Research Proposal Research Articles

Commitment to corporate social entrepreneurship in the context of a health crisis: The case of the scientist–entrepreneur couple who founded BioNTech

ABSTRACT If corporate social responsibility (CSR) calls for a virtuous process in which health for all becomes egalitarian, ethical and equitable, the health crisis (COVID-19) revealed certain limitations to this process. The aim of our research is to identify the limitations that can hinder corporate social entrepreneurship (CSE)’s commitment of coentrepreneurs (founders of BioNTech) in the dissemination of “their” vaccine in the context of a health crisis. The difficulties encountered in disseminating the Comirnaty vaccine (Pfizer–BioNTech) on the African continent are exemplary in this respect. A literature review presents the concept of CSE associated with the contributive advantage concept in the creation of social and economic values. We then present two research proposals: How can CSE influence the double CSR performance (social and economic) of copreneurs? What kinds of limitations may hinder CSE’s commitment to success in a health crisis context? Are ethics and profit always reconcilable? Concerning the research method, we use a qualitative approach with the investigation of a unique case study of the scientist–entrepreneur couple who founded BioNTech and led the Lightspeed project that gave birth to the Comirnaty vaccine Concerning the results by showing how CSE could expand the scope of companies’ activities and their organizational values, we are pushing them to rethink their current CSR approaches by combining team commitment, will, and desire to create common economic and social values. We also have illustrated a promising path for practitioners in a crisis context, where they can achieve their economic and social objectives to take a sustainable advantage.

Are numerical scores important for grant assessment? A cross-sectional study

Background: In the evaluation of research proposals, reviewers are often required to provide their opinions using various forms of quantitative and qualitative criteria. In 2020, the European Commission removed, for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Innovative Training Networks (ITN) funding scheme, the numerical scores from the individual evaluations but retained them in the consensus report. This study aimed to assess whether there were any differences in reviewer comments’ linguistic characteristics after the numerical scoring was removed, compared to comments from 2019 when numerical scoring was still present. Methods: This was an observational study and the data were collected for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Innovative Training Networks (ITN) evaluation reports from the calls of 2019 and 2020, for both individual and consensus comments and numerical scores about the quality of the research proposal on three evaluation criteria: Excellence, Impact and Implementation. All comments were analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program. Results: For both years, the comments for proposal’s strengths were written in a style that reflects objectivity, clout, and positive affect, while in weaknesses cold and objective style dominated, and that pattern remained stable across proposal status and research domains. Linguistic variables explained a very small proportion of the variance of the differences between 2019 and 2020 (McFadden R2=0.03). Conclusions: Removing the numerical scores was not associated with the differences in linguistic characteristics of the reviewer comments. Future studies should adopt a qualitative approach to assess whether there are conceptual changes in the content of the comments.

Insights into research activities of senior dental students in the Middle East: A multicenter preliminary study

BackgroundDespite the increasing recognition of the importance of research in undergraduate dental education, limited studies have explored the nature of undergraduate research activities in dental schools in the Middle East region. This study aimed to evaluate the research experience of final year dental students from three dental schools in the Middle East.MethodsA descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among final-year dental students from three institutions, namely Jordan University of Science and Technology, University of Sharjah (UAE), and Oman Dental College. Participants were asked about the nature and scope of their research projects, the processes involved in the research, and their perceived benefits of engaging in research.Results A total of 369 respondents completed the questionnaire. Cross-sectional studies represented the most common research type (50.4%), with public health (29.3%) and dental education (27.9%) being the predominant domains. More than half of research proposals were developed via discussions with instructors (55.0%), and literature reviews primarily utilized PubMed (70.2%) and Google Scholar (68.5%). Regarding statistical analysis, it was usually carried out with instructor’s assistance (45.2%) or using specialized software (45.5%). The students typically concluded their projects with a manuscript (58.4%), finding the discussion section most challenging to write (42.0%). The research activity was considered highly beneficial, especially in terms of teamwork and communication skills, as well as data interpretation skills, with 74.1% of students reporting a positive impact on their research perspectives.ConclusionsThe research experience was generally positive among surveyed dental students. However, there is a need for more diversity in research domains, especially in qualitative studies, greater focus on guiding students in research activities s, especially in manuscript writing and publication. The outcomes of this study could provide valuable insights for dental schools seeking to improve their undergraduate research activities.

