The ATS Health Equity and Diversity Committee hosted a Q&A Session for the 2024 Health Equity Fellowship on Thursday, February 1 at 3pm ET to answer applicant questions. If you'd like a link to the recording, please contact Kimberly Lawrence (klawrence@thoracic.org).

The American Thoracic Society is committed to improving health equity throughout the U.S. To this end, the ATS is pleased to accept applications for the 2024 ATS Fellowship in Health Equity and Diversity. This fellowship is designed to support the efforts of senior fellows, post-doctoral students, or junior faculty with research, clinical and policy endeavors to advance health equity for patients with respiratory disease, critical care illness or injury, and sleep disordered breathing.

To facilitate the advancement of health equity, the ATS will provide financial support as a fellowship to a successful candidate as explained below:

• The ATS Fellowship in Health Equity and Diversity will provide up to $50,000 to support the efforts of the successful candidate from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.
• In addition to efforts at their home institution, the fellow is expected to engage with ATS Advocacy and ATS Health Equity initiatives. While the ATS welcomes proposals in any topic related to improving health equity, the ATS is interested in receiving proposals in areas including:
  
  • U.S. Health Insurance and Health Disparities
  • Climate Change and Health Disparities
  • Tobacco and Health Disparities
  • Health Literacy and Health Disparities
  • Migrant Health
  • Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Training Programs and Health Disparities
  • Sleep and Health Disparities
• The fellow will become a member of the ATS Health Equity and Diversity committee and participate in its activities (including monthly conference calls) throughout the year.

Candidate Qualification:

• Candidates must be senior fellows, post-doctoral students, or junior faculty at US-based institutions.
• Candidates in fellowship must be enrolled in an accredited US-based Pulmonary Medicine or Pulmonary/Critical Care training program, an accredited Sleep Medicine training program, or a relevant post-doctoral training program.
• Candidates in training must have no less than one year of training remaining at the time of the award.
• Candidates on faculty must be junior faculty (instructor or assistant professor level) with less than three years on the faculty.
• Candidates must be mentored by a senior faculty member with experience in the field of pulmonary/critical care/sleep medicine and health disparity. These mentorship duties can be provided by more than one individual. Note that the development of a mentorship team is encouraged.
• Candidates must demonstrate an interest in pursuing a career in academia and in health disparity.
• Candidate’s proposals are expected to generate information that can be shared with the pulmonary, critical care, and sleep community. Dissemination of pilot results through abstracts, case reports, manuscripts or policy reports and/or recommendations are some examples of how to meet this expectation.

The fellowship is available to all candidates who meet the qualifications criteria. The ATS encourages applications from candidates from historically disadvantaged groups. This may include individuals from racial/ethnic minority groups, LGBTQ individuals, and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Submission Instructions:

• Deadline: The final application must be submitted electronically by 11:59pm EST on March 15, 2024.
• The submission should be prepared in pages with 1-inch margins and text written in Arial 11-point font.
• The application should be submitted via the ATS submissions portal and must include the following information:
  • Face page (1 page).
  • Budget justification (up to $50,000) (1 page).
  • Candidate's NIH-type biosketch (2-4 pages).
  • Mentor's NIH-type biosketch. Biosketches must be provided for all members of the mentoring team (2-4 pages).
  • Career statement by the candidate (1-2 pages). In your statement, please address the following:
    • Your personal background and/or contributions to diversity and equal opportunity through your academic career.
    • Your background and experiences in your current research area of study and how they relate to the project for which you are requesting funding.
    • How this project will advance health equality in your area.
    • Include anything specific you wish the committee to consider in reviewing your application.
  • One to two-page supporting statement by mentor that defines the candidate's strengths as well as the mentoring program, and confirms that the candidate will have protected time for the work proposed (1-2 pages).
  • Project description. The project may include ongoing work of the fellow or novel programs to be initiated with fellowship support (2-3 pages).

Financial Guidelines

Salary support for the grant recipient is allowed. Indirect costs are not allowed as part of the fellowship grant.

Fellowship applications are due by Friday, March 15, 2024. CLICK HERE to submit an application.

For questions about the 2024 ATS Fellowship in Health Equity application please contact Kimberly Lawrence at klawrence@thoracic.org or 212-315-8633.