North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s College of Science and Technology (CoST) has been selected for the Bridges to the Doctorate research training award of $1.3 million over a five-year period.

The award from the National Institute of Health allows for a partnership between CoST’s master’s programs in computational biology and computational science and engineering and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s doctorate programs in the same fields.

N.C. A&T is the only historically black college or university selected for the award.

The Bridges to the Doctorate program is designed to help students make the transition from master’s degree programs to doctorate programs. The award will expand the pool of underrepresented students who remain in the bioinformatics and biomedical sciences through the doctorate level and increase the number of students who go into research careers, said Patrick Martin, assistant dean of CoST and principal investigator for the program at A&T.

Originally published Oct. 4, 2018.