To meet the interdisciplinary competency requirements of the BIG-TCR training program, applicant supervised by current primary mentor must find another mentor from their complementary side (for example, trainees in the TCR area needs to find a co-mentor in the BIG area, and vice versa). UTHealth Houston tenured/tenure-track faculty members who have secured external funding are eligible to be the primary mentor and will be reviewed by the BIG-TCR Executive Committee regarding their funding support, previous mentorship experience, and prior and current efforts in cancer research. Both mentors must be UTHealth Houston regular faculty because this is an UTHealth Houston internal program. Only GSBS regular faculty from UTHealth Houston is eligible to be mentor/co-mentor.

Applicants should be enrolled as full-time in one of the six UTHealth Houston schools;

Primary mentorship application is limited to one per faculty for each funding announcement cycle. Faculty can be co-mentors for more than one trainee. Predoctoral fellows will discuss with their two mentors to propose a cancer research project relevant to both BIG and TCR components, and be supervised by both mentors along the way until the project completes. Co-mentor needs to be UTHealth Houston faculty.

• $28,000 stipend plus tuition and student health insurance;
• $1,000 travel expenses for presentations at national meetings;
• Up to $6,000 per year for tuition and fees
• Interdisciplinary-based curriculum design;
• Enrichment activities: responsible conduct of research training, compelling in oral presentations and research proposals, seminars and workshops, core lab rotation, and BIG-TCR annual retreat.

Affiliated fellowships available for predocs with salary/stipend support from UTHealth employment: All benefits listed above except stipend support and health insurance.

• Submission: Required documents should be compiled into one single PDF file in the order listed under Required Documents and submitted via email to BIG.TCR Training Program [email protected].

  Please start the subject line with "BIG-TCR Predoctoral Fellowship Application #Name of the applicant:"

• *All the application forms and materials can be found here:

  • BIG-TCR Training Program Predoctoral Application PDF
  • BIG-TCR Training Program Predoctoral Application WORD DOCX
  • Call For Application Predoctoral PDF



• Please use either Word or PDF file to prepare the application materials, and send the application in PDF format to [email protected] by midnight on the closing day of each application cycle.

• Feel free to reach out to the BIG-TCR training program at [email protected] before your application.

• Formatting: Please use Arial, 11pt font, single-line spacing. Use paper size no larger than standard letter (A4, 8 1/2" x 11"). Provide at least one-inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right) for all pages.

Materials by Applicant

Applicants are required to submit their

• predoctoral fellowship application form, including applicant’s information;
• one-page personal statement that discuss your short-term and long-term career goals, your interest in cancer research and your intention to enroll in the courses required by the competency-based BIG-TCR Predoctoral Training Program, which includes the responsible conduct of research, research proposal writing, workshop, core lab rotation, and the BIG-TCR annual retreat;
• two-page research statement includes research title, abstract, specific aims, background and significance, study design and methods, impact and relevance to both the BIG and TCR area, and expected outcomes;
• one-page training plan that describes which competency-based training courses will be part of the fellowship, and how mentors will supervise the trainee. This may include course work, presentation & writing training, computational training workshop, as well as laboratory trainings;
• applicant’s curriculum vitae (list essential educational and academic records);
• copies of academic transcripts (transcripts from Undergraduate and Graduate School are required, others are optional);
• applicant’s attestation;

Materials by Mentor and Co-Mentor:

• two Mentors’ biosketch (NIH format, no more than 5 pages for each mentor), which needs to be submitted by applicant along with other materials.
• Sign mentorship agreement in the application form, which needs to be submitted by applicant.
• recommendation letters from both primary mentor and co-mentor are required.
• Please send the recommendation letter to [email protected] with the subject line as "BIG-TCR Predoctoral Mentor/Co-mentor Recommendation Letter for #the name of applicant”.

External recommendation letter:

• One letter of recommendation from an external supporter is required in support of the BIG-TCR Predoctoral fellowship applicant. Recommendation letters should be sent in PDF format from the referee's institutional email address to BIG-TCR’s official email address [email protected] with the subject line as “BIG-TCR Predoctoral Fellowship Application: Recommendation letter for #the name of applicant”. Please fill the same reference contact in the application form..