Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Aug 13;5(1):e171.
doi: 10.1017/cts.2021.839. eCollection 2021.

Building an institutional K awardee program at UC Davis through utilization of CTSA resources

Betty P Guo  1 , Julie Rainwater  1 , Stacey Neves  1 , Erdembileg Anuurad  1 , Ted Wun  1   2 , Lars Berglund  1   2
Affiliations

Building an institutional K awardee program at UC Davis through utilization of CTSA resources

Betty P Guo et al. J Clin Transl Sci. .

Abstract

NIH offers multiple mentored career development award mechanisms. By building on the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) from its initial NIH funding in 2006, we created an institution-wide K scholar resource. We investigated subsequent NIH funding for K scholars and to what extent CTSC research resources were used. Using NIH RePORTER, we created a database of UC Davis investigators who obtained K01, K08, K23, K25, or K99, as well as institutional KL2 or K12 awards and tracked CTSC research resource use and subsequent funding success. Overall, 94 scholars completed K training between 2007 and 2020, of which 70 participated in one of four institutional, NIH-funded K programs. An additional 103 scholars completed a mentored clinical research training program. Of 94 K awardees, 61 (65%) later achieved NIH funding, with the majority receiving a subsequent individual K award. A higher proportion (73%) of funded scholars used CTSC resources compared to unfunded (48%). Biostatistics and Biomedical Informatics were most commonly used and 55% of scholars used one or more CTSC resource. We conclude that institutional commitment to create a K scholar platform and use of CTSC research resources is associated with high NIH funding rates for early career investigators.

Keywords: K awards; NIH funding; career development; clinical and translational science awards; mentored.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Scholars with funded mentored K awards at UC Davis in 2007 and 2020. For 2020, scholars with active awards were included. Both institutional and individual K awards are shown.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Pathways to NIH funding. Shown are first subsequent NIH grant following institutional or individual K training. R-type funding includes R, U and P grants but not R01. Institutional K programs: CTSC KL2, BIRCWH K12, Calabresi K12, and emergency medicine K12. MCRTP – Institutional K pathway: (7 + 8 + 1)/28 = 16/28 = 57% funded; Institutional K pathway: (14 + 8 + 3)/40 = 25/40 = 60% funded.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. National Institutes of Health Advisory Committee to the Director. Biomedical Workforce Working Group Report [Internet]. (https://acd.od.nih.gov/documents/reports/Biomedical_research_wgreport.pdf)
    1. Zerhouni EA. Clinical research at a crossroads: the NIH roadmap. Journal of Investigative Medicine 2006; 54(4): 171–173. - PubMed
    1. Reis SE, Berglund L, Bernard GR, Califf RM, FitzGerald GA, Johnson PC. A roadmap for re-engineering the national clinical and translational research enterprise: the national clinical and translational science award (CTSA) consortium’s strategic plan. Academic Medicine 2010; 85(3): 463–469. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Meyers FJ, Begg MD, Fleming M, Merchant C. Strengthening the career development of clinical translational scientist trainees: a consensus statement of the clinical translational science award (CTSA) research education and career development committees. Clinical and Translational Science 2012; 5(2): 123–127. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sweeney C, Schwartz LS, Toto R, et al. Transition to independence: characteristics and outcomes of mentored career development (KL2) scholars at clinical and translational science award institutions. Academic Medicine 2017; 92(4): 556–562. - PMC - PubMed