CUSSW Hosts 2012 NIH Summer Institute on Social and Behavioral Intervention Research

Beginning on July 9, 2012, the Columbia University School of Social Work (CUSSW) will be hosting a week-long summer institute under the auspices of the National Institutes for Health (NIH) addressing the issues involved in planning and carrying out research on the impact of behavioral and social interventions on health outcomes, health behavior, and treatment.  Such interventions are relevant to NIH public health goals of preventing morbidity and mortality and promoting health and well-being for persons with medical and behavioral disorders and conditions.

The NIH’s summer institutes on social work research are open to junior investigators who have completed their doctorate and plan to develop NIH grant applications for conducting further research in the social work field. The NIH received 139 applications for this year’s Institute, of which 34 were accepted.

Five Institutes will participate in the conference: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), along with Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR).

“At this year’s event, up-and-coming social work practitioners and related professionals will be exposed to the ideas of well-renowned researchers in the social and behavioral prevention field, and in that way, we hope they will be better prepared for conducting NIH-funded research,” said Allen Zweben, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research and Summer Institute Chair. He added that several CUSSW faculty—Nabila El-Bassel, Steven Schinke, and Katherine Shear—will be participating.

Significantly, the NIH Summer Institute will be hosted by CUSSW for the first time, at its headquarters in New York City. The location of CUSSW is one of the elements that has attracted so many NIH sponsors.

For more information on the 2012 NIH Summer Institute on Social and Behavioral Intervention Research, including the agenda, go to: http://conferences.thehillgroup.com/obssrinstitutes/si2012/index.html.