Building Social and Behavioral Science Research Competency

描述（由申请人提供）：长期以来，在生物医学领域的博士级研究人员中，印第安人、非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人的比例一直偏低，这被认为是我们国家的一个问题。美国国立卫生研究院（National Institutes of Health）在“少数族裔研究机会”（MORE）项目下赞助了广泛的针对少数族裔的培训项目。尽管一些评估发现，参加MORE课程的学生比其他学生更有可能从事研究工作，但结果并不明确。此外，很少有高质量的研究解决了这些计划是如何运作的问题，也就是说，这些计划产生效果的过程。关于浓缩过程的积极和消极方面的可靠资料将有助于制定最有效方案的准则，并将为更多的受训者提供扩大规模的机会。为了获得更多项目效果的有效信息，NIH-GMS在2003年发起了“促进科研事业的干预效果研究”的RO1倡议。在最近（2007年5月）由美国国家科学院主办的研讨会上，人们承认缺乏高质量的倡议。尽管许多提案来自对项目有深刻理解和洞察力的个人（例如自然科学家或医学教育家），但这些提案缺乏回答所提出问题所必需的社会和行为科学研究的专业知识和复杂性，并且理论基础不足，设计薄弱，和/或薄弱或不适当的数据分析策略。目前的提案寻求资金，以提供会议/讲习班，向以前不成功或潜在的提案作者介绍(a)社会和行为科学研究的基本逻辑，(b)适当的研究设计和分析，以及(c)跨学科团队组成的策略。由知识渊博、经验丰富的社会和行为科学家教授，工作坊将采用讲座、演示、问题集和小组会议的形式，让参与者解决必要的主题。研讨班的目标不是让参与者成为社会科学研究方面的专家，而是提高他们组织和管理高效研究团队的能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The persistent underrepresentation of Native Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans in the ranks of Ph.D.-level researchers in the biomedical fields has long been recognized as a problem for our nation. The National Institutes of Health have sponsored extensive minority-target training programs under the Minority Opportunity in Research (MORE) program. Although some evaluations have found that students in MORE programs are more likely than other students to pursue research careers, the results are not unequivocal. Moreover, very little high-quality research has addressed the question of how such programs work, i.e., the processes by which the programs have their effects. Reliable information on positive and negative aspects of the enrichment process would permit the development of guidelines for optimally effective programs and would provide opportunities for scaling up for a larger number of trainees. To attain valid information about MORE program effects, NIH-GMS launched an RO1 initiative for "Research on the Efficacy of Interventions that Promote Research Careers" in 2003. At a recent (May 2007) workshop sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, it was acknowledged that there has been a dearth of high-quality proposals for the initiative. Although many of the proposals come from individuals with great understanding of and insight into the programs (e.g., natural scientists or medical educators), the proposals lack expertise and sophistication in the social and behavioral science research that is necessary to answer the proposed questions and suffer from insufficient theoretical grounding, weak designs, and/or weak or inappropriate data analysis strategies. The current proposal seeks funding to offer conferences/workshops to introduce previously unsuccessful or potential proposal writers to (a) the basic logic of social and behavioral science research, (b) appropriate research designs and analyses, and (c) strategies for the composition of interdisciplinary teams. Taught by knowledgeable and experienced social and behavioral scientists, the workshops will employ lectures, demonstrations, problem sets, and small group sessions to allow participants to address the necessary topics. The goal of the workshop is not to make participants experts in social science research, but rather to increase their capabilities to organize and manage highly effective research teams.