Disparities Elimination Summer Research Experience (DESRE): An Intensive Summer Research Training Program to Promote Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce

The Disparities Elimination Summer Research Experience (DESRE) was created to provide hands-on health equity research training opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students, particularly those from backgrounds underrepresented in biomedical research. Funded by NIH's National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, a total of 22 students participated in 4 annual cycles of an intensive, 6-week, full-time, residential research training program consisting of didactics, community immersion experiences, peer mentoring, ethics training, and hands-on health disparities research. Demand for the program was high; by the 4th year of implementation, more than 500 applications were received for the cohort's six slots. More than half of DESRE participants came from minority-serving institutions and/or identified as a member of a minority group. Students reported a significant increase in self-reported competency across all of the program's 26 learning objectives from pre- to post-assessment. Further, the program had a 77% success rate in promoting a career in biomedical research and/or health disparities elimination, including 100% of minority participants either entering a graduate program and/or entering careers focused on health equity. Key success factors and lessons learned are discussed.