2025 AIChE Annual Meeting

(395e) The Hidden Curriculum of Research Funding

Authors

Merab Mushfiq - Presenter, Wise Investigator LLC
When entering a new stage of education or career, certain rules or expectations may not be explicitly taught. This information has been referred to as a ‘hidden curriculum.’ This term refers to information one needs for success that is communicated, often unevenly, in extra-classroom settings.1–3 The idea of a hidden curriculum was first described in the early 20th century by learning theorist John Dewey.4 Its application to STEM is more recent, especially in engineering,5–6 but it has been widely explored in medicine.7–8

Chemical engineers enter faculty positions with varying levels of preparation for the expectations related to teaching, service, research, and especially securing research funding. This divergence in preparation, combined with disparities in the quality of mentoring and professional development opportunities, exacerbates challenges and creates a steep learning curve that is generally overcome only through years of trial and error and persistence.

It is useful to consider funding-related skills in terms of a process: framing the activities undertaken to win funding as a months-long process, rather than an event (i.e., the preparation and submission of a proposal). Because the event of proposal submission has been emphasized historically, it follows that the skill of grant writing has received the most training focus.

However, when research funding is treated as a process, it becomes apparent that outreach to and communication with funders, the creation of funding-related products other than the proposal, and the establishment of collaborations across sectors are generally also necessary for long-term success with funding. Unfortunately, these skills have not been traditionally taught, and thus they comprise a hidden curriculum.

As securing research funding is expected of most chemical engineers in academia, especially those in tenure-track positions, ‘unhiding’ the research funding curriculum can potentially lead to both a better experience and better outcomes in the pursuit of research funding.

Over the last two years, we have led dozens of early- and mid-career faculty through one-on-one training developed to explicitly teach the full range of skills required to secure research funding. These topics include (1) promoting one’s research, such as leveraging social media as a nontraditional form of dissemination; (2) methodically searching for funding opportunities; (3) making the most of on-campus research support resources; (4) expanding and sharpening research communication skills; (5) developing strategies and tactics for connecting with funders; (6) identifying prospective collaborators; (7) properly documenting education and outreach activities; and (8) training in preparation for a variety of funding-related products beyond the proposal.

Faculty members have provided positive feedback after completing the training: They found that they were better able to promote themselves as scholars and researchers, that they had developed strategies to engage effectively with program officers, that they had strengthened their proposal writing skills, and that they were more confident in their ability to locate funding opportunities. Further, they have been successful in winning research funding.

Based on the feedback that we have received from faculty members, chemical engineering departments and institutions of higher education might consider the following broader approaches to ‘unhiding’ the hidden curriculum of funding:

-Creation of structured peer mentoring opportunities with tenured faculty members for early-career faculty members

-Development of webinars, workshops, and other training in which faculty members can learn aspects of the funding process beyond grant writing

-Dedicated funds or encouragement to use startup funds for professional development that directly supports the acquisition of funding-related skills

In conclusion, we have demonstrated that instruction in hard and soft skills is effective in securing funding and highly valued by faculty. One-on-one support, effective mentoring approaches, and training that goes beyond grant-writing has been shown to be a successful approach.

References

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2. Cotton DRE, Winter J, and Bailey I. Researching the hidden curriculum: Intentional and unintended messages. Journal of Geography in Higher Education. 2013;37(2):192–203. doi:10.1080/03098265.2012.733684

3. Portelli JP. Exposing the hidden curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies. 1993;25(4):343–358. doi:10.1080/0022027930250404

4. Ord J. John Dewey and experiential learning: Developing the theory of youth work. Journal of Youth & Policy. 2012;108:55–72.

5. Villanueva I, di Stefano M, Gelles L, Youmans K, and Hunt A. 2020. Development and assessment of a vignette survey instrument to identify responses due to hidden curriculum among engineering students and faculty. International Journal of Engineering Education. 2020;36(5):1549–1569.

6. Sellers V and Villanueva-Alarcón I. From message to strategy: A pathways approach to characterize the hidden curriculum in engineering education. Studies in Engineering Education. 2023;4(2):176–200. doi:10.21061/see.113

7. Gaufberg EH, Batalden M, Sands R, and Bell SK. The hidden curriculum: What can we learn from third-year medical student narrative reflections?” Academic Medicine. 2010;85(11):1709–16. doi:10.1097/ACM.0B013E3181F57899

8. Yazdani S, Andarvazh MR, and Afshar L. What is hidden in hidden curriculum? A qualitative study in medicine. Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine. 2020;13(4). doi:10.18502/jmehm.v13i4.2843