Supporting early-career faculty
New faculty in the biomedical sciences face many challenges: starting up a research group (including setting up a physical space with equipment, hiring, etc.), getting to know their new department and community, attaining funding, supervising, and mentoring--all while navigating the identity shift from junior scientist to principal investigator. Nationally, junior faculty support tends to come through informal mentoring that may vary for individuals and across departments, and typically lacks sustained connection with other junior faculty. This year of transition into a faculty role is an opportunity to provide support that will bolster their well-being, efficiency, and development of effective skills as the next generation of inclusive leaders.
To address these challenges, in 2022 we established the Investigator Career Advancement Program (iCAP) at UMassChan. Building on principles from the curricular approach we developed for graduate student career development, iCAP brings together all first-year faculty who are launching independent research groups, offering cohort-building curricula and social gatherings, cross-departmental mentorship from established faculty, and individualized support for scientific communication support. We take a just-in-time approach to build skills and strategies for recruiting research group members, strategic budgeting, inclusive leadership and mentoring practices, drafting funding proposals and other research communications, and navigating norms, systems, and expectations in academic research.
More on the Investigator Career Advancement Program at UMass Chan >
Key colleagues on this work:
Mary Munson, Catarina Kiefe, Matthew Schwartz, Justine Pinskey, Milagros Rosal