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Academic Career Development Program

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The Academic Career Development Program (ACDP) is designed to facilitate the academic career development of students who show potential to become excellent faculty or researchers in institutions of higher education as well as to foster multi-faceted diversity in graduate education at the University of California. Diversity is critical to promoting the lively intellectual exchange and the variety of ideas and perspectives that are essential to advanced research and because graduate students form the pool of the academic leaders of the future. Thus, to maintain academic excellence, the University places high value on achieving a diverse graduate student body and faculty.

The ACDP consists of four program components: Graduate Outreach and Recruitment, two-year Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowships, Graduate Research Mentorship awards for continuing graduate students, and Dissertation-Year Fellowships. Thus this program establishes support activities in the following essential stages of graduate education:

• summer research experiences for prospective graduate students to provide key information plus training and experience.
• graduate fellowship stipends, plus funds toward payment of fees, to support entering students for each of two years.
• faculty-mentored research stipends to enable graduate students to improve research skills and to support dissertation-related research.
• dissertation-year fellowships for students in the final year of doctoral work.

Eligibility
For all components of the ACDP, campuses will recruit candidates according to the following eligibility criteria:

1. Participants should demonstrate high potential and promise and should indicate an interest in an academic career in teaching and research.
2. Participants should be citizens or permanent residents of the United States.
3. In accordance with state law and Regental policy, preference may not be given to applicants on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, gender, or national origin. Campuses should encourage applications from minorities, women, and individuals from cultural, linguistic, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds who would otherwise not adequately be represented in the graduate student and faculty populations. Participants should demonstrate one or more of the following characteristics:
   1. Experience of situations or conditions which were an impediment to advancing to graduate study, such as the absence of a family member who attended college; matriculation at a school or schools with poor financial or curricular support; having a physical or learning disability; or having worked long hours while attending school; or
   2. Academic research interests focusing on cultural, societal or educational problems as they affect educationally disadvantaged segments of society; or
   3. Evidence of an intention to use the doctoral degree toward serving educationally underrepresented segments of society.
4. ACDP participants may not simultaneously receive additional financial support awards of a similar or greater amount.

EUGENE COTA-ROBLES FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
The Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship Program (ECR) provides first- and second-year mentored fellowship support to students enrolled in doctoral programs at the University. Each fellowship holder will receive an annual stipend of at least $12,500, plus an allocation of at least $2,600 to be used towards student fees. Each campus is encouraged to augment this amount. ECR Fellowships are awarded competitively by the campus graduate divisions. Contact individual campus graduate division representatives to find specific application and stipend information.

GRADUATE RESEARCH MENTORSHIP PROGRAM
The Graduate Research Mentorship Program (GRMP) supports students who have completed basic coursework requirements. Awards support second-, third- or fourth-year graduate students, but graduate divisions may select students farther along in their graduate programs who are making timely progress toward completion of the doctoral degree. Each Graduate Research Mentorship award holder is appointed for one year, renewable for an additional year. Students receive additional campus support for fees and health benefits. Faculty mentors are expected to assist student participants with research leading to the development of a doctoral dissertation. GRMP Fellowships are awarded competitively by the campus graduate divisions. Contact individual campus graduate division representatives to find specific application and stipend information.

DISSERTATION-YEAR FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM GUIDELINES
Dissertation-Year Fellowships are awarded to eligible graduate students whose doctoral work will be completed by the end of the program year and who demonstrate strong potential for University teaching and research. Each Fellow receives a stipend of at least $12,000, research expenses of at least $500, and travel funding up to $470 to support visits to other universities for presentation of dissertation research. Each Dissertation-Year Fellow receives additional campus support for student fees and health benefits. Dissertation-Year Fellowships are awarded competitively by the campus graduate divisions. Contact individual campus graduate division representatives to find specific application and stipend information.