51ÂŇÂ×

Guidelines for Students

Mission

The DAC has three main missions:

• The DAC is a scientific advisory committee that will provide expert advice on all aspects of the dissertation, extending from experimental paradigms to project feasibility within the timeframe of the PhD work to the scientific impact of the work.

• The DAC will help monitor student progress to ensure that the major objectives and standards (discussed below) for completing a PhD dissertation are being met promptly.

  - In this capacity, the DAC determines whether the student’s research meets the
  requirements of the program, and when the student may begin drafting the dissertation.

  - In addition to evaluating completed experiments and manuscripts, progress will also be considered with respect to maturity in scientific judgement.

• The DAC will help resolve any conflict between the student and advisors or other lab members.

Notes on Forming a DAC

Translational Biomedical Sciences requires that the DAC have at least five members – two (2) mentors, one (1) moderator, one (1) representative of the Dean’s office, and one (1) additional member from 51ÂŇÂ×. If the fifth member is from outside the university, their CV must be included with the DAC proposal form, and they must be approved by the TBS Steering Committee and the Dean of the Graduate College. All university faculty members on a student’s committee should become TBS graduate faculty.

It is suggested that the student choose committee members who are generally accessible and with whom they would feel comfortable consulting in an informal setting. Students should consult with their dissertation co-mentors about possible DAC members early in the program. Students should choose a DAC able to serve for the duration of their dissertation, regardless of changes in the scientific direction of the project. If a DAC member is unable to continue to serve on a student’s DAC, or if the scientific direction of the dissertation project changes, DAC members may be replaced – or additional members added – at the discretion of the student and co-mentors, and with the prior approval of the TBS Steering Committee.

Policy on Conflict(s) of Interest: Mentors’ Obligations to Students & Trainees in Industry
Sponsored Research

The following should be discussed at the beginning of the first DAC meeting, if applicable.
Should concerns arise, please bring them to the attention of the TBS Program office.

• Trainees must always be encouraged to conduct research in areas that optimize their training.

  - Particular care must be taken to assure that a trainee’s research is not designed to (and does not appear to) enhance their mentors’ fiscal interests and is not adversely affected by that interest or by contractual aspects of the sponsored research agreement that inhibit scientific communications or that commit intellectual property rights to the
  industry sponsor.

• Before embarking on a research project, a trainee must be provided by their mentor(s) with a clear description of any

  - Corporate support of the research to be undertaken.

  - Personal financial interest in a sponsoring business by their mentor(s).

  - Restrictions that might be imposed on the scientific communication of the data.

• Written approval must be obtained before a trainee can be assigned to conduct research which is sponsored by a business, or which involves technology to which the business has license rights, and in which the mentor(s) hold(s) a financial interest.

  - In the case of TBS graduate students, permission must be given by the TBS Steering
  Committee, after consultation with the Dean of the Graduate College as needed.

• A trainee may appeal their involvement in any industry sponsored research or research which involves technology to which a business has license rights when the trainee believes that they are being adversely affected by any conflict of interest (real or apparent) resulting from their mentor(s)’s relations with the sponsoring business or any business which may benefit from the trainee’s research or from the sponsored research agreement.

  - The appeal should be made to the TBS Steering Committee and moved to the Dean of
  the Graduate College if needed.

The DAC Moderator

The DAC has a key role in charting and facilitating the progress of students in the program. The DAC Moderator is responsible for making sure that the views of the DAC are effectively communicated to the student and that any major concerns of the DAC are effectively communicated to the TBS program. The DAC Moderators are also expected to guide DAC members in TBS policies and standards of practice for advising [FIND AND INSERT LINK].

Because of the importance of the moderator in overseeing the DAC and maintaining consistent DAC process, all DAC Moderators should have prior experience as members of at least one DAC and must be a member of the TBS faculty. The faculty member serving as DAC Moderator will be appointed prior to the first official DAC meeting so that moderator responsibilities can be assumed. The DAC Moderator will be chosen from the student’s committee, excluding the co-mentors.

Representative of the Dean of the Graduate College

The dean’s representative will be appointed by the Dean of the Graduate College, with
recommendations from the TBS Steering Committee. The dean’s representative should be outside of the primary mentor’s college, but they can be a TBS graduate faculty member.

