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Trainee |
Abstract
To the graduating class of 2004, we extend our congratulations and wish you
much luck in the future. Remember, the American Society of Andrology is a
useful tool to be utilized in your job hunt. To aid in your quest, we thought
we would offer you some insight in how to go about that search. Take a look at
Dr Michael Palladino's piece on faculty positions. For all those still
plugging away, this is a good piece for you to hold onto until your time. To
everyone, enjoy the summer. Hit the beach with a good book or the Journal
article by Dr Donna Vogel who manages to debunk that great mystery we know as
grants. Whatever you do have a great summer!
by Dr Michael A. Palladino
Over the last 15 years, a relatively small number of new PhD graduates in
the biological sciences have been hired as faculty at research universities
compared to the much larger number of faculty hired at smaller teaching
colleges and universities that focus on undergraduate education. These
primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) offer many alternatives to
research universities and if you are interested in a gratifying career in
academia balancing teaching, research, and institutional service
responsibilities, a faculty position at a PUI may be ideal for you!
Faculty at PUIs are in a perfect position to serve as role models for future scientists (and excite undergraduates about andrology!). I was an undergraduate at a PUI and chose a career as a faculty member at a teaching university in large part because of a very positive experience as an undergraduate. In addition to teaching, life science faculty at most PUIs are typically expected to have an active research laboratory and contribute to institutional service primarily through committee work. Many teaching colleges and universities have a tenure and promotion process with fair expectations that value quality teaching, peer-reviewed scholarship, and service to the institution. Research productivity in the form of grants and publications is not the sole, nor necessarily the most important, measuring stick of success worthy of tenure and promotion.
From a teaching standpoint, PUIs offer small class sizes (12–25 students) with an opportunity to teach introductory courses and upper-division courses in one's areas of expertise. Faculty often teach both lecture and laboratory sections of a course. A typical undergraduate teaching load averages 9 to 12 credits per semester, which roughly equates to 2 sections of a course, depending on the number of credits per course and how the institution compensates faculty for student contact hours in lecture and lab. Relating to undergraduates, enthusiasm for the subject matter, and challenging expectations for student learning are crucial for succeeding at a PUI. Taking advantage of any teaching opportunities available to you, as a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow, is essential to help prepare you for teaching your own courses.
From a scholarship perspective, individual institutions define expectations for research productivity but typically a shared expectation of PUIs is that undergraduates play an essential and integrated role in faculty research, including presentations at meetings and publication. Research involving undergraduates is a delicate balancing act, which is often an exercise in teaching students about the process of doing research as much as it is an advancement of faculty scholarship. Sometimes the research advances at a 1-step-forward and 2-steps-backward pace! It is critical to pick projects that address important and valued questions in the discipline but yet are attainable without fear of excessive competition from more high-powered laboratories. The careful selection of students who really want to be in the lab and their involvement over several semesters will lead to research progress and have an invaluable impact on preparing undergraduates for graduate and medical school or for laboratory positions in industry. Forming collaborations can also be an excellent way to advance your research at PUI particularly if you need access to specialized equipment that is not available at your institution.
Most PUIs will offer start-up funds to develop your laboratory and many institutions also provide annual supply budgets and competitive internal sources of funding to support faculty research projects. Some PUIs have explicit expectations for external funding, whereas others encourage faculty to apply for funding but do not base tenure and promotion decisions on the amount of funding achieved. There are many funding sources and initiatives, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation programs, specifically designed to support research projects involving undergraduate students, and the success rate for such proposals is frequently much higher than for grants awarded to graduate faculty at research institutions.
Finally, an added benefit of PUIs is that many institutions are located in suburban or rural areas of the country offering a high quality of life for raising a family and short commutes to campus.
If you are interested in a faculty position at a PUI, two of the best websites to begin your search are Science Online (http://recruit.sciencemag.org) and The Chronicle of Higher Education (http://chronicle.com/jobs/). A majority of PUIs advertise faculty positions in both journals, and by searching these websites you can identify potential positions according to geographic areas of the country that you may be interested in.
The Website of the American Society for Cell Biology (www.ascb.org) has links to free downloads of several publications that provide helpful suggestions for finding a job and preparing for a career at a PUI. These include: "How to Get a Teaching Job at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution," "Career Advice for Life Scientists," "Life Sciences Research and Teaching: Strategies for the Successful Job Hunt," and "How to Get a Research Job in Academia and Industry."
