Research in Religious and Spiritual Competencies in Clinical Training 

The LOI Submission Window is now closed

Leadership

Project PI: Jesse Fox, Ph.D.

Co-PIs: Joseph Currier, Ph.D. & Cassandra Vieten, Ph.D.

Program Manager: Evan J. Copello, M.S.

Contact Information

All requests for funding inquiries should be directed first to Evan Copello: ejcopello@stetson.edu

Program Background and Overview

Stetson University welcomes proposals for “Research in Religious and Spiritual Competencies in Clinical Training,” a $1.7 million funding initiative made possible by the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation.

Recent decades have borne witness to a sea change in how religion and spirituality (R/S) are viewed in mental health professions. R/S are unique qualities of the human experience, and they are areas ripe for scientific investigation and therapeutic exploration. Their depths have yet to be fully mapped. Without including them, the psychological worlds of human beings are not fully understood, nor are their potentialities completely actualized. And so, R/S have moved from the periphery of mainstream mental health care to becoming a core competency area, not subsumed by other dimensions of psychological explanation. This is due in part to a body of literature that has grown exponentially in the last two decades supporting their relevance for enhancing and enriching client care across a diverse range of mental health contexts and outcomes. 

Today, R/S are vibrant areas of clinical research. As interest has grown in clinical settings about the role of R/S in the mental health and well-being of individuals, likewise questions about how to provide spiritually competent mental health care have continued to surface and demand attention. Scientific research has only begun to open new pathways for clinicians to apply the volumes of data collected about R/S in helping relationships. For instance, best practice guidelines for clinicians in the form of professional R/S competencies have only recently been developed within specific mental health professions.

The Association for Spiritual Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC, 2009) has proposed 14 competencies which are representative of 6 overarching dimensions of competence that include: 1) Culture and Worldview, 2) Counselor Self-Awareness, 3) Human and Spiritual Development, 4) Communication, 5) Assessment, 6) Diagnosis and Treatment. Vieten and colleagues (2013, 2016) identified 16 competencies that signify spiritually competent mental health care that include 3 in Attitudes, 7 in Knowledge, 6 in Skills. A representative list of these competencies and relevant research associated with them are listed in the resources document accessible through this link.

Although these competencies are theoretically and empirically cohesive, how they work in counseling sessions and become inculcated among trainees in practical terms is less established. Thus, this project will inspire a new era of research into the effects of R/S competence for clinical practice through a Request for Funding Proposal (RFP) competition.

This RFP addresses the following questions:

  • What are effective methods of measuring R/S competence?

  • What are best methods and practices for promoting acquisition of R/S competencies in clinical training settings? 

  • To what extent does R/S competence improve outcomes and client functioning?

Purpose

The purpose of this funding competition is to attract an interdisciplinary group of researchers to conduct independent investigations of specific R/S competency areas. Applications should focus on at least one of these three priorities areas:

  • Development and validation of assessment tools, techniques, and/or measures of R/S competencies that are robust indicators of clinician competence

  • Development and evaluation of high-impact clinical training practices in R/S competence

  • Examining the role of R/S competencies in client outcomes, feasibility, and/or clinical processes

Projects that tie together multiple priority areas are encouraged so as to maximize their potential influence. Likewise, projects that focus on promoting R/S competence in students and trainees are encouraged so as to enhance the feasibility of their research design.

Deadlines and Overall Timeline

The RFP process will involve two phases. In Phase 1, interested applicants will submit a Letter of Inquiry (LOI). LOIs are due by December 20, 2021. Submitted LOIs will be reviewed by the Project Team Leaders. We expect review of LOIs to take one month to complete and decisions will be sent to PIs by January 20. In Phase 2, LOIs with high merit will be invited to submit a Full Review Application (FRA). FRAs will be due by March 31, 2022. The FRAs will be reviewed by a team of expert referees. This review process is expected to take up to 2 months. Funding decisions will be sent to PIs by May 30, 2022. From the submitted FRAs, we plan to fund up to 15 projects. All FRAs must complete all funded activities and submit a final report by May 30, 2024. 

