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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Res. Metr. Anal.
Sec. Research Policy and Strategic Management
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frma.2024.1477471
This article is part of the Research Topic Building Tomorrow’s Biomedical Workforce: Evaluation of How Evidence-Based Training Programs Align Skill Development and Career Awareness with a Broad Array of Professions View all 6 articles

Benefits of promoting scholarship among program directors Bottom line: Promoting scholarship among directors is a win-win-win for institutions, trainees, and directors

Provisionally accepted
Patrick D. Brandt Patrick D. Brandt *Donita L. Robinson Donita L. Robinson
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    When the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget doubled in the late 1990s, it led to a rise in the number of PhD-trained scientists and to increased NIH-funded programs to diversify the biomedical workforce. This trend has seen more PhD scientists take on leadership roles as program directors in academia. These program directors are often highly skilled in research design and data analysis, and they bring a scholarly approach to their administrative duties. Despite organizational challenges, promoting scholarship among program directors offers numerous benefits, including enhanced institutional reputation and better training outcomes. Herein we use examples from peer reviewed literature to illustrate how publications by program directors have influenced national policies and practices in biomedical training. Encouraging more academic institutions to support program director scholarship can yield significant returns for institutions, trainees, and the directors themselves.

    Keywords: Program directors, scholarship, Program Evaluation, higher education, life science training

    Received: 07 Aug 2024; Accepted: 28 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Brandt and Robinson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Patrick D. Brandt, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.