Meeting social welfare legal needs in end-of-life care: co-creation of a system-wide research partnership.

Social welfare legal needs (matters of daily life, such as finances, housing and employment with legal rights, entitlements or protections) are prevalent towards end of life, creating significant difficulties for both patients and carers. Most people do not know where to go, although a range of services provide advice and support for addressing social welfare legal problems. Navigating this complex and fragmented system across health, social care and social welfare legal support is very challenging. Healthcare professionals are often the first contact for social welfare legal needs, although these are often overlooked and their impact on health and well-being unrecognised. Interprofessional learning can increase awareness of social welfare legal needs and build connections between service providers, offering a more holistic and cohesive multiagency response to the complex needs around end of life. The aim of the research was to co-create a robust foundation for cross-agency research investigating the impact of interprofessional learning on social welfare legal needs towards end of life in the North East England region. Convene a research partnership group across academics, multiagency service providers and members of the public with lived experience. Consider and agree key issues for successful place-based multiagency research in this area. Co-create a complexity-appropriate research proposal with interprofessional learning as an intervention. A series of research activities was implemented to convene a multiagency partnership group and consider the key issues for successful place-based multiagency research. Data were collected from two online workshops, an optional reflective workbook, and a modified Delphi technique. Initial participants were selectively recruited from our established stakeholder and patient and public involvement groups. Increasing diversity of the partnership continued throughout the project, using contacts provided by group members. Representation of services supporting underserved groups was a priority. All invited participants were recruited to the partnership, although contribution to research activities was variable. The partnership bridged knowledge gaps between services and united diverse perspectives, expertise and experience. A greater understanding of the barriers and opportunities for place-based multiagency working was generated, such as considering the importance of language in facilitating collaboration and responding to concerns around capacity. A non-hierarchical partnership was meaningful, with both personal and professional insights viewed as equally important. Facilitators to engagement with interprofessional learning were identified including the need for leadership endorsement. A non-traditional, mixed-method approach to interprofessional learning evaluation was favoured, with both qualitative and quantitative measures at three levels: patient and carer, professional learners and organisations. Important outcomes included raising awareness, connectedness and space to reflect. The partnership group expanded throughout the course of the project. While this extended diversity, variable participation hindered depth of discussion, with participants engaging at different points and with different understanding levels of the project. Supplementary materials provided some mitigation. Capacity and funding constraints limited engagement for some participants. Convening a multiagency partnership generated insights into the benefits, barriers and facilitators to research co-design and potential measures of success of interprofessional learning. Learning from this project has informed a complexity-appropriate research proposal to evaluate the impact of interprofessional learning as an intervention across different stakeholders. This article presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme as award number NIHR135276.

S12-06 Finding European research funding and writing a competitive research proposal

S12-06 Finding European research funding and writing a competitive research proposal

AKTIVIZACIA KOOPERACIE UCITELLA 1. ROCNIKA ZAKLADNEJ SKOLY S RODICMI ZACINAJUCICH SKOLAKOV PROSTREDNICTVOM AUTORSKEHO PODPORNEHO PROGRAMU

The submitted contribution is a research proposal for a dissertation. The subjects of our research are parents of beginning schoolchildren, teachers and pupils of the 1st year of primary schools. The primary goals of the intended dissertation research are the investigation of the meaning of the teacher's deliberate cooperation with the parents of beginning schoolchildren in the adaptation process, the concept and application of the author's support programme. As part of the design and application of the author's support programme, our goal is to analyze and evaluate impact and effectiveness for the achieved level of adaptation of pupils to the primary school environment, their school success in initial education and increasing the pedagogical readiness of parents. The planned research is focused on the processing and evaluation of research data obtained by the experiment method with parents of beginning schoolchildren, teachers and pupils of the 1st years of primary schools.

