Vital Directions for Health & Health Care An Initiative of the National Academy of Medicine (2017) / Chapter Skim
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20. Training the Workforce for 21st-Century Science
20. Training the Workforce for 21st-Century Science
Pages 407-430
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From page 407... ...
Today, our biomedical educational and scientific training pathways are fragmented (Kruse, 2013)
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From page 408... ...
With the retirement of the extraordinarily productive current generation of US scientists, our nation will have to plan carefully and act swiftly to continue to attract young people to science and to train and retain a world-class scientific workforce from within its citizenry if it hopes to retain its longstanding advantage. Furthermore, novel training paradigms and multidisciplinary skills that combine life sciences and physical sciences will be essential.
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From page 409... ...
In brief, our analysis identifies four interrelated key issues that we must address if our scientific workforce is to remain preeminent: • The lack of high school exposure to cutting-edge science by the best teachers. • The increasing financial burden of a scientific education with unsustain able student debt that forces many, especially members of underrepresented minorities, to forgo scientific research careers.
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1. With most developed countries producing students who have stronger mathematics skills, Brittany's potential to compete at a high level in science may already be compromised unless she can catch up in college.
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In his junior year, Michael learns a bit about molecular biology from his roommate and sees that this field of research is fascinating. He gets a chance to work in a university genetics laboratory over the summer and finds it exciting -- some of the required data analyses even allow him to use his advanced mathematics skills.
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She comes from a family of scientists. Both her parents were trained in India and now have faculty positions in the United States, her father in biochemistry and her mother
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She would like to work with a colleague in the computer-science department, but her mentor does not have a grant in this disease field, and Preeti does not have the time or independent resources required to pursue her ideas unless she obtains a faculty position of her own. Her father, who has been a productive scientist for years, just lost his major grant and is having a hard time keeping his laboratory running.
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Few school districts have the resources to send their STEM teachers to annual meetings or continuing education in the form of advanced coursework or bench science (NRC, 2002, 2005a, 2007)
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, and still others suggest that the training is too long and too narrow. The needs of both PhD students and society will be served better by aligning training programs with varied career research options, including "big pharma," biotech, device companies, foundations, government, data-analytics companies, and patient groups.
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From page 416... ...
In the distant past, biomedical scientists could master all the relevant research fields needed to be productive scientists, for example, physiology, pharmacology, anatomy, and genetics. Such scientists toiled away in their academic laboratories, talking to each other in the hallways or at scientific meetings with like-minded academic researchers.
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From page 417... ...
Ironically, it is happening at a time when industry is moving to an external-innovation model, in which much innovation is derived from work with small companies or academics rather than from internal research in industry-owned laboratories. For all the reasons described above, we need to move from reliance on the old view of scientific training to a new view that takes into account the complexity
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In recent years, steps have been taken to correct the cacophony of K–12 educational standards and curricula that characterized the American education system for many decades. The Common Core Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2016b)
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It would certainly be feasible to consider national programs, perhaps supported by federal or state grants, which give more undergraduate students summer research experiences. Why not create accelerated pathways for the most gifted students, especially members of underrepresented minority groups, rather than impose the same programs on all, primarily for the purposes of credentialing?
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, The University of Maryland, Baltimore County Meyerhoff and Howard Hughes Medical Institute–funded adaptation (HHMI, 2014; UMBC, 2016) , and relevant NSF programs (NSF, 2016a)
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A NextGen Opportunity Fund The president could create a NextGen Opportunity Fund, whose resources come from a 2 percent set-aside from the appropriations of each relevant federal health, science, or education agency, which could rise to as much as 5 percent over the next decade as it is evaluated for impact. Strategic use of the funds would be guided by a presidential panel that comprises heads of federal agencies and divisions, state governors, and representatives of academe, payers, providers, industry, and patient groups.
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From page 422... ...
The mission of the corps would be to address the lack of high school exposure to the best science by the best teachers; the unjustified lengthening of our postgraduate training system with poorly defined career pathways even for promising scientists who today do not reach independence until their late 30s; the increasing financial burden of a scientific education with unsustainable student debt levels that forces many, especially members of underrepresented minorities, to forgo scientific careers; and the persistence of rigid disciplinary silos that make the multidisciplinary training and research experience more difficult and longer than necessary. Admission to the corps would be highly competitive.
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• Create programs to help students, particularly minority-group students, who need guidance on completion of a doctorate or postdoctoral fellowship as to how to navigate the job hiring process. highly trained independent scientists ready to contribute to improvements in health.
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People entering the corps would be able to participate in advanced curricula designed to speed their trajectory toward becoming independent scientists. For example, new programs might include opportunities for high school students to take college classes in computer science for credit and to do it while replacing, for example, a history requirement.
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SUMMARY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VITAL DIRECTIONS 1. Establish a NextGen Opportunity Fund.
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. HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute)
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2013. Next Generation Science Standards: DCI arrangements of the Next Generation Science Standards.
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F32 Ruth L Kirschstein postdoctoral individual national research service award.
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2013. The price of a science PhD: Variations in student debt levels across disciplines and race/ethnicity.
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