Program Details
The Early Career Interdisciplinary Scholars Fellowship (ECISF) Program was established and organized by SRCD’s Interdisciplinary Committee with a mission to connect interdisciplinary and psychology/human development scholars, providing a forum in which scientists of various disciplines can share research and interdisciplinary scientific methods.
The program selects outstanding early career scholars whose degree is in a discipline outside of psychology or human development, with an interest that is clearly related to developmental psychology, and pairs them up with a mentor who is a senior developmental scientist. The selected fellows and their mentors will receive complimentary registration to attend the SRCD 2025 Biennial Meeting, professional development opportunities, and meet with the members of the Interdisciplinary Committee and other interdisciplinary scholars at a scheduled event held at the Biennial Meeting.
A comprehensive understanding of human development requires the perspectives and methods of multiple disciplines, such as psychology and human development, but also sociology, family studies, biology/neuroscience, education, pediatrics, psychiatry, social work, public health, economics, and anthropology. Emerging technologies and data analytic approaches also offer rich opportunities for advancing research on development through integration with approaches from computer science, engineering, and statistics. While all these disciplines offer a valuable perspective on development, research within these fields often remains compartmentalized and emerging scholars in these fields are not exposed to developmental methods and models. Similarly, scholars within child development often have few opportunities to engage with perspectives from other disciplines that might advance their own work. This results in lost opportunities for the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration that can lead to integrative and groundbreaking discoveries that will move the field forward.
The ECISF Program is designed to allow early scholars in relevant fields outside of psychology/human development to participate in the SRCD Biennial Meeting. This will provide fellows with exposure to developmental theory and research and provide them with opportunities to interact with and present their research to other researchers within the society. This bi-directional exchange is hoped to expedite the flow of ideas and generate novel interdisciplinary collaborations.
If selected for the program, fellows commit to:
- Participation in all Early Career Interdisciplinary Scholars Fellowship Program activities at the 2025 SRCD Biennial Meeting, including:
- Interdisciplinary Development Science Symposium in which fellows will briefly present their interdisciplinary research
- An individual meeting with mentors (with food and beverage stipends available)
- Participate in two virtual meetings with mentors - one preceding and one following the Biennial Meeting
Eligibility
For fellows:
- A terminal degree (e.g., Ph.D., M.D., J.D., or equivalent) in a field outside of psychology or human development and obtained within a maximum of five years from the Fellowship deadline.
- Applicants who have completed their doctoral degree on January 1, 2019, or later may be considered for the fellowship.
- Have not been granted tenure as a faculty member
- Must be pursuing an area of research that is related to human development and have a desire to:
- Obtain increased exposure to developmental theory, methods, and research findings,
- Develop or enrich collaborations with developmental scientists, and/or
- Disseminate relevant research from within their discipline to developmental scientists
Selected fellows and their mentors will receive complimentary registration to attend SRCD's Biennial Meeting.
Application Elements & Process
The submission deadline for this program's cycle has passed. Decision notifications will be sent out in early 2025.
The SRCD Interdisciplinary Committee Co-Chairs appoints a subcommittee of up to 3 additional members who, along with the co-chairs, review and rate all applications. The subcommittee holds a meeting to discuss the applications and makes the final selection of fellows. Applications are evaluated based on research originality, productivity, and potential as well as the committee’s assessment of how likely the applicant is to benefit from participating in the program and to contribute to advancing the interdisciplinary mission. Efforts are made to balance representation across different disciplines.
Following the final selection of fellows, the Interdisciplinary Committee will work together to identify appropriate mentors for each fellow. Ideally, mentors will be senior developmental scientists conducting research in an area that is complementary to that of the fellow, and who have experience and interest in conducting research that crosses disciplinary boundaries.
For inquiries, please contact the Interdisciplinary Committee Staff Liaison, Roman McNeil at rmcneil@srcd.org.