NIH grant promotes interdisciplinary training for students

Tufts’ new interdisciplinary graduate degree program, Water: Systems, Science and Society (WSSS), has been awarded a five-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases to establish a training program for students pursuing research in water and health.

The Water and Health Training Grant is part of a National Institutes of Health initiative to promote innovative, cross-disciplinary training in health-related fields. The grant will fund tuition, stipends and other needs of students, supporting a total of 12 trainees for three years each.

The WSSS program has five research components: water and health; water, climate and environmental change; water, food and livelihood security; urban watershed restoration and management; and water and national and international security. WSS students are enrolled in a doctoral program at one of the participating Tufts schools (Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, the Friedman School and the Fletcher School). Students from any of these schools are eligible to receive the grant awards as long as their research is in water and health.

The WSSS steering committee, co-chaired by Paul Kirshen, research professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Beatrice Rogers, dean for academic affairs at the Friedman School, will establish the mechanism for awarding the traineeships, two of which will be available for the current academic year.