Full Professor of Neurological Surgery

Overview

Stark Neurosciences Research Institute (SNRI) and the Department of Neurological Surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) seek a highly qualified and productive researcher for a faculty position as a Full professor (tenure eligible) to be the Director of the Indiana Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Group (ISCBIRG). This leader will become a member of the SNRI Executive Committee (EC) and direct the ISCBIRG Research Group by leading ISCBIRG research-related initiatives and responsibilities, as outlined below.

The ISCBIRG at IUSM is an integrated component of Stark Neurosciences Research Institute. The group is comprised of principal investigators who study molecular mechanisms underlying spinal cord injury (SCI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) and develop novel repair strategies to promote neural reorganization and functional recovery in experimental models. The long-term goal is to translate promising treatments from animal models to humans.

Several faculty conduct ongoing clinical research on TBI in pediatric, adolescent, and adult patient populations. The Department of Neurological Surgery provides clinical care, education, and research in neurosurgery and related neurosciences. Research can include bench or laboratory research, translational science, clinical research, or clinical trials. Faculty are involved in multi-center clinical trials and strive to advance treatment solutions in this field.

To enhance the productivity of and collaborations between current pre-clinical and clinical investigators within Neuro­surgery, ISCBIRG, and Stark Neuroscience: This includes, but is not limited to:

• Enhancing the research infrastructure support provided by the Neurosurgery and Stark Neuroscience administrative team, including pre-award and post-award grant management, financial support, pre-clinical and clinical research team support, patient data registry and information access improvements, equipment and facilities upgrades, and streamlined statistical support.
• Providing effective mentoring to faculty at all levels, as well as to fellows and students.
• Facilitating collaborations in Neurosurgery, ISCBIRG and Stark Neuroscience among investigators and between clinical and pre-clinical faculty to establish new research areas, particularly within areas of established strengths.
• Facilitating new interdisciplinary collaborations between Neurosurgery, ISCBIRG and Stark Neuroscience faculty and faculty at IUSM--utilizing existing seed grant mechanisms as well as other potential matching fund mechanisms.
• Promoting larger new research collaborations between Neurosurgery, ISCBIRG, and Stark Neuroscience faculty and those at IUSM
• Identifying faculty facilitators to foster communication between clinical and basic science investigators.
• Enhancing the existing Neurosurgery, ISCBIRG, and Stark Neuroscience intramural funding mechanism to encourage the collaboration between clinical and basic researchers.

To increase federal research funding within Neurosurgery, ISCBIRG, and Stark Neuroscience faculty. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Promoting cutting edge spinal cord and brain injury research that will lead to increased funding (with a focus/goal on NIH multi-PI R01s, P, and U grants) and high-impact (>10 Impact Factor) publications within and across the Institute.
• Fostering the utilization of existing projects and future bi-campus seed projects to develop data to support new NIH and DOD grants
• Encouraging faculty with existing NIH grants to collaborate with each other in complementary new areas and to encourage and foster new investigators to submit multi-PI NIH and DOD proposals
• Continuing to expand collaborations with funded faculty in other IUSM departments and centers with the goal of developing data for NIH grants in entirely new areas.
• Developing training grants to support the next generation of investigators and equipment grants to enable the success of all researchers.

To initiate and facilitate various educational initiatives focused on spinal cord and brain injury broadly across the IUSM translational spectrum, with a special emphasis on interactions between human and preclinical model research.

Criteria:

• National/International reputation for expertise in brain and/or spinal cord injury research
• Current or recent history as PI or Co-PI on large, federally funded grants focused on brain and/or spinal cord injury (e.g., history of multiple R01’s, P, U grants). Continuous external grant support
• Active publication record in the fields of spinal cord and/or brain injury-related research
• Strong leadership and communication skills
• Embraces and values diversity, equity, and inclusion

Benefits:

• Membership on the EC of Stark Institute
• Annual Salary plus Supplement for Directorship Role
• Potential of Endowed Chair – Hulman Chair
• Potential of Vice Chair of Research Position in Dept. of Neurosurgery
• Indiana State Budget…