Mark D. Hayward, Director
110 Inner Campus Drive Stop G1800 78712-1699 • 512-471-5514
NICHD Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award - Pre-doctoral Traineeship 2012-2013
Current graduate students who are Population Research Center trainees and are U.S. citizens or permanent residents are eligible to apply for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) traineeship in population studies.
What is an NICHD traineeship?
An NICHD traineeship in population studies is a prestigious fellowship that allows graduate students to focus intensively on population-related training and research in preparation for a career in population research. The fellowship is a 12-month award. These awards are renewable for up to 36 months.
What are the benefits of an NICHD traineeship?
An NICHD traineeship in population studies is a prestigious fellowship that allows graduate students to focus intensively on population-related training and research in preparation for a career in population research. The fellowship is a 12-month award. These awards are renewable for up to 36 months.
What are the benefits of an NICHD traineeship?
NICHD trainees receive a monthly stipend of $1,800. In addition, the UT Office of Graduate Studies provides an annual supplement of $1,000 per trainee. Thus, the award will pay $22,600 for the forthcoming calendar year, with the dates to be 6/1/12-5/31/13. The award also provides payment of tuition (9hrs fall & spring and 3hrs for summer) and fees and basic insurance coverage through the student health insurance policy offered by The University of Texas Student Health Center. You will be assigned office space and a computer in the PRC. The traineeship also provides funds to attend the annual meeting of the Population Association of America (PAA), which is usually held in April or May each spring.
Trainees are assigned as research apprentices to one of the Population Research Center faculty to collaborate on a research project, with the expectation that you work a minimum of 10 hours a week on the project. This is an invaluable part of the traineeship experience and often results in meeting presentations, co-authored publications, and even sole-authored publications. Perhaps most importantly, a traineeship frees graduate students from other work obligations, such as teaching assistantships or outside employment. As a result, a traineeship provides the valuable time that is necessary to excel at the highest level in graduate school.
NICHD traineeships are recognized around the country as the leading source of graduate student support for students who are serious about moving on to population-related careers in research oriented academic or non-academic positions (e.g., the Urban Institute, the Population Council, the Rand Corporation, the United Nations, the Census Bureau, etc.).
What are the requirements for an NICHD trainee?
We expect our trainees to be highly motivated students who will aggressively pursue their studies at UT and a career in population studies, broadly defined. Specific requirements of NICHD trainees are as follows:
Trainees are assigned as research apprentices to one of the Population Research Center faculty to collaborate on a research project, with the expectation that you work a minimum of 10 hours a week on the project. This is an invaluable part of the traineeship experience and often results in meeting presentations, co-authored publications, and even sole-authored publications. Perhaps most importantly, a traineeship frees graduate students from other work obligations, such as teaching assistantships or outside employment. As a result, a traineeship provides the valuable time that is necessary to excel at the highest level in graduate school.
NICHD traineeships are recognized around the country as the leading source of graduate student support for students who are serious about moving on to population-related careers in research oriented academic or non-academic positions (e.g., the Urban Institute, the Population Council, the Rand Corporation, the United Nations, the Census Bureau, etc.).
What are the requirements for an NICHD trainee?
We expect our trainees to be highly motivated students who will aggressively pursue their studies at UT and a career in population studies, broadly defined. Specific requirements of NICHD trainees are as follows:
1) Trainees will be in residence at UT throughout the year, working as an active graduate student researcher in the Population Research Center, and working 10+ hours a week with your assigned faculty mentor on a funded research project.
2) Trainees will have taken, or will take, the two core population courses offered by the Department of Sociology: 1) General Approaches to the Study of Population; 2) Demographic Techniques (both are offered each spring semester).
3) Trainees will enroll in the Population Studies Training Seminar (Friday mornings) on a pass/fail basis during either the first or second semester of your fellowship, and are required to attend the regular PRC Friday brown bag talk throughout the academic year.
4) Trainees' work needs to be population oriented - meaning that the research work of trainees will have a concern with population processes and/or their causes and consequences (e.g., topics that include fertility and family processes; health, aging and mortality; children and youth; immigration, migration, and urbanization, etc.). We expect trainees to submit their research for presentation at the annual PAA meeting.
5) Finally, trainees are expected to pursue a career in population research, with most students usually moving on to the academic, policy, or governmental sectors. NICHD expects that students move on to population-related research careers and, in the most extreme cases, expects re-payment of the award if this expectation is not met.
Outside (of UT) employment while on a traineeship is prohibited. Within UT, additional limited employment may be allowed, but is not recommended and must be approved by the PRC Graduate Training Director. Indeed, one of the key features of a traineeship is the time that it allows trainees to devote to research and not to other employment.
How do you apply?
To apply to become an NICHD trainee, please submit the following:
Your application materials should be submitted electronically to: training@prc.utexas.edu
1) a current CV
2) a statement, of no more than 2 single-spaced pages, that addresses the following:
* your population-related coursework or coursework plans
* your accomplishments over the last year (including presentations, publications, awards, grant and fellowship submissions, working papers, etc…)
* your research agenda - a short description of what you're focusing on in graduate school
* your career plans, as specifically as possible
3) a writing sample
4) one letter of recommendation from a current faculty member
Your application materials should be submitted electronically to: training@prc.utexas.edu
If you have additional questions, please contact Karen Rascon, Program Coordinator, Population Research Center.
