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Mentoring students is the primary responsibility of our faculty.  There are many resources available to help UNC faculty incorporate best practices in their mentoring and to update and refresh the knowledge used to mentor in an ever-changing research landscape. We encourage and acknowledge our faculty for participating in these many faculty training opportunities. Some of these are highlighted below.

FACULTY MENTORING TRAINING

The Office of Graduate Education (OGE) runs the groundbreaking “Faculty Mentoring Workshop for Biomedical Researchers”. This series of discussions on mentoring for faculty members who train graduate students, undergraduates, post-docs, or junior faculty in the life sciences. The Fall 2020 offering of the OGE Faculty Mentoring Workshop is tentatively scheduled for November 2020.  Beginning in May of 2018, The OGE began offering a new workshop called “Culturally Aware Mentoring”. This 6 hour workshop focuses specifically on ethnicity and cultural identity and examines how these factor into the mentoring relationship. The OGE announced in September of 2018 the creation of an annual “Award for Excellence in Basic Science Mentoring” as part of a larger 10-year anniversary celebration for BBSP. The awards go to faculty who demonstrate excellence in mentoring. This training meets the faculty mentoring requirement for the CSIP training program mentors.

 

The Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) has individual mentoring consultations for early, mid, and senior faculty, as well as department leadership and administration. A collaborative effort between the UNC Center for Faculty Excellence and the UNC School of Medicine Mentoring Task Force has developed these evidence-based approaches to faculty mentoring using published sources. In addition to promoting general best mentoring practices, the CFE also publishes and instructs faculty recommendations for mentoring women and URM. These evidence-based approaches to mentoring include: (1) peer mentoring, (2) mentoring networks, (3) professional development, (4) encouraging women and faculty of color participation locally and nationally, and (5) meeting the challenges of intersectionality. The CFE individual mentoring consultations are designed to benefit faculty, department chairs, and program leadership. This training meets the faculty mentoring requirement for the CSIP training program mentors.

 

FACULTY TRAINING IN RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT OF RESEARCH

Appropriate instruction in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) is an essential component of the professional development of our researchers at all career levels. There are 3 RCR training programs at UNC that cover all NIH-required topics for the first phase of responsible conduct of research training and meet the requirements for faculty participation, duration of instruction, and frequency laid out in NIH notice NOT-OD-10-019. These trainings meet the faculty RCR requirement for the CSIP training program mentors.

  1. CITI On-Line Research Ethics and Compliance Training
  2. Office of Postdoctoral Affairs Research Ethics Training (also open to faculty)
  3. NCTraCS RCR Summer Course (Training LINK available when course announced)

 

The UNC OoR Research Compliance Program strives to promote best practices and ethical behavior and to deter activity contrary to these standards. Program objectives include: (a) Anticipating, analyzing and communicating current compliance standards to the campus leadership, research communities and departments that support them, (b) Providing oversight of and assistance with development of policies and procedures to ensure protection of human and animal study subjects, (c) Providing structure for disclosure and management of conflict of interest, (d) Fostering collaboration among institutional and administrative leaders with compliance responsibility to address issues that transcend departments through communication, training and integrated processes (such as HIPAA), (e) Providing leadership, coordination and assistance with the management of agency reviews, audits and investigations, (f) Receipt, analysis and resolution of expressions of concern (“whistleblower” communications). This training meets the faculty RCR requirement for the CSIP training program mentors.

More information and services from the SOM Compliance and Research Integrity Office.

 

MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID TRAINING

UNC’s School of Social Work offers Mental Health First Aid Training, usually once each semester, but also by request for specific departments and units. Mental Health First Aid is an 8-hour training that will give students, staff, and faculty the skills to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. Just as CPR training helps a layperson without medical training assist an individual following a heart attack, Mental Health First Aid training helps a layperson assist someone experiencing a mental health crisis.