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    Mentoring in Research

    Psychiatry Research Careers

    Careers in Psychiatry integrating research are far-ranging spanning translational neuroscience to clinical trials focusing on medications, psychotherapies, neurostimulation or complementary and integrative approaches, to research on clinical phenotyping and biomarkers, to studies with a health services and/or health equity focus.

    Multiple “on ramps” exist for fulfilling careers in research. Psychiatrists enter research at different stages in their career. Some psychiatrists will have pursued MD PhDs or other formal research training before residency, others participate in research concentrations or tracks in their residency programs, pursue post-doctoral research fellowships after residency, or are driven by clinically meaningful questions to pursue research at later stages in their careers.

    The proportion of time devoted to research also varies widely across individuals and across the span of individual careers. Some psychiatrist researchers are full or near full-time investigators with independent funding through federal grants (e.g., NIH, SAMHSA, HRSA, or DoD)) and foundation funding (e.g., Brain and Behavioral Research Foundation or American Foundation for Suicide Prevention). Other psychiatrists pursue research as a part-time funded or unfunded endeavor alongside other activities including direct patient care, administration, and teaching. For many psychiatrists, the proportion of time devoted to research changes over time related to evolving interests, funding opportunities and roles.

    Psychiatry Mentorship in Research

    The kind of mentor and mentorship most valuable for psychiatrists interested in research careers will naturally depend in part on their areas of interest, such as research on the neurobiology of addiction or multicultural mental health, as well as on their career goals, such as the aspiration to become a full-time, tenure track independent researcher or the desire to pursue research in a more limited way together with other clinical, teaching and leadership responsibilities. In some cases, there may be suitable mentors within one’s own institution, particularly in larger departments of Psychiatry. In many cases, suitable mentors can be identified outside of one’s department or institution including through opportunities made possible by the organizations listed below.

    • Co-Mentorship: because mentors within one’s own department may have greater knowledge about institutional resources than outside mentors even if they may not have content expertise in the mentee’s particular areas of interest, one approach is the model of having a team with an internal mentor, with institutional knowledge, and an external co-mentor, with content expertise.
    • Medical center research resources: many medical centers offer valuable training opportunities on the broad foundational aspects of research such as workshops or courses on working with the IRB, statistics, database management, study design, preparing manuscripts, identifying funding opportunities, and writing grants. Medical centers that have an NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) often have particularly robust resources as well as internal funding for early career investigators.

    Beyond institutional and organizational resources, psychiatrists seeking research mentors should consider reaching out to researchers in other departments at their center or to psychiatric researchers at other institutions. Many researchers understand the value of mentorship and the importance of enriching the pipeline of physician scientists in psychiatry and are happy to be contacted at conferences or by email. Any psychiatrist who lacks local mentorship should consider contacting other potential mentors whose publications or talks they admire or whose mentorship has been appreciated by other colleagues.

    The resources below include formal mentorship and networking opportunities offered through major national organizations as well several mentoring guides and assessments.

    Research Mentorship Opportunities

    Additional Resources for Research Mentors and Mentees

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