TRANSLATES: TRanslational Auditory NeuroScience: LAb-based Training for Empowered Self-efficacy - : Enter the text here that is the new abstract information for your application. This section must be no longer than 30 lines of text. Hearing-related disorders have a profound impact on individuals’ social-emotional-cognitive well-being and overall quality of life across the lifespan. Audiologists are health care professionals who are part of the biomedical workforce, providing patient-centric care related to screening, assessing, and treating individuals with hearing and other related impairments, with the Doctor of Audiology (AuD) being the entry-level professional degree for an audiologist. AuD programs focus on training next-generation audiologists in clinical education focused on evidence-based approaches to hearing healthcare. Yet, there is a need to train clinicians as scientists to better understand the mechanistic bases of listening in complex environments and drive the next generation of interventional and therapeutic approaches. TRANSLATES TRanslational Auditory NeuroScience: LAb-based Training for Empowered Self-efficacy in audiology doctoral students aims to bridge this gap by providing 25 AuD students (5 per cohort over 5 years) at the University of Pittsburgh with hands-on, individualized, immersive research experiences in National Institutes of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)-funded research labs. TRANSLATES aims to improve research self-efficacy (RSE) - self- belief in the ability to conduct high-quality research — and provide research experiences in NIDCD-funded labs to increase competitiveness in the biomedical research workforce. Participants will engage in a mentor- scaffolded summer research bootcamp (Accelerated-Behavioral Learning Experience, or ABLE) that includes a self-contained research project, additional didactic training on key domains contributing to RSE, and a two-day symposium that provides opportunities to interact with role models such as invited clinician-scientists and previous cohorts. RSE measures will be collected before and after ABLE, and an individual development plan will be implemented based on the strengths and weaknesses identified by the self-efficacy measures. After completing ABLE, each student will be matched with a program faculty member and conduct immersive, hands-on research projects in NIDCD-funded research labs over two semesters, culminating in a department- wide poster presentation and dissemination of data through national and international conferences and peer- reviewed publications. Participants will receive stipend and tuition support. TRANSLATES participants, program, and mentors will be continuously monitored for quality using standardized measures and feedback from a Stakeholder Advisory Panel. The long-term objective of TRANSLATES is to increase the participation of AuD clinicians in the biomedical workforce and contribute to the training of personnel who are well poised to bring their disciplinary knowledge and skills to multi-disciplinary biomedical research teams.
