Abstract
Early career training is an essential component of building the future of dissemination and implementation (D&I) science. The United States National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31) award offers a mechanism for doctoral students to acquire specialized D&I training and mentorship, to pursue independent research in D&I science, and to receive financial support for their graduate studies. Due to scarce resources on preparing early career grant proposals focused on D&I science, this commentary offers guidance to doctoral students on developing a successful application for a specific type of early career proposal - the NIH F31 mechanism. We offer strategies for the research and training components based on themes identified across six funded F31 grant applications and on our experiences in the application process (grants funded from 2019-2020). We are from diverse fields (clinical psychology, school psychology, public health, and epidemiology) with varied research foci (global health, mental health, and infectious diseases). Applications were funded on both the F31 and F31-Diversity mechanisms. Funded F31 research projects included dissemination strategies, treatment adaptions, piloting new methods, and pre-implementation inquiry. Common training goals included developing content expertise in D&I science, understanding specific D&I science methodologies, learning strategies for working with community partners, and enhancing knowledge of analytic methods. D&I training activities included journal clubs, meeting with consultants, attending D&I science trainings, and attending conferences. Mentored research training is essential for learning D&I science methods and developing research-practice partnerships as students.