In response to RFA-RM-13-002, the Association for Academic Minority Physicians with its nation-wide, multi-disciplinary, racially/ethnically-diverse collaborators including prominent NIH-funded minority principal investigators, proposes the MENTOR Consortium (Mentoring, Educating, Networking, Training, Opportunities in Research) to contribute its broad, charter membership to address racial/ethnic disparities in the NIH principal investigator composition. It is critical and in the national interest that not only more minorities come to the biomedical research table but also that their funding success be enhanced. For this planning grant, this unprecedented Consortium has four Aims: [1].Develop and populate MENTOR'S databases for a. Mentors: consisting of the names, contact information;areas of expertise;time availability;track record of mentors in facilitating the professional development of their mentees, preferred methods of interaction, and b .Mentees: consisting of the names/organizations, contact information;areas of interest and research aspirations;time availability;preferred methods of interaction, [2] Propose empirically validated metrics for evaluating mentorship effectiveness and mentee progress by stage, e.g., undergraduate to junior faculty;[3.] Adapt methods and technologies for increasing the effectiveness of mentoring with foci on: a. Disseminating effective small-scale or local mentoring successes to large-scale or national implementation;b. Evaluating strategies that have been effective in one racial or ethnic population or environment to its adaptation or adoption in other racial or ethnic populations or environments;c. Enhancing capabilities of information technology and social media in mentoring;and [4] Convene the MENTOR Consortium to: a. Catalogue/inventory factors/elements instrumental in effective mentorship;b. Assess and evaluate lessons learned from the planning phase;and c. Prepare the multi-year National Mentoring Research Network application.
The Association for Academic Minority Physicians'response embodied in this application brings together experienced, dedicated, senior NIH-funded minority and majority principal investigators and empirically focused perspectives to contribute to a national call to rectify racial/ethnic disparities in NIH principal investigators and their successin securing NIH funding.
