Award Applications Research Articles

Exploring the experience of participants in a pilot scheme to recognise teaching excellence in healthcare: A mixed methods approach.

BackgroundWithin healthcare settings, practice-based healthcare professionals are expected to teach, supervise, assess and/or support learners in their respective disciplines. Ongoing development opportunities focusing specifically on teaching skills and support of students are varied and there are no mandatory requirements for practice-based healthcare professionals to develop formal teaching qualifications, despite their direct involvement with learners. ObjectiveTo explore the experience of participants in a pilot scheme to recognise teaching excellence in healthcare. DesignA mixed methods approach was used. Setting(s)One inner-city integrated health care system in the UK. ParticipantsThis study involved eleven participants in total: seven applicants who successfully completed the award and four mentors who supported them throughout the application process. Mentors were all Advance HE Fellowship holders employed within one National Health Service (NHS) organisation and one Higher Education Institution situated within the Northwest of England. MethodsData collection methods included an online anonymised survey followed by individual semi- structured interviews. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively, and qualitative data were analysed using framework analysis principles. ResultsThe findings indicated that participants (applicants and mentors) found the overall experience positive and rewarding. The main positive aspects of taking part were:I. Increased confidence and sharing of teaching experienceII. Increased reflection and use of pedagogyIII. Formation of a teaching community of practiceIV. Perceived teaching career progression opportunitiesThe application process appeared to act as a catalyst towards re-engagement with underpinning pedagogy when considering the suitability and utility of effective teaching approaches for learners in practice. It also helped to promote a teaching community of practice where mentors were able to ‘pay forward’ and support practice colleagues to be recognised for their teaching roles.The main challenges were the competing demands on applicants’ time and the self-directed approach required to complete the award application. ConclusionGaining recognition of teaching excellence through an award scheme such as Advance HE Fellowship can foster a sense of empowerment, recognition and reward for educators who work with learners undertaking Higher Education Programmes, irrespective of the setting where teaching and learning takes place. However, without wider organisation support and resources, the benefits of such schemes can be diminished. RegistrationN/A Tweetable abstractWith institutional support, Advance HE Fellowships offer accessible recognition for healthcare educator's commitment to teaching excellence @AdvanceHE @NHSE_WTE

Applications for awards in 2025

Applications for awards in 2025

ASPIRE for excellence in curriculum development

The objective of the ASPIRE award programme of the International Association for Health Professions Education is to go beyond traditional accreditation processes. Working in partnership with the ASPIRE Academy, the programme aims to encourage and support excellence in health professions education, in part by showcasing and exemplifying best practices. Each year ASPIRE award applications received from institutions across the globe describe their greatest achievements in a variety of areas, one of which is curriculum development, where evaluation of applications is carried out using a framework of six domains. These are described in this paper as key elements of excellence, specifically, Organisational Structure and Curriculum Management; Underlying Educational Strategy; Content Specification and Pedagogy; Teaching and Learning Methods and Environment; Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation; Scholarship. Using examples from the content of submissions of three medical schools from very different settings that have been successful in the past few years, achievements in education processes and outcomes of institutions around the world are highlighted in ways that are relevant to their local and societal contexts.

Call for young scientist award applications.

Call for young scientist award applications.

Award Applications

Award Applications

Tennessee Academy of ScienceDistinguished Secondary School Science Teacher Award 2022

Tennessee Academy of ScienceDistinguished Secondary School Science Teacher Award 2022

Promising Practices in US Sponsoring Institutions to Advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Graduate Medical Education.

Background Best practices to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the biomedical workforce remain poorly understood. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education launched the Barbara Ross-Lee, DO, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion award for sponsoring institutions to celebrate efforts to improve DEI in graduate medical education (GME). Objective To identify themes in practices used by award applicants to improve DEI efforts at their institutions, using a qualitative design. Methods This qualitative study employed an exploratory, inductive approach and constant comparative method to analyze award applications from 2 submission cycles (2020, 2021). Data analysis involved the use of a preliminary codebook of 29 program applications used in a previous study, which was modified and expanded, to perform a subsequent analysis of 12 sponsoring institution applications. Seven adjudication sessions were conducted to ensure coding consistency and resolve disagreements, resulting in the identification of final themes. Results Institutions' approaches to advancing DEI resulted from work within 5 themes and 10 subthemes. The themes encompassed organizational commitment (policies that reflect DEI mission), data infrastructure (tracking recruitment, retention, and inclusion efforts), community connection (service-learning opportunities), diverse team engagement (coproduction with residents), and systematic strategies for DEI support throughout the educational continuum. Consistent across themes was the importance of collaboration, avoiding silos, and the need for a comprehensive longitudinal approach to DEI to achieve a diverse GME workforce. Conclusions This qualitative study identified 5 themes that can inform and guide sponsoring institutions in promoting DEI.

