A first-time award of $1.9 million to the University of Rhode Island will support 56 doctorate students engaged in interdisciplinary study of neuroscience, biotechnology and engineering.
The funds benefit students in their first two years of post-doctoral study at URI, according to Jodi Camberg, co-director of the interdisciplinary program. Students awarded funding receive a stipend, professional development and coordinated curriculum to support interdisciplinary collaboration.
Functioning as a cohort and communicating across respective disciplines of study, students train and work collaboratively for two years, before developing their dissertation independently, according to Camberg.
The training program is a joint effort between URI’s colleges of engineering, health sciences and environment and life sciences, according to RhodyToday. The grant, funded by the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences branch, is designed to address a shortage in interdisciplinary doctoral research.
“It’s going to allow me to branch out to different areas of analysis,” Alex Cerullo, a doctoral student in the program’s first cohort, said.
Trained as an electrical engineer, Cerullo said he is proficient with interpreting numerical data. He views the program as an outlet of exposure to the qualitative data commonly used across psychology and neuroscience disciplines.
“This will strengthen my research as I enter my fourth and fifth years,” Cerullo said.
The NIH grant award coincides with URI’s designation as a R1 research university, according to RhodyToday.
A university is designated by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as R1 when annually, at least $50 million dollars are spent on research and at least 70 research doctorates are awarded, according to Carnegie’s 2025 research designations web page. Brown University and URI are Rhode Island’s only institutions to receive this designation in 2025.
“I had a lot of teaching experience and I didn’t want to be a TA again,” Christine Dallaire, a doctoral student awarded grant funding, said. “This program allows me to get research experience, which is something I was lacking.”
Dallaire said that the funding alleviates stress of balancing work and research, allowing her additional time for professional development.
The transdisciplinary training program will welcome cohorts of doctorate students annually, rotating as students in their third-year move on to further develop their dissertation, according to Camberg. Funding is expected to support cohorts of doctoral students for the next five years.
