Last week I spoke out about changing institutional thinking on translational research programs. Specifically, I recommended the reduction of time from grant submission to award, allowances for greater flexibility in project spending, and support for private “start up” lab space outside of the university through direct funding to the company/PI.  Among the most compelling feedback we received was the suggestion by Drs. John Robertson and Luke Brzozowski at Techna, an institute of University Health Network…

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Imagine you are 12 years old and live in a small rural community in the 1970’s. Your schoolteacher assigns you the task of writing about ancient Egypt. Off you trot to the local library to see what details you might be able to extract from the four pages that the well-worn Encyclopedia Britannica has dedicated to the topic. Now imagine you live in Bloomsbury, central London with the British Library and the British Museum pretty…

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In a previous post I highlighted a comprehensive list of recommendations for how to improve federally-supported translational research programs. In this series of posts I elaborate on these recommendations in the hope that they may help guide institutional thinking on translational research funding. Key points: Reduce time from grant submission to award Allow greater flexibility in project spending Subsidize private “start-up” lab space outside the university through direct funding to company/PI The time between grant…

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In my last post, I highlighted a new tool for driving open debate on manuscripts prior to publication in peer-reviewed journals (PREreview).  Subsequent to that post, we’ve now undertaken our first scientific discussion (typically called “journal clubs) of a “preprint” manuscript. The most critical thing in this process, however, seems to be speed. Initially, we sent around four bioRxiv papers for the students and postdocs to choose from and the votes cast actually picked a…

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I thought it necessary to interrupt my regularly scheduled post this week to highlight tax legislation that was recently passed by the United States House of Representatives last week (a similar plan is currently under consideration at in the United States Senate). Specifically, this legislation is concerning in how it potentially increases the tax burden for university students, faculty, and staff, while depleting resources for financial aid, research and teaching. For further background, you’ll find…

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“I shouldn’t be here,” said David Kent to a mostly female audience in Berlin which barely filled the first few rows of the lecture theatre. Dr. Kent, a scientist based in Cambridge, U.K. was referring to the struggle by the organizers to find a male research group leader, working in Germany, who was willing to talk about gender equality in science. Herein lies the problem. On October 9, 2017 the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular…

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The eLife folks directed me to a very interesting link the other day — an article published on eLife Labs that encouraged scientists across the world to engage with research articles before they have been peer reviewed. (For those who do not know eLife Labs, it’s the place where all the new and cool things that try to change the scientific publishing racket are brought to the fore — I encourage a regular look-see!) Preprint servers such as arXiv and bioRxiv are…

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The eLife folks directed me to a very interesting link the other day — an article published on eLife Labs that encouraged scientists across the world to engage with research articles before they have been peer reviewed. (For those who do not know eLife Labs, it’s the place where all the new and cool things that try to change the scientific publishing racket are brought to the fore — I encourage a regular look-see!) Preprint servers such as arXiv and bioRxiv are…

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Your teams should consist of people that you trust implicitly, that will work hard on whatever it is that you’re trying to do and will do it for free. The post How to establish executive and advisory teams for your business venture appeared first on University Affairs.

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Get ‘em while they’re young, says David Kent. The post Hiring faculty earlier could bring balance to the sexes appeared first on University Affairs.

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