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Evolution@Vanderbilt

CoEvoD Info

Below, you will find information about applying to the training grant. Our training grant supports one student in the second year of their Ph.D. and one student in the third year. Nomination materials are due annually on April 20th at 5pm (or the following Monday if the 20th falls on a weekend).

Nomination materials

The nomination must include:

  1. A two-page research plan written by the applicant including:
    1. Prior Research Experience,
    2. Project Suitability for the Applicant’s Background,
    3. How the Project Fits with the CoEvoD Theme,
    4. Any Pertinent Notes on Academic Performance,
    5. One-sentence descriptions of:
      1. Major goal of the project
      2. Approaches / methods used in the project
    6. Statement that both candidate and mentor support the nomination,
  2. A complete list of the nominee’s research experiences including any publications and presentations
    1. Paragraph of research project with list of outcomes underneath is appropriate
  3. Undergraduate and Graduate Transcripts
  4. NIH Biosketch of the trainee
  5. NIH Biosketch of the advisor
  6. Letter of recommendation from the advisor
  7. Letter of recommendation from a prior research advisor

The nomination may be submitted by either the candidate or the CoEvoD preceptor but will require the research statement to be written by the candidate. The nomination PDFs can be submitted on this page which also has formatting instructions.

Evaluation Metrics

The general evaluation metrics used by the Oversight Committee will be prior research experience and performance in rotations (30%), letters of recommendation (15%), graduate school grades (10%), suitability of the project for the candidate (10%), the trajectory of grades as an undergraduate (not GPA) (10%), and fit between proposed research and the theme of the training program (25%).

Selection of Trainees

Funding from the grant will be assigned to the most qualified training grant-eligible students that plan to engage in CoEvoD-related research. Upon receipt of the nomination materials, the T32 Oversight Committee will evaluate all nominees holistically, emphasizing prior research experience based on information in the personal statement and letters of recommendation. We understand that special strengths in one area can offset weaknesses in another. We will particularly value students who have demonstrated perseverance and overcome adversity, for example those who had to work while attending classes to pay their way through college. We view research experience as of paramount importance, and value candidates who took one or more gap years and worked in a research laboratory, co-authored papers, and have strong letters of recommendation from their mentors. Finally, we expect that all applicants plan to engage in CoEvoD-related research for a substantial part of their PhD (e.g., one or more aims of their PhD thesis plan).

The T32 Oversight Committee will evaluate and discuss all nominees; following discussion, each member will independently rank all nominees based on the program’s stated evaluation metrics. The Oversight Committee will further discuss the nominees with the best combined ranking scores (we will further discuss twice as many nominees as we have slots for, which will typically be two nominees for each new slot), specifically considering fit between proposed research and the theme of the training program, followed by a second ranking that will identify the nominees that will be provisionally supported by the program. The rest of the candidates will form a ranked waiting list.

The directors of all biomedical training grants (all of which are administered by the BRET office) and who are recruiting from the same pool of applicants (i.e., biomedical students finishing G1 in IGP, BSCI, QCB, and other biomedically-related graduate programs) will meet to harmonize their training grant choices so that no student is named to more than one training grant. Given the unique focus of our training grant on computational evolution and lack of overlap between the CoEvoD program and other VU / VUMC training grants, the potential for overlap is very small, and we fully expect that our program will identify and support exceptional trainees whose research does not fit other VU / VUMC T32 grants.

Reappointment Procedure

Trainees finishing their second year who have had one year of T32 funding can be nominated for a second year of funding. The deadline for reappointment nominations is the same as for appointment nominations (on or about April 20th each year). The nomination PDFs can be submitted on this page. For reappointment, the nomination package will consist of:

  1. A cover letter from the Training Mentor summarizing the Trainee’s progress in training and research, including the outcomes of their qualification exams, along with abstracts of any presentations or publications, graduate transcript, and other relevant updates,
  2. Updated NIH Biosketches of Trainee and Mentor

Evaluation Metrics for Trainee Reappointments

The Oversight Committee will read all reappointment requests and vote on reappointment. We expect that our trainees will be among the best students on campus and that nearly all will be reappointed for training grant support for a second year. If a trainee is not selected for reappointment, we will use our ranked list from the previous year to choose the next candidate after soliciting materials from the student and their advisor on the continued appropriateness of such training.