Grant size

Up to 15 funded projects will be selected, with funding approvals up to $120,000 USD. Budgets must incorporate any indirect costs up to a maximum of 15% total direct costs. We anticipate an average award amount of $77,000 USD.

Eligibility

Required Elements

Applicants will ideally possess a Ph.D. or equivalent doctorate in a mental health field or related research area. The lead organization, if solely clinical or R/S in nature, is highly encouraged to partner with a university or a pre-approved non-profit research institution (please contact us for pre-approval). Dissertation students are also encouraged to apply.

LOIs and FRAs will be required to identify which specific R/S competencies they will focus on training or assessing. In addition, they must describe a training tool, technique, method and/or tangible measure for influencing or assessing R/S competencies that can be used to encourage training and future research in this emerging area.

Applicants may be a PI or Co-PI on one application only, and will not be considered for multiple PI or Co-PI roles on other applications. However, they may serve in other secondary roles (e.g., consultants) in support of multiple projects.

Proposals are limited geographically to the United States, requests from international countries of origin will not be reviewed.

All project activities must be completed within two years of the project start date.

The PI of the funded project must commit to the following:

  • Attend a two-day initial working meeting to be held at Stetson University shortly after funding approval and before implementing projects. The travel, lodging, and food will be covered for the PI. However, if project teams wish to bring other personnel (e.g., Co-PIs), they must budget sufficient funds for these travel expenses. The purpose of this meeting will be to give PIs an opportunity to share their plans with other experts to receive feedback, discover points of convergence, develop collegiality and synergy with fellow PIs, and maximize the impact of their projects. These presentations will be recorded and uploaded to the overall Spiritual and Religious Competencies Project (SRCP) website for further dissemination.

  • Summarize feedback and changes to be made immediately after the working meeting in a 1-page report submitted to the SRCP Leadership Team.

  • Pre-register project on the Open Science Framework, along with all results, datasets, and tools/instruments.

  • Submit bi-annual (every six months) and final financial reports as well as attend quarterly research roundtables during funded activities over video conference with other investigators to share lessons learned.

  • Attend and present initial results at a three-day Capstone Conference to be held at Stetson University. The purpose of this meeting will be to share preliminary findings of projects for feedback, strengthen findings and plans for dissemination of each project, and further catalyze synergistic relationships among emerging experts in R/S competencies. At this meeting, PIs will also share the specific product/tool/method created during their project for enhancing spiritual competence in clinical training and/or practice. These resources will be posted as open-source material for the general public.

  • Notify the SRCP Leadership Team at spiritual.competency@southalabama.edu of all conference papers, presentations, posters, or publications that are a direct product of the funded activities.

  • In addition, selected awardees will be asked to contribute a chapter to the “Handbook of Spiritual and Religious Competencies in Mental Health Professions” that reports results of their studies and/or describes the tool(s) or product(s) that were generated with the funding.

Preferred Elements

Practice-based evidence studies, randomized controlled trials, and longitudinal studies are highly encouraged and should propose budgets ranging between $90,000 and $120,000 to ensure adequate support. Investigators utilizing other study designs, (e.g., qualitative, cross-sectional surveys) are encouraged to keep their budgets between $60,000 to $90,000.

Projects that connect the development of practical tools/resources with assessment/training of R/S competencies to their effect on clinical outputs, feasibility outputs, and client outputs will be preferred.

Research teams made up of diverse professional identities (psychology, counseling, social work, pastoral counseling, marriage and family therapy, psychiatry) are especially encouraged to apply.

Projects that tie together more than one of the three priority areas listed under the “Purpose” section above and focus on R/S competencies for students and trainees are encouraged.

