Tufts IRACDA

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The Tufts IRACDA Program will serve the national need for university and college faculty trained in bio-medical research and optimally prepared for the multiple challenges faced by professors in their first independent position. To be successful, these individuals must set up and manage a productive research lab, obtain grant funding, and develop and deliver innovative science courses. They must understand the value of diversity in the scientific workforce and be able to inspire the next generations of scientists through the teaching and research opportunities they offer. Tufts IRACDA will address these challenges by providing exceptional postdoctoral scholars with the research portfolio and career skills needed to succeed in an academic research environment that includes mentoring of future biomedical researchers. To achieve our goals, we will partner with three local institutions: the University of Massachusetts, Boston, Pine Manor College and Bunker Hill Community College, all of which are committed to educating students from groups underrepresented in the biomedical research workforce. Our Tufts IRACDA program builds upon our successful TEACRS postdoctoral training program. With TEACRS, we developed valuable teaching and research collaborations with our partner faculty and students. Tufts IRACDA will utilize new initiatives to enhance the research and scholarship of our postdoctoral scholars and build upon our existing strengths in teaching and career development. These initiatives will broadly prepare our scholars for academic positions at the nation's top universities and colleges and increase the impact of Tufts connections at our partner schools. To do this, we will: • Recruit and prepare the nation's best postdoctoral scholars for successful careers in tenure-track, academic positions in the biomedical sciences by providing strong research training. • Prepare our scholars to create and deliver impactful science curricula to diverse student populations. • Foster research and mentoring partnerships that encourage undergraduates at our partner institutions to engage in independent research and pursue biomedical science careers. Tufts provides outstanding opportunities for research training in the traditional biomedical disciplines as well as areas such as biomedical engineering, nutrition, and behavioral sciences. Scholars will spend on average 75% of their time conducting research and 25% of their time in career development and teaching activities, including teaching. Similar training, along with comprehensive career mentoring, enabled us through TEACRS to place 88% (36/41) of our alumni in academic faculty positions well-suited to their career goals, a percentage markedly above the national IRACDA average of 73%. In the new Tufts IRACDA program, we will strengthen the training in research and research-related career skills such as grant and manuscript writing, so that we place scholars in a more balanced mix of research-intensive and primarily undergraduate institutions. We plan to support a total of nine scholars each year from IRACDA funds and three from institutional support.