Giving the green light to sustainability: Key political factors behind the European Green Capital Award applications

ABSTRACT Nowadays, cities’ involvement in sustainability efforts is becoming increasingly important. Of particular relevance are the horizontal networks and international initiatives that promote sustainability actions and help the participating cities to exchange knowledge and experience. Participation in such initiatives and the degree of involvement is largely determined by the political leadership of cities. This paper investigates the political determinants of applying for a European sustainability initiative, the European Green Capital Award, using binary logistic regression with data on the real applicants and control cities, up to the round of 2024. The results show that cities with left-wing leadership and more green party representatives in the city council are more willing to apply for the award. The finalist status in the competition was positively influenced by the city council’s environment-friendly attitude and the experience of previous applications.

Applications for awards in 2024

Applications for awards in 2024

The Wellcome Trust: new funding for mental health science.

The Wellcome Trust: new funding for mental health science.

Addressing Barriers to Career Development Awards for Early Career Women in Pediatric Psychology.

To provide person and system-level recommendations for supporting early career women in the field of pediatric psychology in writing and submitting National Institutes of Health (NIH) Career Development Award (K award) applications. Recommendations are provided in the context of common barriers, with a focus on practical solutions. Publicly available NIH reporter data were compiled to examine rates of funding for Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP) members. Barriers that women face when initiating programs of research are described and applied to the field of pediatric psychology. Of current SPP members, 3.9% (n = 50) have ever received an NIH K award. Approximately 88.5% of SPP members identify as women, including 89.0% of SPP K award recipients. A table of person- and systems-level recommendations is provided to offer strategies for mentees, mentors/sponsors, institutions, and national organizations to address the barriers discussed. By addressing gender-specific barriers to submitting K award applications, we hope to increase the number of women K awardees and support the scientific advancement of pediatric psychology.

Mentoring from the other side of the fence: Student perspectives on good advising

As a fourth-year graduate student and ASA Student Council representative, I have had access to the opinions of students and gained insight on what they expect from their mentors and advisors. In this talk, I hope to demystify the student perspective by discussing the themes that have emerged from both Blackstock Mentor Award applications and a mentoring survey sent to Biomedical Acoustics students. One question drives the analysis: What kind of mentor/mentee relationship leads to the most successful outcomes and how is that success measured by students?

Unblocking recognition: A token system for acknowledging academic contribution

Here we present a blockchain-backed token recognition system to reward the contributions that academics make to the scientific ecosystem. Recognition is important in science but current methods, systems and incentives are limited. Specifically, the traditional focus on narrow publication metrics means diverse contributions are not captured, while bias toward senior, established scientists is common. To tackle this challenge, we explore the potential of harnessing blockchain’s collaborative, decentralised and trust-brokering properties to develop a token reward system for use by research funders. Academics would be awarded tokens for undertaking common but vital tasks such as peer review, sitting on funding committees and submitting reports. These tokens would not be tradable or specifically monetisable but would serve as a validated record of scientific contribution. They would have value in professional recruitment and job placement, support grant and award applications, and inform performance appraisals and file reviews. Coordination and cooperation across multiple funding agencies in developing the platform would provide an opportunity to aggregate and standardise recognition, given academics often work with several funders. This system’s goals are to expand recognition metrics, promote efficiencies, improve the robustness of professional assessments and enable cross-funder collaboration, thereby optimising research processes and practices in a decentralised and democratised manner.