Although adherence to policy is the concern of all DAC members, it is the special responsibility of the dean’s representative to represent the Graduate College and the university to ensure that all policies and procedures of the TBS program and Graduate College are followed. In particular, the dean’s representative will provide impartial oversight for the DAC and should:

• Ensure fair, equitable, and reasonable expectations and treatment of the student by the DAC.

• Maintain TBS program rigor by ensuring that the student’s dissertation work is progressing and is at an appropriate graduate level.

  - If the dean’s representative does not feel the DAC is maintaining appropriate standards, these concerns should be conveyed to the Graduate College.

The dean’s representative will serve as a regular member of the student’s DAC from the time it is first convened and must be present for the full dissertation defense and serve to adjudicate the defense. Upon recommendation of the dean’s representative, the Dean of the Graduate College may rule an oral examination to be invalid.

Setting Up DAC Meetings

To ensure consistency and timeliness, regular DAC meetings will be scheduled by the TBS
Program Manager. However, additional meetings can be set up by the student, the co-mentors, or the DAC Moderator as needed.

The initial DAC meeting must be held within four (4) months of completing Milestone 2.
Students will work with the Program Manager to start the process of scheduling this meeting as soon as possible, given the complexities and time often required to establish a working date for all involved.

Subsequent DAC meetings will be held every six (6) months, and in some cases more frequently depending on DAC recommendations.

Content of DAC Meetings

Initial DAC Meeting Report

The student write-up for the initial DAC meeting takes the form of a grant proposal in which a biomedical question is proposed for in-depth investigation. The Milestone 2 project can serve as a starting point for this document, but it is not expected that the aims of the DAC meeting write-up will necessarily be the same as those laid out in the Milestone 2 presentation. It is also anticipated that the content and focus of the dissertation may change over the course of the research process. The initial DAC meeting write-up is expected to be a substantial document (but no longer than 15 pages excluding figures) and should be structured as follows:

• Specific Aims – the direction in which the dissertation research will go.

  - 1-2 pages.

• Background & Significance – a concise review of scientific literature relevant to the proposal, with emphasis on critical knowledge gaps likely to be filled, at least in part, by the proposed dissertation research.

  - 3 pages.

• Preliminary Results – data that is directly relevant to the proposal, including data generated by the student (although in many cases the student will not yet have generated substantial data) and by other members of the research group; it is anticipated that this may be an exploratory period.

  - 2-5 pages.

• Research Methods – describe the proposed methods of research by aim, including how the data will be interpreted and possible pitfalls and alternative approaches.

  - 3-5 pages.

Subsequent DAC Meetings & Progress Reports

For each subsequent DAC meeting, the research progress report prepared by the student should not exceed three (3) pages (excluding figures) and should consist of:

• Specific Aims – if the aims of the original DAC meeting write up have changed, the revised aims and the reasoning behind the modifications should be presented.
• Studies & Results – the studies directed toward specific aims and the positive/negative results obtained should be presented, as well as any technical problems encountered and how they were addressed.
• Significance – a brief discussion of the significance to the scientific field of the findings.

• Plans – a summary of plans to address the remaining specific aims of the dissertation research, including any important modifications to the original plans.

  - If major changes in dissertation aims happen, submit a longer document.

  - In all cases, the initial DAC write-up should be appended to the progress report upon
  distribution to DAC members prior to the meeting.

Beginning in year four (4) of graduate studies, in addition to the research progress report, the student should prepare a brief (one (1) page) draft conceptualizing how current directions might be compiled into dissertation chapters. This outline might take the form of possible titles for chapters in the dissertation, and the hypothesis, questions, or technical developments likely to be addressed. For example, a dissertation often contains chapters structured as follows:

• Chapter 1 – an introduction, giving a brief review of the scientific literature relevant to the proposal, with a clear description of the overall hypothesis being tested in the dissertation.
• Chapter 2 – a presentation of a question or hypothesis being tested and its relationship to the dissertation's overall hypothesis.
• Chapter 3 – as appropriate, additional data chapters should be included.
• Chapter 4 (or higher) – a discussion that summarizes accomplishments and significance of findings.
• Appendix – methods and findings that are somewhat peripheral to the main thesis, but which nonetheless deserve representation within the dissertation as a whole and which can benefit the student and the lab by having this material organized in one easily accessible document.

Organization of the DAC Meeting