HMAI Faculty Development Brochure

Faculty Development at Houston Methodist

Houston Methodist Academic Institute

Faculty Development

Houston Methodist commits to the career development and success of our faculty with a full suite of support for their research, teaching, and professional growth. The Faculty Development program was founded by and is steered by our Faculty Development advisory committees and the Houston Methodist Academic Institute president’s office. From professional services to seed funding and career milestone recognition programs, we continually invest in you and your continued success.

All Houston Methodist faculty have access to a dedicated liaison to navigate their many research support and educational opportunities. Contact academicaffairs@houstonmethodist.org for assistance.

The Houston Methodist Academic Institute offers workshops designed for faculty in leadership, teaching, mentoring and career development plus professional skills for seeking grant funding and disseminating their work. The Houston Methodist Academic Institute Course Catalog provides a complete listing of educational opportunities for faculty, with upcoming events shared on the Academic Events Calendar (attend.houstonmethodist.org) and on-demand content available at Watch Houston Methodist (watch.houstonmethodist.org).

For more information, contact facdev@houstonmethodist.org for a copy of our course catalog or visit www.houstonmethodist.org/ academic-affairs.

Career Development Pathways

1 Clinical and Translational Scientist Pathway

The Faculty Development program offers workshops in professional skills that are essential to building a successful academic career in clinical and translational research. Concept to Commercialization is a 12-week program that teaches faculty how to take an idea from a lab investigation to a product that can be brought to market. Case studies include real-world examples of products in the Houston Methodist product pipeline and those that have made it into clinical use. A liaison assists with a variety of needs— from connecting faculty to experts in planning pathways to regulatory approval, prototyping, transitions to GLP studies and cGMP production, early phase and first-in-human trials, and technology transfer and commercialization advice. The program also offers a variety of seed-funding programs, including a $28.8 million Translational Research Initiative fund designed to assist with moving innovations through this pipeline and securing extramural funding.

Clinical Trialist Pathway Clinician Educator Pathway

Essential Elements of InvestigatorInitiated Trials is an eight-week program that guides participants through funding, initiating and managing a clinical trial. Also offered is the Mentored Clinical Research Training Program in partnership with Weill Cornell. This intensive course prepares investigators to launch a clinical trial and pairs them with a mentor to advise them through the execution of the project. Clinical trialists also have access to assistance with protocol and regulatory document writing and a liaison service to navigate the administrative, regulatory, compliance and operational support infrastructure for clinical trials at Houston Methodist. Seed funding is available for early phase, investigatorinitiated clinical trials as well as salary support for early-career faculty dedicated to developing a career as a clinical trialist.

Faculty dedicated to education can grow their teaching skills through the Teaching and Learning pathway, which includes didactic coursework, handson project-based learning, and the development of a mentor network. Clinical educators have access to experts in instructional, assessment and simulation activity design that support effective education programs. The MITIESM Education Training Awards program provides seed funding for simulation-based education programs in graduate medical education, quality improvement and patient safety. Our Clinical Scholars Program offers competitively awarded salary support for early-career faculty dedicated to developing a career as a clinicianeducator.

Faculty Development Services

Houston Methodist faculty have access to expert services and one-on-one coaching from experienced faculty consultants who will review manuscripts, grant applications and clinical study protocols.

Research Development Services

The Faculty Development team of research development specialists identifies funding and publishing opportunities for our faculty proactively and by request. The team has an extensive network of editors and program officers to help you and also offers training on digital tools and databases to strengthen your searches, including SciVal Institutional and NIH Reporter. For more information please contact academicaffairs@houstonmethodist.org.

Grant Application Development and Scientific Writing

Faculty have priority access to a team of scientific writers, scientific illustrators, study design consultants and statisticians to assist with grant applications, addressing reviewer feedback, manuscripts and journal covers, graphic abstracts and study protocols. The team also can provide project management for larger multi-institutional and program project grant applications to ensure timely submission. For more information please contact academicaffairs@houstonmethodist.org.

Clinical Study Design & Statistics Services

Faculty Development can find the support you need for interventional and observational clinical studies. It provides observational study design and routine statistics services while ensuring your project stays in lockstep with compliance to streamline administrative reviews. The program can also connect you with systematic review and meta-analysis support through its library and make referrals to its advanced outcomes research center, big data and artificial intelligence research services, and clinical trial support center depending on your study needs. For more information please contact academicaffairs@houstonmethodist.org.

Education & Support Services for GME Programs

The Office of Curriculum and Education Development offers services in instructional, curriculum, assessment and simulation activity design. Whether you are planning a team training workshop, online module, high- or low-fidelity simulation, or GME resident bootcamp, we can help. This team also collaborates with the CME, CNE and CPE education teams to ensure you can offer credit for continuing professional education activities. For more information please contact the Office of Curriculum and Education Development, oced@houstonmethodist.org.

Mentoring Matters Program

The Mentoring Matters program was developed to build a culture of academic mentoring at Houston Methodist that is consistent with our ICARE values of integrity, compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence. Interested faculty can work with experts to design a custom program for their team that will help academic mentors and mentees build meaningful and productive relationships. For more information please contact facultydev@houstonmethodist.org.

