Center for Brain and Behavior Research

Rewarding opportunities for motivated undergraduate and graduate students.

CBBRe Graduate Student Organization (CGSO)

Open to CBBRe graduate students and motivated undergraduates, the CGSO offers students a rewarding opportunity to:

• Network with brain and behavior researchers
• Gain valuable outreach and science education experience
• Cultivate professional skills that prepare members for post-graduation careers

The CSGO also acts as the graduate student voice for CBBRe, ensuring the needs of affiliated graduate students are met.

For information on how to join, contact us at CGSO@usd.edu.

Learn More About CGSO

A variety of unique workshops are offered each year that are designed to facilitate discussion and education on scientific topics. CBBRe are open to all ideas for workshops and encourage faculty, staff, and students from all departments to reach out with workshop ideas they would like to see offered.

Neuroscience Journal Club

Journal Club discussions provide an opportunity for faculty and students to have thoughtful conversations about important topics in neuroscience. Students and faculty are encouraged to select papers that are thought to be of interest to a wide range of journal club members. Email Arun.singh@usd.edu to be added to the Vermillion journal club email list, and Jill.Weimer@sanfordhealth.org to be added to the Sioux Falls journal club email list.

Responsible Conduct of Research Training

This workshop covers topics relevant to animal and human subjects research, research compliance, publications, mentorship, and disseminating findings to a broad audience.

Grant Writing Workshops

These events review the principles of good grant writing to produce clear, direct, and compelling proposals; focus on understanding the psychology of reviewers and the review process; how to engage readers and facilitate understanding; and how to manage the proposal writing process.

USD investigators are involved in a wide variety of research on and off campus. If you are interested in participating in any of these research opportunities, you may enroll into the participant database, email neurostudies@usd.edu for information, or contact the researchers directly for each study listed below.

Motor Control and Cognitive Dysfunction Study: The Singh Lab is currently recruiting both healthy and Parkinson’s disease patients for a study looking at motor and cognitive function. If you are interested in participating in either study or have additional questions please contact Dr. Arun Singh, singhlab.usd@gmail.com or arun.singh@usd.edu or by phone at 605-658-6470 or 605-658-6320.

Explore ways to conduct hands-on research in various programs.

The goal of the Trainee Research Grant Program is to provide CBBRe trainees with experience in writing NIH-style grants and in the review and revision process. This program also provides a mechanism for trainees to obtain funding to support their research and to collect data to support an external fellowship or grant application.

Applicant Eligibility

Graduate students (including medical students) and postdoctoral fellows are eligible to apply to the CBBRe Trainee Grant Program, but the trainee must be a member of the CBBRe.

Budget Considerations

The total budget may not exceed $5,000, and the award is dependent on the availability of funds with an approved budget in each fiscal year. The budget period may run from July. 1, 2025 to May 15, 2026. Typical project costs can be budgeted, with the exception of salary and meeting/conference/training travel. Travel directly associated with conducting the project is allowable (e.g. conducting assessment or experiments at another facility or field work).

Application Process

Proposals should be sent as one complete PDF file (with the exception of the faculty sponsor letter) to CBBRe@usd.edu on or before Jan. 31, 2025. The faculty sponsor's letter should be sent directly to CBBRe by the due date.

Review results will be available by late-March. Start of award date is July 1, 2025.

Proposals should consist of the following (in order):

1. Cover page
2. NIH Biographical sketch for trainee, faculty sponsor and any other key collaborators (five pages maximum)
3. Budget page
4. Budget justification
5. Introduction to revisions (one page maximum) if a revised proposal
6. Research plan (six pages maximum)
7. References cited
8. Project milestones and future funding plans (one page maximum)
9. Statement of relevance (one page maximum)
10. Letter from the trainee's faculty sponsor (sent directly to CBBRe)

Biographical Sketches (five page limit each): Follow the NIH format for all biosketches.

Budget Justification (one page limit): Justify the need for each major item. Also explain what other funding is available to support this project (and if none, state so).

Introduction to revisions (one page limit): Trainees resubmitting a proposal already reviewed by this CBBRe program should include a response to the previous reviews, a list of revisions made in response to the previous reviews, and detail where in the proposal these changes can be found.

