R25 Program

The program will recruit at least 4 USC health science junior faculty per year and provide them with salary support (25%) to participate in the training program. You are eligible to join the R25 program as a fellow if you meet the following criteria:

• Full-time assistant professor (on any track) within the first 8 years of her/his faculty appointment
• Express interest in pursuing independent research in the area of Big Data in infectious disease
• Receive an agreement from your home department/school for 25% time release of your teaching or clinical service for one year
• Have not received an extramural grant (except R03 or its equivalent) from NIH or other federal agencies
• Commit to a one-year formal engagement in the R25 program
• Commit to submitting a competitive grant application to NIAID or other appropriate funding mechanism by the end of the R25 training period
• Commit to submitting a publishable manuscript in the area of Big Data infectious disease research by the end of the R25 training period
• Are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident (unless strongly justified on the basis of exceptional relevance to NIH).

Upon the accomplishment of the proposed training, each fellow will be expected to:

• Participate in required curriculum-based training
• Participate in required professional development training (including grant writing)
• Participate in required training in responsible conduct of research
• Obtain hands-on mentored research experience on an NIAID-funded project
• Develop at least one Big Data-related manuscript on HIV or COVID-19 related topics
• Submit one grant application to NIAID or other appropriate funding source

The program will provide the following support to fellows during the training year:

• 25% salary support for one year
• Support for participation in grant writing boot camp
• Matched with a mentoring team
• Participation in a funded Big Data research project
• Support in NIH grant preparation and submission
• Support for professional development and data acquisition

Once a mentor(s) is/are matched to a fellow, the fellow and mentor(s) will develop an individual development plan through a structured educational learning contract, which will in turn be reviewed and approved by the program directors (PDs). The digitized contract will document:

• Goals and outcomes of the mentorship
• Specific roles and expectations of each party
• Anticipated numbers and types (face-to-face/email) of meetings
• Plans and objectives for submission of a manuscript and extramural grant application
• Any additional logistics for the one-year formal mentoring relationship, including joint attendance at the research workshops and other training activities.

As mentors and fellows work together, they will regularly review and revise their learning contract to ensure that all goals are met and any mutually agreed upon changes are documented. These contracts are expected to be unique for each fellow, depending on previous professional and research experience. As part of the learning contract, short-term outcome data, such as presentations, didactics/conferences, as well as continued real-time monitoring of their scholarship activities (grant proposals, abstracts, and publications) will be monitored. This formative evaluation process will provide real-time feedback from the fellows to their mentors and the PDs (program directors). Based on this feedback, an educational prescription may be developed by the mentor and PDs for a fellow who will focus on strengthening their expertise in specific theoretical, methodological, and logistical areas related to Big Data infectious disease research. Fellows will also be asked to assess their overall program experience at the end of the program, including views and experiences, process issues, and program content.

The selection of fellows will be done by a Selection Committee led by Dr. Bankole Olatosi. When the Selection Committee receives the application packages, members of the committee will each conduct an initial assessment of the applications and provide numerical rankings (1 to 5, with 5 being the highest) along 4 dimensions:

• Relevance of past training and research experience and personal interest to the mission of NIAID
• Responsiveness to infectious disease and Big Data
• Potential to make a significant contribution to the field of infectious disease research
• Potential to generate external research funding.

The Selection Committee will meet by teleconference and discuss the candidates, potentially modifying their rankings. Preference will be given to those who are not currently participating in another research mentoring program and have prior or current experience developing a grant proposal for external federal funding. The Selection Committee will rank the applications based on the scores and select at least 4 finalists (and 2 to 4 runners-up) and start the process of two-way matching between potential fellows and prospective mentors.