A primary motivation for creating PiPS was to provide an environment in which young researchers could develop careers in placebo studies. As a result, a significant portion of PiPS resources are dedicated to providing post-doctoral fellowships and opportunities for mentorship and collaboration between fellows and senior researchers.
PiPS currently includes seven senior researchers, four full-time post-doctoral fellows and four full-time junior faculty members. Current post-doctoral fellows are funded by their home departments, NIH fellowship or European Union grants. The program also participates in a NIH T-32 fellowship program and NIH career awards enable several senior faculty to dedicate mentorship time to placebo studies.
Monthly “data and design” meetings provide junior researchers with opportunities to present ongoing work to their colleagues, while an annual priority-setting meeting helps investigators to coordinate their research and inspires collaborations between PiPS team members with different areas of expertise and levels of experience. PiPS is also responsible for hosting a monthly Harvard-wide seminar series in placebo studies. For more information about these events, please see Recent News.
