12pt. 

Required Documents: Submitted by Applicant:

1. A 2-page research proposal written by the CPRIT Graduate Scholar Candidate. This should include the significance of the project and its relevance to cancer, theoretical aspects guiding the study (e.g., hypothesis), goals of the project, and expected outcomes. A two-page limit is enforced but references may be included in additional pages. Text and figures on additional pages will not be considered.

2. A current curriculum vitae for the applicant.

3. Undergraduate transcript- an unofficial transcript is sufficient. 

4. GSBS status report and all advisory committee reports to date. For GSBS reports, please contact Ms. Bunny Perez at Lourdes.V.Perez@uth.tmc.edu

5. A statement of commitment by the CPRIT Graduate Scholar candidate and dissertation mentor that indicates the applicant’s intent to participate in all required activities of the CPRIT Graduate Scholar Training Program listed below and the mentor’s support for this participation (1-page limit).
        -Attendance and participation in the program’s monthly journal club.
        -Attendance and participation in the program’s annual Shark Tank event.
        -A maximum of 4 hours participating in CPRIT and UPWARDS summer experience activities with our undergraduate and high school trainees. Such activities may include, but are not limited to, judging the summer program’s elevator and poster competition.
        -A 2-hour time commitment for note taking at TRIUMPH fellow’s committee meetings. Each fellow will have two meetings during the year, held six months apart, each lasting 1 hour. During these meetings you will take notes and provide them to the fellow and his/her mentor within 48 hours of the meeting. As meeting dates and times our finalized, an email will go out to the scholars to sign up.  

Required Documents: Submitted by Mentor/Co-Mentor:

1. A training plan written by the applicant's dissertation mentor, including plans for scientific oversight of the project, mentoring of the candidate, how the project is expected to facilitate the trainee's career goals in cancer research, career development opportunities that will be encouraged/supported, and the mentor's overall research goals. In addition, the mentor must affirm that only one application per lab will be submitted per award announcement cycle. (1-page limit)

2. A statement from the CPRIT Faculty Mentor or CPRIT Co-Mentor indicating willingness to serve as a member of the CPRIT Graduate Scholar's supervisory committee*

3. A letter of recommendation from the primary graduate mentor**

Required Documents: Submitted by Recommenders:

1. Two additional letters of recommendation should be submitted in support of the CPRIT Graduate Scholar's application**. Recommendation letters should be sent in PDF format from the referee's institutional email address to keleonard@mdanderson.org. Please include the applicant's name and CPRIT Graduate Scholar in the subject line. Letters of support should be received on or before the day the application closes.

*The statement on willingness to serve may be combined with the CPRIT Faculty Mentor or Co-Mentor’s letter of recommendation. 

**If a co-mentor is to be included, the co-mentor should provide one of the two required letters of recommendation.