Ohio State University Discovery PREP for Biomedical Research

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ABSTRACT: Diversity in the biomedical research workforce is necessary to solve the complex scientific problems that affect society today. Diversity improves research quality and diverse teams are known to capitalize on innovation and distinct perspectives to outperform non-diverse teams. Yet, individuals from certain groups remain underrepresented in biomedical research. This provides the scientific community with an opportunity to enhance the biomedical research workforce by increasing the diversity of participating individuals and improve research efforts. The career transition between undergraduate and graduate school can be especially difficult to navigate. The goal of Discovery Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) is to provide individuals from diverse backgrounds with robust research experience and courses/workshops for skills development to promote their transition into and success within biomedical PhD graduate programs. Discovery PREP was initiated in 2010, renewed in 2016, and has consistently received strong institutional support in terms of participant salary, travel funds, test preparation, and programmatic support. The overall success of the program is good, with 84% of scholars accepted into PhD graduate programs while within PREP since 2016. This competitive renewal seeks to leverage recent successes and increase scholar training and support, through hands-on exposure and mentoring in highly competitive laboratories, evidence-informed activities to support professional and personal skills development, and summative and formative evaluations to establish the impact of the program on scholar science self-efficacy, science identity, and sense of belonging within the academic research enterprise. Overall, these efforts will create a cohort of passionate, effective, and highly skilled trainees that will enhance the diversity of the scientific community and promote innovative solutions to address the tough scientific challenges in health care today.