Rampersad Christie, Alexander Todd, Fowler Elisabeth, Hartwig Sunny, Levin Adeera, Rosenblum Norman D, Samuel Susan, Wiebe Chris, Ho Julie
Department of Internal Medicine, Nephrology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
Department of Pediatrics, Pediatric Nephrology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Can J Kidney Health Dis. 2021 Sep 2;8:20543581211033405. doi: 10.1177/20543581211033405. eCollection 2021.
Women scientists are less likely to obtain Assistant Professorship and achieve promotion, and obtain less grant funding than men. Scientist/clinician-scientist training programs which provide salary awards as well as training and mentorship are a potential intervention to improve outcomes among women scientists. We hypothesized whether a programmatic approach to scientist/clinician-scientist training is associated with improved outcomes for women scientists in Canada when compared with salary awards alone. Trainees within the Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training Program (KRESCENT), Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program (CCHCSP), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) salary award programs were evaluated.
To examine whether the structured KRESCENT training program with salary support improves academic success for women scientists relative to salary awards alone.
Retrospective cohort study.
Canadian national research scientist and clinician-scientist training programs and salary awards.
KRESCENT cohort (n = 59, 2005-2017), CCHCSP cohort (n = 58, 2002-2015), and CIHR (n = 571, 2005-2015) Salary Awardees for postdoctoral fellows (PDF) and new investigators (NI).
National operating grant funding success, achieving an academic position as an Assistant Professor for PDF, or achieving promotion to Associate Professor for NI.
The gender distribution of each cohort was determined using first name and NamepediA and was examined for PDF and NI, followed by a description of trainee outcomes by gender and training level.
KRESCENT and CIHR PDF were balanced (12/27, 44% men and 55/116, 47% women) while CCHCSP had a higher proportion of women (13/20, 65%). KRESCENT and CCHCSP NI retained women scientists (19/32, 59% and 22/38, 58% women), whereas CIHR NI had fewer women (165/455, 36% women vs 290/455, 64% men, = 0.01). There was a high rate of NI operating grant success (91%-95%) with no gender differences in each cohort. There was a high proportion of CCHCSP PDF who achieved an Assistant Professorship (18/20, 90%) that may be due in part to a longer follow-up period (9.3 ± 3 years) compared with KRESCENT PDF (7/27, 26%, 0.88 ± 4.5 years), and these data were not available for CIHR PDF. Women KRESCENT NI showed increased promotion to Associate Professor ( = 0.02, 0.25 ± 3.2 years follow-up) and CCHCSP NI had high promotion rates (37/38, 97%, 6.9 ± 3.6 years follow-up) irrespective of gender. There was an overall trend toward more men pursuing biomedical research.
KRESCENT and CCHCSP training program cohort size and heterogeneity; assigning gender by first name may result in misclassification; lack of data on the respective applicant pools; and inability to examine intersectionality with gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
Overall trainee performance across programs is remarkable by community standards regardless of gender. KRESCENT and CCHCSP training programs demonstrated balanced success in their PDF and NI, whereas the CIHR awardees had reduced representation of women scientists from PDF to NI. This exploratory study highlights the utility of programmatic training approaches like the KRESCENT program as potential tools to support and retain women scientists in the academic pipeline during the challenging PDF to NI transition period.
与男性相比，女性科学家获得助理教授职位、获得晋升以及获得的资助资金更少。提供薪资奖励以及培训和指导的科学家/临床科学家培训项目是改善女性科学家成果的一种潜在干预措施。我们假设，与仅提供薪资奖励相比，采用系统性方法进行科学家/临床科学家培训是否与加拿大女性科学家改善的成果相关。对肾脏研究科学家核心教育与国家培训项目（KRESCENT）、加拿大儿童健康临床科学家项目（CCHCSP）以及加拿大卫生研究院（CIHR）薪资奖励项目的学员进行了评估。
研究获得薪资支持的结构化KRESCENT培训项目相对于仅提供薪资奖励而言，是否能提高女性科学家的学术成就。
回顾性队列研究。
加拿大国家研究科学家和临床科学家培训项目及薪资奖励。
KRESCENT队列（n = 59，2005 - 2017年）、CCHCSP队列（n = 58，2002 - 2015年）以及CIHR（n = 571，2005 - 2015年）博士后研究员（PDF）和新研究员（NI）的薪资获得者。
获得国家运营资助的成功率、PDF获得助理教授学术职位，或NI晋升为副教授。
使用名字和NamepediA确定每个队列的性别分布，并针对PDF和NI进行检查，随后按性别和培训水平描述学员的成果。
KRESCENT和CIHR的PDF性别均衡（12/27，44%为男性，55/116，47%为女性），而CCHCSP的女性比例更高（13/20，65%）。KRESCENT和CCHCSP的NI保留了女性科学家（19/32，59%为女性和22/38，58%为女性），而CIHR的NI女性较少（165/455，36%为女性，290/455，64%为男性，P = 0.01）。NI获得运营资助的成功率很高（91% - 95%），各队列中无性别差异。CCHCSP的PDF中有很大比例获得了助理教授职位（18/20，90%），这可能部分归因于随访期更长（9.3±3年），而KRESCENT的PDF为（7/27，26%，0.88±4.5年），CIHR的PDF没有这些数据。KRESCENT的女性NI晋升为副教授的比例有所增加（P = 0.02，随访0.25±3.2年），CCHCSP的NI无论性别晋升率都很高（37/38，97%，随访6.9±3.6年）。总体而言，有更多男性从事生物医学研究的趋势。
KRESCENT和CCHCSP培训项目队列规模和异质性；通过名字确定性别可能导致分类错误；缺乏各自申请池的数据；以及无法研究性别、种族和性取向的交叉性。
按照行业标准，各项目学员的总体表现都很出色，无论性别如何。KRESCENT和CCHCSP培训项目在其PDF和NI方面取得了平衡的成功，而CIHR的获奖者从PDF到NI的女性科学家代表性有所下降。这项探索性研究强调了像KRESCENT项目这样的系统性培训方法作为在具有挑战性的从PDF到NI过渡阶段支持和留住学术领域女性科学家的潜在工具的效用。
