The multi-institutional National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, entitled Collaborative Research and Education in Agricultural Technologies and Engineering (CREATE), provides a structured, well-integrated graduate research and educational training program that focuses on the use of transgenic plants and in-vitro plant systems for the production of industrial non-food products and biopharmaceuticals. Throughout the training program, particular attention will be devoted to the scientific, engineering, environmental, regulatory, economic, intellectual property, societal and global issues associated with plant biotechnology.
CREATE-IGERT award cycles will run January to December. Traineeship awards will include an annual stipend of $30,000 for 12 months, in-state fees and travel support of $500 per year. Graduate students who are US Citizens or Permanent Residents conducting research in one of the CREATE faculty trainer laboratories at UC Davis or Tuskegee University will be eligible to apply for the CREATE traineeshp.
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CREATE brings together a diverse group of faculty and graduate students from plant sciences, molecular biology and engineering, working together in interdisciplinary teams to tackle critical societal challenges with applications in the following areas:
I. The CREATE program will foster interdisciplinary collaborations needed to address the technical, economic, environmental, societal, and policy issues related to agricultural biotechnology, from both a domestic and international perspective. To provide training in these arenas, CREATE includes industrial research internship opportunities in the United States, as well as international research internship opportunities in Ireland. In addition, CREATE has identified a diverse pool of training faculty, coming from 10 departments, across 6 colleges/schools with a wide range of expertise relevant to the unifying theme.
II. The CREATE program will train an ethnically diverse group of research and educational leaders having knowledge of the fundamental principles and expertise in the applications of plant biotechnology. To achieve this mission, CREATE has established a Masters-to-PhD bridging program between UC Davis and Tuskegee University, a minority-serving masters-granting institution with excellent programs in the agricultural, plant and environmental sciences.
III. The CREATE program will serve as an educational hub for in vitro, plant-based technologies, through the development and implementation of new courses that take advantage of plant biotechnology expertise available on the UC Davis and Tuskegee campuses. CREATE is developing a new graduate lecture course entitled "Transgenic Plant and In-vitro Plant Based Expression Systems" and two summer laboratory short courses on "Plant Transformation Methods" and "Recovery and Purification of Plant-Derived Products".
Tuskegee University is partnering with UC Davis in developing and implementing a CREATE MS-to-PhD Bridge program for graduate students conducting research in plant biotechnology. Provost Luther Williams is the Tuskegee University Principal Investigator, with the following Tuskegee faculty participating as key CREATE personnel: Dr. Marceline Egnin; Dr. Guohao He; Dr. Jesse Jaynes and Dr. Channatpah Prakash. Tuskegee faculty from disciplines in agricultural and environmental sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering and integrative biosciences may also participate in the CREATE-IGERT program.
International CREATE collaborators include Teagasc Oak Park Research Centre, under the directorship of Dr. James Burke, and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM) Institute of Bioengineering and Agroecology, under the directorship of Dr. Philip J. Dix. CREATE doctoral fellows will be exposed to global perspectives in agricultural biotechnology, through interactions with international faculty and researchers, via international internship opportunities and scholarly interactions at the annual CREATE Symposium.
The CREATE program is made possible through funding by the National Science Foundation (DGE-0653984) via the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program.
"The IGERT program has been developed to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists, engineers, and educators with the interdisciplinary backgrounds, deep knowledge in chosen disciplines, and technical, professional, and personal skills to become in their own careers the leaders and creative agents for change." -NSF Introduction to IGERT Programs
In addition to the CREATE program, UC Davis is honored to be the past and present home of the following IGERT programs: Biological Invasions: From Genes to Ecosystems, From Science to Society under the directorship of Dr. Sharon Strauss, Department of Evolution and Ecology; Nanophases in the Environment, Agriculture and Technology (NEAT) , under the directorship of Dr. Alexandra Navrotsky, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; and the Transportation Technology and Policy (TTP) Program , under the directorship of Dr. Patricia Mokhtarian, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Faculty and students interested in obtaining more information regarding national IGERT programs should contact the IGERT National Recruitment Program.