LRI Funding Opportunity Helps Early Career Scholars Publish
In 2023, the Latino Research Institute (LRI) launched a funding opportunity for early career scholars, Publication Support Initiative: Secondary Analysis of Childhood Obesity Data. This initiative aims to support early-career faculty committed to researching issues affecting Latino populations in the United States and who are affiliated with Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) in the UT System.
The LRI conducts health and social equity research and has a repository of data sets from completed studies. The LRI seeks proposals from early-career researchers to conduct secondary data analyses on the Health4Kids data set to investigate new research questions and publish results in an open access journal. Awardees will receive a $1,000 stipend, up to $3,000 for publication fees in an open access journal, and analytical and editorial consultation.
Health4Kids is an NIH-funded, randomized control trial that aimed to improve children’s body composition by evaluating a family-oriented intervention for Hispanic children with overweight or obesity in a pediatric setting in San Antonio, Texas. The project was active from 2013 to 2019 and collected data from 253 children and one of their caregivers.
“We want to encourage junior researchers to publish, not only by providing them with the data, but also by building a support network,” says Dr. Deborah Parra-Medina, the study’s Principal Investigator and former Director at the LRI. “At the same time, awardees would assist us in disseminating study findings, which could advance the development of new evidence-based programs and promote health equity among Latino populations."
In 2022, the LRI conducted a UT-HSI Early Career Scholars Program Needs Assessment to examine needs of faculty and barriers to promotion at the six HSIs in the UT System: El Paso, San Antonio, Austin, Arlington, Rio Grande Valley, and Permian Basin. This report set in motion the launch of several initiatives to support faculty at HSI institutions, including the Publication Support Initiative.
The Publication Support Initiative is an extension of the Institute’s continued efforts to provide career development opportunities to faculty. “Forty percent of faculty who responded to our needs assessment survey had not received any new research funds since they started working at their current campus,” Dr. Nelly Salgado de Snyder, LRI Distinguished Research Fellow, said. “We also found that junior faculty are eager to find alternative funding opportunities for publications, and this new initiative provides this, in addition to mentorship and technical support.”
The LRI’s Publication Support Initiative application deadline is June 3, 2024.
