Investigator Development Core

SUMMARY Investigator Development Cores (IDC), while often sparse in flair or innovation, serve a vital role in fostering the career development, mentoring and project support to early-stage investigators (ESIs). The PHSU RCMI IDC was initiated five years ago. In its first phase, STategic Academic Research Training or START, we used prior lessons learned in our earlier pilot project program, to mold a more successful approach to this important function of training and supporting the next generation of high impact health disparities researchers. Those lessons were: 1. need for uniform training that covered important topics often overlooked in professional degree programs; 2. the realization that mentoring teams could address the breadth of expertise needed by our ESIs; and 3. extending pilot projects from one year to two in duration. START implemented several innovative strategies in addressing these three points. We were notably successful in several of these areas. The monthly training and professional development seminars had a positive effect on developing professional skills (assessed by surveys). Our extension of the pilot project program to 2 years resulted in improved productivity: six pilot project awardees and 8 pre-pilot awardees representing a total investment of $635,000 from 2019-2024, produced a return-on- investment factor of 5.16 generating $3.28 million in extramural funds. Of the full cohort of ESIs trained under START (18 Scholars), there were 44 unique publications in the period of 2019-2023. Five of the 18 were promoted in academic rank. One area where we did note substantial room for improvement was in the mentoring aim – whether due to the COVID pandemic or other reasons, our Scholars did not document regular interactions with their mentoring teams, although nor did they express dissatisfaction (by survey). In the second phase, now called Strategic Pipeline for Academic Research Career Success (SPARCS), we will implement innovation by addressing lessons learned in the first phase. The first aim becomes the START monthly training program, which will include the innovation of incorporating continuity. Prior Scholars we be recruited as some of the presenters in the monthly seminars. In the second aim, we have expanded the use of an Individual Development Plan in conjunction with the mentoring team, which now includes a SPARCS leader to assure accountability and effectiveness of the mentee’s relationship with the team in achieving IDP goals. Other novel aspects to the mentoring aim are inclusion of a peer mentor (ideally a former Scholar) and a more direct link to the Community Engagement Core (CEC). CEC is training cohorts of community members in research methodologies that are available for mentoring teams and as collaborators for SPARCS Scholars. Our pilot project and pre-pilot project programs will be similarly implemented as we are expecting to achieve similar results (5.16-fold return-on- investment). Thus SPARCS is a combination of tried and true and novel approaches.