The National Institutes of Health's (NIH) mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and to apply that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. To achieve this mission, NIH substantially invests in research to improve public health; it also devotes substantial resources to identify, develop, support and maintain the quality of its scientific resources, including human capital.

The goal of the Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) research training program is to develop a diverse pool of undergraduates who complete their baccalaureate degree, and transition into and complete biomedical, research-focused higher degree programs (e.g., Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D.). MARC seeks to increase the number of highly-trained underrepresented biomedical and behavioral scientists in leadership positions to significantly impact the health-related research needs of the nation. The period of appointment to the MARC program is a consecutive 24-month period at the final 2 years of undergraduate training, typically called the junior and senior years.

MARC is a university-wide program.  We accept undergraduate students from any department on campus, provided they are involved in biomedical or behavioral related laboratory research with pursuit of obtaining a PhD in science field.