For Immediate Release
Contact: Mark Couch, 303-724-5377, mark.couch@cuanschutz.edu 

Researcher Management and Leadership Training Course Launches Worldwide

Innovative course for medical researchers who lead research teams launches with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

AURORA, Colo. (June 19, 2020) Faculty at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus recently launched Researcher Management and Leadership Training on Coursera.org — a global learning platform partnering with leading universities and organizations to offer online education. Development of this course was made possible through a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. This online course helps early career researchers and mentors navigate the complexities of managing a research program—specifically the people, teams, and budgets.

This online global course fills a gap in researcher preparedness by going beyond science, to train researchers in the management and leadership of sponsored projects. It was launched in April 2020, and already there are more than 1,400 enrollees across six continents.

Featuring faculty members and staff from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, this course helps early career researchers and mentors develop the management and leadership skills needed to execute funded projects well, and consequently to enhance the careers of those researchers. This course is structured to be useful for junior researchers and senior faculty, as well as future researchers in training.

“During individual conversations with mentees, I noticed a large gap in education around managing grants and large research operations,” said Professor Anne Libby, PhD, the course developer and director. “They knew the science really well, but medical and graduate schools focus on science, and leave junior faculty unprepared to manage grants and research staff. Small mistakes can have downstream consequences for the success of current and future projects. This course aims to start the conversation and train people around the world.”

Dr. Libby, a senior faculty member at the Center for Women’s Health Research, has played a leading role in mentoring and training Center researchers and providing outstanding training to faculty at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Her in-person training programs at CU Anschutz have been developed, evaluated, and peer-reviewed. This course shares that knowledge with researchers nationally and globally.

“Like other Center leaders, I am devoted to advancing medical research and the people who do the science,” Dr. Libby said. “I am particularly dedicated to teaching clinicians how to do research and build research careers. Beyond science, we train them to become good leaders, managers, and stewards, which is essential in academic medicine.”

The Center for Women’s Health Research includes mentorship as a core function and the new training is a necessary course to take research to the next level. “We use mentoring and training to boost people’s skills,” Dr. Libby said. “These skills range from basic study design and analysis to grant writing, managing funding and more. We want to reach all researchers, everywhere.”

“To bring a fundamental piece of the Center’s training philosophy to researchers and mentors worldwide is very exciting and expands the paradigm of research training,” said Dr. Judy Regensteiner, director of the Center for Women’s Health Research.

This resource is available on Coursera.org, at https://www.coursera.org/learn/researchermanagement-leadership-training/

About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and child well-being, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties. The mission of the DDCF Medical Research Program is to advance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of human disease by strengthening and supporting clinical research. To learn more, visit www.ddcf.org.

About the University of Colorado Center for Women’s Health Research
Established in 2004, the Center for Women’s Health Research is part of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The Center aims to improve the health of our communities by researching women’s health and sex differences, providing women, their families and healthcare providers with information to make informed health decisions and developing the next generation of researchers in the field of women’s health and sex differences.

About the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is the only comprehensive academic health sciences center in Colorado, the largest academic health center in the Rocky Mountain region and one of the newest education, research and patient care facilities in the world. Home to 21,000 employees, more than 4,300 degree-seeking students and two nationally recognized hospitals, CU Anschutz trains the health sciences workforce of the future and fuels the economy. CU Anschutz features schools of medicine, pharmacy, dental medicine and public health, a college of nursing and a graduate school. Learn more at https://www.cuanschutz.edu.

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