Abstract
Purpose :
To assess demographic characteristics and success rates among temporal cohorts of clinician-scientists seeking their second R01 award.
Methods :
R01 grant awardees were identified through the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporter database. Information including gender, institution, educational degrees, and success in obtaining the second R01 grant was analyzed.
Results :
We identified 386 clinician scientists, which included ophthalmology (N=340, 88.1%) and optometry (N=46, 11.9%) clinician scientists. R01 awardees were grouped into cohorts, from pre-1985, 1985-1994, 1995-2004, 2005-2014, and 2015-2019. We found 117 R01 awardees pre-1985, 82 from 1985-1994, 60 from 1995-2004, 80 from 2005-2014, and 35 from 2015-2019. Pre-1985, 5.98% of R01 awardees were female, (significantly less compared to males). The proportion of females increased through the years, from 11.70% to 21.67%, 28.75% to 31.43% in the most recent cohort. In the 1985-1994 cohort, 63% (61/94) R01 awardees were successful at obtaining a 2nd R01. In the 1995-2004 cohort, 76.67% (46/60) were successful. In the 2005-2014 cohort, 50% (40/80) were successful. We also excluded the 2015-2019 cohort, as most individuals are still being funded on their first R01 and not enough time has elapsed to ascertain their success in obtaining a second R01. We explored the association between successful attainment of a second R01 with gender, degree, clinical specialty, funding tier and wet versus dry research. None of these factors significantly predicted success in obtaining a second R01.
Conclusions :
These data support the idea that interventions may be needed at the renewal stage of the first R01, as a significant proportion of investigators who have already invested significant time and resources in obtaining their first R01 are dropping out of the NIH R01 award pipeline.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.