Research Training for Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Fellows Institutional Training Grant (ITG) Program
PLEASE NOTE: UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs is NOT currently accepting applications for Pre and Post-Doctoral Fellowships.ISAP is organizationally located within the Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI), a division of the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Because of the complex nature of drug abuse, training in this field combines substantive, methodological, and practical approaches to research.
The ITG is a NIDA funded program to provide training to predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows. The grant provides a modest stipend to each trainee, depending on the length of time from your degree. For current NIH guidelines regarding stipends and other covered costs associated with the program, click here.
We employ a multi-disciplinary training program. Cross-disciplinary knowledge is needed to understand drug abuse etiology, behavior, consequences, and treatment. Substantive topics range from psychopharmacology to the social consequences of drug legislation. The variety of research approaches applicable to an understanding of drug abuse include experimental, quasi-experimental, survey, and naturalistic or ethnographic methods. Further, the unique nature of drug abuse data frequently requires new and creative analytic approaches such as specialized methods for analyzing non-normal data, quantifying data collected through qualitative methods, or merging qualitative and quantitative data. Other requirements include working with large databases and collecting data from drug-dependent populations.
Conducting drug abuse research also requires attention to the practical problems of carrying out a study, such as dealing with issues of confidentiality and ethics, and working with federal, state, and local agencies. Investigators must be prepared for and know how to deal with the compromises that must frequently be made between the requirements of an "ideal" research design and the constraints and difficulties imposed by programs and people in the real world. Furthermore, because of the complexities inherent in this type of research, researchers need to learn up-to-date computer methods of statistical analysis to enhance their own efficiency and make costly data more readily available. Finally, researchers need to develop competent writing and communication skills to disseminate research results effectively.
Each fellow is responsible for his or her own training experience, both in terms of process and outcomes, and is expected to be a self-motivated, adult learner. A wide variety of research training resources are available at ISAP and the larger UCLA community; it is anticipated that fellows will actively seek out and utilize these resources according to individual need and interest. To this end, research training activities may vary widely among fellows reflecting different levels of expertise and experience in drug abuse research methods, and specific areas of interest. Although certain coursework and evaluative components of the training program are relatively fixed, the individual trainee is encouraged to structure his or her research training experience in ways consistent with professional development and career goals.
In response to the needs and problems discussed above, the ISAP ITG program is intended to provide trainees both with exposure to a broad variety of drug abuse research personnel and settings and with the opportunity to select an area of focus for research. The breadth of training and experience contained within the teaching and resource faculty, the academic course requirements, and the varied research environments are expected to encourage contact with a variety of research methods and styles, to provide experience in conducting research in real world settings, and to promote a "hands on" approach to drug abuse research.
The Integrated Substance Abuse Program (ISAP) Training Center will emphasize six training goals:
- To attract qualified students from a variety of biobehavioral, social, and health science disciplines to the field of drug abuse research.
- To recruit predoctoral and postdoctoral students from underrepresented populations and to promote the development of their skills in drug abuse research, thereby increasing the diversity of the research community to better meet the needs of minority populations.
- To train and educate predoctoral and postdoctoral students in the substantive issues and methodological approaches of drug abuse research. Trainees will be prepared to enter careers as drug abuse researchers and to contribute to the advancement of the field.
- To promote better methodological skills in the design and execution of drug abuse research projects, as well as improved quantitative, analytic, and statistical skills that will produce the best results from the kinds of data accumulated in drug abuse studies.
- To offer a rich academic and training environment in which trainees can gain first-hand experience in conducting all levels of drug abuse research (e.g., design, instrumentation, field work, data analysis) and in preparing their findings for publication.
- To provide the resources, opportunities, and training that will enable the trainees to become independent investigators.
To achieve these goals, the ITG has been designed to provide comprehensive, intensive, and interdisciplinary training through formal education and supervised research experience that addresses the most crucial aspects of drug abuse. Because drug abuse research has suffered from deficiencies in research design and rigor, the program strongly emphasizes training in research design, methodology, and statistical analysis. Methodological issues and techniques in drug abuse research are emphasized throughout the training regimen, and trainees are schooled in the ethics of conducting research, and the importance of research that is useful to agencies, policymakers, and service providers.
