Evaluating CBCRP's Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards
Janna Cordeiro, M.P.H.
CBCRP's Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards Program, designed to prepare researchers for long-term careers in breast cancer research, is successfully meeting this goal, award recipients say. In the summer of 2001, CBCRP program evaluation staff interviewed 39 researchers who were CBCRP postdocs during the first four years of the program. Among the findings:
-
Of all people interviewed, 67 percent are still in breast cancer research—with 44 percent reporting that they used the CBCRP fellowship to gain first-time experience in the field.
-
More than half of those surveyed said that the fellowship helped them to improve their research skills, increase their self-confidence, and ultimately gain a higher level job—with about half reporting that the fellowship helped them to secure a faculty position in research.
-
About 80 percent of the CBCRP-funded postdoctoral projects helped either the postdocs or a colleague to gain additional funds to continue research begun with CBCRP funding.
The researchers have an impressive publication record as well—as a group they have published over 108 articles in peer-reviewed publications. What's more, over 80 percent of the postdocs in the survey said that they had published at least one paper based on CBCRP-funded research.
Since 1995, the CBCRP has invested almost $6.4 million in 94 postdoctoral awards, two-year grants of up to $80,000 each. This is about a fifth of CBCRP's total awards budget.
“The postdoctoral years are pivotal to one's scientific development and career. I'm extremely pleased that the CBCRP has established a high quality postdoctoral program to help guide the next generation of breast cancer researchers toward eradicating the disease.”
Dr. Teresa Burgess, chair of the California Breast Cancer Research Council and Research Scientist, Cancer Biology at Amgen, Inc.
