Program Lead/Presenter: Neeraj Agarwal, Ph.D.
Council Date: June 16, 2023
Goal:
The StARR program is an existing funding opportunity (RFA-HL-23-006) that supports an institutional mentored research training program for individuals during their medical residency. The goal of NEI’s participation in this funding opportunity is to provide residents with dedicated time to receive research training, promote their career development as independent clinician scientists, and increase the number of clinician-scientists engaged in vision research.
StARR Program Overview: This funding opportunity is currently used by NHLBI, NCI, NIAID, and NIA. It supports institutional training programs that propose to engage resident-investigators in research. The research training includes hypothesis or discovery-based projects, concepts of rigor and reproducibility, and the achievement of designated research milestones. The program provides support for resident-investigators for up to 80% their salary for a minimum of one contiguous year of research and a maximum of two years during residency training.
Objectives and Scope:
- The objective of this program is to increase the number of clinician scientists trained in basic, clinical, and translational vision research and to promote their career development as independent vision researchers.
- This funding opportunity solicits applications from institutions that can provide outstanding mentored research opportunities for ophthalmology resident-investigators and foster their ability to transition to individual research grants.
- The proposed institutional research career development program may complement other ongoing research training and career development programs at the institution but must be distinct from existing career development programs.