(10) Evaluation of the AACP New Investigator Award (NIA) on Faculty Research Outcomes

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. However, there is limited information on what happens after faculty receive an NI award. The objective of this project is to describe NIA recipients’ scholarly outcomes since receiving the award, as also their engagement in professional organizations.

Methods: A survey was developed (28-items) using information regarding the NIA and current literature, until consensus was achieved. The survey contained demographic information, information on the training/background of the research mentor, outcomes/perceptions of receiving the NIA, and current involvement with AACP. After piloting, it was distributed via Qualtrics to NIA recipients (N=159) from 2012-2022, with three reminders to improve the response rate. Descriptive statistics were performed using SPSS.

Results: Of the 53 respondents, 61% had been a faculty member for ≤2 years upon NIA receipt; 64% received it on the first attempt. Most (98%) were still in academia and working at the same institution (91%). Since receiving the grant, only a few (6%) had served as an NIA mentor, but most (89%) had encouraged others to submit an NIA grant. Most projects had either been completed (59%) or were in progress (34%), and had been used for another grant submission (53%). Some respondents (36%) indicated that they had already received the grant, and most (70%) had received some form of external funding since receiving the NIA . Most (87%) faculty felt the NIA grant was valuable/very valuable.

Conclusions: Faculty viewed the NIA grant award as being valuable to their career and appeared to utilize the award to foster further scholarly endeavors.