The Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill requests a new 5 year post- doctoral research training grant in eating disorders to address the critical shortage identified by NIH for skilled researchers in the eating disorders field. Our program will attract five qualified postdoctoral applicants per year from fields including medicine, psychology, nutrition, and related disciplines to provide rigorous advanced training in aspects of eating disorders research ranging from bench to society. The program will develop productive investigators on the path towards independence who will contribute to the advance of knowledge in the etiology, prevention, and treatment of eating disorders. Our training program includes 14 senior research faculty, 5 junior research faculty, and 5 clinical advisors from psychiatry, psychology, nutrition, sociology, genetics, epidemiology, and pediatrics. The six core aims of this proposal are for trainees: 1) to achieve a high level of research competency in a specialist area within eating disorders while becoming well versed in the broader context of the eating disorders field;2) to achieve competency in research design, methodology, and biostatistics;3) to appreciate and respect ethical issues related to research with human participants in general and eating disorders participants in specific;4) to maintain awareness of key clinical issues with eating disorders patients;5) to complete a research project of a magnitude commensurate with their prior research training under the supervision of a member of the training faculty;and, 6) to prepare for a career as an independent investigator. The UNC Eating Disorders Program and Department of Psychiatry have built substantial bridges across departments and schools at UNC. In close collaboration with our Interdisciplinary Obesity Center (P20 RR020649: Popkin), we are extremely well- poised to attract and develop a strong research workforce of interdisciplinary eating disorders researchers enriched with female and minority trainees. A systematic series of internal and external program evaluations with clear semiannual benchmarks will facilitate ongoing development and optimization of the program, with the ultimate goal of introducing highly trained, methodologically rigorous, clinically competent researchers to the field of eating disorders. Our trainees will ultimately generate high quality proposals for submission for funding to the NIH in order to move the field of eating disorders to the next level of scientific sophistication.
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