The reader is referred to the section of this website entitled Actions Proposed for a curated list of all of the suggestions that have been submitted in the section Provide Input. There, possible actions are listed under each of the 21 categories listed: compliance requirements, effects of hypercompetition, errors in science, graduate education, postdoctoral training …etc., sorted only by date received.
In this section, “Progress on Solutions,” the Steering Committee for this website (see their bios here) aims to create a continually advancing record of a small subset of the actions – whether already taken or proposed – that the Committee judges to be the most promising for improving the biomedical research system in the United States. Those actions listed on this page will have the support of most, but not necessarily all, Steering Committee members.
Also included will be occasional brief commentaries on such initiatives by individual Steering Committee members. We plan to update this page monthly.
Actions Proposed
- Anyone who has thought about the problems confronting the scientific workforce is struck by how complex our ecosystem is; there are no magic bullets or painless solutions for what ails us. The Steering Committee therefore recommends that research organizations consider mobilizing their own inclusive study process that is modeled after that developed at the University of Wisconsin. This past spring there, Professors Judith Kimble and Marsha Mailick organized a campus-wide set of discussions about the future of biomedical research that culminated in a well-attended daylong conference on their campus. Their work provides a terrific blueprint for the kinds of brainstorming and vetting that will be essential to develop wise paths forward. The conclusions reached are in press at the journal eLife, and a how-to-do-it blog by Dr. Kimble is posted here. See also a longer article on which this recommendation is based – Shirley Tilghman’s Presidents Column in June 2015 ASCB Newsletter.
Actions Taken
Coming soon