(129) Department Chair Perceptions of the New Investigator Award (NIA)

Objective : Sponsored by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), the New Investigator Award (NIA) provides start-up funding for the independent research programs of early-career pharmacy faculty. The utility of the NIA award from the perspective of the department chairs is unknown; thus, the objective of this project is to describe department chairs’ perceptions of the NIA award.

Methods: After examining the literature and the NIA award process, a 15-item survey was developed to collect demographic information, perceptions of the NIA award, and department outcomes related to the NIA award. Consensus on the survey was achieved and following a mini pilot test the survey was distributed in Qualtrics to all department chairs (n=318) in accredited pharmacy programs with publicly-available contact information. Three reminders were used to increase response rates. Data were analyzed descriptively in SPSS.

Results: Of the 84 chair respondents, 37% had faculty who had received NIA funding and 14% had served as a mentor. Most departments did not have a NIA development/review process (87%) or a general scholarship/research development program (55%). However, most departments did have a mentoring program (63%) and felt that their faculty were somewhat or extremely likely to be successful in receiving a NIA grant (70%), another entry-level/early-career grant (63%/65%), or a foundation-based grant (76%). Most perceived the NIA program to be valuable/very valuable in faculty progression as a researcher (56%), in academic advancement (58%), and in development of a research program (50%).

Conclusions: Overall, department chairs have positive perceptions of the value of the NIA to future faculty success. This suggests the value of the NIA to the faculty and the Academy.