The Population Research Center (PRC) of the University of Texas at Austin (UT) requests a 7th renewal of its T32 NICHD Training Grant in Population Studies. The PRC has outstanding research and training programs addressing a broad array of health-related issues. Its focus falls particularly in five thematic areas: Health Disparities; Parenting, Partnering, and Human Development; Educational Inequality and Opportunity; and Socioeconomic Inequality and Work. Building on our recent growth and tremendous productivity, the proposed training program seeks to enlarge and academically broaden our current program by requesting funding to support six pre-doctoral trainees (from five) and two post-doctoral trainees (at 2 currently) to be shared among the departments of Sociology, Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS), and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. The PRC offers an outstanding training environment, and the center's accomplishments are evidenced by: a) the very enthusiastic response to our recent R24 center grant renewal; b) a grant portfolio that is, by far, the largest in PRC history; c) the significant number of new faculy members who are active and productive members; d) our research productivity in terms of journal articles, books, chapters, and conference presentations; e) the training program's success in recruiting minority faculty and students, and f) our recent substantial successes in placing our graduates in leading academic, postdoctoral, and research positions throughout the country. The proposed addition of a sixth predoctoral trainee is consistent with the broadening of our training program to include Public Affairs. This reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of population research at the PRC and throughout the discipline. The PRC has a very productive and academically broad group of researchers, with the greatest concentration in the Department of Sociology and HDFS, respectively. Recent recruiting success across campus, however, has increased participation by faculty in the departments of Public Affairs, Economics, and Psychology. The student talent at the PRC is extensive and diverse, with a current cadre of 64 pre-doctoral trainees from Sociology, HDFS, and Public Affairs participating in the PRC's graduate training program. This application outlines the structure of the training program, including coursework and ethics training, and the PRC's outstanding record in the professional development and training of minority scholars. In sum, we request support to continue our success in serving the PRC training mission to generate highly trained, and highly ethical, researchers in Population Studies.
The training program at the University of Texas Population Research Center has a long history of training scholars for productive research careers in population science. This training is supported by rigorous coursework and active research programs in a) Health Disparities b) Parenting, Partnering, and Human Development c) Educational Inequality and Opportunity, and d) Socioeconomic Inequality and Work, all areas that contribute important knowledge about social processes that influence public health.
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