Early Career Interdisciplinary Scholars Fellowship Program

Description
The Early Career Interdisciplinary Scholars Fellowship Program is no longer accepting applications for the 2023 Biennial Meeting.
Components
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Program Details

The Early Career Interdisciplinary Scholars Fellowship is a program established and organized by SRCD’s Interdisciplinary Committee with a mission to connect interdisciplinary and psychology/human development scholars, providing a forum in which scientists of various disciplines can share research and interdisciplinary scientific methods. 

The program selects outstanding early career scholars whose degree is in a discipline outside of psychology or human development, with an interest that is clearly related to developmental psychology, and pairs them up with a mentor who is a senior developmental scientist. The selected fellows receive complimentary registration to attend SRCD's Biennial Meeting, receive career advice from the mentor, and meet with the members of the Interdisciplinary Committee and the other interdisciplinary scholars at the Meeting.

A comprehensive understanding of human development requires the perspectives and methods of multiple disciplines, such as psychology and human development, but also sociology, family studies, biology/neuroscience, education, pediatrics, psychiatry, social work, public health, economics, and anthropology. Emerging technologies and data analytic approaches also offer rich opportunities for advancing research on development through integration with approaches from computer science, engineering, and statistics. While all these disciplines offer a valuable perspective on development, research within these fields often remains compartmentalized and emerging scholars in these fields are not exposed to developmental methods and models. Similarly, scholars within child development often have few opportunities to engage with perspectives from other disciplines that might advance their own work. This results in lost opportunities for the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration that can lead to integrative and groundbreaking discoveries that will move the field forward.

The Early Career Interdisciplinary Scholars Fellowship is designed to allow early scholars in relevant fields outside of psychology/human development to participate in the SRCD Biennial Meeting. This will provide fellows with exposure to developmental theory and research and provide them with opportunities to interact with and present their research to other researchers within the society. This bi-directional exchange is hoped to speed the flow of ideas and generate novel interdisciplinary collaborations.

If selected for the program, fellows commit to:

  • Participation in all Early Career Interdisciplinary Scholars Fellowship Program activities at the 2023 SRCD Biennial Meeting, including:
    • Breakfast with other fellows, mentors, and members of the interdisciplinary committee
    • Interdisciplinary Developmental Science Panel/symposium
  • At least one in-person activity with mentor during the Biennial Meeting (e.g., attending talks, poster sessions, sharing meals) 
  • Participation in 2 virtual meetings with mentor—one before and one after the Biennial Meeting

Eligibility

For fellows:

  • A Ph.D. or M.D. in a field outside of psychology or human development within a max. of 5 years from the Fellowship deadline. 
    • Please note that, for the 2023 cycle, eligibility has been extended for one additional year (due to possible COVID-related disruptions). Applicants who have completed their doctoral degree on January 1, 2017 or later may be considered for the fellowship.
  • Have not been granted tenure as a faculty member
  • Must be pursuing an area of research that is related to human development and have a desire to:
    • Obtain increased exposure to developmental theory, methods, and research findings,
    • Develop or enrich collaborations with developmental scientists, and/or
    • Disseminate relevant research from within their discipline to developmental scientists

SRCD Membership is not a requirement to apply, but it is expected that accepted Fellows will become a member of SRCD as a condition of participation.

Application Elements & Process

To access the application portal to apply for the Early Career Interdisciplinary Scholars Fellowship Program, please:

  1. Create an SRCD account login or Sign In
  2. Update your Demographics data
  3. Access the application portal and include the following documents/information in your application submission:
  • Your CV (PDF)
  • A brief 500 word narrative addressing the following:
    • Please describe your research, including your primary discipline and how your research intersects with developmental science. Additionally, note how your research program would benefit from the SRCD ECISF program. 
    • How can SRCD members benefit from learning about your research?
  • Names of up to 3 suggested mentors. [Note: This is optional.]

The SRCD Interdisciplinary Committee co-chairs will then appoint a subcommittee of up to 3 additional members who, along with the co-chairs, will review and rate all applications. The subcommittee will hold a meeting to discuss the applications and make the final selection of fellows. Applications will be evaluated based on research originality, productivity, and potential as well as the committee’s assessment of how likely the applicant is to benefit from participating in the program and to contribute to advancing the interdisciplinary mission. Efforts will be made to balance representation across different disciplines.

Following the final selection of fellows, the Interdisciplinary Committee will work together to identify and contact potential mentors for each fellow. Ideally, mentors will be senior developmental scientists conducting research in an area that is complementary to that of the fellow, and who have experience and interest in conducting research that crosses disciplinary boundaries.

The submission deadline for the 2023 Early Career Interdisciplinary Scholars Fellowship Program was December 5, 2022, 11:59pm ET. 

For inquiries, please contact the Interdisciplinary Committee Staff Liaison, Roman McNeil at rmcneil@srcd.org.

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Past SRCD Early Career Interdisciplinary Scholars Fellows