Graduate Students

All graduate students at the NIH are part of the GPP and the GPP is here to serve you, regardless of the the mechanism by which you came to the NIH for your dissertation work.  If you are a graduate student on an NIH campus and have not already registered with the GPP, please register here.  Also, please plan to attend one of our monthly graduate student and postdoctoral fellow orientations.

The Graduate Partnerships Program (GPP) helps prepare NIH graduate students to become innovative and creative leaders in the scientific research community. We provide programs, services, individual assistance, and resources to enhance the academic, professional and career development of NIH graduate students.

The GPP is housed within the Office of Intramural Training & Education (OITE).  The OITE and GPP work with the Training Offices in the Institutes and Centers to ensure that your graduate school experience is as rewarding as possible.  We aim to help all NIH trainees become creative leaders in the biomedical research community.  In addition to participating in the training activities offered by your IC, please be certain to take advantage of OITE career and professional development activities and of the OITE Career Services Center.

Upon your arrival at the NIH, be sure to participate in the following:

• attend a graduate student orientation session (search 'orientation' in the keywords field);
• create an "NIH Trainee/Fellow Account" for yourself on the OITE Web site so you can register for events with a single click of your mouse, make appointments with career counselors, and access the Alumni Database;
• make certain you are included in the official graduate student listserv (OITE-Grads); read more about available listservs/sign up;
• sign up to follow the OITE Careers Blog and get an informative blog post delivered to your email once a week;
• come to Building 2 to meet OITE staff, and drop by your IC Training Office to meet your Training Director; and
• attend a Research Ethics Training Workshop for Postbacs and Grad Students.

Activities offered by the OITE and GPP include:

• two writing courses: Basic Science Writing and Writing and Publishing a Scientific Paper (now offered by FAES);
• a series of activities aimed at Improving Spoken English for our NIH trainees whose native language is not English;
• Scientists Teaching Science, both a short workshop and an in-depth online course;
• communications workshops including Talking Science: Designing and Delivering Successful Oral Presentations;
• Career Advancement Toolkit (CAT) Tracks that address the Academic Job Search, the Job Search in Industry, and Career Exploration;
• Grant-writing training; and
• Leadership, Management, and Mentoring workshops and courses.

Keep your eye out for two major annual events for graduate students at the NIH: the Annual Graduate Student Retreat, two days of science and career and professional development during the summer and the Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium, a full day celebrating the contributions of graduate students to the NIH communnity. (Check out the awards that were conferred at the 2019 Symposium.)

Other major events for both graduate students and postdocs are the NIH Career Symposium, a full day of panels focusing of career options in the sciences, both at and away from the bench, and the International Opportunities EXPO, which brings together representatives of international funding agencies, embassies, and global corporations to discuss scientific opportunities abroad.

These events are the result of highly successful collaborations between the OITE, the Graduate Student Council, the NIH Fellows Committee (FelCom), and/or the Visiting Fellows Subcommittee of FelCom.  These collaborations greatly expand the programming that we can offer while providing postdocs and graduate students with leadership opportunities.

To ensure a smooth transition to the NIH community, the GPP created an Advanced Trainee Handbook, 2019, for Graduate Students, Postdocs, Research Fellows and Clinical Fellows, detailing NIH information, funding, mentors, collaborations, getting started at NIH, professional & career development, as well as resources and support.

Other resources for current GPP students include:

• Graduate Student Council -- find information on student-initiated events and activities
• Upcoming Graduate Student Events -- find descriptions of upcoming OITE and GPP events
• Prior Graduate Student Events -- find information and materials from past OITE and GPP events
• Ninth Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium -- The annual research symposium for GPP students is scheduled for January 15, 2012 at Natcher Conference Center
• GPP Graduation Certificate -- fill out this form if you have finished your PhD degree requirements to recevie a certificate from the NIH
• Partnership Pages -- find information and websites for the different partnership universities
• Useful Websites -- find NIH resources helpful to GPP students

Last, but certainly not least, having a community with which to share the NIH experience is often a large part of feeling comfortable here. The NIH is home to many organized communities. Take a moment to check them out. And, actually, there's one more thing. If you are also a parent, please take a look at NIH resources for parents who are also trainees.