Program Description

Through National Research Service Awards (NRSA) funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Institute of Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, and the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley offer a joint advanced multidisciplinary training and education to outstanding economists, political scientists, sociologists, public policy and health professionals interested in health services research training. Training areas include health economics, financing of health services, public health policy, managed care, health workforce, and health insurance.

The goals of the training program are to:

• Equip scholars with the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience to conduct research that will meet the evolving needs of patients, providers, health care plans, purchasers, and/or policy-makers.
• Provide mentorship to help trainees select and conduct research topics in health services areas.

The program provides pre– and post–doctoral stipends and support for travel, as well as health insurance for the postdoctoral trainees. Awards allow selected trainees to gain 1 or more years of training and experience in applying research methods to the evaluation of health services.

Trainee Eligibility Requirements

Postdoctoral and midcareer fellowships are open to those with health professional degrees (MD, DDS, etc.) and those with a PhD in a disciplinary field or degree from a professional school, including economics, sociology, political science, public health, and public policy are eligible for the program. Those with clinical backgrounds should have completed residency training.

Trainees are required to pursue their research training on a full-time basis, devoting at least 40 hours per week to the program. Within the 40 hours per week training period, research trainees who are also training as clinicians must devote their time to the proposed research training and must confine clinical duties to those that are an integral part of the research training experience.

To be appointed to a training position supported by a NRSA research training grant, an individual must be a citizen or non-citizen national of the United States or must have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence, i.e., possess a currently valid Alien Registration Receipt Card I-551. Non-citizen national are generally persons born in outlying possessions of the United States (e.g., American Samoa). Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible.

Program Application

Individuals interested in applying to the Health Services Research Training Program can apply directly with the University of California, Berkeley office using the application below:

Health Services Research Training Program Application: Application closed for the 2009-2010 fellowship year.