Student-led research team-building program may help junior faculty increase productivity in competitive biomedical...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Research Management
• Team Science

Background:

• Academic researchers, particularly junior faculty, often lack the training and resources to establish and sustain productive interdisciplinary research teams.
• Low-cost, accessible services are needed to support junior investigators in team development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the acceptability and feasibility of three low-cost services designed to help junior faculty build and maintain research teams.
• To evaluate the impact of these services on faculty leadership confidence, team performance, and participant satisfaction.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of three services: educational talks, email-distributed resources, and a year-long student-co-led consultation.
• Data collection via service utilization tracking and online self-assessments for consultation participants.
• Descriptive statistics used to analyze leadership confidence, team performance, and satisfaction with consultation components.

Main Results:

• 31 team-building talks reached 328 faculty and fellows; 26 faculty requested email resources.
• 45 research teams were built or enhanced through the consultation service.
• Post-consultation, 100% of faculty maintained their teams, with high ratings for productivity, morale, and motivation. Recruitment assistance and management tools were highly valued.

Conclusions:

• The developed low-cost services effectively supported junior faculty in building and managing research teams.
• High demand indicates a critical need for enhanced training in team development and management for junior faculty.