Postdoctoral Fellows

UVA Faculty: Mentorship applications are currently closed. Applicants will be notified end of October.

The TYDE Grand Challenge invites proposals from faculty for post-doctoral fellows who would support a project related to TYDE’s focus on digital technology and youth (ages 11-25) mental health. TYDE aims to foster a collaborative, interdisciplinary community conducting cutting edge research about both the impact of digital technology on healthy and unhealthy youth development, and its potential to advance intervention and prevention solutions. Projects aligned with TYDE will advance understanding of the role of digital technologies in healthy development, and the ways that generation and dissemination of digital mental health programs can help address the youth mental health crisis.

The TYDE post-doctoral program will provide up to 2 years of funding for a post-doctoral researcher to work with a UVA faculty mentor on projects related to digital technology and youth mental health. The fellowship will include a 12-month salary ($60,000-$65,000 based on experience) and benefits for up to 2 years as well as professional development activities and programming for the post-doctoral fellows. Postdoctoral fellows funded by TYDE will be expected to participate in the TYDE community, including works-in-progress meetings, professional development workshops and trainings, and conferences/events.

Faculty whose proposals are accepted will be notified by November 1, 2025. Faculty who hire a postdoctoral fellow with TYDE funding will serve on the TYDE post-doctoral program committee for the two years that they are mentoring the post-doc. The post-doctoral program committee will help shape the post-doctoral program activities, support professional development events as relevant, review faculty proposals for post-docs, and review post-doctoral applications.

Faculty proposals (2-3 pages max.) should include the following:

1.) A description of the research the post-doc will undertake.

• • • • If the post-doctoral fellow is being proposed in conjunction with/to work on a TYDE seed grant proposal, please reference that proposal in this application.
      • Such post-doc proposals will only be considered for funding if the accompanying seed grant proposal is funded, unless there is a detailed alternative plan of work described for the post-doctoral fellow included in the post-doctoral proposal.

2.) An explanation of how the proposed research intersects with TYDE’s goals.

3.) A list of intended outcomes:

• • • • What will the post-doc add to goals/aims of the faculty member’s existing research agenda?
      • What will the TYDE training add to the career development of a post-doctoral researcher?

4.) An important part of the post-doctoral program is preparing the post-doctoral fellow to be successful on the job market. Therefore, each application must include a mentoring plan that describes what you will do to mentor your post-doc towards this end. A strong mentoring plan should include desired outcomes for post-doctoral fellows working with you, mentoring activities you will undertake with your post-doctoral fellow, and how your mentorship will support the post-doctoral in achieving their career goals.

• • • • The mentoring plan outlined in the proposal will form the basis for developing a document that will detail the expectations of mentoring activities/outcomes and serve as the annual report for the mentor-mentee pair.
      • Postdoctoral fellows affiliated with TYDE will receive interdisciplinary mentoring and professional development through the Grand Challenge, but individual faculty are also expected to have a clear mentoring plan for Postdoctoral fellows working on their projects to ensure discipline specific mentorship.

Proposals will be reviewed and evaluated based on the quality of the proposal in relation to each of the four areas noted above.

If you have questions, please reach out to Ashleigh Wade(aw4ve@virginia.edu) and Nancy Deutsch (nancyd@virginia.edu).