If you are currently an undergraduate student, graduate student, or post doctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan, and are interested in being a part of a ground-breaking program geared toward human and animal health, consider applying to ITraP! It is a great opportunity to get involved in an interdisciplinary initiative geared toward global public health. It will also provide you with experience working with international students and supervisors from our partner institutions in India and Germany.
Apply to the ITraP Prgram (Applications for the 2013 season are now closed. Please check back in August 2013 to apply for the 2014 season)
Please submit a PDF that includes the following items:
Goal
To establish an international program for training graduates in the field of infectious diseases, food safety and public policy. This specialized training will enable the program's graduates to assume leadership roles in industry, government and academia.
Objectives
For the first time a group of Canadian and international investigators/mentors who represent some of the world’s leading minds in infectious disease, food safety and public policy will come together through the ITraP prgoram.
This program will train students in multi-disciplinary approaches to infectious diseases and food safety through integrated input from outstanding co-applicants and collaborators. This group collectively brings expertise in:
Using this collaborative/interdisciplinary approach to learning, the students will learn about the present and future challenges of global health issues. They will also be able to:
Students will enrol in an existing thesis-based MSc, PhD or post-doctoral program at the University of Saskatchewan, the Freie Universität in Germany or the GADVAS University in India. Once enrolled, they can apply to the ITraP program.
Students will be selected based on their:
With the support of industrial partners and public sector agencies, the students' training will be enriched through work experience, policy development and the translation of research discoveries.
Students will not only gain access to such outstanding mentors and lab environments, but will also be trained in some of Canada’s best research facilities, such as the Vaccine and Infectious Disease-International Vaccine Centre (Biosafety Level 3 facility) and the National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases (Biosafety Level 3 and 4 facility).
Our integrated training program, with its opportunities for mobility, internships and summer school, will be used to link international scholars and practitioners who will work together and identify interdisciplinary research questions for the program's students.
All students will undertake research that crosses two or more disciplines, and will have multi-disciplinary advisory committees. The program's core course and the core seminar series will be taught by the full spectrum of program faculty. Program instructors will challenge the students to stretch their thinking into the domains of basic science, human and veterinary medicine, public health, public policy, sociology and economics.
The students' experience will be enriched by:
Many graduates of the ITraP program, will assume leadership or leadership-track positions in industry and government, while others following doctoral and post-doctoral training may be based in basic or applied infectious disease research laboratories.
There is an urgent need in government agencies, industry and academia for highly qualified personnel (HQP) who are equipped with a understanding of infectious diseases and food safety but can also develop more effective strategies of disease prevention, management and control.
The program's multi-disciplinary training - combined with the exposure to the work environment in the public sector and industry - will prepare our trainees to fill these required positions. As the trainees branch out into careers of their primary disciplines they will also have the capacity to rapidly regroup into highly effective teams with abilities to translate cutting-edge scientific and public health approaches into policy that is tailored to the particular emerging pandemic or challenge at hand.
Government organizations such as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada are particularly interested in hiring individuals who can:
In industry, ITraP program graduates will undertake, manage and eventually lead infectious disease research. They will also lead the development, assessment, registration and marketing of new products and technologies that are critical to the management and control of infectious diseases and assurance of safe food.
In academic settings, graduates of this program will be uniquely prepared to establish themselves as independent, visionary teachers and researchers who understand how to deal with basic research as well as with private sector needs and the necessity of translating their discoveries to meet public health needs.
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