CDU Population Research Institute for Science & Medicine (PRISM): Educational and mentored activities to enhance the NIH readiness of early career faculty

The overarching goal of PRISM, led by Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) and formerly at the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), is to provide educational and mentored activities to enhance the readiness of early career faculty to conduct biomedical research to improve health outcomes across populations. The term “biomedical research” refers to research with basic, clinical, behavioral, and translational outcomes. PRISM builds on the lessons learned, experiences, and accomplishments garnered by the original five-year Institute, and offers the following enhancements: 1) additional senior scientists with expertise in clinical and biomedical sciences were added to the team, 2) expansions to mentor training and mentoring components were incorporated, and 3) funding was made available to support NIH proposal development among selected early career faculty. To assess differences in levels of mentoring with the purpose of informing sustainable models for research training and mentoring, PRISM features: 1) A six-day, individual and group intensive experience, focused on developing a winning NIH proposal, delivered to early career faculty (“fellows”); 2) Regular, mentored support between Institute faculty mentors and graduated faculty fellows for up to 12 months following the institute (“Scholars”); 3) A highly focused, six-month virtual writing retreat to continue to develop skills/capacity among fellows who are preparing a submission (or resubmission) of an NIH grant proposal; 4) Webinars for early career faculty on evidence-based methods and skills development for biomedical research. The intensive portion of PRISM is held annually in June and involves a maximum of 20 early career faculty members and a cadre of senior, NIH-funded mentors. Institute participants are recruited through an extensive institutional database developed by the PRISM team, and through the partnerships established with Institute faculty mentors and alumni.