Justice Equity Diversity Inclusion Toolbox

Strategic Recommendations to Promote Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Principles in the Pediatric Scientific Workforce 

Domain: Institutional Resource Distribution 

Focus: Expectations of Externally Funded Research Time 

Author: Tamara D. Simon, MD, MSPH and Samudragupta Bora, PhD 

Editor: Samudragupta Bora, PhD 

On behalf of the Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Society for Pediatric Research 

Background: 

Individual pediatric faculty (primarily based at U.S. academic medical centers) negotiate with section/division/department leadership (occasionally in consultation with research leadership) regarding the distribution of their externally funded research time. This effort allocation is dependent on a range of factors, including institutional priorities, fiscal responsibilities, and funding agency requirements. There is a consensus within the pediatric scientific workforce that these allocations often poorly reflect the true efforts to successfully undertake the funded research activities. Consequently, there is the risk of work-related stress and burnout, with cascading negative impacts on research productivity, provision of clinical care, and poor health and wellbeing including career regret and intention to exit the academic workforce. Coupled with this injustice, concerns regarding inequity have also been raised. For example, the specific benefits of institutional indirect cost recovery to individual faculty remain unclear. Further, there is a lack of standardized policies and guidelines (reflecting the nature of the research activity regardless of the institutional affiliation) to support and incentivize externally funded research activities. Finally, issues concerning diversity and inclusion are rampant in the pediatric scientific workforce. Specifically, women faculty and those belonging to groups underrepresented in medicine (regardless of their gender) tend to experience challenges in negotiating a fair distribution of efforts to support their externally funded research activities. 

What Can National Organizations Do? 

1. Advocate for realistic expectations of faculty effort distribution for externally funded research activities, highlighting the core professional values of promoting transparency, fairness, and equity. 
2. Raise awareness to guide 1) institutional leadership to develop appropriate research support, including transparent, fair, and equitable faculty effort distribution, and 2) individual faculty to better understand standard practices and responsibilities concerning minimum effort allocation for externally funded research activities. 
3. Organize training and formal mentoring for institutional leadership to develop and/or adapt best practices suitable to individual contexts. 
4. Promote increased institutional accountability to funding agencies concerning transparent, fair, and equitable faculty effort allocation for externally funded research activities. 
5. Provide incentives to recognize institutions promoting exemplar efforts and demonstrating sincere commitment to support faculty in the transparent, fair, and equitable allocation of efforts for externally funded research activities. 
6. Collect adequate high-quality data and monitor trends concerning institutional distributions of faculty effort allocations for externally funded research activities to determine outcomes across key metrics, such as research productivity (rates of successful career awards, K to R conversion, publication record), faculty attrition, and faculty wellbeing. 

What Can Institutions Do? 

1. Develop section/division/department-specific guidelines describing standard practices, responsibilities, and realistic expectations of individual faculty effort allocation across different academic career stages, pertaining specifically to the pediatric scientific workforce supported by external funding. 
2. Regulate effort allocation incentives for faculty supported by external funding through transparent, fair, and equitable implementation of written policies, developed in active consultation with relevant stakeholders and reassessed regularly to adapt to the constantly changing pediatric research landscape. 
3. Standardize research support packages, including transparent, fair, and equitable faculty effort distribution corresponding to the range of T0 to T4 research, for K (career) awardees and upon receipt of larger (R01, U) grants for mid-career and senior faculty. 
4. Establish opportunities for increased access to minimum bridge funding, including transparent, fair, and equitable faculty effort distribution corresponding to the range of T0 to T4 research, to support research endeavors of promising faculty across different academic career stages. 
5. Create competitive faculty retention incentives, promoting career longevity and wellness, for faculty supported by external funding through transparent, fair, and equitable research effort distribution.  
6. Recognize biases in faculty effort allocation on externally funded research activities through intensive long-term education and intermittent refreshers, followed by adequate response plans to account for identified and potential obstacles to implementation. 
7. Implement an anonymous reporting system for observed bias and racism in faculty effort allocation on externally funded research activities. 
8. Allocate strategic investment in resources for faculty with special circumstances to optimize their effort allocation on externally funded research activities. 
9. Collect adequate high-quality data and monitor trends concerning institutional distributions of faculty effort allocations for externally funded research activities to determine outcomes across key metrics, such as research productivity (rates of successful career awards, K to R conversion, publication record), faculty attrition, and faculty wellbeing. 

What Can Allies Do? 

1. Advocate for transparent, fair, and equitable faculty effort distribution corresponding to the range of T0 to T4 research, pertaining specifically to the pediatric scientific workforce supported by external funding along with a targeted focus on junior faculty, women faculty, and those belonging to groups underrepresented in medicine (regardless of their career stage and gender). 
2. Facilitate section/division/department leadership to recognize and appropriately manage service commitments that may be outside individual faculty’s career goals. 
3. Support individual faculty to routinely reassess their career progression and balance of effort as externally funded research academic, along with the strategic alignment of current effort allocation with long-term goals. 
4. Establish strategies to ensure faculty across different academic career stages are well-informed of standard practices, responsibilities, and institutional expectations of faculty effort allocation, pertaining specifically to the pediatric scientific workforce supported by external funding. 
5. Utilize corporate knowledge of established faculty regarding institutional systems/processes/culture to strategically advocate for more junior colleagues for a transparent, fair, and equitable faculty effort distribution, pertaining specifically to the pediatric scientific workforce supported by external funding along with a targeted focus on women faculty and those belonging to groups underrepresented in medicine (regardless of their career stage and gender). 
6. Participate in and promote implicit bias training at all levels of the academic institution. 

What Can Individual Faculty Members Do? 

1. Empower to seek transparent, fair, and equitable faculty effort distribution corresponding to the range of T0 to T4 research, pertaining specifically to the pediatric scientific workforce supported by external funding. 
2. Promote anonymous reporting of observed bias and racism in faculty effort allocation on externally funded research activities. 
3. Establish a formal and/or informal mentoring committee with diverse expertise, including senior and peer mentors within and outside the pediatric scientific workforce, to help guide the individual faculty across various aspects of their academic research career, as well as outside of work. 
4. Evaluate career goals, career progression, and balance of effort as externally funded research academic, with the understanding that career aspirations may shift and evolve to strategically align with the constantly changing pediatric research landscape. 
5. Initiate yearly meetings with section/division/department leadership (in consultation with research leadership) to assess current effort allocation for externally funded research activities. Ideally, this meeting is a constructive space to reassess individual faculty’s career trajectory and either continue forward as-is, bolster specific support to optimize effort allocation, or perhaps consider suitable opportunities to change directions (e.g., shift from investigator to clinical track appointments). 

Link to Comprehensive References on Externally Funded Research Time