Task Force to Conduct a Feasibility Study for Research Fellowship
Purpose
The purpose of this Task Force is to explore the creation of an accredited research fellowship, addressing areas including but not limited to basic, clinical, or educational research.
Objectives
To achieve its purpose, the Task Force will:
- Define the Purpose and Objectives: Identify what such a fellowship would achieve. Define the goals, intended outcomes, and the impact you want to make on the participants and the physical therapy community.
- Identify Target Participants: Determine the target audience for the fellowship. Should they be students, educators, clinicians, or a specific group within the research sector? Identify their characteristics, needs, and motivations to ensure the program aligns with their interests.
- Market Research: Conduct thorough market research to understand the demand and competition for research fellowships. Identify similar programs, their strengths, weaknesses, and unique selling points.
- Resource Assessment: Evaluate the resources required to run the fellowship program. This includes financial resources, staff, facilities, technology, and any other necessary assets. Determine the availability of the required resources or the need to secure additional support.
- Budget Analysis: Develop a detailed budget that outlines all costs associated with the fellowship program, including salaries, materials, facilities, marketing, and administrative expenses. Compare the projected expenses to the available budget to ensure financial feasibility.
- Timeline and Schedule: Create a timeline that outlines the various phases of the fellowship program, including recruitment, selection, curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation. Ensure that the timeline is realistic and achievable.
- Curriculum Development: Design the curriculum for the fellowship. Define the topics, learning objectives, teaching methods, and assessment strategies. Ensure that the curriculum aligns with the goals of the fellowship and meets the needs of the participants.
- Partnerships and Collaborations: Explore potential partnerships with research institutions, research organizations, industry partners, and other stakeholders. Collaborations can enhance the credibility and reach of the fellowship program.
- Risk Assessment: Identify potential risks and challenges that could affect the success of the fellowship program. These could include financial risks, lack of participant interest, regulatory issues, or unforeseen obstacles. Develop contingency plans to address these risks.
- Pilot Testing: Before launching the fellowship at full scale, consider conducting a pilot test with a small group of participants. This will allow the opportunity to refine the program, identify any issues, and make necessary adjustments based on real-world feedback.
- Stakeholder Feedback: Gather feedback from key stakeholders, including potential participants, educators, administrators, and sponsors. Their input can provide valuable insights and help identify where there may be a need for improvements.
- Evaluation Metrics: Define measurable criteria for evaluating the success of the fellowship program. These could include participant satisfaction, learning outcomes, research outputs, and long-term impact. Establish methods for data collection and analysis.
- Feasibility Report: Compile all the information and findings into a comprehensive feasibility report. Present the program's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Include financial projections, a detailed action plan, and recommendations for moving forward.
- The task force is committed to ensuring that its work will be rooted in principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. By integrating DEI considerations into our work, we aim to address systemic disparities, remove barriers, and foster an environment where all individuals, regardless of their background, have equal access to opportunities and representation within the field of physical therapy.
Outcomes
By following the above objectives, and any others discovered, this Task Force will:
Develop recommendations for ACAPT’s board on whether to pursue the creation of a research fellowship. If the recommendation is to create a fellowship, then the Task Force will:
- Develop action items necessary.
- Propose the governance structure.
- Present the qualifications required for those who would serve as the fellowship instructors.
- Create a plan for recruiting future fellowship instructors.
- Identify the resources needed to start and sustain.
- Outline the marketing tactics to promote the fellowship and honor the fellows.
Composition
The Task Force shall not exceed 10 people. The Task Force will seek to have:
- Representatives with experience in physical therapy-related research (basic science, clinical science, educational research, etc.) of not less than 5 years.
- Representatives who have participated in grantsmanship training (eg. GAMER, TIGRR, etc.) as mentors or mentees and received grant funding.
- Representation of PT research stakeholders including academicians and clinicians, as well as other settings (e.g. industry, funding agencies etc).
- Representation from diverse geographic locations, Carnegie classifications, and practice settings.
The Chair’s primary responsibility will be to ensure the Task Force is meeting its charge as outlined on this page and within the timeline defined. The Chair will meet quarterly with the Institute Chair and Vice Chair, providing written progress reports on the work of the Task Force.
The Vice Chair’s primary responsibility will be to serve as the secretary of the Task Force whose responsibilities include polling for meetings, developing the agenda with the Chair, circulating minutes to Task Force members, staff and the Institute Chair and Vice Chair, and delivering all documents and work products to ACAPT for archiving.
- To ensure diverse engagement and equitable opportunities, no person serving on the Task Force may be serving on another of ACAPT’s volunteer leadership groups unless permission is sought and granted in advance by the Board of Directors.
- The Task Forces are accountable to their Institute Chair and Vice Chair, who are accountable to the ACAPT Board of Directors.
- All who are appointed to the Task Force will receive a letter acknowledging the timeline and responsibilities of their appointment that may support promotion and/or tenure.
Timeline
- Task force members will meet or communicate at least monthly via conference calls and emails to review tasks completed and next steps to meet project milestones.
- Task force members may meet at CSM in person or virtually. The budget will determine if/what resources are available to support such a meeting.
- The Institute Chair and Vice Chair will conduct a virtual meeting quarterly with all task force chairs and vice chairs within that Institute to evaluate progress on their charge and to address any barriers or potential changes needed to their charge in response to changes in the profession.
- The task force will submit information to the Institute Chair and Vice Chair that may reflect their activity during the year and reported in ACAPT’s annual report, which is created in August and disseminated to members electronically in September.
- Task forces should be prepared to discuss their activity with ACAPT members at the Physical Therapy Education Leadership Conference (ELC) during a networking event created for the Institute.
- Task forces are expected to conclude their work by December of the calendar year in which they were created.
- If a task force needs more time than the calendar year for which they were created, the Chair of the task force will notify the Institute Chair. Together, they will evaluate what is causing the delay, evaluate if there are new circumstances informing the work not previously identified, and if there are additional resources needed. If the need for additional time is determined necessary by the Institute Chair, they will submit a request to the Board for an extension, to include how that may impact resources. The Board will make an assessment based on the charge, needed outcomes, and resources available and either extend the work for a limited time, expand the size of the task force to increase productivity to meet the charge and timeline, or disband the task force.
- The final work product(s) will reside on ACAPT’s website and shall be an ACAPT product.
Members
Chair: TBD
Vice Chair: TBD
- Sylvester Carter, PT, MHS, PhD - Saint Joseph's University
- Karen Lomond, PhD - Ithaca College
- Olu Owoeye, BPT, MS, PhD - Saint Louis University