This is a competitive renewal application for 2008-13 (Years 21-25) for a NIMH Institutional National Research Service Award (T32) to the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Rochester Medical Center [URMC) to support interdisciplinary postdoctoral clinical research training of psychiatrists, psychologists, and other appropriately qualified PhDs. Our T32 fellows learn fundamental aspects of independent, investigator-initiated research, based largely in psychopathology, psychology, public health/preventive medicine, health services and clinical trials'methodologies, and ethics, particularly, as they relate to interventions research. The program has a clear emphasis on risk factor research and the development of novel preventive or therapeutic interventions, and is based in a research-intensive academic department that has an outstanding record of successfully supporting the development of early-career investigators during the past two decades. During the past cycle, we have added an emphasis on community-based participatory research to complement more traditional settings for conducting investigations. There are 12 senior faculty mentors participating in this T32, as well as five preceptors who provide mentoring while learning to mentor with the input of their more senior colleagues. We have recruited highly qualified candidates, and our trainees have gone on to successful academic careers as demonstrated through their publications, their successfully funded grant applications, and their promotions. Our training is based on the establishment of a committed mentor-trainee relationship, and the formulation of individually tailored programs that involve fellows in current research and support the development of their own protocols. Trainees formulate with their mentors developmental programs based upon careful appraisal of their assessed needs in each of the core skill areas, in addition to the content areas tied to their research. Fellows are funded for 2-3 year periods, most often for three years. Formal didactic courses are selected to meet the specific needs of each trainee, and there are a wide array of seminars and research meetings to complement the informal interactions that abound in our centers and laboratories. Feedback is both informal and formal, aimed at fostering growth as well as critical self-appraisal.
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