Mid-career Investigators Research Articles

124 An educational curriculum, mentors’ preparedness and certification, a mentored research experience and a support network: strategies to increase diversity and inclusion in the Clinical and Translational Research (CTR) workforce among underrepresented researchers.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The Professional Development Core (PDC) of the Hispanic Alliance for Clinical and Translational Research (The Alliance) has implemented a multifaceted program to support Early-Stage Investigators (ESI) and mid-career investigators to increase productivity and achieve success in their research endeavors. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Since 2021, PDC launched an educational program tailored for ESI or mid-career investigators, addressing specific gaps in research competencies. A needs assessment survey gathered information from these investigators, and its results served as the foundation for the program’s design. In addition, recognizing the need for excellence in mentoring, PDC spearheaded a program to provide a certification curriculum for new or experienced mentors. Experienced researchers were encouraged to participate in the certification process with ample opportunities to discuss their mentoring experiences and the incorporation of new approaches that emphasize diversity and inclusion. A structured mentored research experience with support for protected time for the investigator and the mentors was also implemented. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Four investigators and their mentors have received the Mentor-Mentee Award (100% PhD, 75% female, 50% Assistant Professor, 75% ESI, 75% with mentors from the mainland United States). Their program’s evaluation will be presented. Thirty-two (32) researchers have participated in the courses in Health Disparity and Scientific Communication. Support for grant writing was offered through a three-pronged approach: a webinar series, a course in Grantsmanship and a grant’s bootcamp. Twenty-four (24) mentors were certified, and over 30 training activities were offered to supply knowledge in areas previously identified in the needs assessment. We will present the complete curriculum, courses offerings, participants’ profiles, and productivity outcomes. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Alliance educational and mentoring supportive network increased the diversity of CTR workforce and prepared qualified researchers to address the Hispanics health needs. Collaborations with mainland researchers have expanded the PDC program’s reach and contributed to the enhancement of the Hispanic contribution to the health research ecosystem.

68 Visiting endowed chair: a new model to support Hispanics junior investigators

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Analyze how the Endowment HIREC ‘s Mentoring and Career Coach Model A productive mentoring relationship is essential to advance researchers into being independent and bring extramural funds. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Provide Hispanic researchers mentoring and career coaching to strengthen their pathway as researcher. The HiREC’s Career Coach and Mentoring Component (CCMC) is an innovated approach to support long-lasting research mentoring relationships in our institution. This approach was developed to advance research to eliminate health disparities, promote multidisciplinary translational research in a Minority Institution and sustain research infrastructure and services, career, and workforce development initiatives. Promising Faculty are target and early and mid-career investigators interested in pursuing a research career. To implement the CCMC with the Visiting Endowed Chair a HiREC Advisory Leadership Group in Mentoring will be established, with researchers from Puerto Rico, and US mainland. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Three Hispanic mid-career women from the School of Medicine and one from the School of Health Professions from the University of Puerto Rico received a HiREC Advanced Research Award of $50,000. The awardees achieved their goals; completed their research plan, research infrastructure needs, peer-reviewed publications, and submission of a competitive grant. They also provided successful perspectives on mentoring relationships in a Minority institution. Each one showed the mentor’s and mentee’s experiences as fundamental for their research advancements, productivity, leadership, and successful results. HiIREC’s mentoring component with the Visiting Endowed Chairs improves a healthy work environment and expands the research agenda for each awardee sustaining the institutional research culture. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: A productive mentoring relationship is essential to advance researchers into being independent and bring extramural funds. Four mentees received formal, long-term guidance and endowment funds for their research infrastructure requirements with successful outcomes. HiREC contributes to building up an institutional mentoring program.

Developing research programs that align with the clinical mission

Building a competitive research program within a department of surgery requires a significant commitment by the department and the institution to provide the necessary resources for faculty recruitment, retention of current faculty, and physical space/infrastructure to support research activities. We expanded the academic footprint of our department as demonstrated by the expansion of the department of surgery research funding by 13-fold over a period of 7 years, resulting in an increase in national ranking from 55th place to 10th place in the National Institutes of Health extramural funding. This required attention to multiple factors that affect the ability of faculty to establish and maintain competitive research programs. We executed a plan that established a leadership structure that coordinates resources and provides mentorship to faculty. The department invested heavily in the recruitment of new faculty, especially junior faculty, but also some mid-career and senior investigators to develop a critical mass in specific areas for competitive large grant and program project applications. The pipeline of new trainees interested in research was augmented by successful training grant applications that created a mechanism by which residents and fellows can pursue research for periods ranging from a few weeks to 2 years. Administrative infrastructure was created to assist faculty in grant submissions as well as post-award management. Finally, in partnership with institutional leadership, the department acquired the physical space necessary to support both dry-lab and wet-lab research activities. To achieve true excellence, an academic surgery department must maintain excellence in both the clinical and research areas, which, in the context of an academic medical center, are not separate goals.

Moving a research lab during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created additional challenges for mid-career investigators seeking new academic opportunities. JCB asked scientists to share their experiences of uprooting their research careers and laboratories during the pandemic.

