Survey Report From Department Chairs on Non-Traditional Opportunities What do I need to know about research track positions? Thomas Cunningham, Ph.D. Cardiovascular Research Institute University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth

Trends in Employment at US Medical Schools from Faculty count and tenure status Liu & Mallon, Acad. Med. 2004, 79: ( Tenure_in_Transition__Trends_in_Basic_Science.3.aspx) Basic Science Departments in US medical schools have showed an increasing trend away from traditional tenure track positions. This trend has created new models and new opportunities for employment.

Survey of the Status of Research Track Positions in Physiology Departments Current Research Scientist/Research track positions. – What do you need to know? In collaboration with Melinda Lowy (Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology/APS) 9 questions – required mostly yes/no answers 61 responses

1.Is your institution a public or private institution? Public = 75.4% Private = 24.5% Who Answered

2. What type of institution are you at? University = 63.9% Health Science Center = 37.7 Veterinary school = 6.5 Undergraduate = 0 Other = 3.3

Most Institutions Have a Research Track 3. Does your institution/department allow research- track appointments? Yes = 91.8% No = 8.2 Under consideration = 0

Research Track Has Different Duties 4. Are there clear distinctions between responsibilities of research-track and tenure-track faculty? Yes = 85.7% No = 14.3

The Institution Sets the Differences 5. How are these distinctions determined/created? Institutional = 67.8% Departmental = 39.3 Case by case = 10.7 Don’t know =0 N/A = 1.7

Research Track May Involve Teaching and Service 6. Do research-track faculty contribute to the teaching or service missions of your department? Yes = 71.4 No = 26.8 NA = 1.7

There May Be Other Sources of Support 7. Are research-tract faculty funded by sources other than research grants? Department = 37.5 Institution = 14.3 Other = 8.9 No = 44.6 Departmental/Institutional linked to teaching/service

You May Be Able to Move to Tenure Track 8. Can research faculty be moved to tenure track? Yes = 82.1 No = 14.3 Not sure = 1.8

But Not Always 9. Has this ever happened? Yes = 60.7 No = 28.6 Not sure = 8.9

Comments Our use of the research track is almost always as a means of giving an advanced postdoc a shot at independent funding and a better CV for job hunting. There has been one exception to this in 10 years… Our university interprets NIH regs to mean that research faculty cannot receive 100% salary from grants and requires the dept to cover at least 5% effort on institutional funds. This is a major drain on resources ($5-10k/person) but contributes importantly to our research mission. Ours is not an equal track, which limits its use. The main distinction here is that tenure track faculty are pretty much hard, state-line money, whereas research track cannot attain tenure and are “soft” money from extramural grants. There is little/no backup mechanism for their salary. Thus it is not used as much here as at some institutions.

There is a formal Research Track… that goes through the usual appointment and promotion procedures that tenure-track positions do. The description is "This non-tenured track may be used for faculty members whose primary commitment to the College is in research. While a faculty member must be salaried greater than 50% for University-related activities to be eligible for the Research Track, in practice this track is most frequently used for full-time faculty.“ There are no institutional policies, but as a rule, clinical track faculty are hired by the chair to cover the teaching mission, but research track faculty are brought in by individual tenure track faculty to work within a particular research program. If a research track faculty member becomes successful in obtaining independent funding, they are usually given more departmental support (e.g., space, equipment), going as far as an eventual tenure track offer Comments

Some of these yes/no answers do not fully capture the nuance of these positions. As such, I answered as accurately as possible. There is an ongoing discussion at our institution about career development for research faculty. Are they really faculty members, with independent goals and long-term prospects for academic advancement? Or can they be high-level researchers who play essential dependent roles in the laboratories of senior investigators? The debate continues… Comments

Resources Liu, M & WT Mallon. Tenure in Transition: Trends in Basic Science Faculty Appointment Policies at U.S. Medical Schools. Acad. Med. 2004, 79: Acad. Med. 2004, 79: Bunton, SA & WT Mallon. The Continued Evolution of Faculty Appointment and Tenure Policies at U.S. Medical Schools. Acad. Med. 2007, 82: Acad. Med. 2007, 82: Gappa, J.M. Teaching Without Tenure. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 2002, 45: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 2002, 45: Gappa, New Directions for Institutional Research, 2000, 105: Non-Tenure Track Faculty: Where Commonly Held Beliefs and Research Diverge, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation & Center for the Education of Women, University of Michigan, Trower, C. Negotiating the Non-Tenure Track. Chronicle of Higher Education, July 2001.Chronicle of Higher Education, July 2001 Curtis, JW & MF Jacobe. Consequences: An Increasingly Contingent Faculty. In: Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure. AAUP, Academe Online, Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure