Funding
The UT Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program (IGERT) is supported by a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation and provides traineeships for Ph.D. students.

Applying
The IGERT program has a short on-line application form that is submitted electronically by the click of a button. Please be aware that this does not take the place of the UT Graduate School application or the "home" department application. A student may apply to the IGERT program a maximum of two times.

Award disbursement
The award consists of an annual stipend of $30,000 disbursed in lump sum payments at the beginning of the Fall, Spring, and Summer semester. An additional $10,500 is also awarded to each IGERT student for cost of education expenses. The participant must be registered for 9 hours or more in the fall and spring semesters and 3 hours or more of the summer semester to be eligible to receive funding. Tuition, health insurance, and taxes are the responsibility of the student.

Special features

• Students participate in weekly seminars for course credit (BME 197T) in the Fall and Spring. This exposes them to various areas of research and employment in industrial, federal, and academic settings within cellular and molecular imaging for diagnostics and therapeutics.

• Students enroll in a core curriculum of courses designed to compliment the student's academic program and provide a multi-disciplinary overview of the field which will enable them to work in various types of research. 

• Students will elect three advisors from IGERT faculty members; two from different participating departments at UT-Austin, and one clinical advisor from UT MD Anderson Cancer Center or the UT Health Science Center-Houston. The research plan will be designed so that it can be conducted from at least two different perspectives within different laboratories at UT and a third as part of an internship outside of UT.

• Funds for research supplies and travel are available to IGERT participants by submitting a short proposal to the director describing how the expense benefits the students' IGERT research or the IGERT program. More specifically, for travel, students include how they will publicize the IGERT program (ex. including a slide in a conference presentation).

Outside Traineeship

IGERT students may accept supplemental traineeship during the period they are appointed as IGERT trainees.  A supplemental traineeship is one that is intended to supplement appointment as a GRA (e.g. Thrust Traineeship).  IGERT students may not accept traineeships designed to provide full time support during the period they are appointed as IGERT trainees.  Examples of such traineeships include Pre-Emptive Traineeships or NSF Graduate Traineeships.

Employment Outside the Program

IGERT students may accept supplemental TA appointments during the period they are appointed as IGERT trainees.  A supplemental TA is one that is 5 hours per week or less, provided the student's primary IGERT advisor approves it in advance.

Students are notified via email of any changes to the information above.