Subproject for Multidisciplinary Training Program in Digital Mental Health

This application proposes to establish an innovative, multi-disciplinary postdoctoral research training program focused on mental health and technology across the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the School of Communication, and the McCormick School of Engineering. The long-term goal of this program is to develop the field of digital mental health by providing the first NIMH-supported postdoctoral training program that integrates mental health (psychology, psychiatry, and behavioral science), engineering and design (human computer interaction, user experience, human factors), and computer science, aimed at producing successful, independent investigators who will become leaders in the emerging field of digital mental health. This program will recruit a mix of fellows in behavioral science, engineering and design, and computer science. Each trainee will be co-mentored by a mental health scientist and a computer scientist or engineer. The program will create an individual development plan (IDP) for each trainee and provide regular oversight by the co-mentorship team. Research experiences will be complemented by a weekly seminar, professional development activities, coursework or other didactic experiences to cover basic knowledge and skills in the domain that the trainee is learning (e.g. behavioral science for engineers, design methods for mental health specialists), as well as the access to a vast array of educational resources made available by the University for all postdoctoral trainees, including training in human subjects, grant writing workshops, and other resources dedicated to career development. Our ## (25ish?) participating mentors and advisors are leaders in their respective fields and are collectively funded by grants totaling $$ million annually. The group includes ## PhDs and ## MDs from ## departments. Given the prominence of faculty, we expect to have a large pool of trainees, from which to choose, resulting in 2 fellows admitted the first year, and 3 in the following years, to reach a steady state of 6. The program will be evaluated and receive periodic feedback from a Steering Committee and Internal Advisory Committee. This program will be the first in the nation to jointly train mental health and technology specialists, and will serve as a model for the emerging field of digital mental health.