Postdoc Opportunity in Health Disparities!

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Center for Women's Health and Health Disparities Research
Mentored Post-doctoral Training Program in Health Disparities Research (T32 Program)
Application Deadline: April 1, 2013

Program Background: Mentored post-doctoral training program in health disparities research funded through the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Training Grant (T32). This post-doctoral program provides year-long support for training in interdisciplinary research that addresses disparities in health status and health outcomes among minority mothers, infants, children and their families. The Center for Women's Health and Health Disparities (CWHDR) Research T32 Program began under the direction of Dr. Gloria E. Sarto in the spring of 2007. The program has been renewed for an additional 5 years.

Goal of Award: To provide training at the postdoctoral level in interdisciplinary research that addresses disparities in health status and health outcomes among minority populations as well as to recruit underrepresented minorities into academic research careers. The HDRS Training Program provides interdisciplinary and multifaceted opportunities for research that includes not only biomedical and behavioral sciences, but also investigation into quality of care, including cost, access and satisfaction with services; the causes of and barriers to reducing health disparities; attitudes towards health, language spoken, educational level, community profile and socioeconomic status; identification of assessment measures for outcomes, quality and appropriateness of health care services. Attracting minorities from various disciplines such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, sociologists, social workers, and nutritionists, into academic research careers will help in this endeavor.

To address not only the broad array of research areas outlined above but also the interdisciplinary nature of the possible candidates, the faculty is interdisciplinary and consists of physician scientists, perinatal researchers, sociologists, nurse scientists, nutritional scientists, epidemiologists and economists. To promote interdisciplinary research and disciplinary cross training, we provide two mentors for each Scholar, balancing the biomedical/basic science and behavioral/demography and epidemiology approaches to address health disparities. Benefits include a full NIH stipend, tuition, fees and travel funds. The CWHDR currently funds a total of 5 positions.


Eligibility Requirements:

· Postdoctoral scholars must have received, as of the beginning date of the NRSA appointment, a Ph.D., M.D., D.D.S., or comparable doctoral degree from an accredited domestic or foreign institution. Eligible doctoral degrees include, but are not limited to, the following: D.M.D., D.C., D.O., D.V.M., O.D., D.P.M., Sc.D., Eng.D., Dr. P.H., D.N.Sc., D.P.T., Pharm.D., N.D. (Doctor of Naturopathy), D.S.W., Psy.D, as well as a doctoral degree in nursing research.

· Scholar agrees to devote full-time effort in research related activities for a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 3 years to this T32 training program.

· Scholars must be interested in research that involves health disparities or health in underserved populations.

· No individual may receive more than 3 years of aggregate Kirschstein-NRSA support at the postdoctoral level, including any combination of Kirschstein-NRSA support from institutional research training grants and individual fellowships.

· An NRSA appointment may not be held concurrently with another federally sponsored fellowship, traineeship, or similar Federal award that provides a stipend or otherwise duplicates provisions of the NRSA.

· Scholar will be a US citizen or non-citizen national, or has been lawfully admitted for permanent resident status and possesses an Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151 or I-551) or some other verification of legal admission as a permanent resident.

Find more information about the Center for Women's Health and Health Disparities Research T32 Program and how to apply at obgyn.wisc.edu/CWHDR/


Direct Questions to: Julia Brasileiro or Doris Franklin at (608) 262-7573 or CWHDR@obgyn

Funding opportunity: NSF's INSPIRE program

Thanks to NSF Biological Anthropology Program Director Carolyn Erhardt for the following announcement: 

NSF will be providing an informational webcast on INSPIRE (Integrated NSF Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education) to be held on Tuesday, January 29, 2013 from 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. EST.  During the webcast, the FY 2013 INSPIRE solicitation (NSF 13-518) will be discussed, and INSPIRE program officers will interactively answer questions submitted by the online audience. (Check out the current list of INSPIRE Frequently Asked Questions.)

Information on accessing and registering for the free webcast will be available through the INSPIRE program website. Participants must be registered to view the webcast.

