A Train-the-Trainers Approach to Developing a Diverse and Successful Workforce in Behavioral and Biomedical Sciences

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Project abstract We propose to establish a new national training program in response to the NIGMS initiative, “Innovative Program to Enhance Research Training” (IPERT), that is designed to increase the size of a highly skilled, successful, and diverse behavioral and biomedical workforce. Our intension is to accomplish this by instructing researchers at academic institutions, research institutes, scientific societies, and private industry in the best professional skills, including research ethics, and in the ways by those skills can be effectively transmit to trainees at their home institutions or professional societies. It is our believe that such instruction is necessary to maximize the success and scientific integrity of individuals engaged in behavioral and biomedical research. This is because, whereas most post-baccalaureate research training programs provide their trainees with a strong background in a scientific discipline and relevant laboratory skills, much more is needed to maximize the likelihood these individuals will advance in their careers and do so with a high level of integrity. As successful research scientists they will require a wide variety of additional skills, including the ability to develop a rigorous research program that generates reproducible data; fund that research through successful grant proposals; obtain and succeed in employment; communicate effectively through oral presentations, posters, research manuscripts, and informal networking; manage time, stress, and conflict; become effective lab managers, educators, and mentors; and exhibit social responsibility, including taking the time to effectively communicate with lay communities. In a great many cases the development of such skills will require explicit instruction. We believe that such instruction should be provided by individuals actively involved in research and should occur both within core academic courses and as part of workshops on these skills that include a discussion of their ethical dimensions, rather than via separate courses in research ethics. Our team is made up of a diverse group of individuals who – separately and collectively – have been involved for many years in instructing others in these skills both directly and through “train-the-trainer” workshops. We now propose to expand those previous efforts substantially by developing improved materials, including cases for discussion and other handouts, slide decks, and videos; addressing a much broader range of topics than in the past; increasing the relevance of our training programs for a diverse workforce that includes ethnic minorities and individuals with disabilities; delivering those materials via larger and more diverse workshops and websites; and producing a training manual. We will also help workshop participants develop ways to establish a climate of inclusion at their home institutions. The impact of our workshops, designed for a minimum of 50 trainers each year, will be carefully assessed by a professional evaluator who will collect and report data on the participants’ evaluation of our workshops; the impact the workshops have on participants’ subsequent instructional activities; and the effectiveness of the participants in imparting what they have learned to their trainees, who may include college students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, laboratory staff, faculty, and/or staff scientists.