BUILD Research Collaboratory (BRC)

This is an inactive program.

About the Program

Virtual BRC Summer 2021: In response to COVID-19, our team is holding a 6-week course in basic bioinformatics coding open to current NIH BUILD students nationwide. The summer experience will use an online structured near peer mentoring framework. This means that each trainee will be part of a small mentoring group and that they will work with a master's student to learn basic R coding, and to examine research questions. The theme will be COVID-19 resilience and resistance.

Eligibility

  • Must be a current NIH BUILD student from any of the 10 NIH BUILD sites.
  • Ideal candidates would be newly-selected BUILD students (not yet paired) or students who are engaged in research that is halted due to COVID-19.

NO PRIOR CODING EXPERIENCE IS NEEDED. All current NIH BUILD students, regardless of their prior skills with R coding, are welcome to join the course. The course will accommodate a variety of learners with a range of skills and abilities.

How to Apply

FAQs

The hours of BRC will be from 10 am-1 pm, Monday-Thursday.

This program will take place online using Zoom and other online technology.

We encourage any NIH-BUILD scholars who are paired with a mentor and who are able to continue their ongoing research at their own site to continue and not participate with our program.

We would request students who are engaged in research that is halted due to COVID-19 to communicate early with their research supervisors/mentors that they are joining BRC for the summer only, and that they plan to RETURN to their primary lab as soon as it is safe or possible. If this occurs during BRC, we request that the student finish the 6-week BRC program.

The Near Peer Mentors are master's level students who have skills in near-peer facilitation and R-coding/public health/bioinformatics. We are recruiting master's level students who may want to serve as near peer mentors. If you are interested in becoming a BRC near peer mentor, please fill out this interest form starting April 15.

Population health science concepts, data collection from publicly available data sets, data analysis training with R, writing, presentation, and communication skills.

For each site that participates in BRC, we will identify a key point person at each site. We recognize that faculty at other sites would like to maintain and enhance their relationships with students, especially newly selected trainees. Therefore, we are working on the means to include others. 

The Director of the BRC is Dr. Kala Mehta of the University of California at San Francisco's (UCSF) Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Dr. Mehta is the Student Training Core (STC) Lead for the SF BUILD Program.