COVID-19 Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists will support researchers with family caregiving responsibilities

Pitt is one of 22 medical schools receiving $12.1 million total through the COVID-19 Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists (FRCS) competition. As the nation’s largest funding collaborative advancing equity in the biomedical sciences, the COVID-19 FRCS is designed to support the advancement of research productivity and retention of early-career faculty facing family caregiving responsibilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The gift will support at least 250 biomedical early-career faculty at medical schools and their affiliated hospitals in 17 states. Each school is awarded grants of $500,000 to provide supplemental research support for eligible faculty who are experiencing periods of caregiving crisis, such as hiring administrative personnel, statisticians and technicians, among other uses. It will allow hundreds of brilliant contributors to scientific discovery to keep their important work on track while directly tending to the needs of their families.

The stark effects of COVID-19 on caregivers in biomedicine also present an urgent opportunity for the biomedical sciences to better support faculty who identify as women and/or as members of communities of color, including Black and Indigenous people, and remove systemic barriers to their advancement. Pitt was chosen for support because of its already aggressive efforts to provide a more equitable and inclusive environment in academic medicine, and its commitment to sustaining such efforts.

Read more about the grant.