Eligibility and Term of Fellowship
The duration of the fellowship is two years for both predoctoral and postdoctoral students. Predoctoral students are eligible for the fellowship only if they have successfully completed all of their coursework and are about to commence their dissertation. Completing the dissertation in two years is considered normal progress unless there are mitigating circumstances. The fellowship for the predoctoral students may extend beyond two years if approved by the Training Operations Director and the DARTC Advisory Committee. The fellowship for postdoctoral students may extend beyond the two-year period if the fellow has made normal progress during the first two years, and the third year will be used to complete the publishing agenda and submit or resubmit grant applications.
Overview of the Training Curriculum
Didactic Seminars: Didactic seminars led by senior investigators affiliated with ISAP will occur during the the fall quarter. Each seminar is led by a senior researcher in the consortium and address general research areas including neurobiology, behavioral clinical trials, medication development, epidemiological, methodological and statistical issues, and psychosocial research. The purpose of these seminars is to give an overview of the specific research area, including the latest developments, important gaps, and pressing needs.
Plenary Sessions: Plenary sessions, lasting approximately 2 hours, involve the presentation of research findings and implications from an interdisciplinary faculty panel, including ISAP and other UCLA faculty. Each plenary session features new and ongoing research addressing a topic or issue from three of the five research foci included in the consortium (neurobiology, clinical, pharmacological, epidemiological, and psychosocial). The topics recently discussed include opiates, stimulants, HIV/AIDS and substance abuse, craving and tolerance, genetic issues, epidemiology, methadone and LAAM, drug use initiation, treatment process and outcomes, and relapse risk factors.
Fellows’ Colloquia: Fellows’ colloquia findings or the direction are presented regarding current and future research. The goals of the colloquia are two-fold. One goal is to increase the presentation skills of the fellows, and the other is to broaden the disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge of the field. Each fellow presents at least twice per year. One presentation involves the use of media such as sides or computer graphics, and the other involves speaking from notes without visual aids. The presentation is evaluated by the Training Director and fellows and suggestions for improvement are offered.
Friday Morning Presentations: Each Friday, ISAP senior personnel or invited notable scientists present findings from their ongoing research, ensuring a constant flow of information about the most recent advances in drug abuse research. Fellows will attend the regular Friday sessions to enhance the integrative, interdisciplinary training process.
Journal Club: The purpose of the Club is to provide training on the practical aspects of scholarship, including effective writing and oral presentations, grant writing, ethics in research, maintaining professional collaborations, and time management. All manuscripts and drafts of grant applications are reviewed and evaluated.
Coursework: The ITG includes both requisite and recommended course work. Concerning the requisite courses, all fellows are required to complete the series of advanced statistics courses offered in the UCLA Department of Psychology. Exemptions are allowed if the fellow has had prior training in these statistical applications, or they are not pertinent to the fellows’ discipline. As molecular biology and neuroscience students typically do not use the same statistical methods used by those conducting psychosocial and clinical research, and because technical aspects of the training in this discipline are learned in the laboratory, this requirement is not relevant for these students. For these students, practica in molecular biology, electrophysiology, and peptide chemistry are required.
Preceptorship: All fellows will be assigned to a preceptor in one of the training sites. The preceptor is obligated to assist in the training of the fellow though actual research participation involving all aspects of the research process, including: Research design, execution, analysis, publication, and the grant writing process. The preceptor is expected to hold weekly meetings with the fellow in which routine direction and training are provided. Fellows are expected to be co-authors on all publications resulting from this training relationship, and they are expected to participate in grant writing.
Stable and Rotating Preceptorships: In the stable preceptorship, the Fellow will work with a single preceptor or the same set of preceptors throughout the duration of the fellowship. Some fellows enter the training program with the hopes of working with a specific scholar, and the stable preceptorship provides this opportunity. Other fellows prefer a rotating preceptorship in which the work with different scholars to gain breadth of expertise. The Training Director meets with each fellow soon after entry into the program and assists the fellow in identifying the preceptor or preceptors and determining if a stable or rotating preceptorship would best serve the interests of the fellow. The Training Director, Preceptor and fellow develop a research plan that will executed in the subsequent 12 months. The Training Director meets with the fellow on a weekly basis, and with the preceptor on an “as needed” basis, to monitor progress and to suggest ways to improve productivity. Although the fellow must be assigned to a preceptor throughout the duration of the fellowship, he or she can terminate the relationship with a specific preceptor at any time without consequence.
