The 2011 FIT Program will take place in June 2011 at the University of Arizona. The FIT Program is for successful mid-career research faculty members who have never received significant federal funding. Tenured faculties without NIH funding are encouraged to apply.

Check www.accpri.org for the 2011 FIT Program application and schedule, or call the Research Institute at (913) 492-3311 for additional information.

Twelve investigator participants and 12 mentors teamed up for 1 week of intensive proposal development and hard work at the University of Arizona from June 12–17, 2010. Central to the FIT Program were mentored group proposal sessions. In these small group discussions, led by two faculty mentors and two or three investigators, each investigator presented his/her work in detail to the group. By participating in these sessions, combined with lectures and small group and panel discussions, the investigators made significant progress in retooling their proposals by week’s end. In addition, on returning to their home institutions, each participant had formulated a plan and timeline for the submission of his/her proposal. As part of the program, participants wrote reflection papers on their experiences during the week.

The following quotations are excerpts from the FIT Class of 2010.

The FIT program delivered an incredible learning experience and opportunity for self-reflection, career development and growth in addition to protocol development. The experience exceeded my expectations and gave me a sense of motivation and confidence I hoped to gain.

I feel that this was a worthwhile time investment. I gained tremendous knowledge not only about the research process and betterment of my proposal, but also I gained insights and received great career and professional advice.

I suppose that the most important change has been to convince me that significant funding is within my grasp – it has always been a matter of asking the right questions and saying things the right way, and I no longer think it is about magic.

Despite the hard work and challenges, I loved every minute of this program. It had been the best development program I have ever attended professionally.

The program allowed me to refine my understanding of development of a research proposal. It confirmed and refined my understanding of areas for career development and helped me develop and plan for achieving this.

I could not have asked for better mentors. I wish these people were at my institution – they gave me additional insight on the importance of serving as a mentor myself.

The mentors in this program did set great role models for us, and more importantly they explicitly showed us a clear direction for our future. I appreciate that they selflessly shared their experiences with us, as well as their invaluable life stories.

The FIT provided a nice balance of broad range information (e.g. integrity, mentoring, and project management) as well as detailed and specific information related to my proposal. I walk away from the week long experience energized and excited to go back to my institution to get funding to support my research.

I had to opportunity to meet individually with every one of the mentors at the program. I really appreciated the diversity of knowledge as well as the qualifications of all involved. Each one of them had an impact on my specific research proposal and brought up questions regarding my specific aims that will ultimately be incorporated into the application.

FIT Program Class of 2010:

• Marcia Brackbill, Pharm.D., Shenandoah University
• James Backes, Pharm.D., University of Kansas Medical Center
• Steven Leonard, Pharm.D., Northeastern University
• Pamala Pawloski, Pharm.D., HealthPartners Research Foundation
• Rahul Jain, MS, PhD, University of Georgia
• Roy Parish, Pharm.D., University of Louisiana
• Qing Ma, PhD, NYS Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences
• Fred Doloresco, MS, PharmD, University at Buffalo
• Kenneth Bauer, Jr., PharmD, PhD, University of Maryland
• Edith Nutescu, PharmD, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Terrance Adam, BS Pharm, MD, PhD, University of Minnesota
• Mitchell Barnett, MS, PharmD, Touro-University