4231 Identifying Educational Needs of Researchers and Health System and Health Agency Leaders in the Science of Implementation and Improvement: Report from California CTSAs

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: We conducted interviews with investigators, clinicians, and health system and health agency leaders to assess regional educational needs in implementation and improvement science, including content (knowledge and skill), format, experiential learning, and mentoring, to identify barriers and guide planning. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Five CTSAs in the University of California Biomedical Research Acceleration, Integration, & Development consortium (UC BRAID) plus a fifth affiliated CTSA developed a common protocol and interviewed 31 California-based learners (current fellows, early and mid-career investigators, clinicians, and health agency personnel) and system leaders from health care and health agencies. Interviews focused on impact goals, educational needs in dissemination, implementation, and improvement (DII) science, challenges in DII research, preferred learning formats, desired proficiencies and skills, and barriers such as cost, time, awareness, terminology, and suitability and availability of training. A rapid review of literature identified potential domains of knowledge and skills for a proposed curriculum. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Areas of emphasis varied among interviewees; identified learning needs differed between traditional research perspectives (emphasizing areas such as partner engagement, grant writing, frameworks, study design) and applied perspectives (emphasizing areas such as managing change, complex systems, learning system capacity). Learners had a range of preferences; most interviewees desired formats that are longitudinal, experiential, applied, cooperative, and affordable. Variation in knowledge of, and interpretations of, DII terms and goals limited the ability of some interviewees to specify educational needs. A synthesis reveals areas for potential future co-development and networked approaches to regional training and capacity enhancement. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: In response to a rapidly changing health landscape, our academic health systems are developing capabilities to improve care for their populations. Our work informs the training and education needs that are critical to translation at a system-wide level. Regional convenings can raise awareness while translational programs fill educational gaps.

The Next Generation Researchers Initiative at NIH

Growing concerns about the wellbeing and stability of the biomedical research workforce are well documented. Over the last 15 years (since the end of the doubling of the NIH budget), we have observed worsening “hypercompetition” as more scientists vie for fewer available dollars (1, 2). Within this hypercompetitive environment, the research workforce is growing older at a rate that is disproportionate to the general American labor force (3). Late-career investigators have been awarded a greater proportion of available research funding, raising concerns that early-career investigators risk being crowded out of the workforce before they have a chance to launch independent scientific careers (3). Other analysts have suggested that adverse effects are also being felt by midcareer investigators (4); large numbers of meritorious investigators may achieve research independence only to lose it because they are unable to renew their one grant or obtain a second new grant. Fig. 1. The NIH hopes its latest initiative will improve the grant-funding prospects for early- and midcareer investigators. Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Stephen_Payne. In our latest effort to tackle this problem, the NIH is launching the “Next Generation Researchers Initiative,” first announced in June. We believe this initiative will help ameliorate these difficult issues in a direct data-driven manner (5) by taking substantive steps to increase funding opportunities for early- and midcareer investigators. It is not entirely clear why early- and midcareer investigators are disproportionately affected by hypercompetition. Some worry about a review bias that favors more-experienced and better-known researchers (5), making it easier for them to get their applications favorably received at peer review. Others have suggested a resiliency factor (4): experienced, well-networked scientists may hold more than one grant or have access to greater sums of grant and private money, making it easier for them to weather the effects of rejected applications. Regardless of … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: Michael.Lauer{at}nih.gov. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Shifting Demographics among Research Project Grant Awardees at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

The present study was initiated because of concerns expressed by NHLBI-funded mid-career investigators regarding perceived difficulties in the renewal of their grant awards. This led us to ask: “Are mid-career investigators experiencing disproportionate difficulties in the advancement of their professional careers?” Our portfolio analysis indicates that there has been a significant and evolving shift in the demographics of research project grant (RPG) awardees at NHLBI. In 1998, mid-career (ages 41–55) investigators constituted approximately 60% of all investigators with the remaining 40% being equally divided between early-stage (ages 24–40) investigators and established (ages 56 to 70 and older) investigators. However, since 1998, the proportion of established RPG awardees has been increasing in a slowly progressive and strikingly linear fashion. At the same time the proportion of early-stage awardees fell precipitously until 2006 and then stabilized. During the same period, the proportion of mid-career awardees, which had been relatively stable through 2006, began to fall significantly. In examining potential causes of these demographic shifts we have identified certain inherent properties within the RPG award system that appear to promote an increasingly more established awardee population and a persistent decrease in the proportion of mid-career investigators. A collateral result of these demographic shifts, when combined with level or declining funding, is a significant reduction in the number of RPG awards received by NHLBI mid-career investigators and a corresponding decrease in the number of independent research laboratories.

