BBTAD Training Program
Intensive Research Training
The primary responsibility of each trainee is to participate in interdisciplinary research using biological or behavioral approaches to typical and atypical development. Research experiences are tailored to each trainee's interests, goals, and expertise. In all cases, however, these experiences are designed to achieve the following goals: (a) increase the trainee's knowledge of typical and atypical development; (b) expand the trainee's repertoire of techniques for designing and conducting biological or behavioral research; and (c) enable the trainee to develop a programmatic line of interdisciplinary inquiry. These goals are met by requiring, for each trainee, both a collaborative and an independent research project.
Collaborative Research Project with Primary Mentor. Each trainee participates in one or more collaborative research projects with the trainee's Primary Mentor during the first year of training. The extent and nature of this participation varies depending on the expertise and interests of the trainee, but it is likely that the trainee will be a second or third author on reports of these projects. Trainees function as collaborators in these projects, sharing responsibility with the Primary Mentor for planning and conducting one aspect of an ongoing project or assisting the Primary Mentor in extending the latter's research in new directions. It must be emphasized that Trainees do not simply carry out a set of duties and tasks prescribed by the Primary Mentor; rather, the expectation is for Trainees to think independently about research issues and to make independent contributions to the collaborative research effort.
Independent Research Project. Following successful completion of one or more collaborative research projects, each trainee is required to complete at least one empirical research project from start to finish. On this research project, the trainee takes the lead in conceptualization, design, implementation, and dissemination of the results. This project must (a) be of sufficient quality to merit submission to a scholarly journal by the end of the traineeship period, (b) be the first step in a program of research that the trainee will continue after leaving the program, and (c) serve as preliminary work for an application for an NIH research grant (an R03 for Ph.D. Trainees; a K award for M.D. Trainees). This project is therefore a critical step in the trainee's efforts to establish an independent program of research. Note that this is a minimum requirement for a trainee. In fact, most Trainees complete multiple independent projects.
Although the trainee is the lead investigator on the independent research project, the Primary Mentor plays an important role as well. In particular, the Primary Mentor assists the trainee in designing a manageable project that can be completed during the course of the traineeship period. The Primary Mentor also assists the trainee in establishing, as part of the Plans and Goals Statement, a reasonable timeline for completion of the various phases of the project. This timeline ensures that the project is designed during the first six months of the second year with data collection and analysis completed by the middle of the third year. The Primary Mentor also assists the trainee by ensuring that the project opens other avenues for investigation; that is, the study should serve as the beginning of a programmatic line of research integrating biological or behavioral approaches to typical and atypical development.
