The Alabama Life Research Institute (ALRI) is now accepting applications for the ALRI Faculty Research Fellowship. Fellows will collaborate on multiple research projects and develop new research and grant proposals focused on ALRI themes including, but not limited to, community development, rural health, and health disparities (broadly defined); housing conditions; and cognitive neuroscience/MRI.
All our work, but particularly our community development and rural health projects, focuses on collaborative and sustainable systems change, building families’ and individuals’ resilience and other protective factors, and supporting empowerment and well-being.
We are looking for inspired, motivated, and capable faculty to help conduct both applied research and basic science, including collecting, analyzing, and reporting on both quantitative and qualitative data, and using data to improve lives and outcomes for communities. There are opportunities to collect relevant data through interviews, focus groups, and other qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as to analyze existing publicly available datasets.
Examples of Ongoing ALRI Projects
- The West Alabama Cardiovascular Health Program is studying the high prevalence of heart disease, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and stroke in West Alabama.
- Studying the housing crisis in rural Alabama. We are collaborating with Safe State and the Alabama Department of Public Health on three Housing and Urban Development grants, allowing us to better understand housing conditions and their relationship to health, particularly asthma.
- Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, we are serving as a data collection site to provide an opportunity to leverage the HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study for additional local studies with pregnant people, infants, and toddlers.
- We are continuously developing projects focused on developing MRI data collection and analysis skills, utilizing our on-campus MRI research facility.
Expectations
- The Fellowship term is one academic year (August to July).
- Fellows may choose to spend their sabbatical embedded in ALRI developing MRI research skills and projects. Those exercising this option are expected to spend considerable time in the Institute and MRI research facility.
- Intentional collaboration with ALRI researchers, developing independent projects leading to publications.
- By the end of the Fellowship term (December), Fellows must develop and submit to a federal agency at least one grant proposal, for a minimum of $100,000.
Benefit
ALRI intends to select at least three Fellows each year. Fellows will receive up to $10,000 in course buy-out or summer salary (in compliance with University policies and procedures).
To Apply
Submit a copy of your CV and a brief letter describing:
- Your interest in joining ALRI as a Faculty Research Fellow and how participation will advance your program of research. (20 points)
- Your research experience and areas of interest and expertise you believe are relevant to at least one of the projects described above, and how you envision yourself contributing to expanding this work. Alternatively, describe a research project requiring your research experience and areas of interest and expertise you believe is a collaborative opportunity for ALRI in pursuit of its mission. (70 points)
- Your knowledge and experience related to rural Alabama communities, or similar communities, including lived/personal experience. (10 points)
Email CV and letter to Jamie Crawford at jamie.crawford@ua.edu by August 31. Review of materials will begin immediately, and Fellows notified by September 15.
Budget Notes
ALRI sources, not sponsored projects, provide funding for Fellows. For example, ALRI will not charge grant writing and administrative time spent building collaborations to grants or contracts.