Post-Doctoral Training in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research

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The program began in 1995 and provides interdisciplinary training in behavioral, biobehavioral, and translational research on intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), with an emphasis on social- affective, communicative, and family processes. Trainees enter the two-year program with research experience and a Ph.D. in a discipline related to IDD, child development, human behavior, neuroscience, or epidemiology. The program is housed at, and fully integrated into, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Waisman Center, which includes an NICHD-funded P30 Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center. Fifteen faculty participate as mentors, all Waisman Center investigators with NIH-funded research programs. The program currently funds four post-doctoral trainees annually. We are requesting funding for six trainees annually. The goal is to develop the skills and enduring commitment needed to conduct high-quality, programmatic, and fundable behavioral, biobehavioral, and translational research on IDD. The program has four key elements: (a) mechanisms for coordinating and monitoring individualized training; (b) intensive research training experiences; (c) a core curriculum; and (d) a requirement that training results in well- defined products in a timely manner. We have strengthened the translational research and public health dimensions of the program through key additions to the faculty and expanded the biobehavioral dimension through the addition of seminars of the core curriculum. Nearly 30 trainees have completed the program. Most are in faculty positions at Research I universities. Many members of the earliest cohort are now tenured, have secured external research funding, moved into leadership positions, published extensively, and have an enduring commitment to IDD. More recent cohorts are on a similar trajectory. Four trainees have been members of under-represented ethnic/racial groups.