Transforming training to reflect the workforce

Mathur, Ambika; Meyers, Frederick J.; Chalkley, Roger; O'Brien, Theresa C.; Fuhrmann, Cynthia N.

doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aaa8200

Cited by 22 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…23 In line with the recent Coalition for Next Generation Life Science (NGLS) efforts, 24 many institutions are more transparent about their outcome data, publishing career outcomes, and TTD in manuscripts and on their websites. 25 Although this is not a defined goal of the BEST awards, it is aligned with the philosophies put forward by the consortium 10,11 and with recommendations of newly released reports and funding announcements. 5,26 One collaboration among a group of BEST awardees resulted in development of a career taxonomy that was adapted and adopted by a broader group of organizations as a unified taxonomy for biomedical careers 27 and is now used by a number of academic institutions and the NGLS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A second (and final) round of seven awards was made in 2014 and that group of awardees was brought into the consortium at the second annual meeting. 10 A series of Working Groups was initiated with membership established: Annual Meeting Committee, Outreach and Dissemination, etc. One site, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was awarded a competitive supplement to serve as a coordination hub, set up the consortium website (NIHBE ST.org) and run all the consortium meetings.…”

Section: Methods Of Managing the Program And The Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An initial project was to clearly articulate their common philosophy, which included providing opportunities for trainees to develop a strategic, skills-based approach to career planning to enable informed decision-making. 10 Given the NIH goal of disseminating their findings, the consortium documented and shared their work via their website (nihbest.org). They developed an outreach approach to share their work with the larger training community.…”

Section: The Best Consortiummentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The NIH “BEST” programs: Institutional programs, the program evaluation, and early data

Lenzi

Korn

Wallace³

et al. 2020

FASEB j.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biomedical research training has undergone considerable change over the past several years. At its core, the goal of graduate and postdoctoral training is to provide individuals with the skills and knowledge to become outstanding scientists and expand knowledge through the scientific method. Historically, graduate school training has focused on preparation for academic positions. Increasingly, however, a shift toward preparation for a wider range of career options has emerged. This is largely because most biomedical PhD graduates do not become Principal Investigators in academic laboratories. Here we describe an National Institutes of Health Common Fund program with the major goal of culture change for biomedical research training and training that prepares individuals for a broader expanse of careers in the biomedical research enterprise. These “Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training” (BEST) awards, issued in 2012 and 2013, provided support to institutions to develop innovative approaches to achieving these goals, as a complement to traditional training. Awardees were tasked with catalyzing change at their institutions and sharing best practices across the training community. Awardees were required to participate in a cross‐site evaluation that assessed the impact of BEST activities on three main areas: (a) trainee confidence and knowledge to make career decisions, (b) influence of this added activity on time in training, and (c) ability of the institutions to sustain activities deemed to be beneficial. Here we present the fundamental approach to the BEST program and early evaluative data.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methods Of Managing the Program And The Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Best Consortiummentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The NIH “BEST” programs: Institutional programs, the program evaluation, and early data

Lenzi

Korn

Wallace³

et al. 2020

FASEB j.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Ten grants were awarded in 2013 and seven in 2014, bringing together 17 sites that are trying different approaches, sharing ideas as a consortium, and participating in a cross-site evaluation led by the NIH. 24,25 Significantly, a number of other institutions not funded by the grant used the momentum to enact elements of their own proposed programs. For example, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine received funding from the university provost to launch an internship program for biomedical PhDs.…”

Section: How Did We Get Here? a National Movement That Brought Careermentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Graduate and Postdoctoral Education To Create a Sustainable Biomedical Workforce

Fuhrmann

2016

Human Gene Therapy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PhD-trained biomedical scientists are moving into an increasingly diverse variety of careers within the sciences. However, graduate and postdoctoral training programs have historically focused on academic career preparation, and have not sufficiently prepared trainees for transitioning into other scientific careers. Advocates for science have raised the concern that the collective disregard of the broader career-development needs for predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees could drive talent away from science in upcoming generations. A shift is occurring, wherein universities are increasingly investing in centralized career development programs to address this need. In this Perspective, I reflect on the movement that brought biomedical PhD career development to the spotlight in recent years, and how this movement has influenced both the academic biomedical community and the field of career development. I offer recommendations for universities looking to establish or strengthen their career development programs, including recommendations for how to develop a campus culture that values career development as part of pre- and postdoctoral training. I also suggest steps that faculty might take to facilitate the career development of their mentees, regardless of the mentee's career aspirations. Finally, I reflect on recent national efforts to incentivize innovation, evaluation, and research in the field of biomedical PhD career development, and propose actions that the scientific community can take to support biomedical career development further as a scholarly discipline. These investments will enable new approaches to be rigorously tested and efficiently disseminated to support this rapidly growing field. Ultimately, strengthening biomedical career development will be essential for attracting the best talent to science and helping them efficiently move into careers that will sustain our nation's scientific enterprise.

show abstract

“…These initial meetings offered an opportunity for the programs to share their ideas and concepts, identify common themes, roadblocks, and strategies, and develop working groups to continue sharing information, challenges, and successes on an ongoing basis. A report of the second annual BEST consortium meeting held in October 2014 summarizes some of these activities (13). Monthly awardee webinars and the formation of theme‐specific working groups further support communication and dissemination.…”

Section: Defining Aspects Of the Best‐funded Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The origin and implementation of the Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training programs: an NIH common fund initiative

et al. 2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent national reports and commentaries on the current status and needs of the U.S. biomedical research workforce have highlighted the limited career development opportunities for predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees in academia, yet little attention is paid to preparation for career pathways outside of the traditional faculty path. Recognizing this issue, in 2013, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund issued a request for application titled "NIH Director's Biomedical Research Workforce Innovation Award: Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST)." These 5-yr 1-time grants, awarded to 17 single or partnering institutions, were designed to develop sustainable approaches to broaden graduate and postgraduate training, aimed at creating training programs that reflect the range of career options that trainees may ultimately pursue. These institutions have formed a consortium in order to work together to develop, evaluate, share, and disseminate best practices and challenges. This is a first report on the early experiences of the consortium and the scope of participating BEST programs. In this report, we describe the state of the U.S. biomedical workforce and development of the BEST award, variations of programmatic approaches to assist with program design without BEST funding, and novel approaches to engage faculty in career development programs. To test the effectiveness of these BEST programs, external evaluators will assess their outcomes not only over the 5 yr grant period but also for an additional 10 yr beyond award

show abstract

Transforming training to reflect the workforce

Abstract: Twenty-first century training programs seek to provide the “BEST” graduate education for our future biomedical workforce.

Cited by 22 publications

References 3 publications

The NIH “BEST” programs: Institutional programs, the program evaluation, and early data

The NIH “BEST” programs: Institutional programs, the program evaluation, and early data

Enhancing Graduate and Postdoctoral Education To Create a Sustainable Biomedical Workforce

The origin and implementation of the Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training programs: an NIH common fund initiative

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About