Dear Colleague Letter: Input from the research community on the barriers that the next generation of researchers face as they aspire to and maintain independent research careers. | International Papers: Commissioned papers examining support for the next generation of researchers in other countries and regions. | Responses to Recommendations: Relevant recommendations were collected from key reports dating back to 2005 and researchers documented the responses to those recommendations. |  |  |  |
PROJECT SCOPE
An ad hoc committee overseen by the Board on Higher Education and Workforce (BHEW), in collaboration with COSEMPUP, BOSE, and HMD, will conduct a study that examines the policy and programmatic steps that the nation can undertake to ensure the successful launch and sustainment of careers among the next generation of researchers in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, including the full range of health sciences supported by the NIH. The study will examine evidence-based programs and policies that can reduce barriers to, and create more opportunities for, successful transitions to independent research careers. It will also examine factors that influence the stability and sustainability of the early stages of independent research careers.
The study will include: • An evaluation of the barriers that prospective researchers encounter as they transition to independent research careers. Such barriers may include inadequate career guidance and support, insufficient access to fellowships and traineeships that may provide broad exposure to research experiences, inability to compete successfully for initial research grant awards, and postdoctoral experiences that limit options for pursuing independent research careers;
• An evaluation of the impact of federal policies and budgets, including federal agency policies and procedures regarding research grant awards, on opportunities for prospective researchers to successfully transition into independent research careers and to secure their all-important first and second major research grants;
• An evaluation of the extent to which employers (industry, government agencies and labs, academic institutions, and others) can facilitate smooth transitions for early career researchers into independent research careers.
The committee will issue a report with recommendations for federal and institutional policies to improve the transition into careers for the next generation of researchers in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, including the full range of health sciences supported by the NIH. The report's main focus will be on addressing hurdles to and the transition points into independent research careers.
For more information on this study please contact Lida Beninson (lbeninson@nas.edu).
INTERNATIONAL COMMISSIONED PAPERS FOR NEXT GENERATION RESEARCHERS INITIATIVE REPORT
RESPONSES TO RECOMMENDATIONS IN PREVIOUS REPORTS ON BIOMEDICAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCHERS The Committee on the Next Generation Researchers Initiative is not the first to examine the challenges early investigators face in starting independent research careers. Indeed, over the past few decades, a number of groups have issued high-profile reports examining concerns about the biomedical and behavioral research enterprise and the investigators trained to carry out that research. Relevant recommendations were collected from key reports dating back to 2005 and researchers documented the responses to those recommendations. The document of those responses is available here: Responses to Recommendations in Previous Report on Biomedical and Behavioral Researchers
MEETINGS AND AGENDA
January 8-9, 2017 First committee meeting at the National Academies Building in Washington, DC. Public Agenda Presenter Slides: - Dr. Michael Lauer, Deputy Director for Extramural Research at the National Institutes of Health
- Dr. Rory Goodwin, Neurosurgery Resident, The Johns Hopkins Hospital
- Dr. Misty Heggeness, Chief of Longitudinal Research, Evaluation, and Outreach, U.S. Census Bureau
- Dr. Kenneth Gibbs, Program Director, Division on Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity at the National Institute of General Medicine
April 2-3, 2017 Second committee meeting at the National Academies Building in Washington, DC. Public Agenda Presenter Slides:
July 12-13, 2017 Third committee meeting at Sanofi in Cambridge, MA. Sanofi 270 Albany Street Public Agenda Presenter Slides: - Dr. Marc Bonnefoi, Head of R&D France, Sanofi
- Dr. Dennis Dean, II, R&D Scientists, Seven Bridges Genomics
- Jim Mullen, CEO, Patheon
- Dr. Susan Baserga, Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University
- Dr. Stephen Haggarty, Director of Chemical Neurobiology Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Dr. Steven Hyman, Directory, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research and Core Member, Broad Institute
September 14-15, 2017 Fourth committee in San Francisco, CA. University of California San Francisco Genetech Hall 600 16th St Public Agenda Presenter Slides: October 29-30, 2017 Fifth committee meeting in Baltimore, MD. The Johns Hopkins University Closed meeting
April 12, 2018; 1:30-3:30pm Public release of the pre-publication: The Next Generation of Biomedical and Behavioral Researchers: Breaking Through National Academies of Sciences 500 5th Street NW COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Chair
Ronald J. Daniels, JD, LLM President Johns Hopkins University
Committee Members
Nancy Andrews, MD, PhD, (NAS/NAM) Dean and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Duke University School of Medicine
W. Travis Berggren, PhD Founding Director for the Stem Cell Research Core Facility Salk Institute
Sue Biggins, PhD Associate Director in the Division of Basic Sciences Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
John Boothroyd, PhD (NAS) Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Education Stanford University | David R. Burgess, PhD Professor of Biology Boston College
Kafui Dzirasa, MD, PhD Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Duke Univeristy
Giovanna Guerrero-Medina, PhD Executive Director Ciencia Puerto Rico
Judith Kimble, PhD (NAS) Vilas Professor in the Department of Biochemistry University of Wisconsin-Madison Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Story Landis, PhD (NAM) Former Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke National Institutes of Health
Kenneth Maynard, PhD Head Global Patient Safety Evaluation and Business Partners Relations Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Inc | Gary S. McDowell, PhD Executive Director The Future of Research, Inc Jessica Polka, PhD Visiting Scholar Whitehead Institute
Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH, MS, MBA (NAM) Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership and Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School
Lana R. Skirboll, PhD Vice President of Academic and Scientific Affairs Sanofi
Paula Stephan, PhD Professor of the Department of Economics Georgia State University
Maria Elena Zavala, PhD Professor of Biology California State University |
STAFF Lida Beninson, Study Director and Program Officer Tom Rudin, Director Maria Lund Dahlberg, Associate Program Officer Layne Scherer, Program Officer Jay Labov, Senior Advisor for Education and Communication Irene Ngun, Research Associate Elizabeth Garbee, Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow (Until April 2018) Adriana Courembis, Finance Officer Austen Applegate, Senior Program Assistant Yasmeen Hussain, Associate Program Officer (Unitl July 2017) Jaime Colman, Senior Program Assistant (Until December 2017)
SPONSORS
* Public Comment: Any comments or material you submit to the committee, including your name and identifying information, will be listed in the Public Access File for the Committee on the Next Generation Researchers, in compliance with Section 15 of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). By submitting comments, you acknowledge and agree that the National Academies will be authorized to use any such comments or submissions in the committee’s report or related materials in accordance with the institution’s Terms of Use Statement, which includes the granting of a Nonexclusive License. This website contains unedited verbatim presentations by individuals and is not an official report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Opinions and statements included in this material are solely those of the individual authors. They have not been verified as accurate, nor do they necessarily represent the views of other meeting participants, the planning committee, or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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