Grouping research proposals with funding agency requirements: A contextualized language model and constrained K-means clustering approach

As the volume of research proposals increases and the interdisciplinary nature of research fields exacerbates the complexity of manual proposal grouping, the grouping of research proposals becomes increasingly vital in funding agencies’ evaluation procedures. Although previous ontology- and word embedding-based approaches have made valuable contributions to the advancement of research proposal grouping, their practical utility has been limited due to a lack of consideration of funding agencies’ requirements. This study proposes a systematic approach for grouping research proposals that aligns with three common requirements: size, cannot-link, and must-link constraints. The proposed approach utilizes KLUE-RoBERTa for proposal vectorization and constrained K-means clustering for proposal grouping with size constraints. We introduce a proposal pre-partitioning and a proposal vector centralization to simultaneously consider the cannot- and must-link constraints in grouping proposals. An empirical analysis of 3,665 proposals submitted to the National Research Foundation of Korea demonstrates the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed approach. Additionally, we conduct a comparative analysis of various combinations of methodological components to optimize this approach. The proposed approach is considered a valuable complementary tool for grouping proposals, enhancing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the proposal evaluation system.

Professional firefighters: Findings from the National Wellness Survey for Public Safety Personnel.

Professional firefighters are routinely exposed to occupational stressors that place them at a higher risk of developing mental health symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress. This article discusses findings of the National Wellness Survey for Public Safety Personnel, specifically the stressors that professional firefighters are exposed to on the job and their impact. Results indicated high levels of both occupational and individual stressors in this group. Common occupational and personal stressors and mental health symptomology endorsed by professional firefighters are discussed. Findings also revealed that about 40% of professional firefighters are facing clinically substantial levels of anxiety and depression, and more than 10% are experiencing clinically significant levels of posttraumatic stress disorder in numbers surpassing the general population. Most professional firefighters indicated being adversely impacted by their duties but did not want to utilize services, which is in line with prior research. Suggestions for assisting professional firefighters in mitigating occupational and personal stress are presented, and proposals for future research are provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Dimensions of the psychological image of scenes of war horrors in Otto Dix’s productions

he current research (the dimensions of the psychological image of scenes of the horrors of war in the productions of Auto Dix) included four chapters, the first included the research problem (what is the nature of the dimensions of the psychological image of the scenes of the horrors of war in the productions of Auto Dix?), the importance of the research, and the goal of the research represented by (identifying the dimensions of the image Psychological scenes of the horrors of war in Otto Dix's productions. Then the limits of the research are concerned with studying the works of the artist (Dix) that were produced in (Germany) within the year (1924) and defining the terms. The second chapter (theoretical framework) included two sections: the first: the image is psychological and philosophical. The second: (Otto Dix) and the shocking accumulation of war scenes. Then come the indicators of the theoretical framework. The third chapter (research procedures) included the framework of the research community, the (4) research sample, a technical model, the research tool, the research methodology, and analysis of the research sample models. The fourth chapter included the research results, conclusions, recommendations and proposals, and a number of results, including:1. The reality of the psychological image of the artist (Dix) was influenced by the disturbing nightmare scenes that accompanied him during his life, resulting from his vision of scenes of murder and death.Then come the references, sources, and definitions included in the research.

Pelatihan Penelitian Tindakan Kelas bagi Guru MTs di Kota Palangkaraya

This service activity aimed to provide training to Madrasah Tsanawiyah teachers in compiling scientific papers in the form of Classroom Action Research. Apart from that, it trains teachers to carry out research activities in the classroom to develop their profession. The participants in this activity were 25 teachers at MTs Negeri 2 Palangka Raya. This activity was held in the Meeting Room of MTs Negeri 2 Palangka Raya on December 15 2023. Material was provided by Sabarun, M.Pd. which relates to guidelines for preparing scientific papers which consist of procedures in classroom action research and learning models that can be used in the teaching and learning process. This activity produces a draft proposal for Classroom Action Research using appropriate cycles. During the activity, participants were enthusiastic and produced PTK proposals with various titles. It could be showed that this service activity was running well and obtaining maximum results.

Advanced biology students' individual conceptions of scientific researchers after participating in biomedically relevant CRE.

