If you have read the headlines lately, you’ll know that the COVID-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on the shipping industry. Container vessels are forced to sit out at anchor for a week or more because there just aren’t enough dock workers to unload the boats. It’s a simple rule of economics, you can have all the demand you want but if you don’t have the people to help deliver on the supply side, you are in trouble.

The same is true in regenerative medicine. The field is expanding rapidly and that’s creating a rising demand for skilled workers to help keep up. That doesn’t just mean scientists, but also technicians and other skilled individuals who can ensure that our ability to manufacture and deliver these new therapies is not slowed down.

That’s one of the reasons why CIRM has been a big supporter of training programs ever since we were created by the voters of California when they approved Proposition 71. And now we are kick-starting those programs again to ensure the field has all the talented workers it needs.

Last week the CIRM Board approved 18 programs, investing more than $86 million, as part of the Agency’s Research Training Grants program. The goal of the program is to create a diverse group of scientists with the knowledge and skill to lead effective stem cell research programs.

The awards provide up to $5 million per institution, for a maximum of 20 institutions, over five years, to support the training of predoctoral graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and/or clinical trainees.

This is a revival of an earlier Research Training program that ran from 2006-2016 and trained 940 “CIRM Scholars” including:

• 321 PhD students
• 453 Postdocs
• 166 MDs

These grants went to academic institutions from UC Davis in Sacramento to UC San Diego down south and everywhere in-between. A 2013 survey of the students found that most went on to careers in the industry.

• 56% continued to further training
• 14% advanced to an academic research faculty position
• 10.5% advanced to a biotech/industry position
• 12% advanced to a non-research position such as teaching, medical practice, or foundation/government work

The Research Training Grants go to:

AWARD	INSTITUTION	TITLE	AMOUNT
EDUC4-12751	Cedars-Sinai	CIRM Training Program in Translational Regenerative Medicine	$4,999,333
EDUC4-12752	UC Riverside	TRANSCEND – Training Program to Advance Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Research, Education, and Workforce Diversity	$4,993,115
EDUC4-12753	UC Los Angeles	UCLA Training Program in Stem Cell Biology	$5 million
EDUC4-12756	University of Southern California	Training Program Bridging Stem Cell Research with Clinical Applications in Regenerative Medicine	$5 million
EDUC4-12759	UC Santa Cruz	CIRM Training Program in Systems Biology of Stem Cells	$4,913,271
EDUC4-12766	Gladstone Inst.	CIRM Regenerative Medicine Research Training Program	$5 million
EDUC4-12772	City of Hope	Research Training Program in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine	$4,860,989
EDUC4-12782	Stanford	CIRM Scholar Training Program	$4,974,073
EDUC4-12790	UC Berkeley	Training the Next Generation of Biologists and Engineers for Regenerative Medicine	$4,954,238
EDUC4-12792	UC Davis	CIRM Cell and Gene Therapy Training Program 2.0	$4,966,300
EDUC4-12802	Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles	CIRM Training Program for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research	$4,999,500
EDUC4-12804	UC San Diego	Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Training Grant at UCSD III	$4,992,446
EDUC4-12811	Scripps	Training Scholars in Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research	$4,931,353
EDUC4-12812	UC San Francisco	Scholars Research Training Program in Regenerative Medicine, Gene Therapy, and Stem Cell Research	$5 million
EDUC4-12813	Sanford Burnham	A Multidisciplinary Stem Cell Training Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys Institute, A Critical Component of the La Jolla Mesa Educational Network	$4,915,671
EDUC4-12821	UC Santa Barbara	CIRM Training Program in Stem Cell Biology and Engineering	$1,924,497
EDUC4-12822	UC Irvine	CIRM Scholars Comprehensive Research Training Program	$5 million
EDUC4-12837	Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation	Stem Cell Training Program at the Lundquist Institute	$4,999,999

These are not the only awards we make to support training the next generation of scientists. We also have our SPARK and Bridges to Stem Cell Research programs. The SPARK awards are for high school students, and the Bridges program for graduate or Master’s level students.