The Mentoring the Integration of Research Into the Classroom (MIRIC) Initiative is inspired by a similar project developed by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) as a way to provide a means for new and future faculty to receive long-term mentorship opportunities in active-learning techniques as advocated by the 2011 AAAS Vision and Change document.  Several organizations have offered one-time workshops in several venues for introducing active-learning techniques to undergraduate faculty interested in reforming their classrooms. However, these one-time workshops have largely been ineffective in providing lasting change to the way in which life-science coursework is taught across the nation.  Mentoring initiatives like MIRIC seek to provide a long-term training experiences for instructors by fostering partnerships between instructors looking to integrate active learning techniques into their classrooms and veterans of these practices. The precise structure and length of the mentorships is dictated by the mentor and mentee to provide a training experience that is tailored to the needs of each mentee. 

The MIRIC Initiative extends this long-term mentorship idea to the development of course-based research experiences (CUREs) in undergraduate life-science classrooms. CUREs focus on the integration of authentic research activity into undergraduate classroom activities and are another natural extension of Vision and Change, since they provide engaging and authentic research experiences to undergraduates as a part of their standard coursework.  Although CUREs are an outstanding approach for providing the educational benefits of undergraduate research to a maximum number of students, they are difficult for instructors to implement and execute without a significant level of training. MIRIC is a natural fit as an initiative housed in CUR, the nation's premier organization for the promotion of best practices in undergraduate research. The CUR Biology Division features several established faculty with extensive experience in bringing their research work into their coursework.  Thus, the division is well positioned to provide leadership in the life-science education community in the form of training instructors in the art of meaningfully integrating authentic research work into undergraduate coursework.

MIRIC Mentor/Mentee working groups are developed each summer to work during the academic year.  This group is the place where cohort members past and present collaborate

For more information on MIRIC see:
https://www.cur.org/who/governance/divisions/biology/miric/