A one-year, multi-component investment in the research success of junior faculty and their mentors. RSP integrates strategies from national, evidence-based programs with existing campus programs to:

• Provide professional development curricula to support the cohort’s academic and professional research success.
• Engage UK’s collaborative scientific community through multilevel mentorship, sponsorship and coaching to embed the cohort in research environments committed to inclusive excellence, collegiality and productivity.
• Establish a scientific and social networking structure for the cohort to reduce isolation, build community and provide support for faculty to overcome institutional or structural challenges, and facilitate connections within the research community and the overarching institution.

Research-intensive junior faculty who will help to enhance diversity in behavioral/biomedical sciences. Eligibility criteria include:

• U.S. citizen or permanent resident 
• Doctoral-level degree (MD, PhD, DMD, DDS, DO, PharmD)
• Full-time UK Assistant or Associate Professor
• Commitment of at least 30% effort to research
• Priority given to investigators who have not yet achieved multiyear extramural funding as Principal Investigator

• For participating junior faculty, the RSP offers tailored professional development and multi-faceted mentorship.
• For participating mentors, the RSP offers evidence-based training and support to promote junior faculty research success.  
• For UK overall, the RSP may enhance the diversity of the research workforce. RSP also serves as a pilot project enabling us to compete for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) Program award, a highly competitive six-year award cluster hiring grant opportunity.