While undergraduate research has been shown to be a high-impact educational practice, it is logistically impossible for all undergraduate biology majors to have long-term faculty-mentored research experience. Therefore, biology educators and researchers must devise opportunities to engage more students in undergraduate research outside of working directly in their labs. Course-Based Research Experiences (CREs), structured as authentic research experiences, are one such opportunity. In this work, we describe the effects of a CRE with biomedical relevance on students' research skills, attitudes toward science, and perceptions of scientific research and scientific researchers. Results demonstrate that students gained experience in independent research skills including designing their own research project, being accountable for part of a project, and writing a research proposal. Students' perceptions of scientific research and researchers, assessed by the Draw-A-Researcher Task, did not show changes among the whole group, but individual analysis yielded meaningful results related to students' personal changes in how they perceived research and researchers, including their perception of themselves as researchers. This work demonstrates the substantial impact of CREs on upper-level biology undergraduate and graduate students.

AI in essay-based assessment: Student adoption, usage, and performance

The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked debate in education about whether to ban AI tools for assessments. This study explores the adoption and impact of AI tools on an undergraduate research proposal assignment using a mixed-methods approach. From a sample of 187 students, 69 completed a survey, with 46 (67%) reporting the use of AI tools. AI-using students were significantly more likely to be higher-performing, with a pre-semester average GPA of 5.46 compared to 4.92 for non-users (7-point scale, p = .025). Most students used AI assistance for the highest-weighted components of the task, such as the research topic and methods section, using AI primarily for generating research ideas and gathering feedback. Regression analysis suggests that there was no statistically significant effect of AI use on student performance in the task, with the preferred regression specification estimating an effect size of less than 1 mark out of 100. The qualitative analysis identified six main themes of AI usage: idea generation, writing assistance, literature search, grammar checking, statistical analysis, and overall learning impact. These findings indicate that while AI tools are widely adopted, their impact on academic performance is neutral, suggesting a potential for integration into educational practices without compromising academic integrity.

Description and Evaluation of a Pharmacy Graduate Health Services Research Methods Course.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a description and evaluation of a graduate-level Health Services Research Methods course offered at the University of Arizona R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy. This three-credit, round-table discussion-style course introduces students to fundamental concepts in healthcare study design and teaches them how to design and critique example studies for a variety of commonly encountered study designs. The course is assessed through essay-style examinations, development of a research proposal, and low-stakes weekly assignments. Twenty-seven students have completed the course in the past five years. Feedback from student course surveys was almost unanimously positive, with few meaningful suggestions for improvement. The description and evaluation of a graduate-level Health Services Research Methods course at one institution indicates that students had a largely favorable experience with the course. Considerations for future revisions to the course are discussed alongside other lessons learned.

Building Equitable Research Partnerships: Learning From a Community Climate Resilience Grant Program

AbstractCalls for the co‐production of climate knowledge and services are increasingly prominent in research and funding proposals, including within federally funded programs. While co‐production has led to more accessible and relevant climate services for frontline communities, scholars have identified numerous barriers to equitable relationships and outcomes within co‐production partnerships. In an effort to support the development of climate services through equitable research partnerships, the Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast, a NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership team, collaboratively designed and launched the Community Climate Resilience (CCR) Grant competition in 2022. The CCR program serves to provide funding and build capacity among community‐based organizations (CBOs) responding to climate variability in historically disinvested communities in the urban Northeast, as well as foster co‐production partnerships between the organizations and local university‐based researchers. This paper assesses the design and implementation of the program based on data collected through a survey of research partners, discussions with key stakeholders, and observation of relevant project meetings. Despite the incorporation of lessons from similar co‐production projects, program designers found several persistent impediments to equitable partnerships, including time constraints, funding limitations, and burdensome institutional requirements. We reflect on these challenges and offer strategies for overcoming barriers to equitable partnerships, including streamlining funding pass‐through structures, increasing transparency in funding competitions, promoting flexible funding options, and fostering communities of practice among CBOs and university partners. The findings are relevant for researchers and practitioners implementing equity‐focused co‐production partnerships and small grant programs in climate services and related fields.

