Exploring Professional Development for New Investigators Underrepresented in the Federally Funded Biomedical Research Workforce

Objective: The National Research Mentor­ing Network (NRMN) is a strategic partner­ship whose goals include remedying docu­mented disparities by race and ethnicity in the awarding of National Institutes of Health research grants. Our objectives were to offer a profile of early-career investigators who applied to NRMN’s Grantsmanship Coach­ing Programs (GCP) and test for differences in the research productivity, professional obligations, research resources, and motiva­tions of applicants from underrepresented groups (URGs) compared with applicants from well-represented groups (WRGs). We also evaluated how employment at a minority serving institution (MSI) influenced access to research resources and profes­sional obligations.Participants: 880 investigators who submit­ted online applications to join an NRMN GCP between August 1, 2015 and February 1, 2018.Methods: We used two-sample tests of pro­portions and logistic regression to explore differences in applicants’ characteristics and local research environment by group (URG vs WRG) and institution type (MSI vs Other).Results: URG and WRG applicants did not differ in grant application submission history. However, URG applicants had published fewer articles than WRG peers (9.8 vs 15.3, P<.001) and fewer articles as first/last author (4.4 vs 6.9, P<.001). URG appli­cants reported less access to core facilities to conduct research (74% vs 81%, P<.05). Investigators at MSIs reported less access to collaborators (P<.01) and departmental colleagues with federal funding (P<.001) and spent less time on conducting research (P<.001). URGs were more motivated to seek professional development support to expand their peer networks (P<.05) and advance their careers (P<.001).Conclusions: Our findings identified several points of intervention to help applicants from URGs to improve their future chances of obtaining competitive funding.Ethn Dis. 2019;29(Suppl 1): 123-128; doi:10.18865/ ed.29.S1.123

Ethnic group · Family medicine · Grantsmanship · Higher education · Logistic regression · Medical education · Political science · Underrepresented Minority · Workforce · Advances in Oncology and Radiotherapy · Diversity and Career in Medicine · Health and Medical Research Impacts · Medicine · Psychology · Internal Medicine