Training in Infectious Disease Epidemiology (TIDE)

ABSTRACT As dramatically illustrated by the CoVID-19 pandemic, endemic and epidemic infectious diseases pose increasing global danger as the world becomes more interconnected. However, there are relatively few institutions engaged in training infectious disease (ID) epidemiologists. Of those that are trained, relatively few are equipped to work at the crossroads of lab science and population-based clinical and behavioral research. The UNC Epidemiology Department is applying for a 4th 5-year funding cycle for our Training in ID Epidemiology (TIDE) NIAID T32. Our TIDE program occupies a unique niche in the T32 portfolio at NIAID as one of only seven training grants with an ID epidemiology focus (out of 177 active NIAID T32s). Our program has been very successful in several ways. First, with impetus from the T32, we developed a core curriculum in ID epidemiology and made sure that all of our trainees were exposed to interdisciplinary approaches to ID research. We have had three PhD trainee slots per year for all 15 years, and one post-doc slot per year for the past 10 years. Second, our trainees have been highly successful in obtaining jobs in ID epidemiology. Of the 30 trainees who have finished their training programs, 14 have academic appointments (6 tenure-track, 6 research or clinical track, 2 postdoc) and 10 are at the CDC, either in the EIS or as full-time employees. The others (n==6) all have research-focused positions in other public health organizations or agencies. Third, our efforts at increasing diversity over the past two cycles have paid off: 6 of the 24 trainees in our last two funding cycles (25%) have been under- represented minorities. We also have excellent representation of female trainees (77% to date). For the next 5-year cycle, we are planning to continue to emphasize interdisciplinary research in our three thematic research areas of ID microbiology, social influences on ID epidemiology, and ID clinical research. Our pre-docs will all incorporate interdisciplinary work into their research. Our post-docs will be required to do interdisciplinary research with co-mentors – one epidemiologist plus one “interdisciplinary” co-mentor, with expertise in laboratory, behavioral or clinical research aspects of infectious diseases. In addition, we plan to further strengthen our professional development training and our outreach efforts to minority candidates. In summary, we hope to build on the remarkable success to date of this training program by continuing to train outstanding young infectious disease epidemiologists to meet an important public health need.