Reminders for all postdoctoral fellows at Emory:
- Be sure to subscribe to our listserv to stay up-to-date with OPE offerings as well as other postdoc-related news, events and, fellowship & job opportunities.
- Upcoming Events are listed on our homepage as well as throughout the OPE site.
- More career and professional development information can be found in our Career and Professional Development section.
The workshops and events offered by OPE include:
- New Postdoc Orientation: Four orientation sessions for new postdocs covering competencies expected of postdocs, components of a successful postdoc experience, responsibility for career planning, and guidance and support provided by OPE during Postdoc training. Individual Development Plan requirement introduced and explained as well as required Annual Progress Reports and Exit Interview.
- Grant Writing workshops: Topics covered include the basics of grant writing, finding the right funding, and grant writing sessions for international postdocs. In addition, multiple session tutorials for F32 and career development K-grant applications with one-on-one editing of applications. Workshops include information on Federal and non-Federal grant applications. For more information about funding, please visit our grant writing & funding opportunities page.
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Emory University Research Ethics Course (Responsible Conduct of Research for Postdocs, Medical Research Fellows and Early Career Researchers - RCR) - This course consists of eight classroom sessions and eight on-line informational documents designed by the Emory University Ethics Center in collaboration with the Office of Postdoctoral Education for postdoctoral fellows, medical fellows and faculty in biomedical research. The course was designed with the specific focus of fulfilling the NIH requirement (NOT-OD-22-055). It has been approved by the Emory University Office of Research Compliance, the Office of the Dean of the School of Medicine, and the Curriculum Committee of the School of Medicine. The on-line documents on each of the eight topics listed below contain foundational information and explanation of the concepts involved in each of the topics. In addition, the foundational information for each topic contains Emory University policies, federal laws and policies, and sample case studies with guide questions indicating the ethical principles needed for solution of the ethical dilemma in the case studies. After reading the foundation documents, the Postdocs are required to submit a personal or created case study on the topic. Following submission of the case study, a one hour classroom session led by an expert faculty member leads discussions on the most important principles of the topic and how to resolve the ethical dilemmas in the submitted case studies. The small classroom sessions facilitate discussions on the topics that occur every two weeks during a semester. Submission of a case study and attendance at all classroom sessions are mandatory for course certification. This course is offered each semester of each academic year so it can be attended in the first year of a research project and repeated annually or at two or three year intervals to retain and refresh guiding ethical principles for the conduct of research.
The following topics are covered:
- Conflict of Interest– personal, professional, and financial – and conflict of commitment, in allocating time, effort, or other research resources
- Policies regarding human subjects, live vertebrate animal subjects in research, and safe laboratory practices
- Mentor/mentee responsibilities and relationships
- Safe research environments (e.g., those that promote inclusion and are free of sexual, racial, ethnic, disability and other forms of discriminatory harassment)
- Team science
- Peer review, including the responsibility for maintaining confidentiality and security in peer review
- Data acquisition andanalysis; laboratory tools (g., tools for analyzing data and creating or working with digital images); recordkeeping practices, including methods such as electronic laboratory notebooks
- Secure and ethical data use; data confidentiality, management, sharing, and ownership
- Research misconduct and policies for handling misconduct
- Responsible authorship and publication
The formalized background information and classroom discussions are supported and further enhanced by the mentor in the daily conduct of research relevant to the project. At Emory University, the faculty have been trained in the responsible conduct of research and thus are able to convey these principles to trainees as they enter into positions as postdoctoral and research fellows. The training in and practice of the responsible conduct of research is an Emory University-wide expected norm. An array of faculty take part in leading the formal discussion sessions of the RCR course, which brings a richness of experience on the topic. The course is evaluated each term with registrants always highly rating the value of classroom discussions, shared experiences of the expert faculty, and background information documents on the Emory Courses website.
Additional Resources for Grant Submissions regarding Ethics Course:
- Lab Management: This course is offered annually and is especially designed for training young independent researchers and introducing multiple aspects of establishing and directing a new research laboratory. Topics include successful planning strategies for establishing a new research laboratory; best hiring and staff managing practices for research laboratories; best practices for establishing lab safety practices; data management; conflict management; and tenure and promotion. For successful completion of the course, each attendee is required to turn in their five year research plan including their overall short term and long term research career strategies; target grants; laboratory personnel requirements; laboratory space and equipment requirement; chief laboratory rules and practices; and personal benchmarks for promotion. For those planning on applying for Career Development Awards such as the K awards from NIH or private funding agencies, this course satisfies the recommendation and/or requirement to attend a Lab Management course.
- Career Exploration: Many career panels on diverse careers for PhDs are scheduled throughout the year and aim to expose postdocs to career opportunities in different fields.
- Preparation for Academic Job Search: panels on applying, interviewing and negotiating academic jobs and seminar of writing research and teaching statements.
- Job Search Preparation: seminar and workshops on job search strategies, writing CV, resumes and cover letters (twice a year), interviewing skills and networking.
- Gaining Self-Awareness: using the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator postdocs will gain understanding of their own personalities, learn to understand others better and use those differences constructively to be successful in work and life.
- Annual all-day events:
- Postdoc Research Symposium
- Career Opportunities Symposium
- Job Fair