Outcomes of early NIH-funded investigators: Experience of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Survival of junior scientists in academic biomedical research is difficult in today's highly competitive funding climate. National Institute of Health (NIH) data on first-time R01 grantees indicate the rate at which early investigators drop out from a NIH-supported research career is most rapid...

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Main Authors: Patricia A Haggerty, Matthew J Fenton
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2018-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6135352?pdf=render
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spelling doaj-7986267f48a54e8fa970691cead9ff732020-11-25T01:56:06ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032018-01-01139e019964810.1371/journal.pone.0199648Outcomes of early NIH-funded investigators: Experience of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Patricia A HaggertyMatthew J FentonSurvival of junior scientists in academic biomedical research is difficult in today's highly competitive funding climate. National Institute of Health (NIH) data on first-time R01 grantees indicate the rate at which early investigators drop out from a NIH-supported research career is most rapid 4 to 5 years from the first R01 award. The factors associated with a high risk of dropping out, and whether these factors impact all junior investigators equally, are unclear. We identified a cohort of 1,496 investigators who received their first R01-equivalent (R01-e) awards from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases between 2003 and 2010, and studied all their subsequent NIH grant applications through 2016. Ultimately, 57% of the cohort were successful in obtaining new R01-e funding, despite highly competitive conditions. Among those investigators who failed to compete successfully for new funding (43%), the average time to dropping out was 5 years. Investigators who successfully obtained new grants showed remarkable within-person consistency across multiple grant submission behaviors, including submitting more applications per year, more renewal applications, and more applications to multiple NIH Institutes. Funded investigators appeared to have two advantages over their unfunded peers at the outset: they had better scores on their first R01-e grants and they demonstrated an early ability to write applications that would be scored, not triaged. The cohort rapidly segregated into two very different groups on the basis of PI consistency in the quality and frequency of applications submitted after their first R01-e award. Lastly, we identified a number of specific demographic factors, intitutional characteristics, and grant submission behaviors that were associated with successful outcomes, and assessed their predictive value and relative importance for the likelihood of obtaining additional NIH funding.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6135352?pdf=render
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Patricia A Haggerty
Matthew J Fenton
spellingShingle Patricia A Haggerty
Matthew J Fenton
Outcomes of early NIH-funded investigators: Experience of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Patricia A Haggerty
Matthew J Fenton
author_sort Patricia A Haggerty
title Outcomes of early NIH-funded investigators: Experience of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
title_short Outcomes of early NIH-funded investigators: Experience of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
title_full Outcomes of early NIH-funded investigators: Experience of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
title_fullStr Outcomes of early NIH-funded investigators: Experience of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
title_full_unstemmed Outcomes of early NIH-funded investigators: Experience of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
title_sort outcomes of early nih-funded investigators: experience of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2018-01-01
description Survival of junior scientists in academic biomedical research is difficult in today's highly competitive funding climate. National Institute of Health (NIH) data on first-time R01 grantees indicate the rate at which early investigators drop out from a NIH-supported research career is most rapid 4 to 5 years from the first R01 award. The factors associated with a high risk of dropping out, and whether these factors impact all junior investigators equally, are unclear. We identified a cohort of 1,496 investigators who received their first R01-equivalent (R01-e) awards from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases between 2003 and 2010, and studied all their subsequent NIH grant applications through 2016. Ultimately, 57% of the cohort were successful in obtaining new R01-e funding, despite highly competitive conditions. Among those investigators who failed to compete successfully for new funding (43%), the average time to dropping out was 5 years. Investigators who successfully obtained new grants showed remarkable within-person consistency across multiple grant submission behaviors, including submitting more applications per year, more renewal applications, and more applications to multiple NIH Institutes. Funded investigators appeared to have two advantages over their unfunded peers at the outset: they had better scores on their first R01-e grants and they demonstrated an early ability to write applications that would be scored, not triaged. The cohort rapidly segregated into two very different groups on the basis of PI consistency in the quality and frequency of applications submitted after their first R01-e award. Lastly, we identified a number of specific demographic factors, intitutional characteristics, and grant submission behaviors that were associated with successful outcomes, and assessed their predictive value and relative importance for the likelihood of obtaining additional NIH funding.
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6135352?pdf=render
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