Gender Composition in Biomedical Research Grant Submissions and Grant Review Panels Before Versus During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose: This study examined the gender composition of career development award applicants and grant review panels during the pandemic compared with that beforehand. Methods: Data were collected from 14 Health Research Alliance (HRA) organizations, which fund biomedical research and training. HRA members provided the gender of grant applicants and grant reviewers during the pandemic (April 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021) and prepandemic (April 1, 2019, to February 29, 2020). The signed-rank test compared medians and the chi square test compared the overall gender distribution. Results: The total number of applicants was similar during the pandemic (N = 3,724) and prepandemic (N = 3,882) periods, as was the percentage of women applicants (45.2% pandemic vs. 44.9% prepandemic, p = 0.78). The total number of men and women grant reviewers declined during the pandemic (N = 856) compared with that pre-pandemic (N = 1,689); this decrease was driven by a change for the largest funder. Also driven by changes for this one funder, the percentage of total grant reviewers who were women increased significantly during the pandemic (45.9%) compared with that during prepandemic (38.8%; p = 0.001), but the median percentage of women grant reviewers across organizations remained similar during the pandemic (43.6%) and prepandemic periods (38.2%; p = 0.53). Conclusions: In a sample of research organizations, the gender composition of grant applicants and grant review panels remained similar, except for the review panel composition for one large funder. Given evidence from other studies that have revealed gender differences in other career and life experiences of scientists during the pandemic, ongoing evaluation of women's representation in grant submission and review mechanisms is essential.

Strategies and Best Practices to Improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Among US Graduate Medical Education Programs

Closing the diversity gap is critical to ensure equity in medical education and health care quality. Nevertheless, evidence-based strategies and best practices to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the biomedical workforce remain poorly understood and underused. To improve the culture of DEI in graduate medical education (GME), in 2020 the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) launched the Barbara Ross-Lee, DO, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award to recognize exceptional DEI efforts in US residency programs. To identify strategies and best practices that exemplary US GME programs use to improve DEI. This qualitative study performed an exploratory content analysis of award applications submitted to the ACGME over 2 cycles in 2020 and 2021, using the constant comparative method. The research team first acknowledged their own biases related to DEI, used caution to not overinterpret the data, and performed several cross-checks during data analysis to ensure confirmability of the results. A preliminary codebook was developed and used during regular adjudication sessions. Disagreements were discussed until agreements were reached. Foundational (ie, commonly cited, high-impact, and small-effort strategies considered achievable by all programs) and aspirational (ie, potential for high impact but requiring greater effort and investment) DEI strategies used by exemplary GME programs. This qualitative study included 29 award applications submitted between August 17, 2020, and January 11, 2022. Strategies spanned the education continuum from premedical students through faculty. Foundational strategies included working with schools, community colleges, and 4-year college campuses; providing structured support for visiting students; mission-driven holistic review for admissions and selection; interviewer trainings on implicit bias mitigation and on how racism and discrimination impact admission processes and advancement; interview-day DEI strategies; inclusive selection and DEI committees; mission statements that include DEI; and retention efforts to improve faculty diversity. Aspirational strategies included development of longitudinal bidirectional collaborations (eg, articulation agreements, annual workshops, funded rotations and/or research) with organizations working with applicants who were historically excluded and underrepresented in medicine, blinding metrics in residency applications, longitudinal curricula on DEI and health equity, and faculty mentoring such as affinity groups, mentored research, and joint academic-community recruitments. Findings provide residency program leadership with a menu of options at various inflection points to foster DEI within their programs. The findings of this qualitative study suggest that GME programs might adopt strategies of exemplary programs to improve DEI in residency, ensure compliance with accreditation standards, and improve health outcomes for all.

Award Applications

Award Applications

An Update on the Progress Toward Gender Equity in US Academic Pharmacy

Objective. To evaluate the status of gender equity in US pharmacy education since the two previous publications on the topic in 2004 and 2014.Methods. Data were gathered from existing national databases, internal American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) databases, AACP meeting minutes, published reports, scholarly articles, pharmacy association websites, individual school websites, and LinkedIn profiles. Differences between men and women were evaluated on degree completion, discipline, rank, tenure status, research, leadership development, leadership positions, salaries, and professional awards. Comparisons were also made to academic medicine and dentistry.Results. Fifty-one percent of full-time faculty members across all academic pharmacy disciplines are women. The percentage of women at the rank of professor was 36.6%, compared to 25% in 2014. Of the 2992 tenured or tenure track pharmacy faculty, 39.2% were women. Out of 388 department chairs, 146 were women. Throughout 2014-2021, there were 121 chief executive officer (CEO) dean permanent appointments, with men holding 91 (75.2%) and women holding 30 (24.8%). Women received 29.7% of the National Institutes of Health grants awarded to pharmacy schools compared to men (70.3%), although women's funding amount was higher. In both the pharmacy practice discipline and all sciences disciplines, the total salary across all ranks and years in rank was significantly higher for men than women, even for department chairs, but there were no differences for CEO deans. To date, women have received 13% of four national pharmacy organizations' top 13 awards.Conclusion. Since 2014, some achievement gaps have narrowed, but areas of concern still exist and need continued attention and resources so inequities can be eliminated. Women in academic pharmacy need mentoring and support to extend throughout the trajectory of their careers in areas such as academic advancement, grant applications, salary negotiation, leadership pursuit, and award applications.

