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The Impact of Postdoctoral Fellowships on a Future Independent Career in Federally Funded Biomedical Research

Author

Listed:
  • Misty L. Heggeness
  • Donna K. Ginther
  • Maria I. Larenas
  • Frances D. Carter-Johnson

Abstract

The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) program is a major research training program administered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with funds appropriated each year by Congress. This study examines the impact of NRSA postdoctoral fellowships on subsequent research-related career outcomes using NIH administrative records on applicants who applied for a fellowship between 1996 and 2008. We find that postdoctoral fellowships increased the probability of receiving subsequent NIH research awards from 6.3 to 8.2 percentage points and of achieving an NIH-funded R01 award, an indication of an independent research career, from 4.6 to 6.1 percentage points. Our findings demonstrate that the NRSA postdoctoral fellowship awards have the potential to promote retention of scientists in NIH-funded research and in the biomedical workforce pipeline.

Suggested Citation

  • Misty L. Heggeness & Donna K. Ginther & Maria I. Larenas & Frances D. Carter-Johnson, 2018. "The Impact of Postdoctoral Fellowships on a Future Independent Career in Federally Funded Biomedical Research," NBER Working Papers 24508, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24508
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    Cited by:

    1. Christopher L Pickett, 2019. "The increasing importance of fellowships and career development awards in the careers of early-stage biomedical academic researchers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Sebastian Hoenen & Christos Kolympiris, 2020. "The Value of Insiders as Mentors: Evidence from the Effects of NSF Rotators on Early-Career Scientists," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(5), pages 852-866, December.
    3. Ginther, Donna K. & Heggeness, Misty L., 2020. "Administrative discretion in scientific funding: Evidence from a prestigious postdoctoral training program✰," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(4).
    4. Ellgen, Clifford & Kang, Dominique, 2021. "Research equity: Incentivizing high-risk basic research with market mechanisms," SocArXiv cvngq, Center for Open Science.
    5. Donna K. Ginther & Misty L. Heggeness, 2020. "Administrative Discretion in Scientific Funding: Evidence from a Prestigious Postdoctoral Training Program," NBER Working Papers 26841, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

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