Emory R38 Research Training Program

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The overarching goal of the Emory R38 Research Training Program (Emory StARR Program) is to leverage the rich infrastructure and the interdisciplinary research environment at Emory to provide at least 12 months of clinical research training for resident physicians in the field of infectious diseases, microbiology, and immunology. The long-term goal is to expand the pool of physician scientists engaged in these areas of research. This goal will be operationalized through the development of a structured research training program that offers an in-depth training in the fundamentals of clinical and translational research; fostering an Emory R38 specific mentoring program that is tailored to the training needs of resident physicians; and building a systematic approach for identifying and recruiting a diverse cohort of resident physicians into the program. Importantly, we plan to leverage the Emory R38 RTP to attract trainees in our Categorical Track with interest in pursuing clinical and translational research careers. As a result of the size and the diversity of our Internal Medicine residency training program, we have a highly competitive pool of eligible candidates whose research interests and skills will be significantly enhanced by a program that provides individualized didactic and mentored research training by an outstanding multidisciplinary team of preceptors and sufficient (80% protected) time to gain skills and expertise in clinical and translational research. Research training will be personalized, and the duration of training will range from 1 – 2 years depending on the resident’s training needs and future career plans, while fulfilling all requirements for clinical board certification. Research training plan, which has been approved by the ABIM (see ABIM approval letter), will be spread across the last 2 years of the internal medicine residency in protected blocks of >3 months plus 6 -12 months of residency focused on mentored research and research training after the third year to complete their research projects. Research training addressed by the selected short coursework, seminars, and workshops for the Emory R38 RTP will include the fundamentals and ethics of clinical and translational research, practical research skill acquisition, effective communication, time management, understanding research funds flow in an academic health center, building a successful research team, job negotiation, identifying grant opportunities, navigating an IRB and/or animal protocol, as appropriate for the research project. Preceptors with mentoring experience and federally-funded research projects in broad areas of the target fields have been strategically assembled for this program, including: transmission, prevention, basic and applied immunology and microbiology, end-organ complications (cardiac, endocrine, pulmonary, etc.), disease management, therapeutics, pharmacology, and vaccinology. Preceptors will be offered mentorship training that includes topics such as practical research skill- building needed for research supervision and effective mentoring of clinician-investigators, aligning goals and expectations, mentoring for a diverse and inclusive biomedical research workforce.