Accelerating Research Productivity in Social Work Programs: Perspectives on NIH's Postdoctoral T32 Research Training Mechanism.

This article describes the experiences of four social work researchers who pursued an alternative career path immediately following their doctorate in social work by accepting a postdoctoral training fellowship funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As schools of social work look for creative ways to build research capacity, this article describes the authors' perspectives regarding the considerations to accept postdocs, key elements in their training programs, lessons learned, and outcomes from training. To provide an overview of the funding mechanism and distribution of funds to institutes and centers relevant to social work, data were obtained from databases that list NIH training grants awarded each year. Study results showed a limited amount of variation in fellows' training plans. The majority of training time was spent building skill in manuscript preparation, grant development, and socialization to the NIH culture. Above all other themes, the desire for advanced research training was a critically important factor in accepting a postdoctoral training position. Finally, the outcomes of training may have a profound effect on professional development, yet the long-term trajectory of postdoctoral fellows in academic positions as compared with people without postdoctoral training in social work programs requires further study. KEY WORDS: postdoctoral research training; research; research capacity; social work ********** As social work faculty strives for increasingly competitive external funding from sources such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the need for mechanisms that support increased skill development in research methods and grant writing is of paramount importance. Though frequently used in other disciplines to protect time for new researchers to build these skills and develop their independent research (Ackerlind, 2005), postdoctoral training is rarely exploited by graduates of social work doctoral programs and schools of social work (Austin, 1999). In the context of continued high demand for social work faculty, the benefits of postdoctoral training may seem superfluous, making the extra investment in advanced research training unattractive (Kupfer, Hyman, Schatzberg, Pincus, & Reynolds, 2002).This article introduces the reader to postdoctoral training as a mechanism for building research capacity in social work, suggests some points for consideration when weighing the costs and benefits of postdoctoral training (drawing from our experiences with postdoctoral training), and describes databases that provide an overview of the federal investment in postdoctoral training grants. There are two primary funding sources for postdoctoral research training: private foundations and federal funds awarded to institutions by NIH. Private foundations typically focus on specific content areas (for example, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) or disciplines (for example, the Hartford Foundation),whereas NIH-supported federal funding typically focuses on the public health issues central to the mission of the named institute (for example, the National Institute of Aging and the National Cancer Institute). Although training programs, missions, and funding sources may differ, postdoctoral training essentially offers time for advanced research training. The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) research training grants provide the primary support for NIH-funded pre- and postdoctoral training (for a description of the NRSA, see http://grants.nih. gov/training/nrsa.htm). As of August 2007, the NIH Office of Extramural Research reported that in fiscal year (FY) 2006 the total award amount, that is, total expenditures not including administrative supplements, for NRSA T32 grants was $560,609,687 (NIH, 2007). This article focuses on NIH's T32 training grant, which provides funding to eligible institutions that then select the individuals to participate in the training program. …