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John H. Gilmore, MD Thad and Alice Eure Distinguished Professor Vice Chair for Research and Scientific Affairs

Since the Department of Psychiatry began in 1952, research, especially the integration of clinical and basic research, has been a major part of its  identity.  Currently, the Department is the home of nationally-renowned research programs in schizophrenia, eating disorders, women’s mood disorders, neurostimulation, neurodevelopmental disorders, and substance abuse.  Department faculty enjoy a rich research infrastructure that supports research, including biostatistics/data management, informatics, and neuroimaging cores, as well as the North Carolina Psychiatric Research Center, a community-based research clinic in Raleigh, NC, that supports numerous clinical trials.

The Department of Psychiatry serves as the home department for numerous research faculty in centers and research programs across the UNC campus, including the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, the Neuroscience Center, the Biomedical Research Imaging Center, the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, TEACCH Autism Program, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Sheps Center for Health Services Research. Psychiatry researchers collaborate with over 43 schools, departments, clinical divisions, centers, and programs across the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

The excellence of research in our Department attracts significant funding from the National Institutes of Health, foundations and industry. In 2019, researchers brought more than $18 million in NIH funding. The Department was 16th in the nation in federal research funding for departments of psychiatry. Within the UNC School of Medicine, the Department of Psychiatry has the third highest research funding of all (clinical and basic) departments and is second only to the Department of Medicine among 18 clinical departments.

All of this creates an incredible environment for research training, which is described more fully in the Research Training section that follows.

We invite you to explore the research being done by our faculty. We think you will be impressed by its breadth and quality. We are very proud of what our faculty has accomplished and can’t wait to see what they discover in the years ahead.