Call for Applications – Translational Health Data Science Fellowship Program 2022-2023

Supported by CITRIS, CTSC and Department of Public Health Sciences in Collaboration with DataLab

Objective: The Translational Health Data Science Fellowship Program seeks to support advanced masters and doctoral graduate students in developing mentored research in health data science. The fellowships have a goal of providing students with the opportunity to lead mentored research that advances their graduate progress. Outcomes could include student thesis or dissertations, publications, software or data sets.

The program is open to interdisciplinary fields including but not limited to: computer science, electrical and computer engineering, communications, bioengineering, informatics, public health and environmental science, but all must have a clear and specific focus on applied human health data science.

Responsive areas of student-led applications include but are not limited to areas including:

• Adaptation of ML/NLP methodology and workflows to complex heterogeneous health data sets
• Design and evaluation of usability and user interaction technology in health environments
• Assessing adaptation of voice recognition and natural speech translation to different health communities (such as children, dementia patients, non-English)
• Piloting approaches to security and access to protected health data
• Cohort characterization and digital phenotyping in clinical or public health data 
• Translational bioinformatics and human health data modeling

Examples of projects that would not be responsive include: 

• Development of theoretical models only
• Clinical trials of any form
• Commercial products
• Any having no direct contact with human or public health

Eligibility: Master’s and PhD graduate students in good standing at UC Davis or UC Berkeley, who are in good standing and will not graduate earlier than Summer 2023. No faculty support allowed.

Funding: We anticipate funding up to 5 fellows. The funding can be used to offset costs of tuition or living expenses, up to a maximum of $25,000. All fellowships will require a budget justification for expected use of resources (see template).

Key Dates

• Invitation for applications July 6, 2022
• Application due date August 5, 2022
• Awards announced prior to the start of Fall 2022
• Appointment period: 2022/23 Academic Year (Fall, Winter, Spring)
• Public symposium in June 2023

Proposal requirements

• 2 page structured project proposal (see templates below)
  • Problem statement
  • Background and current state
  • Approach
  • Expected products 
  • Timeline
• Biosketch in 2-page NIH format (see template) 
• LOS from two faculty specific to proposal (see template)
  • Required from UCD Health faculty (SON/SOM/SVM)
  • Required from UCD faculty (or UCD Health as well)
  • One required to also be from within the students home graduate program
• Funding support statement from current/future advisor (see template)
• Budget and budget justification (see template)

Fellowship expectations

• All fellows will be expected to provide a plan developed by their advisors that describes their at least monthly meeting schedule.
• All fellows will be expected to meet at least monthly with faculty mentors and provide quarterly reports on project status to the fellowship program.
• All fellows will be expected to participate in a public symposia of research to be held in Summer 2023. 

Application Process

All applications should be emailed as a single package addressed to “Translational Data Science Fellowship Application” to: datalab@ucdavis.edu

Templates and FAQ

Templates for required documents are available here.

FAQ on the application process and expectations are available here.