The overarching goal of this proposal is to help junior investigators in psychiatry develop and maintain a research career path.
The specific aims are to: 1) identify current and future senior psychiatry residents, research fellows, and junior faculty psychiatrists who are promising candidates for successful research careers; 2) provide a 1-day, intensive, mentored training session that will allow junior investigators to present their current or proposed research protocols in small group sessions; 3) provide junior investigators with faculty mentoring and peer feedback; 4) provide information and resources that will enable participants to obtain outside funding and launch successful research careers, as measured by successful grant support, peer-reviewed publications, and academic appointments at research institutions, both private and public, and in academia and industry; and 5) provide opportunities for ongoing post-colloquium mentoring and career guidance. This application seeks 3 years of support for the Research Colloquium for Junior Investigators, 2017-2019, to be held in May of each year in conjunction with the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual Meeting. The research colloquium is a team mentoring opportunity that gives beginning investigators a 1-day, immersive research experience through the presentation of their research in small groups of mentors and peers. Each colloquium invites 30-50 psychiatric residents, fellows, and early career psychiatrists who meet in small groups of 4-5 trainees and 3-4 mentors per group to discuss the trainees' research projects and career plans. They also present their research in a poster session and receive guidance from additional mentors outside their working group. Beyond the 1-day meeting, colloquium participants will engage in online networking, follow-up, and collaborations between junior investigators and mentors before and after the meeting (e.g., via webinar and an online community of discussion boards and email threads). Participants also will have the opportunity to attend and receive further mentoring at the early career events of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, whose annual meeting is held immediately prior to the APA Annual Meeting. Each year, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology will provide a ?booster session? at its annual meeting to a subset of qualified colloquium participants. The research colloquium has taken place annually since the mid-1990s, sponsored by a coalition of NIH Institutes that has included the National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Administrative direction is provided by the APA Division of Research and research staff in the American Psychiatric Association Foundation. Three core research tracks reflect the range of psychiatric research, from basic neuroscience and translational research through clinical trials and health services research. A fourth, rotating track will highlight research in substance use and substance use disorders for the 2017-2019 meetings. The colloquium is intended to reach out to young psychiatrists, including senior residents in psychiatry, research fellows, and junior faculty, at a pivotal point in their careers and provide them with an immersive research experience and ongoing opportunities for interaction with peers and mentors who are outstanding researchers in their fields.
/Public Health Impact The Research Colloquium for Junior Investigators is a 1-day, immersive, research experience for early career psychiatrists, including senior residents, research fellows and junior faculty, who meet with distinguished senior research mentors to receive advice on their planned research studies. The overarching goal is to encourage junior investigators in psychiatry, especially ethnic minorities and women, to develop and maintain a research career path and includes pre- and post-colloquium activities such as webinars, interactive online Q&A sessions, and discussion boards to ensure longer-term mentoring and career guidance to the junior investigators. This program helps address the documented lack of psychiatric researchers, especially among women and ethnic minorities, in this country, thereby indirectly helping cultivate future scientific efforts on basic biology, clinical, health services, and cultural competency aspects of mental disorders.
