Research Incubator

Our Research Incubator program offers hands-on support for research projects that use existing data to accelerate depression research for early-career faculty and emerging scholars across the University of Michigan.

We are now accepting applications for the 2027 cohort. Submissions are due October 16, 2026. 

Supporting early-career mental health researchers

Early-career investigators have many creative research questions that could substantially advance depression research. Yet they often face hurdles in developing an impactful research program, including limited access to resources, funding, protected research time, and a lack of a research team. Our Research Incubator program leverages existing dataset resources, paired with our team's support, to address these gaps so investigators can make high-impact research advances more quickly and efficiently. 

Program details 

We offer statistical support, project management, and faculty expertise to early-career faculty and emerging scholars from all disciplinary backgrounds studying mental health. The program supports short-term projects (up to one year) at the analysis stage. 

Our experts collaborate with participants to refine their research questions and lead all project research tasks. Support includes identifying relevant data sources, managing and analyzing data, interpreting results, and partnering to disseminate findings. 

Key dates

• Application deadline: October 16, 2026
• Projects begin: Early January 2027, if selected

DETAILS: Check out the roadmap to find out what to expect during the program.

Who should apply

We aim to accelerate impactful depression research advances and build a robust, interdisciplinary research workforce. This program is particularly valuable for U-M investigators who:

• Have experienced barriers in seeing their research ideas through to completion.
• Are new to mental health research.
• Have limited experience working with secondary data.
• Have limited statistical capacity.
• Don’t have a dedicated research team.
• Have short-term projects that are smaller in scope that can be completed in less than one year.

Questions?

Visit our Frequently Asked Questions page for more information or email our team with additional questions.