IRACDA, Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award, is an NIH-sponsored program designed to provide three years of mentored, post-doctoral support in biomedical research in selected labs at UCSD and SDSU, and a mentored experience in teaching.
IRACDA aims especially to promote the advancement of under-represented minorities. In addition to supporting advanced mentored research, the program provides training directed at preparing post-docs to enter the professoriate: mentored lecturing to undergraduates at SDSU; a course in organization behavior and structure of universities and colleges, including interviewing and negotiating job contracts; grant writing; and a seminar series run by the post-docs.
IRACDA also provides travel funding to attend a national meeting each year and the annual IRACDA conference.