Funded through a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Institutional Research Training Grant, commonly known as a T32, the Neuro-RISE (Training in Interdisciplinary Neurotrauma Research, Innovation and Scientific Excellence) program, led by Ceren Yarar-Fisher and co-program director Phil Popovich, professor of neuroscience and executive director for the Belford Center for Spinal Cord Injury, will provide two years of advanced interdisciplinary training for predoctoral researchers. Unlike traditional NIH grants that fund individual research projects, T32 awards are designed to develop future scientific leaders through structured mentorship and collaborative training.
“Neurotrauma is too complex to be addressed from the perspective of a single discipline,” said Ceren Yarar-Fisher, PT, PhD, Neuro-RISE program director, associate professor and vice chair of research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. “We wanted to develop scientists who understand biological mechanisms but can also think about rehabilitation, technology, chronic health, implementation and what patients identify as meaningful outcomes.”
Trainees will work across neural plasticity, rehabilitation diagnostics and interventions, emerging technologies and chronic symptom management while receiving guidance from multidisciplinary mentoring teams that include researchers, clinicians and individuals living with traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury. The program is designed to help move discoveries more efficiently from the laboratory into clinical care and the community.
Receiving a T32 award is highly competitive. Institutions must demonstrate scientific excellence, a strong mentoring environment, a rigorous curriculum and sustained institutional commitment to training future investigators. Support from Ohio State's Graduate School T32 incentive program helped the team develop a competitive proposal by providing resources for faculty pursuing institutional training grants.
“I was thrilled and deeply grateful,” Yarar-Fisher said. “It was incredibly validating to see NIH recognize both the scientific strength of the program and our commitment to training researchers in a more multidisciplinary, translational and human-centered way.”
The need for that workforce continues to grow. Approximately 2.5 million Americans experience a traumatic brain injury each year, while about 17,000 sustain a spinal cord injury. Many survivors face lifelong cognitive, physicaland emotional challenges, and promising advances in neuroscience, neuroplasticity, rehabilitation and assistive technologies require researchers who can work across disciplines to translate discoveries into practical solutions.
“We need to train that workforce now so today’s discoveries can become tomorrow’s treatments, technologies and standards of care,” Yarar-Fisher said.