Use of Grants

Indirect expenses should not exceed the John Templeton Foundation limit of 15%. Acceptable uses of project funds could include the following:

  • Research expenses such as investigator salaries, participant compensation, recruiting expenses, lab expenses

  • Graduate student or post-doctoral researcher stipend/salaries

  • Summer salary and teaching buyout

  • Dissemination expenses such as publication fees, conference travel, web/app/multimedia product

  • Assistance with writing, editing, and publishing

  • Modest allowance for justifiable equipment, computers, and other supplies

  • Modest travel allowance to access resources unavailable at the investigators’ home institutions and for interdisciplinary teams to meet together in person

  • Modest support for private Institutional Review Board (IRB) fees*

* Ideally, applicants will belong to or partner with an institution which provides IRB oversight. However, in rare cases wherein an IRB is not provided, private IRB expenses may be included in the budget.

Application Instructions

Letter of Inquiry (LOI) Stage

All LOIs should include the following:

  • A letter of inquiry that includes the (a) central questions of the project, (b) background and significance of the questions, (c) ways in which the project addresses at least one of the three funding priorities of this RFP, (d) specific R/S competencies that will be targeted, (e) a budget estimate, summary of the scientific methodology, and (f) a description of a product or tool that will be generated for enhancing R/S competence in clinical training programs and/or settings. The letter cannot exceed 1,500 words.

  • Complete curriculum vitae for PI and any Co-Is.

  • All LOI materials must be received no later than December 20, 2021.

Full Review Application Stage

Those applicants who are invited to submit a Full Review Application (FRA) must include the following:

  • A cover letter with the title, amount requested, duration of the project (limited to two years), and all members of the proposed research team.

  • A 5,000 word (maximum) description of the funded activities, to include (a) the central research question(s) of the project, (b) the background and significance of the study, (c) the way the project addresses at least one of the three funding priorities outlined in the RFP, (d) the proposed methodology, (e) the expected outcomes of the study, (f) a description of the product or tool for enhancing R/S competence in clinical training and/or practice that will result from the project, and (g) the researcher’s qualifications for conducting the research and appropriateness of the environment.

  • A 500-word abstract of the project written for general audiences that can be publicized on the “Spiritual and Religious Competencies Project” website as well as John Templeton Foundation materials.

  • Ethical approvals from the researcher’s IRB are not required before submitting the FRA, but should describe a plan for securing IRB approval before the start date of the project.

  • A timeline of all funded activities.

  • A detailed budget with an accompanying narrative explaining line items as well as requested funds between $20,000 and $120,000. Overhead costs should not exceed 15% and all requested budget items must be limited to those purposes described above under “Use of Grants.”

  • Letter(s) of approval/support from the host institution and clinical training site director (if applicable). 

  • FRAs must be received no later than March 31, 2022.

  • Funding decisions will be sent to the PI by May 30, 2022.

  • FRAs should be submitted to the application portal which will be provided to PIs on an invitation only basis. Full proposals will be accepted only from applicants who have been invited to submit by the SRCP Team Leaders, on the basis of the LOI.

Please Note: Declined LOIs and FRAs will not be provided any feedback or reviewer comments.

Selection Criteria

Selection criteria will include: 1) inclusion of proposed R/S competencies; 2) coherence of project rationale and design, 3) rigorous methodology, 4) relevance to clinical training and practice, 5) research or scholarly track record of applicant(s), 6) creativity and uniqueness of the approach 7) promise of producing a genuine and lasting benefit to emerging area of R/S competence (i.e., paradigm-shifting potential), 8) creative and effective plan for evaluating impact, 9) feasibility of timeline and appropriateness of proposed budget, 10) written support of hosting institution and clinical training site director (e.g., allow recruitment of participants’ collection of data) if applicable.

Please Note: Should funded projects not achieve milestones due to negligence or unforeseen circumstances, the SRCP leadership reserve the right to constructively renegotiate the funding agreement to maintain the integrity of the overall project.

 

The LOI Submission Window is now closed