The Academic Institute supports faculty achievement of their research and education goals with collaboration and career development support, intramural seed funding, extramural funding support, and a wide variety of resources and services designed to meet the needs of our academic programs.

Faculty Development and Collaboration Concierge

The collaboration concierge service is a single point of contact for clinicians and faculty trying to navigate through the extensive resources and wealth of expertise available at Houston Methodist; this service can help find specific education, core facilities, equipment, services, information, administrative support or subject matter experts.

 

The extended Faculty development team supports academic productivity with courses, one-on-one coaching, and skills building for teaching, clinical trials, and translational research.

Faculty Menu

Faculty can also access awards and career development funding:

 

  • President's Awards: These awards recognize faculty for Excellence in Peer-Reviewed Publications, Transformational Research and Innovative Education.
  • Career Cornerstone Awards: Faculty that receive their first NIH R)1 or equivalent grant as Principal Investigator receive a discretionary fund equivalent to their indirect funding to further their academic work.
  • Katz Investigators: The Jerold B. Katz Academy of Translational Research endowed investigators awards support our rising star faculty with $750K for up to 5 years.
  • Clinical Scholars Program: Our Clinical Scholar endowed junior faculty to devote 20 – 50% of their time to a mentored project and career development plan in translational science, clinical trials, or teaching and mentorship for 3-5 years.

Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)

Houston Methodist is committed to the conduct of research with the highest ethical standards, ensuring that research is carried out responsibly and that it is replicable, reproducible and generalizable. The Research Integrity and Compliance Office provides Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training and offers guidance on topics including research protections for human and animal subjects, data management, safety and publication ethics. This training and guidance are tailored to meet the specific requirements of different funding sponsors, ensuring compliance with their regulations. The Fundamentals of Responsible Conduct of Research course fosters awareness of ethical considerations, knowledge of policies and regulations, and practical problem-solving skills. This course is designed for all levels of Houston Methodist investigators and trainees in any research discipline.

Research Development

The Research Development provides maintains touchpoints with agencies and sponsors to match project ideas/pilot data with extramural funding opportunities. Projects are supported with services for developing grant proposals, manuscripts, and outcomes and big data study protocols as well as other academic publications, responding to peer-reviews, performing statistical data analyses, visual communications such as models, animations and graphic abstracts.
 
NIH Competitiveness Awards: For unsuccessful NIH grants falling within 10% of the payline, this award supports costs of additional research projects for addressing reviewer concerns and increasing the competitiveness of grant resubmissions.

Education and Curriculum Development

The Institute fosters a community of GME and clinical educators dedicated to a culture of excellence in teaching and innovative curriculum development. Faculty have access to services and expertise in:

 

  • evidence-based approaches for designing, implementing, and evaluating educational programs
  • development of quality improvement and patient safety education programs
  • adaptations to emerging needs or changes in GME reporting/evaluation standards
  • skills building for teaching and learning competencies

Governance and Faculty Affairs

The Office of Governance & Faculty Affairs provides essential support for faculty through credentialing, appointments, promotions and recruitment. It plays a key role in ensuring that research activities are conducted by qualified individuals who meet institutional and regulatory eligibility requirements.. Additionally, it supports the governance of Houston Methodist Academic Institute through advisory committees and the Board of Directors.

Seed Funding Opportunities

Houston Methodist offers a range of competitive intramural funding opportunities to support and encourage faculty in research and scholarship endeavors that contribute to professional growth. Intramural grants are funded through a competitive application process.
 
Our largest program is the $28M Translational Research Initiative Program that funds translational and clinical research that will lead to the development of safe and effective interventions from early concept through hand-off to a commercial partner that will bring them to market and make them available for clinical care.

Visit our intramural funding opportunities portal.

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