Research Scholars

The SCRA Research Council is delighted to announce the application period for the 2024 SCRA Research Scholars Program.

1. The application period begins on March 14, 2024 and continues through Wednesday April 24, 2024.
2. A primary goal of the SCRA Scholars Program is to advance the research careers of untenured community psychologists to help them successfully obtain tenure. Ultimately, through the Research Scholar Program, the SCRA Research Council seeks to enhance the intellectual contributions of promising community psychology scholars and increase the number of articles authored by community psychologists in community psychology journals.
3. Untenured faculty who may apply for the program include, but are not limited to, community, community clinical, community social, community organizational, community health, and community developmental psychologists.
a. SCRA members who are tenure-track faculty in community psychology graduate programs, other graduate programs in psychology that include community psychology, or other graduate programs or schools in public health, social work, education, public policy, applied health sciences, or psychiatry that include community psychology are eligible to apply for a SCRA Research Scholar appointment.
b. Priority is given to untenured faculty in doctoral programs in or including community psychology as these faculty will be mentoring those most likely to become community psychology faculty.
4. For 2024, the Research Council will have up to 5 funded Research Scholar appointments.
a. In line with the SCRA Executive Committee’s commitment to uprooting white supremacy, we encourage Black and other BIPOC scholars and scholars dedicated to justice, diversity, equity, inclusion and access to apply. Two scholar appointments are designated for BIPOC scholars with a priority for Black scholars. Other appointments are open to all SCRA members including BIPOC scholars who qualify as noted in this announcement.
b. If there are more than 5 highly qualified applicants, the Research Council may consider awarding unfunded Research Scholar appointments that include Research Mentoring and Peer Support

The SCRA Research Scholar Program includes three major elements- mentoring, peer support and funding:

1. Scholars will have a senior community psychology researcher mentor them on their research plan, progress and related matters for the duration of the Scholarship. Mentors are expected to have research interests that complement those of the Scholars and a commitment to facilitating others’ professional development. Successful mentors for SCRA Research Scholars are community psychologists who can demonstrate a robust research career by having published articles in high quality journals and successfully obtained external funding for their investigations. They are often SCRA Fellows and have some experience mentoring junior faculty.
2. Scholars engage in mutual support which usually takes the form of regular (e.g., weekly) cohort calls for writing, discussion of professional development topics of shared interest and/or expert speakers.
3. SCRA Research Scholars may receive up to $5,000 for research expenses over the time they are Research Scholars, i.e., one or two years. Funding can be used for research and professional development expenses and will become available once Scholars have selected a mentor and developed an approved working budget and professional development plan.

SCRA members who meet the criteria for application are strongly encouraged to apply. Each applicant must submit:

● A completed SCRA Research Scholar Application Form
● A Research Proposal. The Research Scholar Proposal should be no more than 4 pages single spaced in 12-point font. In this proposal, the applicant must clearly identify:
o the need for mentoring, cohort support and research funding;
o the research activities- studies and professional development- to be undertaken during the program period;
o specific budgeted costs including a brief budget justification describing how the funds will be used in service of the research and/or professional development of the candidate. See the SCRA website for policy regarding spending: https://scra27.org/members1/reimbursement-form/
o the time commitments and community-engaged research involved.
● A current Curriculum Vita including funding attempts, manuscripts in the pipeline, courses taught, relevant service to the field and to the community, and conference presentations in addition to the usual items.
● The names and contact information of three references who can speak to the applicant’s research ability and potential to make meaningful scientific contributions to community psychology.
● Three exemplars that illustrate the applicant’s best scientific work in community psychology and related areas of scholarship. Publications may be published peer-reviewed manuscripts, chapters, or other public or field-facing accounts that exemplify the applicant’s best scholarship.

Tips for a successful proposal: In a successful proposal, applicants will:

1. Offer a persuasive rationale that their need for mentoring, cohort support and research funding will be addressed effectively through the Research Scholar appointment.
a. We recognize that applicants may have different needs around mentoring, and may have different goals for how mentorship can support their professional journeys. We encourage applicants to describe what forms of mentoring, around what areas of professional development (e.g., publications, research team building, teaching, service, funding, etc.), and at what levels of intensity might best serve them. Scholars may choose to nurture relationships with existing mentors and/or explore new mentoring relationships with the support of the Research Council.
2. In addition to and separate from the need for mentoring, we encourage a description of specific ways in which support from peer scholars (i.e., cohort support) can benefit applicants. What professional goals will cohort support help the applicant achieve? The rationale will also present a compelling case that conveys how activities, specific budget items and time commitments are appropriate for: (1) developing particular kinds of expertise the applicant seeks and (2) enhancing the applicant’s community psychology research program in a way that will increase the applicant’s likelihood of obtaining tenure.
3. More generally, the successful proposal will succinctly speak to how the applicant’s research career will make a scientific contribution to the field of community psychology.

Overall, we encourage applicants to make the contributions of their scholarship explicit and, to the degree that it is relevant, make it clear how your research advances justice, diversity, equity, inclusion and access

Selection Process and Considerations

The applications will be reviewed by the SCRA Research Council. Considerations for selecting Scholars fall into two categories: applicant qualities, and Scholar plans and benefits.
Applicant Qualities: What qualities does the applicant bring to the Research Scholar role? These qualities may include:
● Untenured faculty member on the tenure track with community psychology research interests in a currently functioning community psychology graduate program or a graduate program that includes community psychology at an institution of higher education. Faculty in doctoral programs will be given preference.
● Research program and record to date
● Work in the research pipeline and future promise for making a scientific contribution to the field
● SCRA membership and SCRA involvements
● Performance on grants and other research support
● Contribution to diversity including but not limited to BIPOC identity, gender, sexual orientation, and disability

Research Scholar Plans and Benefits: What are the applicant’s plans for the term of the Scholar appointment and what benefits will the Scholar appointment offer the applicant? These considerations include:
● Overall goals for the Research Scholar during their appointment
● Methods of seeking those goals
● Mentoring relationship envisioned including mentor strengths, mentoring activities, expertise mentee seeks to acquire from mentoring, and the nature and frequency of mentoring interactions for two active people. What could be barriers to effective mentoring (e.g., distance and busy schedules) and how might they be overcome?
● Mentors: Applicants may know one or more mentors whom they think will be very appropriate and, if so, can mention them in their application. Alternatively, the applicant may know the kind of strengths sought but not specific people. In the latter instance, the Research Council will help anyone once selected as a Research Scholar obtain an appropriate mentor. The Research Council will prioritize being tenured faculty, a Fellow of SCRA due to research contributions and other signs of a robust research career in community psychology in selecting experienced, talented research mentors.
● Research Funding: The applicant should include a proposed budget for the amount of the Scholar award that states the specific items to which the funds will be allocated and how such expenditures will enable the applicant to achieve their goals for the Scholar appointment.
● Benefits anticipated from the funding, the mentoring and the peer support dimensions of the Research Scholar appointment for the applicant’s research career, especially being promoted and obtaining tenure.

The Research Council reserves the option of offering fewer Research Scholar appointments if the funding is less than anticipated and/or if the applicant pool does not yield appropriate candidates. On the other hand, we may offer more unfunded, mentored Research Scholar appointments with cohort support if the applicant pool yields many very talented candidates.
The application deadline for all materials is Wednesday April 24nd, 2024. All application materials should be submitted to: researchscholars@scra27.org . Questions regarding the SCRA Research Scholars Program may be addressed to Chris Keys at ckeys@depaul.edu. Presently, we anticipate that Scholar applicants will be informed of the selection decisions on or before June 15, 2024 and that Scholar appointments may begin starting July 1, 2024.