Applied Research Fellowship
The Population Health Applied Research Fellowship Program supports multidisciplinary teams of students to work on real-world population health challenges. Projects are sourced from external clients who play an important role in structuring project deliverables.
The Population Health Applied Research Fellowship team for summer 2026 will consist of three graduate students and two undergraduates, with supervision by a faculty expert. The project team receives training in research skills and data collection, analysis and presentation to deliver a work product that meets the external client’s needs.
This program is run in partnership with the University of Washington Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology (CSDE).
Join us for an informational session on February 26, 2026, at the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health from 11 a.m. 12 p.m. A virtual option is also available. Please RSVP to let us know you will be attending.
Summer 2026 project: Assessing Children Friendly Cities
Children are an integral part of any community. Their safety, health and education is a marker of a healthy community and is internationally agreed upon in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children’s well-being is necessary in its own right and will also shape society as young cohorts age into important roles such as caregiving for older generations and raising and educating their own families.
In order for children to thrive, families and caretakers need community and governmental support. The Summer 2026 Applied Research Fellowship Program will partner with stakeholders at the City of Seattle to research strengths and future recommendations that support children and their families. The team will first explore how other cities quantify child-friendliness and monitor progress. We will combine descriptive and spatial data analysis to explore the volume and location of important daily amenities necessary for those with children – child care facilities, transportation access, schools, laundromats and so forth – with qualitative data collection via interviews with Seattle’s constituents to better understand the needs of children and their caregivers. These two avenues of research will result in recommendations of areas of improvement in Seattle’s goal of being a child-friendly city and ways child-friendliness can be monitored as time goes on.
The 10-week program will culminate with two main deliverables: a written report and presentation to our stakeholders. This project provides a unique opportunity for students to complement quantitative research methods with on-the-ground research to provide our stakeholders with valuable information about the current state of the amenities for families and children in communities and opportunities that would enable them to thrive. Our recommendations will support future planning and funding prioritization under a new executive city government to ensure all families and caregivers feel supported by our community.
Student eligibility
Graduate students at the master’s and doctoral levels and professional students from all UW schools and colleges are eligible to apply. Applicants must be enrolled in a degree-granting program at any UW campus (Seattle, Tacoma and Bothell) and not graduating in June.
All undergraduate students with junior- or senior-level status who are enrolled in a UW degree-granting program at any UW campus and will not be graduating in June are eligible to apply.
Students are currently expected to be available for in-person meetings during the fellowship.
Compensation
Graduate students will be paid an hourly Graduate Research Student Assistant summer rate for 20 hours/week over a period of 10 weeks. The undergraduate students will be paid an hourly rate of $21 for 19.5 hours/week for 10 weeks.
Timeline
- Applications are due by 12 p.m. (Pacific) Friday, March 20, 2026.
- Applicants will be notified whether they are invited to interview for the fellowship positions by April 3, 2026.
- Interviews will take place the week of April 6, 2026.
- Candidates will be notified about fellowship offers by mid-April, 2026.
- Fellowships are for a 10-week period over the summer, starting June 22, 2026, and ending August 28, 2026.
Application instructions
All applicants must submit the following documents:
- Recent CV or resume
- Unofficial transcript
- One- to two-page cover letter outlining why you are interested in the fellowship program and how your skills will enable you to contribute to the success of the project
- One statement of support from a faculty member or other mentor who can provide examples of your research abilities, independent and professional approach to learning, and your collaborative and communicative skills.
Please combine the CV/resume, transcript, and cover letter into a single .pdf file and submit this file via email to pophlth@uw.edu. The subject line of the email should be, “Applied Research Fellowship.
Your statement of support must be emailed to pophlth@uw.edu directly by the person you are requesting this statement from. The subject line of the email should be, “Applied Research Fellowship” and reference your name.
Review criteria
Applications will be reviewed by representatives of the Population Health Initiative and the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology. Candidates will be notified whether they have been selected to interview for the fellowship according to the published timeline.
Interviews with select candidates will be scheduled based on the dates listed in the timeline. Interviews will be for approximately 30 minutes, and the panel will consist of faculty and staff from the Population Health Initiative, the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology and other departments or external partners as relevant.
Applicants will be selected based on the following criteria:
- Demonstrated technical skills in research methods, data entry, database management, data collection and/or analysis
- Some knowledge about, or experience working on, issues of social inequality, race, health or program evaluations
- Academic performance to date
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills
- Ability to work well within in a team environment
Questions
Please contact pophlth@uw.edu with questions regarding this fellowship program.
Past Fellows
View the previous cohorts, projects and project results for past summers.