Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) COVID Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists
We are delighted to announce that a grant funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation will allow us to support early career investigators engaged in high impact clinical health research who have struggled with additional caregiving responsibilities due to, or exacerbated by, the pandemic. In addition, we thank the following Departments who generously have committed funding to allow us to add additional spots to support early career researchers who have struggled with caregiving responsibilities during this time: Family Medicine, Medicine, Neurology, Pediatrics, Radiology, Surgery and Psychiatry.
A recent National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine report documented that many physician scientists have struggled during the COVID pandemic to maintain their research trajectories while responding to increased clinical expectations and family caregiving needs. Remote school and day care closings required rapid reorganization of time, with significant burdens placed on families. Furthermore, many faculty grappled with caring for other homebound or ill family members. Research suggests that juggling these competing demands may be particularly onerous for faculty who identify as women and faculty from groups under-represented in medicine (URiM; defined here to include those who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, people with disabilities and those who are from economically marginalized backgrounds). Caregiving challenges were magnified during the pandemic, but will continue to fuel inequities for physician scientists for the foreseeable future.
Successful applicants will:
- Receive $40,000 for the period of a year. This funding may be used for “extra hands” (technician; research assistant effort), grant-writing support, or to buy-out clinical time to increase time for the conduct of research. This funding cannot be used for the purchase of supplies or for sequencing and core facility costs. In addition to that, applicants will receive a $5,000 voucher from the CTSI to further support their research needs (e.g., biostatistical support, RA time).
- Meet with the Program Directors, Drs. Bair-Merritt and Neogi to create individualized development plans, and meet with a larger mentoring committee biannually.
- Participate in a coaching session, if desired.
- Engage in a monthly session with the program leaders and other participants to discuss research progress, provide peer coaching, and develop core skills related to research leadership.
REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS – DORIS DUKE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION (DDCF) ANNOUNCEMENT
Release Date: Monday, December 01, 2021
Application due date: Friday, January, 14th, 2022, at 5 p.m. EST
Funding Announcement: 2022
Earliest Activation Date: April, 2022
Please Read the Application Instructions Here
Submit Application Here
Applicants should be full-time early-career BUSM/BMC faculty (Instructors, Assistant Professor, or Associate Professors in their first year)
Eligibility Requirements
- Applicants should be full-time early-career BUSM/BMC faculty (Instructors, Assistant Professor, or Associate Professors in their first year) with an MD, DO, and/or foreign medical graduate who have at least 50% time/effort allocated to research and have an intra- or extra-mural career development award or other research grant with annual direct costs sufficient to provide research and some salary support.
- Based on requirements from the funder, the majority of grants must go to MDs, DOs or foreign medical graduates. A small number of applications from highly qualified PhDs may be considered.
- Each applicant must describe their research program, which should be clinical/human subjects focused, have high scientific merit and be in a field that significantly advances health.
- Applicants also must demonstrate a time-sensitive need for the supplement due to lost momentum related to increased family caregiving responsibilities due to, or exacerbated by, COVID-19.
- Faculty who identify as women, who are members of groups that are URiM as defined above are strongly encouraged to apply. We anticipate that the cohort of successful applicants will represent these groups.
Applications Components
Applicants will provide the following information, uploading materials through WebCAMP, the program used across the CTSI for all competitive programs.
- Summary of your area of research focus, research activities/projects and research-related career goals, with a focus on how your work advances medical science for a condition with significant clinical burden (1-2 pages recommended)
- NIH biosketch that includes all of your current sources of research funding
- Personal statement detailing how pandemic-related caregiving needs have impacted your research career and how receipt of supplemental support would allow you to successfully continue on your research trajectory (1 page recommended)
- Letter of support from your Department Chair or Section Chief detailing her/his commitment to the applicant, including protection of research time (with amount of time that you are protected specified), and discussing the impact of the person’s research on human health.
- Provide a clear budget and justification regarding how the $40,000 funds will be used and a separate budget and justification for how the $5,000 voucher funds will be used.
Demographic data including faculty rank, degree(s) held, gender, race/ethnicity, ability status and identification as coming from an economically disadvantaged background
Caregiving Articles
- Elena Frank, PhD; Zhuo Zhao, MS; Yu Fang, MSE; Lisa S. Rotenstein, MD, MBA; Srijan Sen, MD, PhD; Constance Guille, MD. Experiences of Work-Family Conflict and Mental Health Symptoms by Gender Among Physician Parents During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA Network Open. 2021;4(11):e2134315. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.34315. Read the document here
- Mody L, Griffith KA, Jones RD, Stewart A, Ubel PA and Jagsi R. Gender Differences in Work-Family Conflict Experiences of Faculty in Academic Medicine. J Gen Intern Med. 2021. PMID 33469767. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11606-020-06559-7
- HBR Editors, Managing Yourself |HBR Readers on Juggling Work and Kids… in a Pandemic. Jul. 22, 2020. https://hbr.org/2020/07/hbr-readers-on-juggling-work-and-kids-in-a-pandemic
- Jones RD, Miller J, Vitous CA, Krenz C, Brady KT, Brown AJ, Daumit GL, Drake AF, Fraser VJ, Hartmann KE, Hochman JS, Girdler S, Libby AM, Mangurian C, Regensteiner JG, Yonkers K and Jagsi R. The Most Valuable Resource Is Time: Insights From a Novel National Program to Improve Retention of Physician-Scientists With Caregiving Responsibilities. Acad Med. 2019;94:1746-1756. PMID 31348060. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31348060/
- Holliday E, Griffith KA, De Castro R, Stewart A, Ubel P and Jagsi R. Gender differences in resources and negotiation among highly motivated physician-scientists. J Gen Intern Med. 2015;30:401-7. PMID 25112462. PMC437098. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25112462/
- Jolly S, Griffith KA, DeCastro R, Stewart A, Ubel P and Jagsi R. Gender differences in time spent on parenting and domestic responsibilities by high-achieving young physician-researchers. Ann Intern Med. 2014;160:344-53. PMID 24737273. PMC413176. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24737273/