Funding

Consortium funding

Funding for the Quantitative Biosciences Consortium (QBC) at UCSF to promote PhD education and science at the confluence of the biological and quantitative sciences comes from:

PBBR support

The UCSF Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research stimulates innovative biomedical research at UCSF by focusing on projects of potentially high impact that are substantially more creative or risky than projects supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other traditional funding mechanisms. PBBR is privately funded, partly by the generosity of the Sandler Foundation.

Through a Seed Award in 2010 from PBBR, QBC is able to offer 10 fellowships of $28,000 per year in 2010 and 2011 to exceptional PhD students focusing on the quantitative biosciences within the five degree programs under the QBC umbrella.

QB3 support

The founding financial support and steadfast partnership of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at UCSF is important to the progress of QBC.

QB3 is a consortium of three University of California campuses—UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and UCSF—that promotes quantitative approaches to the biosciences and the conversion of discoveries into products and services that address society’s critical needs.

QB3 at UCSF funds student stipends, awards, and seminars in programs under the QBC umbrella. It also offers to QBC-affiliated faculty members contemporary research space in its headquarters in Byers Hall on UCSF’s Mission Bay campus. As well, many students in the five QBC programs learn and work in QB3 space, and gather there in a dedicated QBC lounge in Byers Hall 217. The vast majority of the education and training of students in programs under the QBC umbrella takes place on the bold, emerging, 43-acre campus in the Mission Bay area of San Francisco.

Student funding

Key to QBC’s success is the high quality of our PhD graduates. Key to attracting these students is UCSF's ability to provide competitive graduate student fellowships that underwrite the cost of PhD training. On average, a graduate student spends five to six years at UCSF working toward the degree.

UCSF, like all leading universities, supports its PhD students through funds that cover tuition and fees as well as a stipend for living expenses. As a result, UCSF can compete for the best scholars and make it financially possible for them to stay the long course of their graduate studies and research.

UCSF commits this support for the entire period of a graduate student's PhD training, as long as they remain in good standing. Typically it takes five to six years to earn a PhD degree, at a total cost of approximately $250,000.

Of particular importance to students is the annual stipend for living expenses, which is part of this total. The graduate student stipend for 2011 is $29,500.

Sources of PhD student support

  • Faculty grants
  • Federal training grants (NIH)
  • UCSF Graduate Division funds
  • UCSF Chancellor's Office funds
  • Internal fellowships
  • External fellowships
  • Endowment gifts for program support and scholarship
  • UCSF School of Pharmacy/School of Medicine funds

Each of the funding sources in this mix is essential to the five graduate programs under the QBC umbrella.