Working Paper: NBER ID: w24508
Authors: Misty L. Heggeness; Donna K. Ginther; Maria I. Larenas; Frances D. Carter-Johnson
Abstract: The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) program is a major research training program administered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with funds appropriated each year by Congress. This study examines the impact of NRSA postdoctoral fellowships on subsequent research-related career outcomes using NIH administrative records on applicants who applied for a fellowship between 1996 and 2008. We find that postdoctoral fellowships increased the probability of receiving subsequent NIH research awards from 6.3 to 8.2 percentage points and of achieving an NIH-funded R01 award, an indication of an independent research career, from 4.6 to 6.1 percentage points. Our findings demonstrate that the NRSA postdoctoral fellowship awards have the potential to promote retention of scientists in NIH-funded research and in the biomedical workforce pipeline.
Keywords: postdoctoral fellowships; NIH; biomedical research; career outcomes
JEL Codes: J24; O3; O38
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| NRSA F32 fellowship (I23) | subsequent NIH research awards (I23) |
| NRSA F32 fellowship (I23) | NIH-funded R01 award (I23) |
| NRSA F32 fellowship (I23) | ATT NIH funding (I23) |
| NRSA F32 fellowship (I23) | ATT NIH R01 award (I23) |