Assessment of NIH Minority Research and Training Programs Phase 3 (2005) / Chapter Skim
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5 Postdoctoral Training Opportunities: Postdoctorate Fellows and Junior Faculty
5 Postdoctoral Training Opportunities: Postdoctorate Fellows and Junior Faculty
Pages 121-134
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From page 121... ...
By 2001, the number of science and engineering postdoctoral trainees had increased to nearly 22,000 and the number in the biological sciences had increased to over 12,000.52 Despite the growth in the number of postdoctoral trainees, minorities remain underrepresented in postdoctoral positions in science and engineering in general and in the biological sciences in particular. In 2001, less than 7 percent of science and engineering postdocs were underrepresented minorities; within the biological sciences, only 6 percent of postdocs were underrepresented minorities.
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From page 122... ...
Family leave is vastly better if you are on a research grant than if you are on a training grant. When NIH institutes hire postdocs, they get full government benefits, whereas those who are supported on training grants, which are supposedly equivalent positions, are not treated anywhere near as well." Further, there are no standards or benchmarks of achievement for postdoctoral training as there are in the medical or legal professions, for example.
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From page 123... ...
Candidates for this award must have a research or health professional doctorate and be senior postdoctoral trainees or junior faculty members at the time of application. In addition, the candidate must be able to demonstrate the need for three to five years of additional supervised research, as well as the capacity and/or the potential for highly productive independent research.
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From page 124... ...
They were open-ended and used an ethnographic interviewing style. There are no PARI interviews for the K01 or K08 awards, because they are awarded to individual investigators rather than institutions, as with institutional training grants.
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From page 125... ...
This was expected because the T32 mechanism is the largest of the mechanisms that met the committee's selection criteria. All of the 71 junior faculty trainees held K01 Career Development awards.
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From page 126... ...
was the only doctorate they earned; considerably fewer had M.D.s; and very few had M.D.-Ph.D.s. During their postdoctoral training, trainees had multiple career goals.
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From page 127... ...
Mentored URM 11 11 4 4 0 Clinical Scientist Non-URM 154 140 5 0 5 Development Unknown 14 14 2 0 2 Awards Total 179 165 11 4 7 Targeted (K-01) Mentored URM 17 17 10 7 3g Scientist Development Awards (Junior Faculty)
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From page 128... ...
hAmong the 24 non-URM in the nontargeted K01 junior faculty program who were interviewed, one selfidentified as African-American. Most trainees were married or in long-term relationships, although minority trainees were somewhat more likely to be so than nonminority trainees and trainees in targeted programs were more likely to have dependent children.
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From page 129... ...
Second is that more than one-half of the minority postdoctoral respondents felt that their race affected their training experience in some way. Third, minority postdoctoral trainees were more likely to report that the next step taken in their career path was to obtain another postdoctoral assignment.
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From page 130... ...
For trainees in nontargeted programs, nearly all reported that their mentors or PIs were nonminorities. Minority trainees in targeted training programs were more likely than others to report having a mentor who was also a minority.
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From page 131... ...
Postdoctoral respondents who are awarded the K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Awards responded similarly to their junior faculty counterparts, with one obvious exception: they viewed a faculty position as the important next step in their career paths. Finally, the K08 Mentored Clinical Scientists Development Award is dedicated to providing research opportunities for persons with clinical backgrounds.
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From page 132... ...
It formed the basis for clinical research later in my career." The importance for career development was stressed by a respondent who stated, "The award gave me the opportunity for protected time and research support. It allowed me to obtain independent R01 funding and to be promoted." Another respondent stated that the award "gave me a chance to really launch an independent research career." Finally, one award recipient described the award thusly, "The K01 was the most important thing in my career at a difficult time." Characteristics of Junior Faculty Forty-three interviews were conducted with junior faculty who were awarded a K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award.
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From page 133... ...
Recruitment into the Program The T32 Institutional training programs actively recruit predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees and graduate students. According to the program administrators interviewed for this study, the recruiting efforts of the training programs vary according to the nature of the host institution.
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From page 134... ...
The career development awards provided advanced mentoring opportunities for awardees and helped senior postdoctoral trainees and junior faculty members make the critical transition to research independence.
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