Work shoulder-to-shoulder with a team of experienced mentors guiding you through your first research project or skillful fine-tuning of a major grant submission/resubmission.

The next cohort of MeRIT and FIT investigators will gather June 12–16, 2023, on the campus of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy in Omaha, Nebraska. Application information for both programs is available at www.accpfoundation.org/investigator/. Letters of intent to apply are due February 28, and applications are due March 31, 2023.

MeRIT Program

The Mentored Research Investigator Training (MeRIT) program is the Foundation’s latest support mechanism for investigator development, with a rapidly expanding record of participant success. The “MeRIT Platform Presentations Featured at Global Conference” article in this month’s ACCP Report features ACCP Global Conference platform presentations summarizing published papers from MeRIT participants. This 2-year longitudinal program uses a combination of live and virtual teaching/mentoring methods to provide participants with the tools and guidance needed throughout the research experience, including the research question, proposal writing, funding application, IRB approval, results, presentation, and publication.

MeRIT is designed to help pharmacists develop the abilities necessary to conduct investigator-initiated research, either independently as a principal investigator or collaboratively as an active coinvestigator within a research team. Ideal candidates are pharmacy practitioners or faculty with limited research experience who are:

• Committed to incorporating research into their professional careers
• Interested in generating research themes or obtaining preliminary data for larger funding opportunities
• Aspiring to be active principal investigators or co-investigators within a research team
• Able to commit at least 10% effort to research

Learn more about the MeRIT program at https://www.accpfoundation.org/merit/.

FIT Program

The Focused Investigator Training (FIT) program is a 5-day, intensive, hands-on program to help investigators succeed in the current research funding environment. Each experienced investigator-participant takes the necessary steps toward maximizing the competitiveness of a K, R01, or similar investigator-initiated application for submission to the NIH or other major funding source. Participants are challenged to carefully examine research aims and explore individual professional research goals. By the end of the program, participants will have taken critical steps toward fine-tuning their applications to meet study section reviewers’ expectations. The program’s experienced and funded faculty mentors deliver a curriculum that offers:

• Small-group proposal development sessions
• Tip-rich discussions
• One-on-one mentor/statistician appointments
• Protected time for proposal development and revision

The ideal FIT applicant is a tenure-track or research-focused pharmacist in the final stages of preparing a grant application for submission/resubmission. Learn more about the FIT program at https://www.accpfoundation.org/fit/.