The Program Experience

Financial Support
Responsibilities
Expectations

Scholars spend two years at one of the three participating universities: the University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco (under the direction of John Ellwood, Ph.D.), The University of Michigan (under the direction of Paula M. Lantz, Ph.D.) and Harvard University (under the direction of Katherine Swartz, Ph.D.).

Curricular activities at the participating universities are designed to be flexible in order to meet individual Scholars' educational needs and interests. Specific activities vary by institution, but generally include seminars, workshops, tutorials and independent research projects. At each institution, these offerings are intended to accomplish three objectives:

1. Educate Scholars about health, health care, the organization and financing of the health care delivery system, and the health policy-making process.
2. Expose Scholars to a learning environment in which each comes to appreciate the perspectives and methods of other social science disciplines, in addition to medicine and public health.
3. Offer Scholars the opportunity to develop a health policy research agenda and to conduct relevant research and analysis under the guidance of and in collaboration with distinguished faculty mentors.

All three sites have nationally recognized social science departments and professional schools with faculty who possess health policy expertise. Scholars in the program have the opportunity to work closely with faculty from the social sciences—as well as from medicine, public health and public policy—in an environment conducive to disciplinary and multi-disciplinary learning and collaborative research. Scholars also have access to the full range of university resources, including libraries, computers, databases and research support.

Financial Support
Support is provided directly to the participating universities, which in turn provide stipends to the Scholars. Scholars entering in 2008 will receive stipends from their university of $83,000 for the first year and $86,000 for the second year. Financial support also is available for Scholars' research expenses, including travel.

Responsibilities
Scholars are free from teaching, consulting and administrative responsibilities during their participation in the program.

Expectations
Scholars who have completed the program should:

• Have the commitment and capacity to inform and influence U.S. health policy discussions through their research, publications and active involvement as scholars in the policy-making process.
• Bring a fresh perspective to important and perplexing questions facing health policy-makers today.
• Understand and appreciate social science disciplines other than their own.
• Continue to undertake research in their respective disciplines.
• Infuse their home disciplines with policy research questions related to health and health care.

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