Behavioral & Social Scientific Approaches to Health Dissertation Assistantship

About:

The Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy is excited to announce the creation of a new Dissertation Assistantship Award for UConn Graduate Students. This assistantship will provide an outstanding graduate student a paid assistantship to support dissertation research in the fields of public health or health-related behavioral and social science research, consistent with InCHIP's mission. Students can elect to make use of this award full time in one semester or part time across two semesters.

This funding is intended to support students as they analyze dissertation data and write their dissertation. The funding provided will be used to pay for the student's time. It is not intended to pay for research-related costs such as participant incentives. 

InCHIP Dissertation Scholars are expected to acknowledge the University of Connecticut’s Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy in publications resulting from work supported by the Institute. Students will be required to demonstrate progress toward the completion of their dissertation at select intervals during their award period.

Deadline:

Applications and Letter of Recommendation are due Friday March 8th, 2024 by 11:59PM

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Days Until Date
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Proposal Guidelines:

Application Materials

Component  Who submits? Page Limit Directions:
Letter of Recommendation Dissertation Adviser/

Other UConn Faculty Mentor

 2 Pages  The letter should demonstrate the advisors opinion of the following:
  • The significance of the research;
  • The progress made to date, including anticipated completion date. 
  • Format: single-spaced, in Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri font size no smaller than 12-point type, left-aligned with one inch margins.
Dissertation Project Proposal/ Prospectus Applicant  NA
 Project proposal or prospectus should describe the dissertation project and must include the following: 
  • Project Title
  • Project’s relation to current literature
  • Project methodology
  • Project goals
  • Format: single-spaced, in Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri font size no smaller than 12-point type, left-aligned with one inch margins.
References Section Applicant  NA APA or AMA format preferred but not required. Please note references do not count towards page limit project Proposal/ Prospectus.  
Timeline Applicant 1 Page Timeline of planned activities during the planned assistantship semester (not to exceed one single-spaced page).
CV Applicant  NA

Review Criteria

Criteria used in evaluating applications include:

  • Evidence of scholarly promise, such as publications or presentations at scholarly meetings.
  • Relevance of the project to the fields of public health, or health-related behavioral and social scientific research.
  • Relevance of project to InCHIP’s mission.
  • Evidence that the dissertation will be completed during the 2024–25 academic year.

An application review committee will be convened by InCHIP. Awardee will be announced by the end of April 2024.

Eligibility

Applicant Eligibility: 

  • UConn graduate students must have attained Ph.D. candidate status at the time of application. 
  • Students should complete the majority of their data collection by the start of the assistantship period. 
  • Students must not have another dissertation assistantship either internally or through external funding that pays for the student’s time during the planned assistantship semester. 

Project Eligibility: 

This assistantship will provide funding for students whose dissertation research (1) is relevant to the InCHIP mission and 2) involves empirical inquiry into behavioral and social phenomena relevant to health as defined by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the NIH.

 For more context, please see the definitions below:

  • “Behavioral phenomena” refers to the observable actions of individuals or groups and to mental phenomena such as knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, motivations, perceptions, cognitions, and emotions.
  • “Social phenomena” refers to the interactions between and among individuals, and to the characteristics, structures, and functions of social groups and institutions, such as families, communities, schools, and workplaces, as well as the physical, economic, cultural, and policy environments in which social and behavioral phenomena occur.
  • “Health” refers to a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (as per WHO).

Awardee Requirements

Students will be required to demonstrate progress toward the completion of their dissertation at select intervals during their award period. InCHIP Dissertation Scholars are expected to acknowledge the University of Connecticut’s Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy in publications resulting from work supported by the Institute.

Have Questions?

Reach out to:

Greidy Miralles
Grants and Contracts Associate
Email: greidy.miralles@uconn.edu

Letter of Recommendation

Due: March 8th, 2024 at 11:59PM

The letter should not exceed two-pages single spaced and should demonstrate the advisors opinion of the following:

  • The significance of the research;
  • The progress made to date, including anticipated completion date.
  • Format: Letter must be single-spaced, in Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri font size no smaller than 12-point type, left-aligned with one inch margins.

Please upload your letter of recommendation via the form below:

Name of Student Applicant(Required)
Your Name(Required)
Max. file size: 250 MB.
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Application

Name(Required)
Approximately when do you anticipate defending your dissertation?(Required)
InCHIP will fund 2 graduate students for 20 hours each during the 2024 academic year, please select which of the following scenarios you would prefer based on your anticipated research and teaching load:(Required)
Max. file size: 250 MB.
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.