The Department of Surgery is pleased to announce the rollout of its 2023 Academic Development Awards initiative, which take a marked pivot from traditional research, and focus, instead, on novel solutions to surgical education challenges. All students, residents, and faculty are encouraged to participate; up to five proposals will be awarded up to $5K.
“The working groups in our recent Faculty Retreat on Education revealed several opportunities for optimization, not only in our department, but more broadly across the academic surgical community,” said Interim Vice Chair of Education, Dr. Mehra Golshan.
“These awards encourage all of us to bring a solution-mindset to the table and think creatively about how we can practically move the needle on some of these issues that we face as educators and as learners,” said Division Chief of Pediatric Surgery, Dr. Michael Caty, who ideated the initiative.
Specifically, the request for proposals asks that projects focus on one of the following surgical education challenges:
- Standardizing the resident selection process
- Evaluating the faculty as educator
- Incorporating simulation to the training curriculum
- Measuring graduates’ preparedness for practice
Since the Academic Development Awards were introduced in 2019, the department has funded 16 proposals across the research spectrum: COVID-19, team science, and clinical trial development. The 2023 awards focus instead on education; the spirit of the initiative, however, remains the same.
“The purpose of the annual Academic Development Awards initiative is to encourage collaboration, reward out-of-the-box thinking, and to give ‘small’ ideas the opportunity to grow,” said Vice Chair of Research, Dr. Peter Gruber.
Proposals are due Dec. 15. Project funding will begin in the new year.