Research plan (six page limit): This section should conform to the standard NIH style, including significance, innovation and research approach sections. Research goals/hypotheses/specific aims should be clearly stated in the significance section. The research plan should be written at a general neuroscientist or behavioral science level. View NIH guidelines for grant applications (Application Guide SF424 (R&R) - Adobe Forms Version C Series). Use one-inch margins and no less than 11-point font. Please contact CBBRe if you need assistance in preparing an NIH-style grant or would like to see examples of this format.

Project milestones and future funding plans (one page limit): A timeline for completion of project milestones should be provided. Also include plans and a timeline for presentation of this work, publication of the research and any external funding applications.

Statement of relevance (one page limit): Applicants should explicitly state how the proposed research aligns with the goals of the CBBRe, and how the proposed research relates to the applicant’s career goals. This section should also be used to explain the involvement of the trainee in the CBBRe.

Letter from Faculty sponsor: The trainee's faculty sponsor should comment on the applicant's potential for a research career, the applicant's ability to conduct the proposed research, the resources available to the trainee to conduct the study, and the willingness of the sponsor to mentor the student during the course of the project and in dissemination of the results.

Review of Applications

Applications will be reviewed by a panel of neuroscientist and behavioral scientists from the different departments represented within the CBBRe. Therefore, grants should be written for a general scientific audience. Review criteria will include:

• Quality and feasibility of the research
• Research potential of the applicant
• Relevance of the project to the trainee's career goals
• Relevance of the project to the CBBRe
• Evidence of faculty involvement and mentorship

Applicants will be notified of review outcomes by April 2025.

Conditions of Award

• Funds will not be released until documentation regarding IACUC or IRB approval has been provided to CBBRe, if applicable.
• Funds are to be expended during the approved budget period, with all funds spent by May 15. A final progress report is required within 30 days of the end of the budget period.
• All resultant publications and presentations should acknowledge funding from the CBBRe.
• All successful applicants will be required to present the findings of their research project at the CBBRe annual research symposium.
• All resultant applications to external funding agencies must be routed through the University of South Dakota. This is necessary to ensure that indirect costs are directed back to the CBBRe to support the center's activities, including this pilot grant program.

Explore ways to conduct hands-on research in various programs.

The CBBRe offers a multi-disciplinary summer research program that gives USD undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct mentored, hypothesis-driven research in fields related to substance use and abuse and mental health issues. The program is geared toward first-generation college students from rural backgrounds, but all USD and non-USD undergraduate students are encouraged to apply.

The program incorporates a wide range of experimental methods with human or animal subjects, including cognitive, behavioral, systems, neuropharmacological, electrophysiological and molecular approaches.

Learn More

Application Details

Eight students are selected for the program based on a competitive application process. Students who have previously participated in SPURA are eligible to apply again, but will likely be given a lower priority over first-time applicants. Learn more and apply by February 16.

Contact Brian Burrell at bburrell@usd.edu or Lisa McFadden at lisa.mcfadden@usd.edu for further information or assistance with the application process.
This summer program is funded by a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) grant number R25-DA033674.

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Summer Events

Undergraduate Researchers' Lunch

Meet other summer researchers at our weekly lunches, held from 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. every Thursday from May 28 to July 30. All undergraduate researchers on campus are welcome to attend. Lunches are provided by the South Dakota Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network. Contact us at cbbre@usd.edu with any questions.

Explore ways to conduct hands-on research in various programs.

Students can conduct research projects under the mentorship of CBBRe faculty associated with a number of master's and Ph.D. training programs at USD.

• Basic Biomedical Sciences (Sanford School of Medicine)
• Biological Sciences (College of Arts and Sciences)
• Clinical Psychology (College of Arts and Sciences)
• Communication Sciences and Disorders (College of Arts and Sciences)
• Counseling (School of Education)
• Human Development and Educational Psychology (School of Education)
• Human Factors Psychology (College of Arts and Sciences)
• Physical Therapy (School of Health Sciences)

Contact CBBRe@usd.edu if you would like additional information about graduate student research training opportunities.