Ensuring employee privacy at the workplace: current state and problems

In the article, based on the analysis of national legislation, international documents, national and international judicial practice, the views of scientists, the issue of ensuring the employee’s right to privacy at the workplace is considered. It is noted that today domestic labor legislation does not yet enshrine this right (the employee’s right to privacy at the workplace), which, in turn, contributes to abuse by the employer, and leads not only to an unsatisfactory level of protection of the constitutional right to respect for private life, and in the future may lead to the international recognition of Ukraine as a state that does not provide an adequate level of such protection, particularly in the field of labor. It is emphasized that in the conditions of martial law, the right to privacy may be limited by law in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public order in order to prevent riots or crimes, to protect public health, to protect the reputation or rights of other people, to prevent the disclosure of information, received confidentially, or to maintain the authority and impartiality of justice. As a result, it was concluded that the right to privacy at the workplace, which should be guaranteed to all employees regardless of the type of employment relationship, industry affiliation or form of ownership of the enterprise, should be established at the legislative level, taking into account international experience and judicial practice. Since the regulation of all aspects of the employee’s right to privacy in the workplace in the Ukrainian legislation will prevent abuse by the employer of employee control measures. In particular, supporting the proposals of other researchers, it is proposed to supplement the Code of Labor Laws of Ukraine with a rule that when concluding, changing and terminating an employment contract, persons entering work and employees are guaranteed the right to privacy regarding their personal and family life. At the same time, the limits, grounds and conditions of the employer’s interference with the employee’s right to privacy must meet three criteria: the legal grounds for the interference, the legitimate purpose of the interference, and the proportionality of such interference to the stated goal.

Engineering Features From Advanced Medical Technology Initiative Submissions to Enable Predictive Modeling for Proposal Success.

The U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center Advanced Medical Technology Initiative (AMTI) demonstrate key emerging technologies related to military medicine. AMTI invites researchers to submit proposals for short-term funding opportunities that support this goal. AMTI proposal selection is guided by a time-intensive peer review process, where proposals are rated on innovation, military relevance, metrics for success, and return on investment. Utilizing machine learning (ML) could assist in proposal evaluations by learning relationships between proposal performance and proposal features. This research explores the viability of artificial intelligence/ML for predicting proposal ratings given content-based proposal features. Although not meant to replace experts, a model-based approach to evaluating proposal quality could work alongside experts to provide a fast, minimally biased estimate of proposal performance. This article presents initial stages of a project aiming to use ML to prioritize research proposals. The initial steps included a literature review to identify potential features. Then, these features were extracted from a dataset consisting of past proposals submissions. The dataset includes 824 proposals submitted to the AMTI program from 2010 to 2022. The analysis will inform a discussion of anticipated next steps toward developing a ML model. The following features were created for future modeling: requested funds; word count by section; readability by section; citations and partners identified; and term frequency-inverse document frequency word vectors. This initial process identified the top ranked words (data, health, injury, device, treatment, technology, etc.) among the abstract, problem to be solved, military relevance, and metrics/outcomes text proposal fields. The analysis also evaluated the text fields for readability using the Flesch readability scale. Most proposals text fields were categorized as "college graduate," indicating a challenging readability level. Finally, citations and partners were reviewed as an indicator of proposal successfulness. This research was the first stage of a larger project to explore the use of ML to predict proposal ratings for the purpose of providing automated support to proposal reviewers and to reveal the preferences and values of AMTI proposal reviewers and other decision-makers. The result of this work will provide practical insights regarding the review process for the AMTI program. This will facilitate reduction in bias for AMTI innovators and a streamlined and subjective process for AMTI administrators, which benefits the military health system overall.

The Application of Rehabilitation Sentences for Narcotics Addicts (Case Study of North Jakarta District Court Decision Number 115/Pid.Sus/2023/PN Jkt. Utr)

