ASPIRE on the Road will be taking trainees to visit San Diego, CA. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will spend time with area biotechnology and pharma companies learning about career paths, hearing from key leadership, touring the facilities, and meeting with alumni.

Twelve trainees will be selected to attend. Travel costs and accommodations will be covered by the ASPIRE Program for those selected to participate.

We will be building the agenda over the coming months, but it will look similar to those of past trips and include site visits to appx 5 biopharma companies focused on R&D initiatives and include large, midsize and start-up organizations, a visit with the state’s BIO affiliate, Biocom and a tour of a local incubator.  In addition, there will be an alumni happy hour that will take place at a local restaurant on the evening of Tues, April 29th which will include alumni in all types of careers who are located in the San Diego area.

Eligibility Requirements:

• Applicants must be affiliated with a School of Medicine or VUMC PhD or postdoctoral program.
• PhD students must have passed their qualifying exams before the application deadline.
• Applicants must be able to attend the full site visit in San Diego, April 28-30, 2025; this will require departure from Nashville early on Monday, April 28.

Deadline to apply: Tuesday February 11^th 2025 at noon

To submit your application:

1. Complete the online form found at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AOTR_SanDiego_2025
2. You will be asked to upload your current resume (1-3 pages) as a word document highlighting academic accomplishments and other experiences relevant to this event (File name: Last_First_AOTR2025_resume)
3. You will be asked to upload a cover letter (1 page max) as a word document describing your interest in a research and development career in the biotechnology or pharma industry, what types of relevant career development activities you have participated in prior to this, and what you hope to gain from such an experience. ( File name: Last_First_AOTR2025_cover letter)

Co-sponsored by the the Vanderbilt Basic Sciences, Office of the Dean and Vanderbilt University Development and Alumni Relations.

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ASPIRE On the Road is an initiative of the Vanderbilt ASPIRE Program aimed at broadening the training experiences of biomedical Ph.D. graduate students and postdocs by organizing site visits to companies and organizations to help our trainees make well-informed career decisions.

These site visits will provide postdoctoral fellows and graduate students the opportunity to learn about different career options by touring a variety of workplaces and meeting professionals in a range of roles.  We intend to arrange site visits at local biotech start-ups, clinical research organizations, healthcare accelerators, universities and more.

You can learn more about all of our past biotech- and pharma- focused ASPIRE on the Road events since 2018 here.

Read about past trainee experiences here:

2018 Boston  Exploring the Most Innovative Square Mile on the Planet

2019 San Diego ASPIRE Trainees Fly to San Diego

2022 Boston On the Road Again

2023 San Francisco California Aspiring

2023 St Louis: A Snapshot of ASPIRE on the Road in St. Louis

2024 Boston: Basic Sciences trainees visit Boston’s biotech with ASPIRE on the Road