Building Social and Behavioral Science Research Competency

描述（由申请人提供）：美国土著人，非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人在博士队伍中的持续代表性不足。长期以来，生物医学领域的高水平研究人员一直被认为是我国的一个问题。美国国立卫生研究院在少数民族研究机会（MORE）计划下赞助了广泛的少数民族目标培训计划。尽管一些评估发现，MORE项目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样的程序是如何工作的问题，即，程序产生效果的过程。关于充实进程的积极和消极方面的可靠信息将有助于制定最有效方案的准则，并将为更多的受训人员提供扩大规模的机会。为了获得有关MORE计划效果的有效信息，NIH-GMS于2003年发起了一项RO 1倡议，即“促进研究职业的干预措施的有效性研究”。在最近（2007年5月）由国家科学院主办的一次研讨会上，与会者承认，该倡议缺乏高质量的提案。虽然许多提案来自对项目有很好理解和洞察力的个人（例如，这些建议缺乏社会和行为科学研究方面的专业知识和复杂性，而这是回答所提出的问题所必需的，并且存在理论基础不足、设计薄弱和/或数据分析策略薄弱或不适当的问题。目前的提案寻求资金，以提供会议/研讨会，介绍以前不成功或潜在的提案作者（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）跨学科团队的组成战略。由知识渊博和经验丰富的社会和行为科学家授课，研讨会将采用讲座，演示，问题集和小组会议，让参与者解决必要的主题。研讨会的目的不是让参与者成为社会科学研究的专家，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.