Policy, Place, Population Health, and Aging (P3HA) Training Program

About This Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Policy, Place, Population Health, and Aging (P3HA) Training Program, housed within the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University (SU), aims to train outstanding predoctoral scholars to lead the next generation of high-impact population health science on how policies and place-level factors across the life course shape the health, longevity, and wellbeing of U.S. midlife and older adults. The urgent need for this program is reflected in the troubling trends of declining health and longevity and large and growing geographic differences in health and longevity among U.S. midlife and older adults, which is a NIA priority area for research. The P3HA program will train emerging scholars from four social science disciplines (economics, human development and family science, public administration, and sociology) to master the multidisciplinary frameworks, quantitative data, and advanced methods necessary to identify and explain how policies and place- level environments influence health and aging and the skills to translate their findings to policymakers and the public to inform strategies for change. We request NIA support for 10 predoctoral scholars for three years each. The Maxwell School will contribute matching funds that will guarantee five years of support for all T32 trainees. Trainees will combine the specific doctoral requirements of their disciplines with additional specialized P3HA training delivered through mentored research apprenticeships, substantive and advanced methods coursework, a multidisciplinary lab, professional development, and networking. Trainees will benefit from one-one-one, group, and peer mentoring. The P3HA program leverages the Maxwell School’s strengths in research and training in public policy. The program draws on a multidisciplinary set of 30 faculty mentors who have well-funded research programs and who lead the science on the roles of policies and places on health and aging; have substantial expertise in a range of causal, longitudinal, and contextual data and methods; are leaders in research translation to policy and public audiences; and have successful records of mentorship, including that 94% of their completed predoctoral trainees over the past decade went on to research careers. Trainees will also benefit from the robust research and training environments of four multidisciplinary research centers that regularly offer research seminars, data and methods workshops, professional development, and networking across disciplines. The P3HA program will be a powerful force for curricular coordination and multidisciplinary training at SU that will expand the biomedical research workforce pool to include social and population health scientists with expertise in the frameworks, data, and methods necessary to identify and explain the complex roles of policies and places on health and aging. Through T32 activities and resources and additional resources provided by the Maxwell School and the participating departments and centers, we expect trainees will become leaders in the health science workforce whose translational research will transform scientific debates and reshape policy and place-based approaches to addressing increasing morbidity and mortality among U.S. midlife and older adults.