MORE Workshop

Understanding Interventions that Encourage Minorities to Pursue Research Careers: Major Questions and Appropriate Methods

This page include an agenda with links to speaker presentations. You may also wish to download several background materials distributed at the workshop:



The additional following materials that describe the workshop may also be of interest:







Thursday-Friday, May 3-4, 2007

Auditorium
American Association for the Advancement of Science
1200 New York Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005


AGENDA


THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2007

8:00 a.m.    Registration opens

8:30 a.m.    Welcome and Introductions



8:45 a.m.    Sponsor's Charge to Workshop Participants



9:00 a.m.    Setting the context: Factors affecting career choice and training
This session will look at the underlying issues of career choice from the perspective of different disciplines, such as psychology, higher education studies, and economics. The session will emphasize the systems aspect of students' decision-making process, the way that many different factors contribute, and highlight different approaches to these questions.
Session Chair: Carol B. Muller (Committee Member), Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer, MentorNet



10:45 a.m.    Break


11:10 a.m.    Setting the Context: Responses and Discussion Session Chair: Karen Kashmanian Oates (Committee Member), Provost and Professor of Biochemistry, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology



12:00 p.m.    Lunch


1:00 p.m.    Remarks from NIGMS Director



1:15 p.m.    Keynote Address



1:45 p.m.    State of knowledge and avenues of investigation
This session will provide an overview of the existing knowledge base and introduce some of questions and approaches that are currently being pursued.
Session Chair: Daryl E. Chubin (Committee Member), Director, AAAS Center for Advancing Science & Engineering Capacity, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Download presentation slides (154 KB PDF)



2:50 p.m.    Break


3:10 p.m.    Technical assistance workshop
This session will focus on technical aspects of research in this area, with discussion of issues such as framing of researchable questions, experimental design, and quantitative analysis.
Session Chair: Larry V. Hedges (Committee Co-Chair), Board of Trustees Professor of Statistics and Social Policy, Northwestern University

Overview of NIH Efficacy of Interventions to Promoted Research Careers R01 Program


1. Problem Formulation: Asking answerable questions that will advance our understanding of how to increase minority representation in biomedical and behavioral sciences.
This includes situating the research questions in the context of some body of existing knowledge (theory or empirical work). It also involves posing questions that relate to what is known and promises to advance it in a meaningful way. It requires research questions that are broad enough to be important but narrow enough to be answered (or informed in a meaningful way) from a feasible research study. This discussion will be grounded in the kinds of research problems that are relevant to understanding how to increase minority representation in biomedical and behavioral sciences.


2. Research Design: Specifying procedures to collect data that can inform that question.
This begins with making clear what will be done (what the research design is). It will include providing a persuasive argument that the proposed research design is feasible (e.g., that it can be carried out, that the individuals invited are likely to participate in the study, etc.) and that the proposed design can provide clear answers to the research questions. At a minimum, this requires a persuasive argument that the proposed design minimizes possible biases and that the proposed analyses will have enough precision or statistical power to detect the effects or relations between variables that are crucial to answering the research questions. It also includes descriptions of how key research concepts used (such as interventions and measures of outcomes) will be operationalized.


3. Analysis: Specifying the procedure that will be used to reach conclusions from the data collected.
This includes specifying a data reduction and/or analysis procedure that is appropriate for the research design and will provide clear answers to the research questions. The session will not provide an exhaustive discussion of all relevant analysis procedures but will provide examples of some of the most relevant techniques-and motivate why they should be considered.



5:30 p.m.    Reception and informal discussion
Sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute



FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2007

8:00 a.m.    Breakout discussions on research questions and approaches
This session will follow on the earlier discussions, allowing participants to interact with other participants from similar types of institutions in smaller groups and focus on the types of research questions and approaches that are of most interest.
There will be three breakout sessions, based upon institution type:

Others (e.g., government employees) are welcome to attend the session of their choice.


9:30 a.m.    Reporting back on breakout discussions
Moderator: Anthony L. DePass (Committee Co-Chair), Associate Dean of Research and Associate Professor of Biology, Long Island University-Brooklyn


10:30 a.m.    Panel on next steps, including community building and facilitating advancement
This session will focus on the next steps for moving the research agenda forward. Among the panelists will be representatives from those who can help provide a venue for future work and discussion.
Session Chair: Howard H. Garrison (Committee Member), Deputy Executive Director for Policy and Director, Office of Public Affairs, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Download presentation slides (18 KB PDF)



12:30 p.m.    Concluding session



12:45 p.m.    Workshop adjourns



Workshop Home     NRC Board on Life Sciences