Training in Education and Critical Research Skills

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a resubmission of our application to establish the Training in Education and Critical Research Skills (TEACRS) Program at Tufts University in response to the Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award Program. Our program is based on the need for university faculty that are prepared to meet the multiple challenges faced by young Assistant Professors pursuing their first independent position. We will provide our postdoctoral trainees with the career skills they will need to succeed in an academic research environment by integrating three training components: rigorous bench research; mentored teaching experience; and career development skills. By partnering with two local minority serving institutions, Roxbury Community College and the University of Massachusetts, Boston, our trainees will also acquire a greater knowledge and sensitivity to diversity issues and provide enriched course material to institutions serving a minority population. Our faculty of 42 is committed to research excellence and has a strong training record. Research opportunities focused on multiple biomedical problems with special emphasis on basic biological problems, cancer, neuroscience and infectious disease will be available to trainees. Research committees and research advisors will monitor progress and career development with respect to research. The teaching component uses workshops, discussion groups and tutorials to prepare trainees to develop and present a course of their own design at one of the minority serving institutions. A series of career building workshops, along with checkpoints that provide mentoring and constructive feedback round out the program. Our goal is to produce the academic scientific leaders of the future. University faculty must develop independent research programs, an activity that requires creative thought, high intellectual capacity, outstanding facility with oral and written communication and considerable experimental skill. These activities must be sustained while faculty participate in classroom teaching, serve on a variety of committees and mentor trainees. Success also requires additional skills in interpersonal relations, budgeting and time management. The TEACRS program will provide trainees with the research portfolio needed to compete for academic positions and the skill set that postdoctoral fellows need to meet the challenges they will face as they enter academic careers.