The Short-Term Education Program for Underrepresented Persons (STEP-UP) was created by the Office of Minority Health Research Coordination (OMHRC) in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). NIDDK is NIH’s fifth largest Institute. The STEP-UP Program was developed in order to expose underrepresented minority and disadvantaged students to research in the NIDDK mission areas including diabetes, endocrinology, metabolism, nutrition, obesity, and digestive, liver, urologic, kidney, and hematologic diseases. The long term goal is to increase the number of underrepresented minority and disadvantaged students “in the pipeline” who are committed to a career in biomedical, behavioral, clinical, or social science research in the NIDDK mission areas.

To accomplish this goal, the NIDDK STEP-UP program provides research education grants to seven institutions for the support of a high school or undergraduate program that provides eligible students with research education and training opportunities that will develop both their research capabilities and their interest in pursuing a career in research. UCSF is one of 3 institutions coordinating a high school program.

For more information please go directly to the Step-Up website: http://stepup.niddk.nih.gov/index.htm