NRT: Team Science for Integrated Biomedical Engineering and Social Science Training (BEST)

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death nationwide. Unequal care and access to care for cardiovascular disease is a critical national problem. Innovative engineering approaches, culturally acceptable wearable devices, and technology-enabled data mining have unrealized promise in both advancing care and improving access and equity.

To take advantage of these approaches and technologies, workforce training must be reconsidered and redesigned. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) Integrated Biomedical Engineering Social Science Training (BEST) award engages faculty and students at the University of California Irvine in a new graduate education model that brings together biomedical engineers, behavioral scientists, and psychological scientists to develop a next generation workforce able to solve problems at the intersection of cardiovascular health, technology, and equity.

Through interdisciplinary workshops, courses, and a summer research internship, trainees will learn to recognize, develop, and use technological solutions to increase access to and equity in cardiovascular health and healthcare. The program will serve 30-40 students from the departments of biomedical engineering, health, society, and behavior, and psychological sciences with two years of funding provided to 15 doctoral students.

The convergent training in biomedical engineering and social sciences, and engagement with community and industry partners will prepare the trainees for careers in which they transform practices in industry, government, and academia.

Trainees will receive interdisciplinary training in social determinants of health, engineering design, and best practices in collaboration and scientific mentoring. Moreover, training will include a unique immersive research internship in a community care center to ensure that those most affected by lack of access and inequities are engaged in finding solutions.

The research theme of using technology to advance cardiovascular health, healthcare, and healthcare access and equity will serve as the basis for meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration. The workforce trained through this NRT program will be able to use new and existing technologies to understand the root causes of cardiovascular health disparities, develop tools and systems that improve cardiovascular health and healthcare, and study the individual, local, and national barriers to acceptance of novel technologies for improved cardiovascular health and healthcare.

The program will introduce trainees to the science of team science and will provide team science skill training at multiple stages of each trainee’s participation in the program to support continued development of team-based approaches to problem solving. The project outcomes will be a demonstrated, well evaluated model for transformative graduate training that is effective in developing trainees with the knowledge, skills, and values to collaboratively solve health inequities with technology.

Finally, a science of collaboration study conducted throughout the NRT project will explore the dynamics and efficacy of strategies designed to promote interdisciplinary collaboration by faculty and trainees in this program.

The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.