Education and Training Program

The CTM Education and Career Development Program strives to provide trainees with a unique and rigorous multidisciplinary program that will prepare them to become leaders of the next generation of clinical and translational investigators. As part of this initiative, UT Southwestern offers a Master of Science in Clinical Science (MSCS). In addition, it offers a Mentored Clinical and Translational Research Scholar Program (CTSA KL2; Scholar Program) and a yearlong predoctoral medical student/Ph.D. student training program (CTSA TL1).

Our vision is to enable the training and launch the careers of predoctoral and postdoctoral level trainees across all disciplines and including all partnering institutions of the Center for Translational Medicine. This is accomplished by providing outstanding education and career development programs that meet the trainees' short-, intermediate-, and long-term clinical and translational science educational needs.

KL2 Mentored Clinical and Translational Research Scholar Program (Scholars Program) is designed to provide intense research training and career development opportunities in a multidisciplinary setting that culminate in the submission of an extramural career development grant application. Scholars include junior faculty and clinical research fellows who have protected time for research. As with the master’s degree curriculum, deliverables include a completed research project, a publishable manuscript, and an extramural grant application such as an NIH K award.

The goal of the Scholars Program is to prepare junior investigators for a successful career in clinical and translational research. The CTM aims to transform junior investigators by providing resources and support needed to launch their research careers. In addition, trainees acquire competence in critical thinking, team science, leadership, biomedical statistics and informatics, and other disciplines by taking courses offered in the master’s program. All CTM trainees are mentored by faculty across the UT Southwestern campus, focusing on team science that spans the spectrum of translational medicine.