The Atlanta BEST Program“Beyond the Professoriate: Transforming Pathways

for Biomedical Research Careers”Funded by: NIH 1DP7OD018424

Emory Laney Graduate School, in partnership with the Emory Office of Postdoctoral Education

and Georgia Tech

Nael A. McCarty, Program Director

RFA-RM-12-022Announced March 4, 2013

NIH Director’s Biomedical Research Workforce Innovation Award:Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) (DP7)

Objectives:

The purpose of this FOA is to seek, identify and support bold andinnovative approaches to broaden graduate and postdoctoral training,such that training programs reflect the range of career options thattrainees (regardless of funding source) ultimately may pursue and that arerequired for a robust biomedical, behavioral, social and clinical researchenterprise. Collaborations with non-academic partners are encouraged toensure that experts from a broad spectrum of research and research-relatedcareers contribute to coursework, rotations, internships or otherforms of exposure. This program will establish a new paradigm forgraduate and postdoctoral training; awardee institutions will work togetherto define needs and share best practices.

The Atlanta BEST ProgramNael A. McCarty, Contact PI and Program DirectorCora MacBeth, Associate Program DirectorKeith Wilkinson, Lisa Tedesco, Mary DeLong, Wendy Newstetter, MPIs

Steering Committee:Julie Gazmararian, Steve Deweerth, Steve Sencer, Par Marstellar, Giselle Bennett, Cora MacBeth, Todd Sherer, Huw Davies, Marie Thursby, Michael Sacks, Julia Melkers, students TBN

Partnerships:GaBio, GRA, Carter Center, CARE, Healthcare Georgia Fdn, The CDC, American Cancer Society, Kaiser Permanente, GTRI, GaTech’s TI:GER, etc.

The Atlanta BEST program will establish programmatic alternatives for adapting pre-doctoral and postdoctoral training to meet 21st century scientific workforce needs by engaging in a transformation of the culture of training – in both a top-down and bottom-up approach – by creating new opportunities for both the trainees and the training/mentoring faculty.

Specific Aims

Program Objectives

Aim 1 To expose trainees to a broad variety of career pathways beyond the academy

Aim 2 To provide trainees deep immersion into a specific career pathway beyond the academy

Aim 3 To better equip faculty at Emory and Georgia Tech to train graduate students and postdoctoral fellows for the 21st century workforce

Program Structure

Year One: Breadth•Trainees’ Personal Career Choices and Leadership Development Completion of the online IDP specifically designed for STEM trainees Networking with Emory and GA Tech alumni and representatives Taking advantage of availability of courses at Emory or GA Tech to develop career skills Quarterly mentor meetings with the Director of the Internships of the career path(s) of interest•Lecture Series on leadership training•Lecture Series on the Business and Law of the Biotechnology Industry•Leveraged Career Opportunity Programs at Emory and Georgia Tech

Year Two: Depth•Part-time nternship in one of six career tracks

Career Tracks

Program Structure

Track Title Lead Institution

Track 1 Law and Business: Entrepreneurship and Consulting Georgia Tech

Track 2 Communications: Scientific Writing, Journalism, Public Policy and Outreach

Emory

Track 3 STEM Education Georgia Tech

Track 4 Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Emory

Track 5 Research: Non-tenure Track, Governmental and Contract Research Organizations

Georgia Tech

Track 6 Industrial Science: Biotech / Pharmaceutical (GA-Bio) Emory

The BEST program will coordinate and build upon existing expertise and professional development programming at Emory and Georgia Tech to provide career guidance and to create a cohort of expert mentors in a variety of STEM careers that can serve as internship and/or individual career advisors.

Career Tracks

Track 1 Detail

Track Title Lead Institution

Track 1 Law and Business: Entrepreneurship and Consulting Georgia Tech

TI:GER-lite programKauffman FastTrack TechVenture Course, Emory OTT

Career Tracks

Track 2 Detail

Track Title Lead Institution

Track 2 Communications: Scientific Writing, Journalism, Public Policy and Outreach

Emory

Postdoc Exec Council - Science Writing WorkshopWorkshop on communicating to public and mediaInternships: AAAS Policy Fellowships Scientific Writing at Emory groupCourse on Science WritingWriting Center

Career Tracks

Track 3 Detail

Track Title Lead Institution

Track 3 STEM Education Georgia Tech

Educational program thru CETL, certificate programResearch and Science Teaching Prog. for PostdocsCertificate for Teaching Science

Career Tracks

Track 4 Detail

Track Title Lead Institution

Track 4 Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Emory

Kauffman FastTrack TechVenture Course, Emory OTTInternships, Emory OTT

Career Tracks

Track 5 Detail

Track Title Lead Institution

Track 5 Research: Non-tenure Track, Governmental and Contract Research Organizations

Georgia Tech

Gov'l and NGO Career Fair, Partnership with RSPH Internship at CDCInternship with Medical Benevolence Foundations or Non-governmental agencies Carter Center American Cancer Society Healthcare GA Fdn CARE Am Heart AssociationLab management course (five 2-hour sessions)Grant-writing courseInternships at GTRI

Career Tracks

Track 6 Detail

Track Title Lead Institution

Track 6 Industrial Science: Biotech / Pharmaceutical (GA-Bio) Emory

Kauffman FastTrack TechVenture Course, Emory OTTEmerging Leaders Network thru Georgia Bio First Contact programInternships at Atlanta-area biotech companies

Typical student experience

Year Event Time commitment

One Completion of IDP, quarterly advisory meetings 3 hours

Lecture series on leadership training 8 two-hour sessions

Lecture series on business & law of biotech industry

10 one-to-two hour sessions

Career symposium, networking,

Optional seminars or workshops at Emory or GT*(Each trainee receives $1,000 of Professional Development Funds, to use to cover costs associated with these workshops)Examples: “Professionalization Workshops”“Beyond the Professoriate”“Kauffman FastTrac TechVenture”

?

Two Part-time internship within a specified Track 4 - 8 hours per week for 1 semester (8 – 10 weeks)

* Professional Development Funds can only be provided to trainees who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

Timing for First Cohort (compressed)

Year Timing Event

One Starting in mid-March Completion of IDP

Starting in April Lecture series on business & law of biotech industry

Starting in June Lecture series on leadership

Two Starting in September Part-time internship in Track of your choice

Both Starting in June Faculty development program

•Short-Term Goals: Broaden the potential career choices of trainees by providing exposure to careers outside of tenure-track academic positions, encouraging self-awareness and enabling preparation for a career path that fits best

•Intermediate Goals: Enable faculty to engage more broadly in training pre-doctoral and postdoctoral candidates, preparing them for career options beyond replication of their own path

•Long-Range Goals: Identify and disseminate best practices developed from this work; incorporate the findings from this program into new structures for pre-doctoral and postdoctoral training

•Intended Outcomes: Culture change, from both the trainee and trainer perspectives, resulting in improved training for a diverse array of careers

Vision for Intended Outcomes in 5 Years

To be considered for the program, graduate applicants must:be full-time students in a doctoral program, in good standing both

with their respective graduate school and in their programs,have completed at least one year of graduate study,

have completed their qualifying examinations (this may require program-specific flexibility), and have a strong letter of support

from their mentor

To be considered for the program, postdoctoral applicants must:have completed at least six months in their mentor’s lab and have a

strong letter of support from their mentor

Application guidelines and instructions can be found on the best website at gs.emory.edu/sites/best.

Application Guidelines