Succeeding with Your K Award Begins New Year with New Leadership
For many translational scientists, career development begins with a K.
Designed to provide support for early-career faculty and postdoctoral fellows, the National Institutes of Health K awards are seen as an early benchmark in academic research.
The purpose and eligibility for K awards are wide ranging, but the accomplishments that take place during the grant are meant to optimally position each K Scholar to progress towards scientific independence.
“Early stage investigators are the future of academic research, and I firmly believe that we have a responsibility to do all that we can to help them grow and thrive,” says Yvonne C. Lee, MD, MMSc, Solovy/Arthritis Research Society Research Professor and new faculty lead of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute’s “Succeeding with Your K Award” seminar series. “I am very excited to lead the series. Of the many avenues I pursue as a researcher, mentoring is the activity I find most directly impactful. I find it extremely gratifying to interact with smart, motivated, and enthusiastic early-stage investigators, and I love the energy that is generated from these interactions.”
“Succeeding with Your K Award” is a highly interactive and mutually supportive peer-mentoring seminar series. It is designed for early-career faculty who are supported on National Institutes of Health K awards and meant to help them develop the ability to look at their own work and that of others in a critical but supportive manner. The seminar takes place on the third Monday of each month.
I am indebted to the exceptional training I received, and I look forward to giving back to the research community, particularly through CTSA-funded initiatives, such as the ‘Succeeding with Your K’ series.”
“This series is an incredible asset because it provides K awardees a community to turn to for support and guidance during this critical, and often vulnerable, stage of their careers,” says Lee, a previous KL2 and K23 awardee. “It provides a source of connection, which is key to resilience. Often, the most valuable input can be obtained from one’s peers, who are facing or have faced and overcome similar challenges. This series gives K awardees the opportunity to leverage the experiences and intellectual power of their peers.”
Lee says that she has herself benefited immensely from educational programming funded by Clinical and Translational Science Awards, such as the one that funds the NUCATS Institute. As a rheumatology fellow and junior faculty member at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, she completed a Master of Medical Science program, and she participated as a K awardee in the Grant Review and Support Program.
“I am indebted to the exceptional training I received, and I look forward to giving back to the research community, particularly through CTSA-funded initiatives, such as the ‘Succeeding with Your K’ series,” says Lee.
If you are an early career faculty member supported on a National Institutes of Health K award and would like to be added to the invitation list for the “Succeeding with Your K” seminar series, please email nucats-ed@northwestern.edu.
