Welcome to GradDev, the UF Health website for career and professional development for predoctoral and postdoctoral research trainees.
These programs are provided via a collaborative effort of the UF Clinical & Translational Science Institute, the UF Health Office of Biomedical Research Career Development, and the graduate and postdoctoral training programs of all six colleges of the UF Health Science Center and other UF partner programs related to human health. All events listed on the GradDev calendar are open to all UF graduate students and postdoctoral trainees.
Why should I attend Professional Development seminars?
Doctoral research training focuses on the scientific method of hypothesis-based research and technical skills, but often does not include training on other professional skills that are just as important to potential employers. The National Institutes of Health, through the National Research Service Award (NRSA) program that supports training grants, suggests that our training programs “should provide high-quality research training, mentored research experiences, and additional training opportunities that equip trainees with the technical (e.g., appropriate methods, technologies, and quantitative/ computational approaches), operational (e.g., independent knowledge acquisition, rigorous experimental design, and interpretation of data) and professional (i.e. management, leadership, communication, and teamwork) skills required for careers in the biomedical, behavioral, and clinical (hereafter referred to as biomedical) research workforce” (NIGMS PAR-17-341).
The purpose of this program is to provide opportunities for you to develop further professional skills that will be important for your job success and satisfaction no matter which career pathway you choose to follow. They can be learned and improved upon with practice, but are often left to be learned only after one assumes a managerial position. Rather than waiting until you are “on the job” and need to use these skills, it will be to your advantage to become familiar with these professional skills before you enter the workplace. We have organized these along six themes: Collaboration, Communication, Leadership, Mentoring, Research Management, and Teaching. Other activities and experiences relevant to these themes are described on the linked web pages.
If you’re already “on the job” as a junior faculty member, hopefully you will find these sessions helpful as “just in time” training for some of your new professional duties.