# From Biological to Social Processes: Interdisciplinary Training in Life Course Research

> **NIH NIH T32** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2021 · $446,972

## Abstract

Title: From Biological to Social Processes: Interdisciplinary Training in Life Course Research
The poor overall health status of the US population in comparison with our high-income peers and the
staggering gaps in key measures of health and well-being by socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity across
the life course highlight the urgency at which we must address the factors and mechanisms that lead to poor
health outcomes. At the same time, it has become ever more apparent that the scientific paradigms and
research approaches of today have not effectively addressed the complex constellation of factors that
fundamentally influence US health and well-being from birth through adulthood. For these reasons, the
National Institutes of Health has called for novel integrative research, from cells to society, to better address
the web of factors that cause persistent health inequalities and result in relatively poor overall levels of health
in society. Nonetheless, there is a major gap in interdisciplinary training in US universities, partly because of
disciplinary silos, lack of initiative, and historical distinctions on campuses. We propose an innovative training
program that will produce highly trained interdisciplinary pre- and post-doctoral trainees entering from either
the social sciences or biological/health sciences who will be able to conduct integrative work across these
areas that will address some of the country's most pressing health problems. With training focused on gaining
knowledge from a new area of study, enhancing interdisciplinary interactions and exchange, and integrative
research production, we envision that these pioneering trainees will be more likely to develop into creative and
flexible scientists whom are able to develop new research pathways and create the innovative unifying
frameworks that arise from crossing disciplinary boundaries. To enhance training experiences, multidisciplinary
exchange, and ultimately integration of biological/health and social approaches, we seek support for eight pre-
doctoral trainees (four from the biological/health sciences and four from the social sciences annually) and two
post-doctoral trainees (one from each of the social and biological/health sciences). With substantial guidance
from the program directors and their cross-disciplinary mentors, trainees will develop individually tailored
training tracks in either the social sciences or biological/health sciences, with the track tailored to prior
disciplinary training and each trainee's research interests. Social science students and post-docs will develop a
biological/health sciences gap training track in one of three areas: 1) genetics; 2) cardiovascular and
metabolic; 3) immunology, infections, and microbiome), while biological/health science students and post-docs
will develop a social science gap training track in one of three areas: 1) social inequality; 2) socio-spatial
organization and processes; 3) age-period-cohort. With this program...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10155534
- **Project number:** 5T32HD091058-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Allison E Aiello
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $446,972
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-21 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10155534

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10155534, From Biological to Social Processes: Interdisciplinary Training in Life Course Research (5T32HD091058-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10155534. Licensed CC0.

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