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Research Opportunities

While clinical training activities play a paramount role in our program, interns are expected to maintain active involvement in research, which is consistent with our scientist-practitioner model. To fulfill the core research competency requirement, it is expected that each intern will complete a research project during the course of the training year. To accomplish this goal interns are paired with a research preceptor who is a faculty member or affiliate faculty member from UMMC who is actively involved in a program of research. Prior to the start of the training year interns are matched with a faculty member whose research interests and experience are consistent with the interests or goals of the intern. These assignments are based primarily on intern rankings, as well as the availability of research preceptors. At the beginning of the training year it is expected that interns will develop a research plan for the year in consultation with their research preceptor and that throughout the year they will develop and plan a research project, carry out the research, and disseminate research findings. Interns are provided with protected research time each week to use for Program-related research including but not limited to submission of a first-authored publication or an equivalent research product under the supervision of Training Program faculty during the training year. There is considerable flexibility in the content, scope, and focus on research projects completed by interns; however, it is expected that it will consist of a project independent of the dissertation and consist of a first-authored manuscript submission or similar product. A high percentage of former psychology interns have authored or co-authored multiple publications based on their research activities during the internship year.

To facilitate achievement of these research goals and expectations, interns receive 8 hours of protected research time per week. Failure to meet research expectations will not result in failure of the internship program (as long as the intern achieves a rating of at least high intermediate on the Scientific Knowledge and Methods and Research/Evaluation domains), but may result in intern protected research time being reassigned to meet other training goals. The Research Training Oversight Committee oversees the monitoring of progress on research-related competencies and helps to facilitate a modified research plan in the rare instance that an intern's research time is reassigned due to insufficient progress.

Didactics on grantsmanship are part of the internship training experience and all interns are expected to participate in this seminar series. Grant writing didactics are led by Training Program faculty members who have a strong history of attracting NIH funding and have considerable experience reviewing NIH grants. Interns are encouraged to begin, and perhaps complete, a draft of their own independent grant by the end of the internship year.

Significant resources are available to support research training activities. PCs are easily accessible with primary software packages including MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), STATA, SAS, and SPSS among others.  Laboratory and A/V equipment include psychophysiological assessment and biofeedback equipment, video recorder/playback systems, DLP projectors, etc. Online survey and data management services are available through Qualtrics and REDCap. The Rowland Medical Library offers excellent facilities and receives all major psychology journals; in addition, the vast majority of these journals are available electronically. The capacity for database searches Medline, ERIC, CINAHL, HEALTH, PsychINFO and PsychLit (Psychological Abstracts) is available on-site and remotely.

Research Preceptors

We expect that the following faculty will be available to serve as research preceptors for the 2025-2026 training year. Please see our program's brochure for detailed information regarding their areas of research and funding experience.