Cobian Krystle Palma, Ramos Hector V
Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
BMC Med Educ. 2021 May 3;21(1):254. doi: 10.1186/s12909-021-02663-2.
Grant funding often drives innovative programming in efforts to enhance diversity in biomedical fields, yet strategies for sustainability of grant-funded biomedical intervention are not well understood. Additionally, as funding agencies shift toward supporting institutional change to biomedical training, less is known about the extent to which sustainability strategies can support long-term institutionalization of the original goals of the grant-funded initiative. The purpose of this study is twofold: to identify strategies used by grant-funded programs for promoting sustainability, and to examine the interrelations between the concepts of sustainability and institutionalization during early stages of grant-funded biomedical career training efforts.
We employed a multiple case study design and cross-case analysis using interviews of program administrators and participants from 10 undergraduate institutions that received Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) awards funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
BUILD sites engaged in the following strategies to develop program sustainability: 1) scaling and adapting to expand programmatic impact, 2) identifying additional funding and cost-cutting measures, 3) developing and maintaining infrastructure and structural operations, 4) leveraging relationships and with intra-and inter-institutional partners, and 5) and addressing hiring, policies, and reward systems at the institution. Senior administrative support supported program sustainability and early institutionalization, although we also identified situations where participants felt that they were on track for sustainable changes without administrative support or institutional change. Of the strategies identified, those that involve organizational and infrastructural changes contribute to early stages of institutionalization.
This study contributes to literature on organizational change by providing evidence of distinctions and interrelations between program sustainability efforts and institutionalization of change efforts in that some sustainability strategies can overlap with strategies to move toward institutionalization. The findings indicate the importance of program administrators developing early sustainability plans that also lead to institutionalization, as well as an opportunity for funding agencies to develop technical assistance on sustainability, organizational change, and institutionalization as a resource to support program administrators' efforts toward making lasting, structural change on their campuses.
资助资金常常推动创新项目，以努力提高生物医学领域的多样性，但对于由资助资金支持的生物医学干预措施的可持续性策略，人们了解并不充分。此外，随着资助机构转向支持生物医学培训方面的机构变革，对于可持续性策略能够在多大程度上支持由资助资金支持的倡议的最初目标的长期制度化，人们所知更少。本研究的目的有两个：确定由资助资金支持的项目用于促进可持续性的策略，并在由资助资金支持的生物医学职业培训努力的早期阶段，考察可持续性概念与制度化概念之间的相互关系。
我们采用多案例研究设计和跨案例分析，对来自10所本科院校的项目管理人员和参与者进行访谈，这些院校获得了美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）资助的“建设促进多样性的基础设施”（BUILD）奖项。
BUILD项目点采取以下策略来实现项目的可持续性：1）扩大规模并进行调整以扩大项目影响，2）确定额外资金和削减成本措施，3）开发和维护基础设施及结构运营，4）利用与机构内部和机构间合作伙伴的关系，5）解决机构的招聘、政策和奖励体系问题。高级行政支持有助于项目的可持续性和早期制度化，不过我们也发现了一些情况，即参与者感觉在没有行政支持或机构变革的情况下，他们也在朝着可持续变革的方向前进。在确定的策略中，那些涉及组织和基础设施变革的策略有助于制度化的早期阶段。
本研究通过提供项目可持续性努力与变革努力的制度化之间的区别和相互关系的证据，为组织变革的文献做出了贡献，因为一些可持续性策略可能与走向制度化的策略重叠。研究结果表明项目管理人员制定早期可持续性计划并使其导向制度化的重要性，同时也为资助机构提供了一个机会，即开发关于可持续性、组织变革和制度化的技术援助，作为一种资源来支持项目管理人员在其校园内做出持久的结构性变革的努力。
