Cette initiative est offerte uniquement en anglais.
Tips for Early Career Researchers (ECRs)
Establishing connections with a mentor can be daunting but it’s a very exciting part of doing research!
Learning how to reach out to others working in your field is an extremely useful career skill and the HBIC Award is a great opportunity to develop your skills. Here are some tips!
MENTOR SEARCH
- Fully research potential mentors. Whose work you are consistently reading? Who sparked your interest at a conference? Look online for their CVs and fields of expertise. Read their papers and look through their track record to see where your work overlaps. Look at content, methodology, settings, and intervention techniques. Don’t be too narrow in your thinking.
- Start with local contacts. Ask your current supervisors, team, and colleagues about any international contacts they have that might be good potential matches. Personal connections can facilitate introductions and be really helpful in opening doors.
- It’s okay to approach potential mentors without an introduction. If no one in your network has personal connections to offer you, it’s fine to approach them yourself. Senior researchers often receive cold calls and invitations. They were once an ECR too! Be brave, bold, and respectful… and see how it goes!
FIRST CONTACT
- Be clear on your areas of expertise and interest. Everyone is busy (especially potential mentors), so be friendly but most of all, be concise! List all your possible fields of interest and remember, just a small overlap with your mentor may be enough to spark a collaboration.
- Take the time to properly introduce yourself and the HBIC. Invest in writing a tailored message introducing yourself and your areas of expertise and include your CV. Briefly explain the award (share links to the HBIC webpage on the IBTN website), then clearly and directly ask if there they are interested in meeting to discuss applying for the award. Highlight the potential benefits of your project idea for you… but above all for them!
- If you feel uncomfortable reaching out yourself, draft the message for your supervisor to send on your behalf. It can sometimes be helpful if the introduction comes from a senior researcher. Remember to include links to your profile and the HBIC award webpage so that potential mentors can quickly establish your credentials and the credentials of the award.
FOLLOW UP
- Arrange a virtual meeting.
Once you have established their interest in applying for the award with you, propose a virtual meeting to help develop your application together.
- Make it easy for your mentor. Be very clear about what you need from your mentor for the application process. Whenever possible, suggest examples or drafts for their mentor support letter, but always check with your mentor first whether they would like your help to prepare their sections of the application.
Potential Mentors for the 2024 Competition
The following mentors who have indicated their interrest in collaborating with potential applicants for the 2023 competition. Please note that you are not restricted to this list. New mentors for the 2024 competition will be added as they present themselves.
Amanda Lea Rebar
Central Queensland University
Research interests
- Habit, motivation, behaviour change and maintenance, physical activity, exercise, health psychology, ecological momentary assessment, time series analyses
Andre Faro
Federal University of Sergipe
Research interests
- Health Psychology; Anxiety; Depression; Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Behavior; Suicidal Behavior; Covid-19; Psychometrics; Multivariate Analysis
Angela Rodrigues
Northumbria University, UK
Research interests
- Behaviour change; intervention development and evaluation; health-related behaviours; brief interventions, diabetes prevention, smoking cessation, weight management, physical activity, digital health, skin cancer prevention/sun protection
Annie Ginty
Baylor University
Research interests
- Stress; Psychophysiology; Cardiovascular reactivity; Adverse Childhood Experiences
Ashraf Kagee
Stellenbosch University
Research interests:
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- Adherence to antiretroviral therapy
- Common mental disorders among persons living with HIV
- Stress and trauma
- Health behaviours; structural barriers to health promotion
- Various topics related to health psychology and public mental health
Claudio R Nigg
Dept. of Health Science, Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern, Switzerland
Research interests
- Physical activity & health behavior change theory
- Obesity prevention in children & adolescents
- Physical activity promotion among seniors
- Dissemination of evidence-based clinical & community-based interventions
- Multiple Health Behavior Change
Eli Puterman
University of British Columbia
Research interests
- Exercise interventions
- Randomized trials
- Hard-to-reach communities
- Highly stressed populations
- Ambulatory assessments
- Ecological momentary assessments
- Mental health
Jens Blechert
Universität Salzburg
Research interests
- Ecological momentary assessment of eating behavior
- physical activity
- body image
- mHealth
- Emotional eating
- stress eating
- self-regulation
Marta Marques
National School of Public health, NOVA University of Lisbon
Research interests
- Development and testing of ontologies and other classifications of behaviour change interventions, e.g. tailoring of behaviour change interventions; Multiple health behaviour change theories and interventions
Michele Okun
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Research interests
- perinatal sleep
- pregnancy and delivery outcomes
- postpartum mood disorders
- infant sleep
- inflammation and cortisol
Mustafa al’Absi
University of Minnesota
Research interests
- Goal regulation, self-determination theory, motivation, behavior change, physical activity, sport, schools
Nikos Ntoumanis
University of Southern Denmark
Research interests
- Stress and trauma
- Substance use and addiction
- Psychobiological mechanisms
- Global mental health
Sam Smith
University of Leeds
Research interests
- Preconception health and behaviour
- Physical activity before, during and after pregnancy
- Infant feeding and mental health
Samuele Zilioli
Wayne State University
Research interests
- Racial and SES health disparities
- Psychosocial factors contributing to CVD risk
- Psychosocial factors contributing to Asthma symptoms
Sinead Currie
University of Stirling
Research interests
- Cancer prevention and control
- Intervention optimisation and multiphase optimisation strategy
- Medication adherence
- Cancer in high risk populations
- Weight management
- Physical activity
- Trial methodology
- Cancer screening participation
Suzanne Segerstrom
Oregon State University
Research interests
- Interactions among psychological, cognitive, and immunological health in older adults
- Methodology and statistics, especially longitudinal designs, in PNI and PNE
- Psychosocial health in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Tamara Newton
University of Louisville
Research interests
- Stress, psychological trauma, intimate partner abuse, emotion
Thais Sao Joao
University of Rhode island
Research interests
- Behavior, Nursing, Research, Self-Care, Adaptation and validation of measurement instruments, Cardiometabolic Health, Care process in chronic noncommunicable diseases