Nevada INBRE sponsors 15 undergraduate research scholarships each year. Those selected for the program will spend the summer doing a lab research project in a faculty mentor’s laboratory. Summer research opportunities often lead to longer-term collaborations between students and faculty, publishable research, and careers in medicine or biomedical research. Opportunities are available for research in emerging areas such as genomics, proteomics, molecular modeling, imaging, and bioinformatics. However, any area of research that might be supported by the NIH is appropriate.

Students are selected in a statewide, merit-based competition. As part of the application process, students are required to identify a faculty mentor at UNR, UNSOM, UNLV, or Nevada Cancer Institute with whom they are interested in conducting research.

Nevada INBRE is a network of physical and human resources available to scientists in Nevada. Our mission is to provide infrastructure that enables investigators to successfully win research funding.

INBRE research facilities provide research support services, training, and equipment for Nevada's biomedical investigators. We also sponsor research, scholarship and training opportunities for faculty members and students.

The National Center Research Resources (NCRR) Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program broadens the geographic distribution of NIH funding for biomedical and behavioral research. The program fosters health-related research and enhances the competitiveness of investigators at institutions located in states in which the aggregate success rate for applications to NIH has historically been low.

The IDeA program increases the competitiveness of investigators by supporting faculty development and research infrastructure enhancement at institutions in 23 states and Puerto Rico.

The IDeA Program Has Two Main Components

• IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) enhance biomedical research capacity, expand and strengthen the research capabilities of biomedical faculty, and provide access to biomedical resources for promising undergraduate students throughout the eligible states. INBRE implements the IDeA approach at the state level by enhancing research infrastructure through support of a network of institutions with a multidisciplinary, thematic scientific focus. INBRE is the second phase of the Biomedical Research Infrastructure Networks (BRIN) program, which began by providing planning grants in 2001.
• Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) augment and strengthen institutional biomedical research capabilities by expanding and developing biomedical faculty research capability through support of a multidisciplinary center, led by a peer-reviewed, NIH-funded investigator with expertise central to theme of the grant proposal.

The IDeA program also supports IDeANet, an Internet-based network providing connectivity for high-bandwidth science applications. IDeANet will enable collaboration among institutions, ultimately supporting all participants in the IDeA program, as well as participants in the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program and other NCRR-supported networks.