Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA) are dependent on funding and an open position in a faculty advisor’s lab. Most funding comes from outside funding agency grants. When a grant is approved, the faculty advisor searches for a well-qualified applicant to work on a specific research project.
Graduate Research Assistants are expected to pursue an academic area and conduct research consistent with the interests of their faculty advisor offering the research assistantship. This combined effort results in a thesis or dissertation for the student, the completion of grant objectives for the faculty advisor, and manuscripts published in scientific journals jointly authored by the student and faculty advisor.
Graduate Research Assistants are directly responsible to their faculty advisor offering the research assistantship. In addition to conducting their own research (e.g., NUTR 899 or NUTR 999), Graduate Research Assistants are expected to assist their faculty advisor with research projects other than their own, special and extension projects, to train other students, and to perform other relevant academic duties.