Early Career Faculty Support
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is dedicated to supporting the next generation of physician-scientists and academic researchers. We help early career faculty develop strong, competitive research proposals and build impactful careers through a wide range of programs and resources. From training programs and funding opportunities to expert mentorship and grant writing support, CHLA provides the guidance and tools needed to turn ideas into breakthrough discoveries for pediatric medicine.
Support for Grant Success
Research Success Teams at CHLA supports
The Research Success Teams at CHLA support the successful development of early career investigators who seek to become independently funded. They provide specialized support and resources to help junior investigators prepare and submit competitive proposals for career development awards or independent research awards by connecting them with services such as mentorship, mock grant reviews, and professional grant writing support.
Learn more about the Research Success Teams program.
Grant Application Mock Review Program
Mock reviews play a vital role in strengthening grant applications and increasing the likelihood of funding success. The Grant Application Mock Review Program provides investigators with high-quality, constructive feedback on external funding proposals. Participating reviewers may receive an honorarium. While voluntary, mock reviews are strongly encouraged as a valuable step toward preparing competitive submissions.
Learn more about the Grant Application Mock Review Program.
K Award Proposal Repository
This repository includes successfully funded applications submitted by CHLA investigators and aims to increase the likelihood of funding success at CHLA.
Visit the K Award Proposal Repository (sign-in required) for more information.
NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) Resource Hub
The LRP resource hub includes helpful links to NIH materials and recordings, information on the LRP submission process at CHLA, and a new repository of successful LRP applications at CHLA.
Visit the NIH LRP Resource Hub (sign-in required) for more information.
Career Development Programs and Awards
Research Career Development Award (RCDA)
The Research Career Development Award (RCDA) is considered seed funding to help investigators generate preliminary data that can be used to support extramural research grant applications. This award is aimed at supporting a junior faculty member (MD, PhD, MD/PhD) for a research project that has a primary focus on laboratory research (dry or wet laboratory) or clinical (patient related) research.
Visit the RCDA Hub (sign-in required) for more information.
SC-CTSI Mentored Career Development in Clinical and Translational Science Program
The MCD-CTS is a three-year program created to support research career development for health professionals or individuals with research doctoral degrees who wish to pursue formal training and a career in clinical and translational research.
Learn more about the MCD-CTS program.
The Albert and Bettie Sacchi Foundation Physician-Scientist Scholar Program (SFSP)
The SFSP program supports the recruitment early career development of physician-scientists that will spend the majority of their time engaged in basic science, translational or clinical research that will broadly improve pediatric patient care. The program provides guidelines to institute a consistent process across CHLA divisions and departments that are requesting substantial financial support for early-stage physician-scientist faculty recruitment and retention. While open to all, faculty recruitments that do not involve substantial research protected time or research start-up packages may choose not to participate in the SFSP Program.
Visit the SFSP Hub (sign-in required) for more information.
Mentorship and Training
CHLA/TSRI Mentor Training Program
Following the format of mentorship training from the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER), the Mentor Training Program (MTP) at CHLA provides a three-part, virtual training series covering topics related to the mentor-mentee relationship. The MTP will be offered twice each academic year.
The course competencies include:
- Aligning expectations
- Opportunity and representation
- Cultivating ethical behavior
- Fostering independence
- Promoting professional development
The purpose of the course is to:
- Facilitate research mentor training for mentors at all career stages
- Develop a network of mentors in the CHLA research community
- Improve the research mentoring relationship between mentors and mentees, and train high-quality research mentors to guide trainees and junior faculty to become successful, independent investigators
Additional Resources
Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI)
A multifaceted resource for clinical and community-partnered translational research providing pilot funding, diverse training opportunities, robust clinical research support, digital recruitment methods, community connections, and many other tools.
Learn more about SC CTSI.
TSRI Research Cores
CHLA supports several shared research facilities, known as cores, which house specialized scientific equipment and offer expert services.
Explore CHLA’s core facilities.
USC Keck School Intramural Funding Opportunities
Explore internal grant programs administered by the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine to support research at all stages.
Search funding opportunities.
