Center for Diversity and International Programs, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX.
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX.
Ethn Dis. 2021 Oct 21;31(4):559-566. doi: 10.18865/ed.31.4.559. eCollection 2021 Fall.
Eliminating the NIH funding gap among underrepresented minorities (URMs) remains a high priority for the National Institutes of Health. In 2014, the National Research Mentoring Network Steps Toward Academic Research (NRMN STAR) program recruited postdoctoral, early-stage and junior faculty to participate in a 12-month grant writing and professional development program. The expectation of the program was to increase the number of grant submissions and awards to URM researchers. Although receiving a grant award is the gold standard of NRMN STAR, instilling confidence for postdocs and early-stage faculty to submit an application is a critical first step. Based on our previous study, a sustained increase in trainee self-efficacy score over a 24-month period was observed after completing NRMN STAR.
The current study sought to determine the association between self-efficacy score and grant submissions among two cohorts of trainees. Grantsmanship Self-Efficacy was measured using a 19-item questionnaire previously described by and used in our own work, which was originally adapted from an 88-item Clinical Research Appraisal Inventory. A binary variable was created to identify trainees who submitted an initial or revised proposal vs those who abandoned their proposal or were still writing. Trainees were assessed prior to and following program completion with subsequent assessments at 6 and 12 months beyond participation.
As of June 20, 2019, 12 of the 21 (57%) trainees had submitted a grant proposal (eg, NIH, other federal or non-federal grant). For every point increase in 12-month post assessments, Grantsmanship Self-Efficacy scores across all domains had a 44% higher prevalence of submitting a grant after controlling for race, sex, education level, academic rank, research experience, duration of postdoctoral training, institution type, and NRMN STAR cohort.
Our findings demonstrate that NRMN STAR had a positive impact on trainees' confidence in grant writing and professional development activities, which resulted in higher grant submission rates.
消除代表性不足少数群体（URM）的 NIH 资助差距仍然是美国国立卫生研究院的首要任务。2014 年，国家研究指导网络迈向学术研究（NRMN STAR）计划招募博士后、早期和初级教员参加为期 12 个月的资助写作和专业发展计划。该计划的期望是增加 URM 研究人员的资助申请和奖项数量。尽管获得资助是 NRMN STAR 的金标准，但让博士后和初级教员有信心提交申请是至关重要的第一步。基于我们之前的研究，在完成 NRMN STAR 后，在 24 个月的时间内，学员的自我效能得分持续增加。
本研究旨在确定两个学员队列的自我效能得分与资助申请之间的关系。使用之前由我们自己的工作描述并使用的包含 19 个项目的问卷来衡量资助能力自我效能，该问卷最初是从 88 个临床研究评估清单改编而来的。创建了一个二进制变量来识别提交初始或修订提案的学员与放弃提案或仍在撰写提案的学员。在计划完成之前和之后以及参与之后的 6 个月和 12 个月对学员进行评估。
截至 2019 年 6 月 20 日，21 名学员中有 12 名（57%）提交了资助提案（例如，NIH、其他联邦或非联邦资助）。在控制种族、性别、教育水平、学术职称、研究经验、博士后培训时间、机构类型和 NRMN STAR 队列后，在 12 个月后的评估中，自我效能感评分每增加 1 分，所有领域的资助能力自我效能感评分提交资助申请的比例就会增加 44%。
我们的研究结果表明，NRMN STAR 对学员的资助写作和专业发展活动信心产生了积极影响，从而提高了资助申请率。
