Research Projects       Research Focus Groups       Mentoring Core Goals

Roles of Mentoring Advisory Committee

The MAC is primarily responsible for reviewing and monitoring each PL’s progress toward obtaining extramural funding to sustain the research activities of the UGI’s laboratories.  To assist the MAC in performing this oversight function, each PL will be required to submit an annual report that will be reviewed by the MAC.  Such evaluation is essential, as it will be performed by a committee with an extra-departmental and mostly extra-INBRE perspective, which will allow the MAC to judge whether accomplishments are reasonable, given the specific aims and long-term goals of the research project.  All of the MAC members are competent in judging research progress in the topics of Neuroscience and Cancer & Signaling Mechanisms, whereas institutional/departmental mentoring may not be able to judge whether research progress is adequate. 

The MAC will meet as a study section or grant review panel on an annual basis during the early spring (in time to make any adjustments in the INBRE progress report to the NCRR/NIH). During this meeting, the MAC will review annual reports from the 14 UGI PLs.  As Director of the Mentoring Core, Dr. Beneš will chair this meeting.  To document the meeting, the committee will prepare a short report on each PL in a pre-designed form that will be submitted to the Steering Committee, External Advisory Committee, and INBRE PI.  These annual reports will be used to advise on the continued support and retention of PIs within the Arkansas INBRE program. 

In concert with its monitoring of current PLs, the MAC will also be responsible for recommending graduation of a PL from Arkansas INBRE support and evaluating candidates for new PL positions.

Finally, through its leadership and the MAC, the Mentoring Core look for any evidence of abuse of the mentoring system.  Issues such as whether the UGI faculty/PL is maintaining intellectual independence from the mentor and not engaging in competition, or whether any exploitation of the relationship by the mentor to advance the mentor’s career is occurring is assessed by both the PL’s annual report, as well as by annual surveys of the mentors.   Any abuse of the system that  results in a conflict will be dealt with according to established rules of conflict resolution in the Arkansas INBRE.

Role of MAC and Focus Leaders  (PowerPoint)