The Sylvester Faculty Development Program (FDP) seeks to provide early-career faculty with the resources and guidance needed to develop a successful research program. The FDP was founded on the idea that specific, content-oriented mentoring will promote the scientific excellence, career advancement, and career fulfillment of junior faculty and help them become leaders of the next generation of academic cancer researchers and physicians. The FDP comprises the following components:
- Mentorship
- Career tracking
- Travel awards
- Specific Aims review
- Grant writing support and funding opportunities
- Lunch with the Leader
- FDP First Fridays
- Junior Faculty Lecture Series
- American Cancer Society (ACS) Institutional Research Grant (IRG) Pilot Project Awards
- Sylvester K12 Calabresi Clinical Oncology Research Career Development Program
Mentorship
The mentoring relationship is the cornerstone of the Faculty Development Program. Sylvester research program leaders, departmental leadership, and Faculty Development Program leaders collaborate to suggest pairings, matching early-career faculty members who have a cancer research focus with senior faculty mentors invested in their career development. The initial mentorship relationship has a one-year term. At the end of the first year, the junior faculty member may choose to continue with the original mentor or switch mentors.
Career Tracking
In consultation with their mentors, Assistant Professors develop an annual individual development plan (IDP) to identify research goals and plans for the coming year. Faculty Development Program leadership read, review, and provide feedback on the IDP, and facilitate follow-up as needed.
Travel Awards
A competitive grant process provides support to offset costs of early-career faculty travel to and involvement in cancer-focused scientific conferences and workshops. These awards facilitate collaborations outside of Sylvester, enhance career growth, and promote varied opportunities for research development.
Specific Aims Review
Specific Aims reviews provide faculty members an opportunity to receive feedback on planned submissions early in the grant writing process. PIs receive a summary statement and individual reviewer comments on score-driving strengths, score-driving weaknesses, and grantsmanship issues.
The review takes place about two months before the grant deadline to help guide overall research direction.
To schedule a grant review, contact Vaughn Edelson at vte3@miami.edu.
Additional Grant Writing Support
- The Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship: The OVPRS offers tools to find funding, statistics and methods consulting, resources for proposal writing and review, and more.
- The Miami CTSI has several offeringsto assist and mentor faculty investigators through the grant writing process, including 1:1 consultations, recorded modules, and an introductory writing course.
- UM Writing Center consultants are available to help faculty, postdocs, and grad students write clear, concise grants, manuscripts, presentations, and more.
- The NIH Early Career Reviewer Program: provides early-career investigators (without an R01 or equivalent grant) with an opportunity to participate in a study section.
- NIH Grant Writing Tips take you through the full grants process.
Lunch with the Leader
This quarterly series gives early-career faculty the opportunity to meet as a group with Dr. Stephen D. Nimer to share their experiences and ideas and hear from the Cancer Center Director and others around Sylvester and the University about important issues relevant to their career stage.
FDP First Fridays
This monthly research-focused networking series, facilitated by the Associate Directors for Faculty Development, is an opportunity for early-career faculty to give and receive feedback from their peers and discuss pertinent career development issues. Topics have included writing a strong Specific Aims page, how to craft the introductory letter for a grant resubmission, when and how to contact a journal editor or Program Officer, the promotion and tenure process, personnel and trainee management issues, and more.
Junior Faculty Lecture Series
This lecture series showcases the exceptional work being done by early-career faculty and provides a unique opportunity for informal critique and scientific discussion amongst junior and senior faculty members. Lectures take place as part of the overarching Sylvester Office of Education and Training Seminar Series.
American Cancer Society ACS Institutional Research Grant (IRG) Pilot Projects Awards
This annual funding opportunity is the result of an ACS Institutional Research Grant to the University of Miami, whose purpose is to support early-career faculty and encourage independent cancer research. ACS IRG pilot grants provide seed money to early-career investigators (within six years of initial faculty appointment) who have no current peer-reviewed research grant support, with the goal of serving as a catalyst for the submission of national research grants.
Sylvester K12 Calabresi Clinical Oncology Research Career Development Program
The goal of the Sylvester K12 Calabresi Clinical Oncology Research Career Development Program is to identify and mentor new faculty leaders in patient-oriented, clinical cancer research who will translate fundamental knowledge and new technologies from the laboratory to the clinic and to the community.
Learn more about the Sylvester K12 Calabresi Clinical Oncology Research Career Development Program.
Faculty Development Program Contact Information
Joseph Rosenblatt, M.D.
Associate Director for Faculty Development
Professor, Departments of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology
William J. Harrington Chair in Hematology
Email: jrosenblatt@med.miami.edu
Scott Welford, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Faculty Development
Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology
Email: scott.welford@med.miami.edu
Tracy Crane, Ph.D., RDN
Associate Director for Faculty Development
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Email: tecrane@med.miami.edu
Vaughn Edelson
Director, Research Support
Phone: 305-243-1516
Email: vte3@med.miami.edu