Early Findings from the NIH BEST Cross‐Site Evaluation

Abstract

In 2013 and 2014, the NIH Common Fund issued its Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) awards to 17 research sites. The BEST awards focused on enabling institutions to develop innovative programs to increase biomedical trainee exposure to a range of research‐related career options through activities like coursework, workshops, and active learning experiences.The NIH outlined three goals of all BEST awardees: 1) trainee confidence and knowledge to make career decisions, 2) influence of this added activity on time in training, and 3) ability of the institutions to sustain activities deemed beneficial. Three methods were used to collect data: 1) a Data Form completed by BEST awardee institutions, including detailed tracking of all activities and participation 2) multiple surveys of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at BEST institutions, and 3) yearly teleconferences with BEST site coordinators to gather contextual information.Through all years, the activity offered most often across BEST institutions was single‐day workshops. These workshops had high trainee attendance (ex: 1749 graduate students and 821 postdoctoral scientists in Year 3 attended 377 single day workshops across the 17 sites). Interestingly, entrance survey data also suggest many trainees are familiar with broad career options (64% and 57.8% of graduate student and postdoctoral scientist survey respondents reporting familiarity with “all” or “most” of the 20 myIDP career paths). Questions were also posed to assess confidence levels related to career awareness and preparation. Over 80% percent of all graduate students and postdoctoral scientists reported being moderately, highly, or completely confident across all five questions. While many BEST graduate students and postdoctoral scientists are still in training, for those that have completed training, participation in BEST activities did not increase time in training.Overall, our data suggest trainees are generally aware of current career options beyond traditional academic research‐intensive positions. BEST awardee institutions also made great strides in collecting data on career development activities and tracking participation for thousands of trainees.