Transdisciplinary Training in Addictions Research

The Brown School at Washington University, together with the School of Medicine, is seeking an additional five years (years 21-26) of support for a pre-doctoral and post-doctoral research training program, called Transdisciplinary Training in Addictions Research (TranSTAR). Funded since 2002, this program reflects an integration of social work and medicine in the development of services to, treatment of, clinical correlates of and policies that affect populations impacted by poverty and disease and vulnerable to substance use disorders and co-occurring and comorbid conditions. Maximizing an effective transdisciplinary collaboration between the two schools, the program provides a stimulating and collaborative research training environment to produce exceptionally well-trained addictions researchers. Organized into four cores (Substance Use and Mental Health, Populations, Translational, and Methods), TranSTAR faculty are particularly well-suited for addressing challenging addiction research topics (e.g., polydrug users, non-treatment seeking, incarcerated populations, mental health/health comorbidities) and populations disproportionately impacted by social determinants of health including poverty, housing insecurity and educational disparities. TranSTAR holds a stellar training record: 100% of pre-doctoral and post-doctoral trainees who have completed training in the most recent two funding cycles are addictions researchers, with excellent records of publications and acquisition of funding. The record is similarly positive when the entire cohort of past trainees is assessed. With a highly diverse training faculty, led by two faculty from social work and psychiatry, TranSTAR has demonstrated success in recruiting and retaining a productive cohort of pre-doctoral and post-doctoral trainees. Further, TranSTAR leverages successes and “lessons learned” with on-going monitoring and evaluation to ensure that trainees (three pre- and two postdocs/year) have the necessary knowledge and skills to: (1) conceptualize meaningful research questions with practical service and policy implications; (2) execute rigorous, cutting-edge empirical studies; (3) develop competitive grant applications suitable for NIDA and other NIH funding; and (4) translate and disseminate results with potential for high impact. TranSTAR provides: (a) transdisciplinary and specialized substance misuse and addictions coursework, workshops and seminars taught by leading faculty in social work, public health, psychiatry, biostatistics, and the social sciences; (b) structured mentoring, advising, and “hands-on” experience on addictions research projects for trainees; (c) proposal critique review sessions; (d) predoctoral teaching assistantships in addictions, comorbidity, and other areas; (e) professional development sessions on presentation skills, effective communication of research, and networking and effective collaborative team science; (f) on-going training in rigor and reproducibility and in responsible conduct of research.