The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Summer Institute on Randomized Behavioral Clinical Trials provides an advanced course in planning, designing, and conducting high-impact randomized controlled trials of health-related behavioral interventions. The program emphasizes programmatic research and prepares fellows to lead or collaborate on systematic efforts to develop and improve health-related behavioral interventions and conduct rigorous, high-impact behavioral trials.

The Summer Institute’s long-term goal is to build an outstanding scientific workforce that will conduct clinical trials that can change practice guidelines, health care policies, and third-party coverage for health-related behavioral interventions. The program aims to help expand the role of evidence-based behavioral interventions in clinical and preventive services.

The Summer Institute is supported by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research and the National Cancer Institute.

Learning Objectives

1. Create a multidisciplinary team to design and execute a randomized controlled trial
2. Design a phase II/III randomized controlled trial
3. Implement methods to maintain internal validity during a randomized controlled trial
4. Disseminate course content to other learners by planning lectures, workshops, or other training and mentorship activities

Schedule

The training course consists of a 4-day in-person workshop followed by 9 monthly virtual meetings with small learning communities. Each learning community is facilitated by two Institute faculty members.

Applicants

A maximum of 30 fellows will be accepted each year. The Summer Institute will enroll 4 cohorts of 30 learners, for a total of 120 learners.

Faculty

The faculty of the Summer Institute includes senior researchers expertise in designing and/or conducting phase II/III behavioral intervention trials.

Costs and Stipends

There is no course registration fee. However, fellows are expected to cover their travel expenses to and from the Institute, as well as ground transportation, lodging, and meals. Limited financial assistance may be available to help offset some of these expenses.

Applicants who wish to apply for the very limited number of scholarships to fund the majority of the costs to attend the Institute must submit a letter that demonstrates financial need from their intuitional leadership (e.g., division chief, department chair, etc.) during the application process.

Eligibility Requirements

The course is open to doctoral-trained scientists in the medical, behavioral, social, or statistical/methodological sciences. Preference will be given to United States citizens and permanent residents employed at a research institution in the United States. Applicants will describe how their research will benefit from participation in the Summer Institute.

Additionally, ideal applicants will have:

• At least two years of postdoctoral research experience
• Some prior experience in behavioral intervention research, whether as a trainee, co-investigator, or principal investigator
• Previous or current funding from any source (e.g., start-up, internal pilot, career development award) for behavioral intervention research
• A behavioral invention trial to work on during the Summer Institute that would benefit from insights gained from the Summer Institute
• Well-described methods to incorporate diverse perspectives in their behavioral intervention trial

Reasonable Accommodations for Disabilities: Applicants who are accepted and require reasonable accommodations for disabilities to participate in this activity should contact Kelly Nee at [email protected] immediately upon acceptance.