CHOIR’s efforts to provide summer research opportunities for students from under-represented groups (URGs) began in 2021 with a successful summer research program (SRP) for medical students in collaboration with the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine (BUSM). From 2022-present, CHOIR has participated in the VA Office of Research and Development’s pilot SRP program, which enabled CHOIR to expand its participants to include undergraduate students. It also formed new partnerships with the Women’s Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD and next the Genomes2Veterans (G2V) Research Program. This three-center partnership – the CHOIR-Team SRP – has several advantages: 1) mentors and faculty represent a wider array of research disciplines, 2) a larger pool of potential mentors, and 3) more research projects available to prospective students. The recruitment of undergraduates from URGs has benefitted from our collaboration with University of Massachusetts Boston, University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Roxbury Community College, all Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). The Posse Foundation, a renowned national program that connects URG undergraduates to opportunities for professional growth, also collaborates with CHOIR-Team SRP by encouraging students to consider this research opportunity. The CHOIR-Team SRP has the following objectives: 1) provide exposure and immersion in a research environment, 2) prepare students to pursue careers in science/research – and in the VA in particular, 3) increase student confidence in their ability to pursue a career in research, medicine or science, and 4) create lifelong mentoring and peer-to-peer relationships that will remain a source of support professionally and socially and will help further the students’ careers. The CHOIR-Team SRP prepares students for successful and productive scientific careers by emphasizing 4 components: 1) Research skills: students observe and practice a variety of research skills, such as qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, synthesizing and interpreting data, survey development, critically reading scientific journal articles, and conducting systematic literature reviews. The CHOIR-Team SRP culminates with student presentations of their research to all the program faculty, mentors, and students, allowing students to practice the critical skill of explaining scientific work in a clear and engaging way; 2) Academic writing: This skill transcends disciplines. Whether for a poster abstract, manuscript for publication, VA or NIH grant application, or dissemination of research results to a lay audience (e.g., to Veterans or communities), research scientists must write clearly and succinctly about data and make arguments that are compelling. Writing must convey complex ideas that scientists from other disciplines, and sometimes lay audiences, can understand. We have developed a rigorous 5-session academic writing unit as part of the CHOIR-Team SRP, covering topics such as starting the writing process, research article structure, writing qualitative vs quantitative papers, editing your own writing, and the manuscript submission process. It is consistently one of the aspects most highly rated by the students who have participated in the past 3 years of the SRP; 3) Mentoring: An experienced mentor is assigned to each student. The mentor provides tailored guidance to the student, exploring what areas of research are of most interest to the student, what steps to take to reach academic and research goals, and emphasizing the importance of having mentoring throughout one’s scientific career. Mentors are encouraged to see the student as a person they may mentor throughout the mentee’s full career; and, 4) Peer support: The program helps build strong peer networks in which students support and advise each other. This networking, enhanced through seminar sessions, is reinforced by mentors who help students develop a support system of peers which leads to collaboration opportunities (grants, manuscripts, projects) as well as advice for discussing difficult or sensitive issues (e.g., authorship, promotion).

The VA has taken numerous steps to increase the diversity of its workforce. Despite that, many VA research centers lack diversity among investigators and senior staff. Increasing diversity of this research workforce is expected to lead to more innovative research that is more effective at addressing the needs of multiple groups of Veterans, whether defined by race/ethnicity, LGTBQ+ status, disabilities, or other characteristics. Towards increasing the diversity of applicants to research positions, VA’s Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research (CHOIR) began in 2021 to provide summer research opportunities for medical and undergraduate students from underrepresented groups (URGs). The proposed project continues these summer research opportunities, but with a broader reach. The CHOIR team has added a collaborating research center that focuses on genomics, and has expanded recruitment of students to communities with a large proportion of residents from URGs.