The Council on Undergraduate Research (www.cur.org) is an excellent organization that promotes faculty–student collaborative research and investigative teaching strategies for faculty at PUIs through publications, workshops, and an annual meeting. CUR has several valuable publications including "How to Get a Tenure-Track Position at a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution" and "How to Mentor Undergraduate Researchers." In addition, "At the Helm: A Laboratory Navigator" published by Cold Spring Harbor laboratories is a useful handbook with valuable tips for starting a lab and managing student researchers.
Good luck with your job search and don't hesitate to contact me (e-mail: mpalladi{at}monmouth.edu) if I can help answer any questions you may have about academic life at a PUI.
First Steps in Grantcraft
by Dr Donna L. Vogel
There is no shortage of information available about NIH grant support. In
fact, the quantity can be daunting. I would like to introduce the topic, quash
some myths, and give you a few key points to guide your approach.
Why "grantcraft," as opposed to the venerable "grantsmanship?" I am trying to promote this neologism to emphasize the skill set, not the person. Funded investigators are made, not born.
The take-home lessons in this article are 1) know the process, 2) choose the right mechanism, and 3) work with a human.
Process
Although you write the application, grants are generally made to
institutions, not individuals. This means that your institution is the
"applicant" and must allow an employee in your position to be the
Principal Investigator (PI). (Rarely, you may apply for a grant, such as the
K22, while still a fellow.) You send the application to the Center for
Scientific Review (CSR) by a published deadline. For a regular
investigator-initiated research grant (R01), CSR staff will
independently assign the application to an Institute or Center (IC) and to an
initial review group (IRG) or study section, on the basis of the content of
your proposal. IC mission priorities and CSR study section rosters are
published on the Web, and you may use this information to request specific
assignments in a cover letter. CSR study sections meet 3 times per year to
review applications. Each receives a priority score from 100 (best) to 500, or
"unscored," if the reviewers rate it in the lower half. All PIs
receive the results and written critiques. Scored applications also get a
percentile, to correct for variations in scoring behavior across the IRGs.
Then, IC Program Officers assess the applications in their portfolios with
respect to their available funds (paylines), and make recommendations to the
IC for award. By law, these recommendations receive a second round of review
for program balance and policy by the IC's Board or Council. Finally, the IC
makes the awards.
The process is different for non-R01 grant mechanisms and for IC initiatives. These applications may be automatically assigned to a specific IC, have a single receipt deadline, a specific pot of money, or a special dedicated review group.
Mechanisms
The regular research project grant, R01, is the bread and butter of the
grants establishment. Many other tools, R01 and otherwise, serve specific
purposes. Both individual (F) and institutional (T) training and fellowship
grants may support postdoctoral (and in some cases predoctoral) training.
Beyond the training stage, mentored career (K) awards support senior fellows
and junior faculty in the transition to independence. Some K awards are for
clinicians, some are targeted to specific research areas, some are
interdisciplinary. For certain topics, the R03 small grant or R21
developmental grant may be available as start-up funding for acquiring the
preliminary data needed to develop a full-scale R01. If you are in a
nonresearch-intensive institution with an emphasis on undergraduate teaching,
you may be eligible for the R15 AREA grant.
These mechanisms can be advantageous because they do not compete for the same pool of funds as R01s. If you have not previously been a PI, you are considered a "new investigator"; for an R01 application, this brings gentler scoring in Review and special consideration from Program. Unlike R01s, F, T, and K awards require US citizenship or permanent residency.
When an IC has determined that a research area is underfunded, it may publish an initiative to encourage applications in that area. Most Program Announcements simply state an interest, whereas Requests for Applications have specific funding set aside. If your research is in such a priority area, you have a special opportunity. Programs exist as well for underrepresented minorities, and people with disabilities. Those in certain areas of research are eligible to compete for educational loan repayment.
Humans
To a new investigator, and even an experienced PI, extramural staff can be
of tremendous help. Take advantage of their knowledge and experience. If
applying for an R03, R21, or K grant, or in response to an initiative, you
must know ahead of time that the subject matter is in the IC's area of
interest. If you are serious, you need to read the NIH Guide to get
the latest announcements, guidelines, and policies. You can sign up for the
Table of Contents as a weekly e-mail.
How do you find "your" Program Officer (PO)? If your mentor has an NIH grant, start with his or her PO. You can find funded investigators at your institution or in your area of interest using Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects (CRISP). Some Institute Web sites list POs by program area. Initiatives generally have contact listings. Remember, program staff are not only able but eager to help you. It is easier for everybody if you are well informed.
The following are good places to start for andrology research:
For more information, see the resources below.
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