TriService Nursing Research Program: A critical component to support military nursing science

TriService Nursing Research Program: A critical component to support military nursing science

ATBC 2022 Student and Early Career Awards

The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) recognizes the exceptional research of students and early career scientists through awards presented at Annual Meetings of the ATBC. The ATBC is pleased to announce the 2022 winners of these awards, which were presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the ATBC in Cartagena, Colombia, “Conserving Tropical Biodiversity and Achieving Socio-Ecological Resilience in the Anthropocene: Opportunities and Challenges.” The Luis F. Bacardi Award for Advances in Tropical Conservation is awarded to the best conservation talk presented during the ATBC Annual Conference by an early-career scientist (i.e., a researcher who received their Ph.D. no more than 5 years before the meeting date). This award was established in 2005 with an endowment from the Lubee Bat Conservancy, an international non-profit organization based in Gainesville, Florida, USA. The Lubee Bat Conservancy was founded in 1989 by the late Luis F. Bacardi and is dedicated to protecting biological diversity through the conservation of fruit- and nectar-feeding bats. At the 2022 ATBC Annual Meeting, Katharine Thompson, a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Pennsylvania State University (USA) was awarded the Luis F. Bacardi Award for her presentation entitled “From lemurs to lobsters: Land to sea links in a coastal socio-ecological system in western Madagascar.” The Alwyn Gentry Presentation Awards were established to recognize outstanding oral and poster presentations given by students at the ATBC Annual Conference. Alwyn Gentry (1945–1993) was a prominent botanist who made exceptional contributions to the study of the diversity and conservation of tropical plants and to the training of students from the Americas. These awards are in remembrance and recognition of the contributions of this singular scientist, colleague, supportive mentor, and friend. At the 2022 ATBC Annual Meeting, Rodrigo Muñoz, Ph.D. candidate from Wageningen University and Research (The Netherlands), was awarded the Alwyn Gentry Award for the Best Oral Presentation for his presentation entitled “Climatic drivers of productivity in tropical secondary forests.” Lim Qi Luan, a Ph.D. candidate from the Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University (Japan) was awarded the Alwyn Gentry Award for the Best Poster for her presentation entitled “Historical effective population size of the endangered Malayan tapir: implications for conservation.” The New Phytologist Trust graciously funds an annual award to recognize achievement in Plant Biology by a student author presenting a poster at the ATBC Annual Meeting. At the 2022 Annual Meeting, the New Phytologist Poster Prize in Plant Biology was awarded to Siddarth Machado, a Ph.D. candidate from the School of Forest, Fisheries and Geomatics Sciences at University of Florida (USA), for his poster entitled “Resilience to drought in a humid tropical Dipterocarp forest, India.” The ATBC is honored by all who chose to present their work at the 2022 ATBC Annual Meeting and congratulates these recipients for their outstanding contributions to tropical biology and conservation. The ATBC is also honored to be able to award the Navjot Sodhi Conservation Research Award each year to a student or recent graduate from a developing country conducting research in tropical conservation biology. This award is in remembrance and recognition of the contributions of our dear colleague and friend Navjot Sodhi, who inspired many students and colleagues with his passion for research and the conservation of tropical biodiversity. Armando Das, Director of Proyecto Tapir Nicaragua and a Ph.D. candidate from Michigan State University (USA), was awarded the 2022 Navjot Sodhi Conservation Research Award for their project entitled “Establishing the baseline to protect and manage critically endangered mammals in one of the last strongholds for tropical biodiversity in southeast Nicaragua.” The ATBC promotes the professional development of students working in the areas of tropical biology and conservation by awarding seed grants to support graduate student research. The ATBC is pleased to announce the 2022 winners of the Seed Grants, who are the following: We thank the Grants and Awards Committee of the ATBC for volunteering their time to review Seed Grant and Navjot Sodhi Conservation Research Award applications. We also thank all who volunteered to evaluate oral and poster presentations during the ATBC 2022 Annual Meeting. The New Phytologist award was judged by the representatives from the journal.

Application for awards in 2023

Application for awards in 2023