Fellows’ Mixer: The ITG co-sponsors the Annual fellows’ Mixer at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. This effort will be coordinated by ISAP in accord with CPDD and NIDA officers.
First-year progress report. Each fellow prepares a progress report at the end of the first year of the program. This report is expected to update the research proposal outline with the results of completed research activities. The Training Director and members of the Advisory Committee will evaluate the progress reports The Advisory Committee will decide whether the fellow will continue into the second year of the program on the basis of the trainee's satisfactory completion of the first-year requirements and progress towards initiation of the second-year research project.
Second-year progress report. Those fellows who wish to continue their training beyond a second year prepare a report at the end of the second year that will describe the progress occurring during the first two years of training, and the research activities that will be conducted during the third year. The Advisory Committee will decide on extending the fellowship based on the likely research outcomes that will occur with an additional year of funding.
The ITG program is predicated on providing a breadth of opportunities in which trainees can obtain exposure to a variety of treatment and research settings and drug abuse research personnel. The core of the training program consists of supervised research experience, initially in a variety of settings, and finally in an area of drug abuse that falls within the expertise of the training faculty and is of interest to the trainee.
The Integrated Substance Abuse Programs (ISAP), a multidisciplinary group of health and social science experts. ISAP staff collaborates with faculty from other campus departments, including the Departments of Psychology and Sociology, the School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, and the School of Medicine's affiliated hospitals, thereby capitalizing on the broad range of academic and research resources available at UCLA. At ISAP, the focus of drug abuse research is on treatment evaluation (specifically with regard to behavioral and psychosocial outcomes), drug abuse social policy, drug abuse epidemiology, HIV/AIDS, and etiology of drug abuse.
The Matrix Institute on Addictions (Matrix Clinics) is a private, nonprofit organization committed to developing and evaluating innovative, empirically based addiction treatment strategies; it has provided research, training, and public service since 1988. It currently provides drug and alcohol abuse treatment using a multimodal approach at several clinic sites in Southern California. Dr. Rawson, Associate Director of ISAP, and his colleagues developed the Neurobehavioral Treatment Model for stimulant addicts, which has been adapted for use with methadone clients.The UCLA ISAP Substance Abuse Services (SAS) offers inpatient and outpatient treatment for alcohol and/or drug dependence. The SAS is under the direction of Dr. Thomas Newton, M.D. and is sited in the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital (NPI&H).
The NIDA Clinical Trials Network Pacific Region Node (CTN) is a multi-site component of the nationwide CTN effort. The Pacific Node CTN, directed by ISAP Director Walter Ling, M.D., includes a geographically and clinically diverse group of community-based treatment programs (the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic System in Northern California, the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, the Tarzana Treatment Program in the San Fernando Valley, the Aegis statewide clinic system, and the ISAP/Matrix Institute clinics). The CTN builds on the existing extensive program of clinical trials research conducted through ISAP on medication and behavioral treatments for opiate, cocaine, methamphetamine, alcohol, and tobacco use disorders. In all there are currently 24 different clinical trials protocols being conducted under ISAP
UCLA ISAP Addiction Studies Neurobiology Unit is led by Thomas Newton, M.D., and Edythe London, Ph.D., ASNU researchers. Each investigator has more extensive experience working as a unit conducting screening protocols for identifying medications with promising efficacy for use as pharmacotherapies in treating cocaine dependence. The clinical trials, using inpatient pharmacokinetic and challenge paradigms, together with outpatient clinical trial designs, evaluate the clinical pharmacology and efficacy and safety profiles of candidate compounds, in a variety of populations. The team has extensive NIH/NIDA/MDD-supported experience performing work to achieve broad and ambitious research goals. Interacting with scientists of different thematic orientations and procedural approaches is a strength that serves the fellows of ITG. Co-director of ASNU, Edythe London, Ph.D., a world-renowned neuroscientist brings to ISAP an extraordinarily productive portfolio of basic research on neurophysiological mechanisms of brain function and a major program of brain imaging research. Dr. London’s brain imaging research incorporates a variety of state-of-the-art methodologies (MRI, SPECT, and PET). She is conducting research on effects of nicotine, methamphetamine, GHB, and other “club drugs” and cocaine. The addition of Dr. London and her program of research brings to ISAP and to the fellows involved in DARTC an extraordinary opportunity to be involved in this important emerging area of addiction science.