Mindfulness and Engagement Program

The Houston Methodist Physician and Provider Engagement and Resiliency program offers activities that develop your capacity to aim, sustain and re-focus attention also maintaining awareness of the “bigger picture” in challenging and stressful situations; it also helps you maximize existing strengths and minimize the harmful effects of stress on mind and body. For more information please contact providerresilience@houstonmethodist.org.

Intramural Funding Awards

Houston Methodist offers a range of competitive intramural funding opportunities to recognize career milestones and grow your research, teaching and scholarship. This program also administers calls for limited submission grant opportunities. Faculty can apply for awards through a streamlined, user-friendly online portal: intramural-awards.houstonmethodist.org

Clinical Scholars Awards

The Clinical Scholars Award Program supports the distinct role that clinician-scientists, trialists and educators play in advancing academic medicine. This award aims to develop clinical faculty who possess the rare blend of skills needed to conduct research or clinical trials while educating trainees by supporting 20% to 50% of their time dedicated to academic work with up to $250,000 each year for three years. Awardees must be an active Houston Methodist clinician at the time of the award start date.

Katz Investigator Awards

Applications for this prestigious award from the Jerold B. Katz Academy of Translational Research are open to researchers from any medical specialty conducting translational research. The program is designed to help investigators advance promising translational research projects and new technologies with commercial potential with a $750,000 award for up to five years.

Awards Portal

Intramural Funding Awards (continued)

NIH Competitiveness Awards

The NIH Competitiveness Award Initiative supports up to $50,000 for applicants with a grant that scored within 10% of the NIH pay line to conduct additional work necessary for resubmission.

Houston Methodist Academic Institute Awards for Faculty Excellence

These awards recognize faculty for career milestones and their extraordinary accomplishments in research and education.

• Career Cornerstone Award recognizes faculty who have their first independent investigator NIH grant award with an amount equal to 50% of indirect costs of the grant award.

• Award for Excellence in Peer-Reviewed Publication provides applicants who have a recent high-impact publication with up to $5,000.

• Award for Excellence in Education provides up to $5,000 for applicants who have demonstrated excellence in education.

• Award for Excellence in Research provides up to $10,000 to applicants who have demonstrated excellence in scientific innovation and research.

• Award for Excellence in Transformational Research provides applicants who demonstrate exceptional achievement in clinical or translational research with up to $25,000.

Discovery Seed Funding Programs

A variety of seed funding programs are available to spark new collaborations with partners and in specific research areas. While these programs change over time, the following are current examples.

• Neurospark Program Awards supports research projects with up to $100,000 to develop restorative therapies for patients impaired by neurological disease and injury who currently have limited treatment options.

• George and Angelina Kostas Research Center for Cardiovascular Nanomedicine Awards support research projects with up to $100,000 to provide high-impact solutions using nanomedicine approaches to diagnose and treat cardiovascular diseases.

• Collaborative Grants in Alzheimer’s Disease award up to $80,000 to research projects focusing on Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias that are collaborations between Houston Methodist and Baylor College of Medicine faculty.

• Center for Health and Nature Research Awards provide up to $50,000 to support research studies that examine the effects of nature on human health and healing and prioritize collaboration between Houston Methodist or Texas A&M University faculty.

Translational Research Initiative

This initiative provides two types of awards to support the development of research innovations into inventions that will advance clinical care. The Bridge to Translational Research Initiative awards support faculty with up to $50,000 and an advisory board of industry experts to further develop promising ideas of scientific merit and clinical relevance for eventual translation. Ideal projects are highly innovative with the potential to make a significant clinical impact and utilize Houston Methodist intellectual property.

The Translational Research Initiative’s $28.8 million supports translational and clinically oriented research that will lead to the development of safe and effective clinical interventions and utilize Houston Methodist intellectual property. The size of these awards are commensurate with the needs of the project, which must have a regulatory approval plan, detailed milestones and deliverables, and provide periodic progress updates to an external advisory board of industry experts and an internal executive review board.

Cockrell Center for Advanced Therapeutics Clinical Trial Seed Funding Program

The Cockrell Center for Advanced Therapeutics supports faculty with early-phase clinical trials by providing awards of up to $50,000 to complete funding of partially funded investigator-initiated trials and advance improvements towards approval for clinical use.

Houston Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation, & Education (MITIESM) Education Training Awards

These awards support faculty in the development of education programs in three categories:

• Quality & Safety Awards of up to $100,000 support the creation and delivery of courses that advance quality improvement and patient safety.

• Graduate Medical Education Program Training Awards of up to $50,000 support the creation and delivery of education courses for graduate medical education.

• MITIE Showcase Awards of up to $10,000 support the digital offering of differentiating courses that would be of value to learners across the nation.

Houston Methodist is committed to providing, promoting and ensuring an environment that celebrates our diverse backgrounds and diverse thoughts. A culture that is equitable and inclusive encourages our faculty to grow their careers here, reach their full potential, and bring their entire self to work. Our faculty have the opportunity to participate in Employee Resource Groups (ERG), which are employee-led, voluntary groups that gather based on common interests, backgrounds or demographic to create a diverse and inclusive workplace. These groups provide safe, neutral spaces for employees at all levels to share common interests, discuss issues or challenges, offer developmental opportunities, and brainstorm strategies and solutions that will support diversity and inclusion goals. Learn more: houstonmethodist.org/dei