Summary of the INSPIRE funding opportunity: The INSPIRE awards program was established to address some of the most complicated and pressing scientific problems that lie at the intersection of traditional disciplines. It is intended to encourage investigators to submit bold, exceptional proposals that some may consider to be at a disadvantage in a standard NSF review process; it is not intended for proposals that are more appropriate for existing award mechanisms. INSPIRE is open to interdisciplinary proposals on any NSF-supported topic, submitted by invitation only after a preliminary inquiry process initiated by submission of a required Letter of Intent (LOI). In fiscal year 2013, INSPIRE provides support through the following three pilot grant mechanisms:

• INSPIRE Track 1. This is essentially a continuation of the pilot CREATIV mechanism from FY 2012, which was detailed for 2012 in Dear Colleague Letter NSF 12-011.
• INSPIRE Track 2. These are "mid-scale" research awards at a larger scale than Track 1, allowing for requests of up to $3,000,000 over a duration of up to five years. Expectations for cross-cutting advances and for broader impacts are greater than in Track 1, and the review process includes external review.
• Director's INSPIRE Awards. These are prestigious individual awards to single-investigator proposals that present ideas for interdisciplinary advances with unusually strong, exciting transformative potential.

All NSF directorates and programmatic offices participated in INSPIRE in FY 2012 and are continuing their participation in FY 2013.

LETTER OF INTENT (LOI) DUE DATES:

INSPIRE Track 2 Inquiries: Letter of Intent Due Date February 20, 2013

INSPIRE Track 1 Inquiries (also for Director’s INSPIRE Awards): Letter of Intent Due Date March 29, 2013

Full proposal submission is by invitation only, based on evaluation by NSF staff of the required Letter of Intent. 

2012 Anthropological Anatomy Research Winners!

At last year's AAPA meeting in conjunction with the anatomy career workshop sponsored by the American Association of Anatomists and hosted by me and my colleague Alison Doubleday, a student prize competition was held to recognize student poster and podium presentations that best implemented anatomical methodologies in innovative anthropological research. Seventeen graduate students from programs across the United States applied for the “American Association of Anatomists Anthropological Anatomy Award”. Presentations were judged on novelty of research question and design, use of anatomical methodologies, and presentation style. Two $500 prizes were awarded, one for best podium presentation and one for best poster presentation. Two $250 prizes were awarded, one for honorary podium presentation and one for honorary poster presentation.  Each award winner also received the most current issue of The Anatomical Record.  Over 100 individuals attended the student awards ceremony, during which these award winners were announced.

Awardees include:

• -  Best podium presentation: Gabrielle Russo (University of Texas at Austin) for her presentation, Internal bone structure of the last sacral vertebral body and its relationship to tail length
• -  Best poster presentation: Adam Foster (University of Arizona) for his presentation, Ontogenetic development of postcranial adaptations to bipedalism in the rat
• -  Honorable Mention podium presentation: Neil Roach (Harvard University) for his presentation, Derived anatomy of the shoulder and wrist enable throwing ability in Homo
• -  Honorable Mention poster presentation: Justin Gladman (City University of New York) for his presentation, Detailed measurements of primate calcanei from 3D models allow for reliable body mass estimation

We had very generous one-off funding last year via a grant from AAA and no plans to be able to offer the award for a second year. However, AAPA is collaborating with AAA so that we can offer a single award this year! 

2nd annual Anthropological Anatomy Award at AAPA

Very excited to announce the second annual Anthropological Anatomy Award for the 2013 AAPA meeting. Last year Dr. Alison French Doubleday and I received funding from the American Association of Anatomists (the "other" AAA) to host a workshop on careers for biological anthropologists in anatomy education and research. Those funds also afforded us the opportunity to recognize stellar student research on hot topics in anatomy. This year, AAPA is teaming with AAA to fund a single award for the best presentation on anthropologically-oriented anatomy research. This means that posters will be judged against talks, because we feel strongly that the two formats are of equal value. My email address is in the announcement. Feel free to contact me with questions and submissions (due March 1).

IMPORTANT NOTE 1: You may participate in this competition even if you are already competing in the overall AAPA student competition. No limit!

IMPORTANT NOTE 2: Presentations co-authored by students can be considered, but note that the cash prize will be split among the winners. In the case of co-authored presentations, it must be made very clear how each student contributed equally.