How to Help New Faculty Launch a Research Agenda | Harvard Business Impact Education

A lot of structure is lost in the transition from PhD student to new faculty member. Sure, many departments have regular reviews of junior faculty, and some even have formal mentorship programs. But most new faculty encounter far less research-related scaffolding than during their PhD programs, where they probably experienced regular dissertation committee meetings and established milestones. With the decline of structure comes greater freedom and opportunity: New faculty may have the space to develop original, ambitious research projects. They may have access to student research assistants, funds to purchase data or to travel for research, centralized computing facilities, and other resources they didn’t have as students. Invitations to conferences and research seminars also open up new possibilities for collaboration. To make the most of the transition from student to faculty, junior faculty need guidance. Those of us on the senior faculty, who have made the same transition earlier i

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• Stella Jia