The Professor Is In

Karen L. Kelsky is The Professor of TheProfessorIsIn, a Web site that augments Kelsky’s consulting practice as an advisor to advanced doctoral students and junior faculty. She came to my attention through her essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education, “To: Professors; Re: Your Advisees,” in which she laments the lack of robust professional advising in graduate school.

Or to put it succinctly in Long’s Axiom: Graduate school prepares you . . . for graduate school.

The Web site offers a variety of suggestions on applying for academic jobs, writing, publishing, grant applications and related professional topics. It is now available through our “blinks” section.

Inside Higher Ed: Gap in NIH Funding for Black and White Researchers

Reported today in Inside Higher Ed:

White applicants for grants from the National Institutes of Health were significantly likelier than black researchers to win funding, according to a Science magazine study published Thursday that sought (and struggled) to explain the reasons for the gap. The study found that about 16 percent of black applicants were successful in winning NIH grants, compared to about 29 percent of applications from white researchers and 25 percent of Asian researchers.

The entire article, “Study Finds (and Examines) Gap in NIH Funding for Black and White Researchers,” is open access.

Chronicle: Budget Straits Mean Grant-Success Rate Will Hit All-Time Low, NIH Warns

Reported yesterday in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Budget cuts forced by Congress will probably mean that university medical researchers seeking federal funds will have their lowest success rate in history, National Institutes of Health officials told lawmakers on Wednesday.

Only about one in six grant applications to the NIH are expected to be approved, the agency’s director, Francis S. Collins, told a Senate appropriations subcommittee. The NIH awarded about 9,300 research grants last year, with an application success rate of about 20 percent, Dr. Collins said.

NINR Stats/2010

Recent federal budget cuts and proposed future cuts will have a cascading effect on what has already been a challenging season for nurse researchers. According to NINR’s stats for last year, few grant applications were approved. Word on the street is that all NIH funding mechanisms have pulled back for fear that three-year or five-year awards would not have the funds available to complete them.

Activity Code	Number of Applications Reviewed	Number of Applications Awarded	Success Rate3	Total Funding4
P01	3	0	0.0%	$0
R01	214	37	17.3%	$19,181,391
R03	33	3	9.1%	$266,738
R15	28	3	10.7%	$803,313
R21	161	15	9.3%	$3,229,076
Mechanism Total	439	58	13.2%	$23,480,518
F31	84	33	39.3%	$1,151,966
F32	1	1	100.0%	$54,854
K01	8	4	50.0%	$370,360
K23	9	5	55.6%	$604,660
K24	1	0	0.0%	$0
K99	8	4	50.0%	$320,232
R41	3	1	33.3%	$80,292
R42	1	0	0.0%	$0
R43	28	0	0.0%	$0
R44	10	3	30.0%	$748,425
T32	8	2	25.0%	$264,287
Mechanism Total	161	53	32.9%	$3,595,076
R24	0	0	0.0%	$114,000
Mechanism Total	0	0	0.0%	$114,000

Inside Higher Ed: New NSF Agenda, Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary

In news of interest to nurse researchers, according to today’s issue of Inside Higher Ed:

Seeking to move “beyond near-term funding cycles,” leaders of the National Science Foundation briefed sociologists here Sunday about plans to create a strategy to support the social sciences over the next decade.

Myron Gutmann, assistant director for the social, behavioral and economic sciences at the NSF, told those gathered for the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association that this is an “unparalleled time” in terms of interest across the sciences in working with social scientists on some of the top issues of the day.

. . . He stressed, in his remarks and in answers to questions, that the NSF is strongly committed, in its current grant programs and in the new agenda, to seeking out and supporting interdisciplinary projects — both among the social sciences and in projects linking the social sciences to other sciences. In some respects, this is going on even before the 10-year plan is developed.

. . . Gutmann also said he believes that universities remain slow — despite many statements they make to the contrary — to truly supporting interdisciplinary work. He said that many graduate programs are not teaching interdisciplinary approaches in graduate programs, and that many universities “are less than perfect” when it comes to rewarding interdisciplinary work in the tenure and promotion process.

The article, “New NSF Social Science Agenda,” is available on line.

CNN: $5 Billion in New Fed ARRA Grants

According to a news item today on the CNN Web site:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Obama, in an effort to stimulate the economy and support critical research, will announce $5 billion in grants when he visits the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday, according to an administration official.

President Obama and Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will announce research grants Wednesday.

The money, which comes from Recovery Act funds, is aimed at supporting “12,000 critical research projects — and tens of thousands of jobs associated with them, ranging from teachers and lab technicians to database managers and scientists,” the official wrote in an e-mail.