CELLULAR SYSTEMS AND INTEGRATIVE PHYSIOLOGY MENTOR REQUIREMENTS & EXPECTATIONS

We thank our outstanding faculty for their willingness to mentor a CSIP trainee. We expect that this will be a rewarding experience for mentor and trainee. We have prepared this list as a reminder of our expectations for CSIP T32 training faculty. We have found these guidelines to be important for the successful development of CSIP trainees.

General Mentor Expectations

• Fund/help find funding to support your trainee for their entire time of graduate training.
• Assist your trainee in assembling their Thesis Committee.
• Meet with your trainee on a regular basis to provide mentoring and guidance.
• Discuss your trainee’s Individual Development Plan with them yearly.
• Support your trainee’s career goals.
• Assist your trainee with the preparation of scientific manuscripts and presentations.
• Instruct your trainee on how to critically evaluate scientific literature.
• Encourage your trainee to present their research at National or International meetings.
• Help your trainee to stay on track with time-to-degree; evaluate final thesis.

 Specific CSIP Mentor Expectations

• Assist CSIP trainees in applying for a T32 slot or extramural funding.
• Attend your trainee’s FUSION seminar (and other public presentations).
• Attend the annual Research Day/Retreat to support your trainee’s research.
• Attend CSIP and CBP Curriculum social events to encourage your student.
• Encourage your trainee to participate in career development programs (e.g. SCBA Career Seminar Series, TIBBs events, career coaching).
• Encourage your student to join professional societies and help support membership fees.
• Participate in the Grant-Writing Course small group discussions when asked.
• Participate in evaluation of doctoral written and oral examinations grants by serving as a member of a trainee’s grant review committee (not your own trainee).
• Assist CSIP trainee in selecting a required Quantitative Elective or Workshop.
• Acknowledge and support CSIP trainee’s desire to pursue a UNC certificate.
• Affirm that you have completed one of the formal mentor training programs, or have received an institutional award for excellence in mentoring within the past 3 years.
• Affirm that you have completed Responsible Conduct of Research Training within the past 5 years.

FORMAL MENTORING PROGRAMS

The individual departments from which CSIP draws faculty have formal mentoring programs for junior faculty. The CSIP Training Program has also adopted Mentoring Best Practices and formal Mentorship Recommendations for mid-career and senior faculty which include briefly,

1. mentoring plans,
2. individualization,
3. identification of co-mentors,
4. culture of mentorship,
5. incentivize mentoring,
6. written mentoring guidelines,
7. collaboration as a means to mentoring,
8. formal mentoring workshops, and
9. yearly evaluations of mentoring.

Additional details on these recommendations is provided below. Faculty mentoring training exists in several forms at UNC and will be required for mentors who wish to have a student trainee selected to the CSIP Training Program. To fulfill this mentoring training requirement, faculty must have completed one of the formal training programs, or have received an institutional award for excellence in mentoring, within the past 3 years prior to the student application. The accepted programs are the Office of Graduate Education (OGE) mentoring program and Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) the mentoring program. Faculty will also be required to have Responsible Conduct of Research Training within the past 5 years. These established programs are outlined below.

• The Office of Graduate Education (OGE) runs the groundbreaking “Faculty Mentoring Workshop for Biomedical Researchers”. This series of discussions on mentoring for faculty members who train graduate students, undergraduates, post-docs, or junior faculty in the life This program is based on a Research Mentor Training curriculum developed for biomedical researchers and is based on the “Entering Mentoring” curriculum developed by the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and the University of Wisconsin- Madison. Data from a randomized control trial indicates the curriculum improves research mentoring skills in both junior and senior research faculty alike. The OGE announced in September of 2018 the creation of an annual “Award for Excellence in Basic Science Mentoring” as part of a larger 10-year anniversary celebration for BBSP. The awards go to faculty who demonstrate excellence in mentoring.
• The Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) has individual mentoring consultations for early, mid, and senior faculty, as well as department leadership and administration. A collaborative effort between the UNC Center for Faculty Excellence and the UNC School of Medicine Mentoring Task Force has developed these evidence-based approaches to faculty mentoring using published In addition to promoting general best mentoring practices, the CFE also publishes and instructs faculty recommendations for mentoring women and URM. These evidence-based approaches to mentoring include: (1) peer mentoring, (2) mentoring networks, (3) professional development, (4) encouraging women and faculty of color participation locally and nationally, and (5) meeting the challenges of intersectionality. The CFE individual mentoring consultations are designed to benefit faculty, department chairs, and program leadership.
• Faculty training in Responsible Conduct of Research. Appropriate instruction in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) is an essential component of the professional development of our researchers at all career levels. The University offers several RCR training options that meet NSF and NIH policies. There are 3 RCR training programs at UNC that are most relevant to CSIP faculty: (a) CITI On-Line Research Ethics and Compliance Training (b) Office of Postdoctoral Affairs Research Ethics Training (also open to faculty) (c) NCTraCS RCR Summer Course. These courses cover all NIH-required topics for the first phase of responsible conduct of research training and meet the requirements for faculty participation, duration of instruction, and frequency laid out in NIH notice NOT-OD-10-019.
• Office of Research: Research Compliance Program. The UNC Research Compliance Program strives to promote best practices and ethical behavior and to deter activity contrary to these Program objectives include: (a) Anticipating, analyzing and communicating current compliance standards to the campus leadership, research communities and departments that support them, (b) Providing oversight of and assistance with development of policies and procedures to ensure protection of human and animal study subjects, (c) Providing structure for disclosure and management of conflict of interest, (d) Fostering collaboration among institutional and administrative leaders with compliance responsibility to address issues that transcend departments through communication, training and integrated processes (such as HIPAA), (e) Providing leadership, coordination and assistance with the management of agency reviews, audits and investigations, (f) Receipt, analysis and resolution of expressions of concern (“whistleblower” communications).