Report of the 2023-2024 AACP Research and Graduate Affairs Committee.

The 2023-2024 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Research and Graduate Affairs Committee ("the Committee") was charged with developing programs focused on career and professional development for researchers, new faculty, and graduate students in colleges and schools of pharmacy. After reviewing exiting resources available to pharmacy faculty for grant writing, the Committee recognized a need for more comprehensive, diverse, and tailored resources for pharmacy faculty. The Committee, therefore, focused its effort on creating an intensive grant writing course intended for independent pharmacy researchers without previous major grant awards that would support writing for career development and research grant applications and cater to faculty in translational, clinical sciences, and pharmacy practice, along with fellows and residents. To implement this grant writing course and other programs to advance research progress by pharmacy faculty, the Committee proposes 3 recommendations for consideration by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and 1 suggestion for consideration by colleges and schools of pharmacy.

Report of the 2023 AACP Council of Deans Taskforce on Pharmacy Research and Scholarship.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review is to provide the conclusions from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Council of Deans (COD) Taskforce on Research and Scholarship. FINDINGS: The charges and the findings of the committee are: (1) Define the scholarship needs/opportunities to strengthen the outputs. The committee recommends that AACP update its definitions of research/scholarship to include discovery, integration, application/practice, and teaching/learning. A deployed survey demonstrated a high Special Interest Groups research/scholarship interest. (2) Assemble a toolkit of grant and scholarship resources to assist colleges/schools. The AACP should update the existing funding opportunity listing and combine it with additional resources. (3) Create a framework for effective research collaboration and mentorship. The AACP should identify key areas of pharmacy research and experts to serve as mentors and to meet with external stakeholders. (4) and (5) Consider the need for and purpose of a COD standing committee for research and scholarship. Explore the value of a formal research dean's subcommittee. It was recommended that AACP form a research/scholarship committee or Special Interest Groups and create the Pharmacy Scholarship, Research, and Graduate Education pre-meeting to the Interim Meeting. (6) Identify key statements/outputs of the COD that need to be prepared for publication/sharing. We recommended the key statement/outputs in the areas of discovery, integration, application/practice, and teaching and learning. SUMMARY: The taskforce reviewed the state of research and scholarship across the Academy and provided recommendations with the goal of advancing research across all areas of the pharmacy profession.

Report of the 2018-2019 Research and Graduate Affairs Committee.

The 2018-2019 Research and Graduate Affairs Committee (RGAC) was charged with critically evaluating the leadership development support necessary for pharmacy researchers, including postdoctoral trainees, to develop the skills needed to build and sustain successful research programs and analyzing how well those needs are being met by existing programs both within AACP and at other organizations. The RGAC identified a set of skills that could reasonably be expected to provide the necessary foundation to successfully lead a research team and mapped these skills to the six domains of graduate education in the pharmaceutical sciences established by the 2016-2017 RGAC (Table 1). In addition, the RGAC identified competency in team science and the bench-to-bedside-to-beyond translational spectrum as being critical elements of research leadership. The universality of these skills and their value prompted the RGAC to make two related recommendations to AACP: [Table: see text] Recommendation 1: AACP should promote the development and use of strategies to ensure intentional and ongoing professional development, such as Individual Development Plans. Recommendation 2: AACP should explore collaborative research leadership development opportunities between faculty at research-intensive institutions and faculty at non-research-intensive institutions. The RGAC also examined programs available at AACP and other national organizations that could help pharmacy faculty develop foundational skills for research leadership (Table 2). The RGAC administered two surveys, one to administrators responsible for research at colleges and schools of pharmacy and one to faculty members at pharmacy schools, to gather information about training needs, programming and support available for research leadership development. Administrators and faculty agreed that research is important for career advancement for faculty, and almost all administrators reported their schools provide funds, release time and mentoring for participation in research career development. However, a lack of faculty awareness regarding programs and available support may be a barrier to participation. The RGAC therefore makes two recommendations and one suggestion related to AACP programming: [Table: see text] Recommendation 3: AACP should expand research leadership development opportunities building from existing programs such as ALFP and AACP Catalyst, with consideration placed on developing programs that promote collaborative research. Recommendation 4: AACP should collaborate with other professional organizations to expand research leadership development opportunities across the academy. Suggestion 1: Colleges and schools of pharmacy should take a proactive role in promoting and facilitating research leadership development for faculty. The RGAC separately examined the research leadership development needs of postdoctoral trainees, recognizing the distinct needs of trainees along the PhD or PhD/PharmD, PharmD/fellowship, and PharmD/residency paths. A review of organizational resources and opportunities for post-doctoral trainees available from national organizations, including AACP, was undertaken (Table 5). The RGAC sees an opportunity for AACP to foster research development of those trainees whose career track will likely be in clinical practice and makes one recommendation and one suggestion related to postdoctoral trainees: Recommendation 5: AACP should support and/or develop programs and activities for pharmacy residents seeking to transition into faculty positions to acquire the skills necessary to develop and lead research programs. Suggestion 2: Colleges and schools of pharmacy should include postdoctoral trainees with academic interests in research leadership development opportunities available to junior faculty. In addition, the RGAC proposed one policy statement that was adopted July 2019 by the AACP House of Delegates: Policy Statement: AACP recognizes the positive role that research leadership development can play in the success of early and mid-career faculty.