The crime of narcotics offenses is considered an extraordinary crime. Law Number 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics, Article 1 point 13, states that a Narcotics Addict is a person who uses or abuses Narcotics and is in a state of dependency on Narcotics, both physically and psychologically. Narcotic rehabilitation is one of the efforts to save addicts from the shackles of narcotics and the dangers that accompany them. There are three stages of narcotic rehabilitation in Indonesia: medical rehabilitation, non-medical rehabilitation, and advanced rehabilitation. The problem formulation in this study is how the rehabilitation punishment for narcotics addicts is applied and how the analysis of the considerations of the Panel of Judges of the North Jakarta District Court in imposing rehabilitation sanctions in decision number 1151/Pid.Sus/2023/PN Jkt.Utr. The type of research in this legal research proposal is normative legal research, focusing on the applicable legal norms, namely positive legal norms in the form of legislation. The results of the study show that the provisions for rehabilitation for narcotics addicts are stipulated in Articles 54 and 127 of Law Number 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics. Meanwhile, the classification of user groups is regulated in the Circular of the Supreme Court No. 4 of 2010 concerning the Placement of Abusers, Victims of Abuse, and Narcotics Addicts in Medical and Social Rehabilitation Institutions. The judge's basis for sentencing the Defendant to undergo treatment and/or care at a medical/social rehabilitation institution refers to the provisions of Article 103 jo Article 127 paragraph 2 jo Article 54 of the Republic of Indonesia Law No. 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics jo Circular of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia No. 4 of 2010 dated April 7, 2010, concerning the Placement of Abusers, Victims of Abuse, and Narcotics Addicts into Medical and Social Rehabilitation Institutions, as well as other legal facts revealed in the trial.

APPLYING BLOOM’S TAXONOMY IN NEUROSCIENCE: A PRACTICAL EXAMPLES

Bloom's Taxonomy serves as a structured framework in neuroscience education, guiding educators in designing, implementing, and assessing learning objectives across various cognitive levels.This abstract explores the practical application of Bloom's Taxonomy in teaching neuroscience concepts, offering insights into effective student engagement.In neuroscience education, Bloom's Taxonomy is invaluable for curriculum development, instructional strategies, and assessment methods. At the foundational "remembering" level, students recall neuroanatomical structures, physiological processes, or terminology. For example, they identify brain regions or recall neurotransmitter functions.Progressing to the "understanding" level, students comprehend neuroscientific principles.This entails explaining action potential propagation or neural pathways in sensory perception. Educators use case studies, discussions, or multimedia for deeper understanding.At the "applying" level, students apply neuroscience knowledge to solve real-world problems. They analyze clinical cases and propose interventions based on neuroanatomy and physiology understanding."Analyzing" prompts critical evaluation of neuroscience theories or research. This involves literature reviews, study critiques, or experiment design.Finally, at the highest level of "creating," students are challenged to synthesize their understanding of neuroscience concepts to generate novel ideas, designs, or solutions. This could entail developing research proposals, designing educational materials, or proposing innovative treatments for neurological disorders.

PELATIHAN METODE PENELITIAN KOMPREHENSIF BAGI KARYAWAN RUMAH SAKIT DI BAWAH YAYASAN JAMAAH HAJI KLATEN

The training program on comprehensive research methods for entities under the Jamaah Haji Klaten Foundation aims to equip participants with theoretical and practical skills for conducting applied research to address institutional problems. The training materials comprise content ranging from basic to medium levels. The chosen topics mostly relate to organizational and financial matters, which are most suitable for their organizational context. Participants are obliged to conduct their own research under the supervision of instructors. Five research proposals have been submitted and are currently under supervision.. Keywords: research methods, applied research, organizational context, financial context

Diving into research without wading through content: A skills-based cell biology course emphasizing the unknown.

In a typical undergraduate biology curriculum, students do not dive into research until they first wade through large amounts of content. Biology courses in the first few years of the college curriculum tend to be lecture-based and exam-based courses. As a result, science students are mainly exposed to content knowledge-not the skills scientists practice daily. While students may practice manual techniques in lab sections of lecture courses, the higher-level analytical research skills are reserved for the final semesters of college. To address this issue, we created an undergraduate cell biology course centered around practicing research skills, and fully accessible to students with no prerequisite content knowledge. In our course, students read primary literature (no textbooks) and were assessed by writing 12 analytical response papers and a full research proposal (no exams). Each student chose a topic for their semester-long project, conducted a literature review, and proposed future experiments-all in a stepwise fashion with plentiful feedback. The students' thorough comprehension of the primary literature, along with successful completion of the research proposals, shows that the course achieved its goals of building these skills-even in the nonbiology majors taking this pilot course. Pre- and post-survey results demonstrate that students gained feelings of confidence and preparedness for future research experiences. We envision a future model in which such a skills-based course replaces a more traditional cell biology course, giving students the opportunity to practice high-level analytical research skills from very early on in the undergraduate biology curriculum.