One-year intensive training research fellowships are designed to provide a more detailed exposure to clinical research and to stimulate the students to pursue further clinical research training (such as K fellowships) after graduation. Medical students participating in the one-year program will be asked to write a thesis based on their work and will graduate with a "MD with Thesis" designation.

The PACCTR program is designed to be as flexible as possible to meet the students' needs. We therefore have 3 different tracks for students in the one-year program.

• Track one is for students interested in primarily laboratory-focused translational research.
• Track two is for students whose projects require extensive direct contact with research participants and primary data collection. Because both the first and second tracks require substantial amounts of time either in the laboratory or research clinic, students in these tracks will be required only to take the Designing Clinical Research course. Participation in either the ATCR Certificate Program or any of the subsequent individual courses offered by the TICR Program during the Fall, Winter, or Spring quarters will be optional.
• Track three is for students who wish to be enrolled in the ATCR Certificate Program. These students must be engaged in research that will allow enough time to dedicate to coursework. Hence, the third track will be for students whose research projects do not require either laboratory work or extensive direct patient contact. Typically, projects that can be performed while the student is enrolled in the ATCR do not involve primary data collection. Examples include analysis of existing data, performance of a novel biological measurement on pre-existing frozen biological specimens or concurrently collected biological specimens from research participants who are already enrolled and well-characterized as part of a pre-existing study, or addition of novel questionnaire item(s) to an ongoing pre-existing instrument being administered to research subjects.

Application forms

• 1-Year Non-UCSF
• 1-Year UCSF Student
• Mentor Form

Mail transcripts and any other application materials directly to:

Cecily Hunter
185 Berry Street, Suite 5700
Box 0560
San Francisco, CA 94143-0560
Phone: 415-514-8021
Fax: 415-514-8150

Deadline

The Deadline for the one-year fellowships is January 16, 2008 for admission in Summer 2008.

All one-year students are expected to begin their fellowship year on or around July 1. They will begin their research project intensively in the month of July and will take the "Designing Clinical Research" course beginning in August. They will spend 2 half-days per week during the month of August through mid-September in class and continue their work on their research project. In September some of the students will begin the ATCR Program and spend about half of their time devoted to ATCR and the remainder to their research project. The other students will continue their research projects.

Selection of a research project: The goal of the student's research project is to provide him or her with comprehensive exposure to the research process. By definition the level of involvement of the student in their project would qualify them for first authorship on the primary publications arising from this research. Before putting together a research proposal, students should first contact a potential mentor. Mentors may be chosen from among a list of faculty who have already indicated that they are interested in mentoring students but they may also choose from UCSF faculty members who are not on this list.

Support provided: $27,000 annual stipend plus an annual fellow's allowance, TICR and/or ATCR tuition, health insurance, mentor payment and an annual research allowance. The one and two year fellowships will also include a travel allowance to attend the national student’s research meeting.

Application Requirements

UCSF students from all four schools (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry) applying to the one-year intensive PACCTR fellowships will be asked to pick a mentor and submit their research proposal as part of the application. The process of choosing a mentor and research project should ideally be done by December of the year before the fellowship begins. Students will need to provide a Dean's letter, medical school transcript and letters of reference from 2 faculty members who know them well.

Non-UCSF medical students applying for the one-year intensive program will be asked to apply through the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship program for Medical Students.

You will not be required to submit a final mentor or research proposal as part of the application process, but will instead be asked to submit a 2-page literature review and two possible mentor choices. Read more about DDCF requirements specific to UCSF.

Non-UCSF students from allied health professions, (i.e. not medical students), will apply through the PACCTR one-year intensive program, however, in lieu of the Research Proposal you will be asked to submit a 2-page literature review from a journal article of your choosing.

2-page Literature Review (for non-UCSF students only). We would like you to choose two journal articles that interest you and in a maximum of 2 pages, please describe

1. What was interesting to you about these publications?

2. Based on your reading of these and/or other publications, what kinds of experiments or studies would you perform as a logical extension of the work described in the papers?

Please note that the subject of these papers need not be in the same field as the work that your selected mentors do, and they need not resemble the project that you will perform as a PACCTR fellow.

One-year PACCTR complete applications should include the following: (* Please note that the Research Proposal is only required for UCSF students. Non-UCSF medical students and students from allied health professions (i.e. not medical students) applying for the one-year fellowships will instead submit a 2-page literature review and two possible mentor choices as described above)

• Personal Statement (700 words or less, or approx. one single-spaced page)
• Research Plan Title* (255 characters or less, including spaces)
• Research Plan Summary* (250 words or less, or approx. 1/3 of single-spaced page)
• Research Plan* (2,1000 words or less, or approx three single-spaced pages) (You should work closely with your mentor on writing the research plan)
• Research Plan Citations* (700 words or less, or approx. one single-spaced page)
• Transcripts (professional school transcripts only, not undergraduate transcripts)
• Dean's Letter (The Dean should comment on your potential for scholarly achievement, elaborating, where appropriate, on such matter as scientific knowledge, performance as a student in independent study or in research-participation programs and ability to make sound judgments. In addition, the dean may describe pertinent personal characteristics such as perseverance, persistence in the face of obstacles, creativity, independence and motivation)
• Letters of reference (Two letters of reference from persons (other than the mentor or co-mentor on this application or dean) who are familiar with the applicant's talents and abilities and could comment on the applicant's promise and potential)
• Mentor Choice(s) (does not have to be from list provided on PACCTR Web-site)
• Mentor's Endorsement (and co-mentor's if applicable) see below for details

In addition to the Web-based submission, the applicant is responsible for:

• Providing the mentor, co-mentor (if applicable), Dean and references with the information necessary for them to submit the required letters and other information. It is the applicant's responsibility to make sure that the mentor (co-mentor, if applicable), Dean and references have provided all required information by the application deadline.
• Obtaining Academic transcripts: (please provide, medical, dental, nursing or pharmacy school
• transcripts, undergraduate transcripts are not required.
• The Mentor's Endorsement: includes information on the mentor's plans for training the applicant, training experience, grant support, a brief curriculum vitae, and an evaluation of the applicant. The mentor’s endorsement form can be found at (link to mentor form) This should be completed by the mentor and e-mailed directly to Cecily Hunter.

Timeline of Application Process

• Students pick mentor/project selected & written: December
• Application due: Jan 16th
• Students notified of decision: Mid-March
• Project and mentor revised (if needed): Early May
• IRB Protocol submitted (if needed): Early May
• Fellowship Begins: Early July

Curriculum

The ATCR Program is a four academic quarter program for students who desire rigorous training in the methods of clinical research. The first quarter (Summer) consists of the three courses in the CRW, and the Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters provide in-depth methodological instruction and an opportunity for students to conduct their research. Recognizing that the current structure of many fellowship programs and the interests of students allow for only one year of formal training, we have designed the ATCR Program to provide in a single year the essential skills for a career as an independent clinical researcher. The objectives of ATCR are: to learn the methods required to perform both observational and experimental clinical research; to plan and implement one or more clinical research projects; and to analyze, interpret, and present a set of clinical research data. Read more about the ATCR program.