Canadian M.D.-Ph.D. Programs Produce Impactful Physician-Scientists: The McGill Experience

On June 18, 2015, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) announced that it would terminate funding to M.D.-Ph.D. programs due to budget constraints, against the recommendations from two advisory panels. CIHR’s M.D.-Ph.D. program grants, which amounted to an annual average of $1.8 million in the form of 14 six-year studentships, represent only 0.15% of CIHR’s $1.2 billion operating budget. As over half of M.D.-Ph.D. trainees are dependent on these studentships, this poses a threat to physician-scientist training in Canada. In response to the current volatile funding climate, we surveyed McGill University’s M.D.-Ph.D. program alumni to assess its success in producing physician-scientists. In this program, 60.0% of graduates who have completed training have become physician-scientists, the majority being retained in Canada. These individuals have attained positions with sufficiently protected time for research and had grant success and significant publications for early- to mid-career investigators. This suggests that the current M.D.-Ph.D. system is an effective way of producing competent physician-scientists. As physician-scientists have remarkably contributed to Canadian healthcare innovation despite making up a fraction of physicians and researchers, vulnerability in the M.D.-Ph.D. pipeline would invariably affect the health of Canadians.

The Largest Drought in American History: Funding for Science Is Drying Up

The Largest Drought in American History: Funding for Science Is Drying Up

Outcomes from a Mentored Research Boot Camp: Focused Investigator Training (FIT) Program

To evaluate the change in mentee self-efficacy with regard to research, number of grant submissions, and total amount of new monies awarded to graduates of a novel, mentored, investigator-training program-the Focused Investigator Training (FIT) Program. Retrospective observational analysis. American College of Clinical Pharmacy Research Institute. Fifty-five mentees from the 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 FIT Programs. The FIT Program is a novel, intensive, 5-day, mentored development "boot camp" for mid-career investigators holding research-intensive positions. The program consists of proposal groups of two mentors and two-four mentees, one-on-one office hours, lectures, panel discussions, directed readings, and small group sessions. Twelve highly successful researchers and biostatisticians were recruited as mentors. Mentees submitted a detailed proposal and received faculty feedback before the program. The main outcomes of the FIT Program were mentee self-efficacy with regard to research, number of grant submissions, and total amount of new monies awarded to 2008 and 2009 FIT Program graduates. Univariate statistical analysis was conducted to determine characteristics of those FIT attendees with subsequent successful grantsmanship. A combined measure of self-confidence in successful grantsmanship was significantly increased after completion of the FIT program. More than $2.7 million was funded to FIT graduates as principal investigators, and as coinvestigators or subcontractors, an additional $382,000 was awarded in new funds. Seven mentees from the 2008 and 2009 classes received new federal funding, mostly through various K-type award mechanisms. The FIT Program was associated with a significant increase in attendees' self-efficacy for obtaining external research funding. Program attendance was associated with numerous successfully funded grants by pharmacist investigators. Future FIT Program success hinges on attracting adequate numbers of qualified applicants.

Echocardiography in Pediatric and Adult Congenital Heart Disease

Benjamin W. Eidem, MD, FACC, FASE; Frank Cetta, MD, FACC, FASE; and Patrick W. O’Leary, MD, FACC, FASE, eds. 500 pages. Philadelphia, USA: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2010. $229.00 ISBN 0-7817-8136-1 It has been nearly 8 years since a textbook on echocardiography specifically for pediatric congenital heart disease (CHD) has been published. A specific work on both pediatric and adult CHD emphasizing imaging is a new endeavor. Three expert senior clinicians from the Mayo Clinic are the editors and primary authors of this multiauthor textbook, which includes young investigators, midcareer investigators, and senior experts in pediatric and congenital heart echocardiography and imaging from around the United States and Canada. In their Introduction, the editors, citing the evolution of echocardiography, remind us of the major contributions of Drs James Seward and Jamil Tajik and Drs William Edwards and Donald Hagler to the field of 2-dimensional echocardiography and CHD in 1987, after the original investigations of M-mode echocardiography and 2-dimensional echocardiography by this reviewer (D.J.S.). Richard Meyer and Nils Lundstrom, the editors of this new text, also, in their Introduction, give special attention to Dr. Edwards, the renowned cardiac pathologist and a major resource. This textbook is well organized. The first chapter relates to principles of cardiovascular ultrasound, followed by practical issues, anatomic orientation, and segmental cardiovascular analysis; quantitative methods for echocardiography, basic and advanced; and then lesion-oriented chapters, including pulmonary venous abnormalities and abnormalities of the atrial septum, atrial ventricular septal defects, Ebstein malformation, mitral valve abnormalities, congenitally corrected transposition, ventricular septal defects, univentricular connections, …

Drug Abuse Research: Today and Tomorrow

Many of the papers in this theme issue originated as presentations at a conference entitled “Reflections on 40 Years of Drug Abuse Research.” At the conference, leaders in the drug abuse field presented their work, as well as their visions and concerns for the future of drug abuse research, and many of those presentations are included as papers in this issue of the Journal of Drug Issues. At the end of the conference, and after hearing presentations from senior researchers in the field, several mid-career investigators were invited to reflect on the conference and on the field of drug abuse research at this time in its history. This brief article offers reactions to the conference, in terms of its meaning for the future of drug abuse research.