Breaking Down Barriers to Pharmacy Graduate Education: The Report of the 2017-2018 Research and Graduate Affairs Committee.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The 2017-2018 Research and Graduate Affairs Committee (RGAC) was given three charges aimed at helping academic pharmacy address barriers that must be overcome by both students and schools to attract, retain, and support the development of a diverse, well-rounded, and successful graduate student population. These charges were (1) identifying teaching methodologies, tools and opportunities that graduate programs can introduce into curriculum to overcome barriers to success of today's and tomorrow's learners; (2) developing a strategy for achieving member support of the 2016-2017 recommended graduate competencies by identifying gaps in and existing examples of courses or opportunities that achieve competency-based pharmacy graduate education; and (3) identifying potential strategies to address identified barriers to pursuing graduate education, especially among under-represented student populations. This report describes attitudes toward and opportunities related to competency-based education in graduation education in colleges and schools of pharmacy, identifies types of tools schools could use to enhance training towards the competency framework developed by the 2016-2017 RGAC, particularly with regards to the so-called power skills, and outlines a role for AACP in facilitating this training. This report also considers a number of barriers, both perceived and real, that potential students encounter when considering graduate training and suggests strategies to understand the impact of and mitigate these barriers. To strengthen competency-based graduate education, the RGAC puts forth two recommendations that AACP develop a toolkit supporting the training of power skills and that AACP should develop or curate programs or tools to support the use of individual development plans (IDPs). The RGAC also puts forth a suggestion to schools that IDPs be implemented for all students. In considering the barriers to pursuing graduate education, the Committee proposes one policy statement that AACP supports the training and development of an increasingly diverse population of researchers at pharmacy schools through active efforts to promote M.S. and Ph.D. education along with Pharm.D. education. Additionally, the Committee provides recommendations that AACP should expand its efforts in career tracking of graduate students to include collection and/or analysis of data that could inform the Academy's understanding of barriers to pursuing graduate education in pharmacy schools, the AACP Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness should expand upon graduate program data described in the annual Profile of Pharmacy Students report, and finally that AACP should include graduate programs in efforts to increase diversity of students at pharmacy schools.

Toward the Responsible Development and Commercialization of Sensor Nanotechnologies.

Nanotechnology-enabled sensors (or nanosensors) will play an important role in enabling the progression toward ubiquitous information systems as the Internet of Things (IoT) emerges. Nanosensors offer new, miniaturized solutions in physiochemical and biological sensing that enable increased sensitivity, specificity, and multiplexing capability, all with the compelling economic drivers of low cost and high-energy efficiency. In the United States, Federal agencies participating in the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) "Nanotechnology for Sensors and Sensors for Nanotechnology: Improving and Protecting Health, Safety, and the Environment" Nanotechnology Signature Initiative (the Sensors NSI), address both the opportunity of using nanotechnology to advance sensor development and the challenges of developing sensors to keep pace with the increasingly widespread use of engineered nanomaterials. This perspective article will introduce and provide background on the NNI signature initiative on sensors. Recent efforts by the Sensors NSI aimed at promoting the successful development and commercialization of nanosensors will be reviewed and examples of sensor nanotechnologies will be highlighted. Future directions and critical challenges for sensor development will also be discussed.