Developing Research Careers in the Hearing Sciences

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Project Summary/Abstract The specific goals for the proposed T35 Pre-Doctoral Research Traineeship Program at Vanderbilt University are to recruit high-quality students as T35 research trainees, provide a productive and meaningful traineeship, nurture the foundation that transforms a clinical to research mindset, and facilitate progression towards a career as an independently NIH-funded clinician-scientist. This program supports the goal of the NIH to build a strong clinician-scientist workforce to meet biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs. The proposed T35 pre-doctoral traineeship program is specifically for graduate students in training for a clinical doctorate in audiology (AuD). Scientists with a clinical background, such as audiology, are well positioned to identify key clinically driven questions that will ultimately impact patient care and outcomes. Despite the importance of engaging clinicians in research careers, the small number of individuals with clinical training in audiology who are obtaining research expertise and credentials via a PhD in hearing science remains a concern. Short-term support for three months of full-time research training is requested for five pre-doctoral (AuD) students per year for each of the five years of the grant. Trainees will select from among twelve well-established preceptors with active research programs in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University. Each trainee will conduct hands-on research involving all phases of a specific project in a laboratory under the guidance of their preceptor, complete a formal T35 research course taught by the T35 preceptors, participate in journal club discussions, complete training in responsible conduct in research, and complete additional activities typical of a research environment. The Vanderbilt preceptors' research areas span basic and translational research in animal and human models and address a wide range of topics including cochlear and neural physiology, development, aging, hereditary hearing loss, spatial localization, motion perception, directional hearing and amplification, pediatric audiology, speech recognition, cochlear implants, vestibular function, and multisensory cortical function. Trainees will learn about the many aspects of developing, designing, collecting and analyzing data, and reporting the results of a research study. All trainees will present the results of their research at a national scientific meeting and develop a manuscript, in collaboration with their preceptor, publishable in a peer-reviewed journal. Strengths of the proposed traineeship program include the standing of the Vanderbilt AuD program in the academic community, the excellent research environment with state-of-the-art laboratories, numerous collaborations among the preceptors, and strong institutional support. Independent researchers with clinical backgrounds are well suited to identify and solve public health problems. The proposed program will provide focused research training with the goal of developing a scientific mindset that leads the trainee to a research career in hearing and/or vestibular science. This will benefit society by ensuring a strong future for evidence-based research related to hearing health and patient care.