The RAND Corporation is an additional resource on which the training program draws, particularly its Drug Policy Research Center. The Center, funded by foundation grants, was founded in 1989 in response to growing national concerns about drug problems. Its primary objectives are to improve understanding of the consequences of changing drug use patterns, to examine the consequences of implementing different policies and programs, and to foster a drug policy research community and raise the quality of analysis available to governmental decision makers. Current projects at the Center include community-level studies of drug problems and responses, treatment process evaluation, characteristics of the street drug market, developing and evaluating prevention programs for high-risk adolescents, and developing models to predict the incidence and prevalence of drug use and dependence among different population groups.
Los Angeles County's Alcohol and Drug Programs Administration (ADPA) is another resource available to ITG trainees. ADPA oversees a comprehensive system of drug abuse prevention and treatment services using federal, state, and local funds for services contracted with over 60 private agencies. ADPA offers basic treatment services including methadone maintenance, residential treatment, outpatient drug free, and detoxification treatment. Population-specific programs target pregnant addicts, dual diagnosis, and the homeless.
The research training is guided academically by the Training Director (with whom each trainee meets regularly), and more closely with his or her research Preceptor (who meets with the trainee at least weekly). The ITG Executive Board and the Training Director oversee the guidance of trainees. Expectations for the second-year differ for predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees. In the case of predoctoral trainees, the second year research project provides the core content of the doctoral dissertation. Coordination with the trainee's home department with regard to completion of the dissertation is necessary. To that end, at least one member of the trainee's doctoral committee will be from research faculty affiliated with the ISAP-ITG Program.
Postdoctoral trainees are expected to conduct research, which will serve as the basis for writing articles for refereed journals. They may also elect to write a competitive grant proposal to provide financial support for subsequent years. For Year 1 internships and the Year 2 research project, each trainee begins his/her work by meeting with his/her selected research Preceptor to define a series of limited, short-term research goals. These goals include designing the procedures for pilot studies, reading and summarizing a series of relevant articles, conducting literature reviews, instrument development, and data analysis, and can be completed as part of research internships at the sites listed above. The goals are intended to enable the trainee to become involved in research activities quickly and to identify the trainee's particular needs and weaknesses so that any needed remedial action may be taken. The trainee and Preceptor review and revise the goals as needed. The Preceptor keeps a record of the goals the trainee has (or has not) achieved, problems encountered, and actions taken to overcome the problems.
As the trainee progresses in the program, short-term goals and objectives give way to longer-range goals and objectives, such as the completion of specific projects and the required second year concept proposals and research. At the conclusion of each internship, the fellows also formally evaluate the preceptor on mentorship and training skills. Available to fellows on a quarterly basis to assist with research training activities are undergraduate and graduate student interns from UCLA who either volunteer to, or for course credit (independent study), work on ISAP projects to gain research experience. The Associate Director of Training places these interns on ISAP projects, and thus should be notified of fellows’ student intern needs.
Postdoctoral Fellow Position Available
PLEASE NOTE: UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs is NOT currently accepting applications for Pre and Post-Doctoral Fellowships.
Postdoctoral fellow position available to work in nationally recognized substance abuse research program. The UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs (ISAP) Drug Abuse Research Training Center (DARTC) offers training to predoctoral and postdoctoral Ph.D. and M.D. fellows. The two-year research training program, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Institutional Training Grant (T32), combines a core research methodology curriculum with hands-on training opportunities in an extraordinarily diverse group of research and clinical settings. Specific areas of specialization include: basic research on brain and behavior; human and animal brain imaging; clinical trials (pharmacotherapy and behavioral); treatment system evaluation and long term treatment outcomes; drug use and HIV; drug use and the criminal justice system; drug use and special populations (women, individuals with co-occurring psychiatric disorders; adolescents); drug use and social policy; research-practice issues; international research.
Applicant must be a U.S. citizen or legal resident eligible for funding from an NIH training grant. Health insurance is available. Please mail or e-mail CV, proof of degree, three letters of recommendation, and statement of research interests to:
Tom Freese, Ph.D.
UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs
1640 S. Sepulveda, Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90025
tefreese@ix.netcom.com
Additional information about the training program, including an application packet, can be obtained Training Director Thomas Freese, Ph.D. He can be reached at (310) 267-5397 or at tefreese@ix.netcom.com.