Intramural Grant Program to Promote Research Activity Among Early-Career Faculty Members.

ABSTRACT

PROBLEM: Early grant support for junior faculty members appears to positively influence their career trajectory. The authors sought to determine whether provision of grant support that enables early-career faculty members to conduct clinical, basic science, or educational research improves their academic success and enhances retention. APPROACH: The authors compared career development and retention among 30 Cohn Fellowship recipients and 31 nonrecipients who participated in the same mentoring program. An award of $20,000 to the fellowship recipients ensured protected time for research for 1 year. Academic productivity of both groups was monitored for 6 years. OUTCOMES: The authors found statistically significant differences between the 2 groups regarding research funding and scholarly productivity. The Cohn Fellowship recipients received a total of $14.7 million in external funding vs $3.7 million for nonrecipients, reflecting mean funding of $588,116 and $196,658 per person, respectively ( P < .01). Recipients published a total of 174 peer-reviewed articles vs 26 for nonrecipients, reflecting a mean of 7 and 1 per person, respectively ( P < .01). Recipients gave a total of 268 presentations vs 25 for nonrecipients, with a mean of 11 and 1 per person, respectively ( P < .01). Furthermore, 8 of the 25 recipients who stayed at Rush University (32%) were promoted to associate professor compared with 2 of the 19 (11%) nonrecipients ( P = .15). A majority of the Cohn Fellows (25; 83%) stayed at Rush University during the study compared with 61% of nonrecipients ( P = .06). These findings suggest that even small amounts of research support received early in a career can benefit the faculty and the university as a whole. NEXT STEPS: We plan to continue gathering data to increase sample size and analyze outcomes for specific variables (e.g., time, rank, gender, promotion, retention).