Interdisciplinary Neurotrauma Research, Innovation, and Scientific Excellence (NEURO-RISE)

The overarching goal of the Neuro-RISE (Training in Interdisciplinary Neurotrauma Research, Innovation, and Scientific Excellence) program is to train the next generation of neurotrauma scientists to become leaders in advancing research that improves the lives of people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Trainees will be equipped to develop and translate novel therapeutic, rehabilitative, behavioral, and technological strategies that reduce disability and promote health, independence, and quality of life across the lifespan. This goal will be met by taking advantage of an exceptionally rich institutional environment that offers myriad resources and a complementary and collaborative team of 17 primary and 16 secondary mentors committed to training and career development. The program is further enriched by the inclusion of 16 lived-experience mentors—eight individuals with SCI and eight with TBI—with varied backgrounds and injury experiences. Predoctoral trainees will benefit from 2 years of interdisciplinary training that carefully melds four core levels of scientific inquiry: (i) adaptation and plasticity, (ii) rehabilitation diagnostics and interventions, (iii) novel devices and technologies, and (iv) chronic symptom management. Training will occur in one of two areas of concentrated expertise: (i) SCI or (ii) TBI. Predoctoral trainees will be selected from a highly competitive national pool admitted to the Neuroscience, Psychology, or Health and Rehabilitation Science Graduate programs. The training team is truly interdisciplinary. Each trainee’s primary mentor and Translational Mentoring Team will be drawn from expert faculty spanning the Colleges of Medicine (COM), Education and Human Ecology (CEHE), Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), and Engineering (COE). Neuro-RISE also offers a distinctly immersive and human-centered training experience that integrates people with lived experience of SCI or TBI into each trainee’s research project—bringing real-world insights directly into scientific inquiry. The program promotes bench-to-bedside and bedside-to-bench translation by preparing trainees to apply mechanistic discoveries to clinical care and interpret clinical phenomena through rigorous scientific inquiry. Trainees will participate in a curated curriculum that includes commercialization and team science training, advanced methods seminars tailored to neurotrauma research, and a community-engaged research workshop co-led by individuals with SCI and TBI. With intentional focus on research ethics, scientific rigor, and impact-driven scholarship, Neuro-RISE prepares emerging scientists not only to publish, but to lead multidisciplinary teams, secure competitive funding, and transform care for people with neurotrauma across the lifespan. Neuro-RISE will recruit two predoctoral trainees in year one, then grow to admit four annually thereafter. As a top-tier NIH-funded academic medical center, The Ohio State University is uniquely positioned to train translational neurotrauma researchers poised to lead future innovations. Project Number: 1T32HD121724-01 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) | Principal Investigator: Ceren Yarar-Fisher (+1 co-PI) | Institution: OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, Columbus, OH | Award Amount: $99,278 | Activity Code: T32 | Study Section: Special Emphasis Panel[ZRG1 CN-W (92)] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11335354