Trainee Research Awards

One way we will develop Clinician Scientists is through Trainee Research Awards that provide funding and faculty support for trainees to participate in mentored research.

One-year grants of $5,000 to $25,000 will provide support for research expenditures, travel expenses to present a poster or paper at a national research conference, up to .05 FTE for faculty mentorship, and/or access to the Clinical Trials Consultation and Technical Assistance Program (C-TAP). Awards will be for future work completed within one year of the award with the possibility of a no-cost extension. All awards will be administered through the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

The 2027 Trainee Research Award application will open in early 2027.


Reach out to Andie Uomoto at uomotoa@uw.edu with any questions.

2027 timeline to be announced.

Applicant

The program is open to incoming second- third- and fourth-year psychiatry residents, psychology interns and psychiatry or psychology fellows participating in an ACGME or non-ACGME fellowship program that involves seeing patients at least one day a week (or equivalent of 20% FTE). Incoming second year residents must meet with the Psychiatry Residency Training Director at the beginning of the application process to discuss the feasibility of their project. Trainees who have previously been awarded a Trainee Research Award are eligible to apply for projects focused on a different line of research (i.e., proposals may not extend or continue an existing Trainee Research Award).

Mentor

A primary mentor must be identified by each applicant. Eligible primary mentors must be full- or part-time (at least 50%) faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, preferably those who have a successful track record of funded research. Faculty who do not have a funded research portfolio are strongly encouraged to invite a co-mentor to the project’s team who can provide expert research administration guidance. Faculty outside the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences may be on an applicant’s mentorship team, but are not eligible for FTE support and are not eligible to be primary mentors. Faculty based at the VA are welcome to be primary mentors but cannot be paid FTE. Courtesy and adjunct faculty within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences are eligible to be primary mentors but are not eligible for FTE support.

Applicants need to secure a primary faculty mentor and develop a brief proposal with one to three specific aims, milestones, and a deliverable such as a publication, a research poster, or a grant application, along with a statement of support from the faculty mentor. See the application for full details.

Prospective applicants can search for potential projects and/or faculty members doing research that match their interests through the Department’s database of current research projects. Note that it is not an inclusive list but rather a starting place to generate ideas. Information on faculty and their areas of expertise can also be found on the Department’s faculty profiles webpage. Jesse Fann, Director of the CSTP, is available to help facilitate the pairing of interested trainees and faculty mentors. He can be reached at fann@uw.edu.