NRMN Phase 2 Projects

A Randomized Controlled Study to Test the Effectiveness of Developmental Network Coaching in the Career Advancement of Diverse Early Stage Investigators

• PI: Elizabeth O. Ofili

• Institution: Morehouse School of Medicine

• Description: This randomized, controlled study will test a structured grant writing plus developmental network coaching intervention for early stage investigators, compared to grant writing coaching alone.

Boosting Mentor Effectiveness iN Training of Research Scientists (MENTORS) Using Social Cognitive Career Theory to Support Entry of Women & Minorities into Physician-Scientist Careers

• PIs: Vineet Arora and Rachel Wolfson (m-PI)

• Institution: University of Chicago

• Description: This intervention will use a randomized trial to test the effectiveness of virtual mentor training on women and minority medical student persistence in research careers during the required scholarly concentration programs at eight medical schools that participate in the Scholarly Concentrations Collaborative. The intervention aims to address the lack of gender and racial diversity in the physician-scientist workforce.

Building a Diverse Biomedical Workforce Through Communication Across Difference

• PI: Carrie A. Cameron

• Institution: University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

• Description: The program will test the effects of an intervention on communicating across various dimensions of difference in dyads of Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) and their Ph.D. or postdoctoral junior mentors (summer supervisors). They will conduct novel communication workshops at four U54 cancer centers. The dyad partners will complete pre, post, and follow-up surveys and their long-term career outcomes will be followed for the duration of the funding period. The goal is to investigate whether improved 1-on-1 trust and comfort level in these relationships improve career commitment and performance for both dyad partners.

Building Up a Diverse Workforce for Biomedical Research

• PI: Doris M. Rubio and Audrey Murrell, the University of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh / Natalia Morone, Boston University

• Institution: University of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh

• This is a study that aims to test the effectiveness of the Career Education and Enhancement for Research Diversity career development intervention, which includes coursework, networking, mentoring, and collaborative sessions for underrepresented minorities. The experiment will be conducted in a cluster randomized controlled trial at 25 academic institutions.

Career Advancement and Culture Change in Biomedical Research: Group Peer Mentoring Outcomes and Mechanisms

• PI: Linda Pololi

• Institution: Brandeis University

• Description: This group peer mentoring intervention will focus on professional development of mid-career faculty and look at the critical transition point from first-time funding to maintaining a funded research program.

Effectiveness of Innovative Research Mentor Interventions among Underrepresented Minority Faculty in the Southwest

• PI: Akshay Sood

• Institution: University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center

• Description: There are two sub-projects included in this intervention study that look at mentoring training approaches and inter-institutional mentoring support networks.

Enhanced Grant Writing Coaching Intervention for a Diverse Biomedical Workforce

• PI: Kolawole S. Okuyemi

• Institution: University of Utah

• Description: This intervention will provide grant writing skills training to underrepresented junior investigators to enhance their productivity and independence, looking at coaching dosage and engagement.

Impact of Culturally Aware Mentoring Interventions on Research Mentors and Graduate Training Programs

• PI: Angela Byars-Winston

• Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Description: This intervention aims to train 600 faculty mentors in culturally aware mentoring practices to facilitate critical transitions from postdoc to junior faculty positions and will include research on outcomes for individual faculty mentors and departmental culture.

Intersection of Social Capital, Mentorship and Networking on Persistence, Engagement and Science Identity

• PI: Manoj K. Mishra

• Institution: Alabama State University

• Description: This study, which relies on a mixed experimental design with random selection and assignment of participants to Active Intervention (test) and Control Intervention (control) groups, will focus on freshmen undergraduates at three historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs: Alabama State University, Tuskegee University, and Savannah State University) in the South. The HBCUs are geographically distributed with different individual- and neighborhood-level socioeconomic factors. Using a random, controlled experimental design, the researchers will look at the persistence of underrepresented first-year students.

Peer group mentoring for racially underrepresented early career biomedical researchers: Identifying the unique influence of psychosocial support on personal gains and objective career outcomes

• PI: Susan S. Girdler, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Friederike Jayes, Duke University

• Institution: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

• Description: This study will examine the benefits of adding psychosocial, peer group assisted mentoring on topics including microaggressions and imposter syndrome, to typical skills-based mentoring for underrepresented biomedical postdoctoral or junior faculty researchers.

Studying Inclusive Mentor Networks to Diversify the Biomedical Workforce

• PIs: Mica Beth Estrada, the University of California, San Francisco / Paul Hernandez, University of Texas A&M / Nichole Broderick, University of Connecticut / Jo Handlesman, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Institution: University of California, San Francisco

• Description: A scalable, social inclusion intervention will be administered to hundreds of faculty and thousands of undergraduate students, as an add-on to the Tiny Earth program, to inform the field of mentorship science and enhance future mentorship programs that aim to broaden participation in the STEM fields. The study uses a theory-driven, longitudinal experimental design, to determine when, how, and for whom this social inclusion intervention improves faculty and student mentorship, professional networks, and integration into biomedical career pathways.

NRMN Resource Center

• PI: Jamboor K. Vishwanatha

• Institution: University of North Texas Health Sciences Center

• Description: The NRMN Resource Center (NRMN-RC) will provide a web-based mentoring tool to facilitate mentor-mentee engagement and networking. The NRMN-RC will refine the existing MyNRMN application and other services offered through the NRMNet website. This Center will also oversee management of the NRMN website, report on outputs from NRMN components and create a platform for publicly available mentoring resources and tools

NRMN Coordination Center

• PI: Christine Pfund

• Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Description: The NRMN Coordination Center (NRMN-CC) will play two main roles: 1) Coordinate the early stages of data collection from the 11 NRMN Science of Mentoring U01 interventions and provide feedback on the data collected from the interventions to maximize the research benefit of activities. 2) Promote synergies between the NRMN consortium and the CEC for the long-term collection and storage of data.