About Our Services
The Office of Training, Education, Career Planning and Development (TECPAD) supports research trainees across different career stages and at various academic levels.
How We Support
TECPAD supports educational programs and events, including seminars, workshops, symposia and poster sessions, in order to create forums for researchers to interact with, learn from one another and share ideas within our pediatric research community. Additionally, we provide assistance with research trainee onboarding and offer individualized support to early-career physician and clinical/translational scientists. TECPAD also manages an intramural funding program to support scientists at all career levels. The TECPAD Resource Hub is designed for the CHLA research community and provides information about TECPAD events and activities, funding opportunities, research achievements, and links to relevant CHLA resources. Access requires sign-on using CHLA network or remote network connection.
Research Training Opportunities
When searching for traineeships, trainees should identify potential mentors by contacting investigators directly, based on their area of research interest. To find researchers based on research interest, please visit our investigator page, or visit USC Health Sciences Profiles.
Once trainees have identified and secured a CHLA mentor, the TECPAD team will be contacted by the mentor to assist with any questions and help with the onboarding process for the trainee.
View the Visiting Research Scholar Onboarding Guidelines
Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Graduate Program
Announcing a new graduate program offered by the University of Southern California in collaboration with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Graduate Program pairs clinicians, researchers and students with a curriculum focused on how diseases arise—from genetics to the environment and beyond. Find out more.
Research Success Teams
We support the successful development of early career faculty who seek to become independently funded investigators. Research Success Teams provides specialized support and resources to help junior investigators prepare and submit competitive proposals for career development awards or independent research awards by connecting them with services such as mentorship, mock grant reviews and professional grant writing support. Research Success Teams members are nominated for participation by their division heads.
The George Donnell Society for Pediatric Scientists
The George Donnell Society for Pediatric Scientists is dedicated to improving the health of children by training physician scientists to perform innovative and high quality research. The Society provides mentorship, infrastructure and a community for pediatric physician scientists in training. The Donnell Society sponsors one or more Donnell Fellows per year, who are chosen at the beginning of their pediatric internship year.
TECPAD Resources
The following resources may be useful for those interested in fellowships, graduate programs, research funding, and educational events.
Clinical Subspecialty Fellowships
Subspecialty fellowship training at Children's Hospital Los Angeles offers an exciting range of opportunities, including research opportunities at The Saban Research Institute for an advanced pediatric education.
Postdoctoral Research Fellows
A Postdoctoral Researcher is a trainee in residence at CHLA, pursuing advanced study beyond a doctorate, is in preparation toward a full-time academic, public and/or private sector career, and working under the oversight of a faculty research mentor. Postdoctoral Researcher appointments are not part of clinical (patient care) training programs. To be considered for appointment as a Postdoctoral Researcher at CHLA, the individual must qualify as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow or Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles shall annually set minimum compensation for all categories of Postdoctoral Researchers.
Effective September 17, 2023, the minimum annual salary for newly hired and renewed appointments for Postdoctoral Researchers (Postdoctoral Research Fellows and Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellows) is $70,013 (12 months).
Appointment term
- Appointments can be renewed up to a maximum of five, one-year appointments on the recommendation of the faculty mentor
- There is no obligation to renew appointment.
- Appointments for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow or Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow should not exceed five years each unless approved in advance by the Chief Scientific Officer.
- All Postdoctoral Researchers are categorized as exempt employees and must be dedicated to full time research scholarship. Postdoctoral Researchers may not be appointed on a part-time basis.
Degree requirements
- Postdoctoral Researchers have been awarded an MD, PhD, or a doctorate in a relevant field
- If the Postdoctoral Researcher candidate has not yet obtained a doctoral degree, the candidate should provide evidence that a thesis has been approved together with a documented indication of the expected date of formal graduation. It is the responsibility of the faculty mentor to verify this documentation.
Expectations
- Postdoctoral Researchers are expected to engage in high-quality full time research
- Postdoctoral Researchers are expected to publish results of scholarship during appointment period
- The faculty mentor is expected to encourage and support publication of research, for the benefit of the Postdoctoral Researcher’s professional development
- Postdoctoral Researchers and faculty mentors must abide by institutional policies, including those that define intellectual property rights, as modified from time to time.
Appointment letter
- Postdoctoral Researcher must be issued a fixed-term offer letter following institutional templates that sets forth the terms of the appointment, and is signed by the faculty mentor and her/his division chief. Appointment letter must be countersigned by appointee.
- Fully executed letter must be filed with CHLA Human Resources and TECPAD prior to the initiation of the appointment.
Distinctions
Other research personnel job titles such as Research Associate or Research Specialist are reserved for long-term, career employees. Unlike a Postdoctoral Researcher appointment, Research Associate and Research Specialist appointments are not preparatory toward full-time academic, public and/or private sector careers.
National Postdoctoral Association Membership
CHLA is a proud member of the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA), a professional association that advocates on behalf of postdoctoral scholars. By virtue of our membership, CHLA postdoctoral research fellows are eligible for free affiliate NPA memberships.
University of Southern California Doctorial Programs
- Keck School of Medicine PhD Programs
- USC Neuroscience Graduate Program
- Programs in Biomedical and Biological Science (PIBBS)
- USC Viterbi School of Engineering
University of Southern California Keck Medical Students
Saban Scholars
The Saban Scholars Program includes The Saban Scholars Award and annual mixer. The Award supports the research education and training of selected promising USC Keck Medical Students interested in establishing research careers in fields that impact CHLA’s mission of creating hope and building healthier futures for the pediatric population of Los Angeles and globally. To assist students in connecting with pediatric research mentors, TECPAD hosts an annual mixer designed to connect medical students with CHLA research faculty. In addition, TECPAD supports Keck medical students with connecting them with valuable research resources at CHLA.
Programs for High School Students and Undergraduate Students
The Saban Research Institute is committed to cultivating interest in research early on in the research trainee pipeline by sponsoring summer programs for high school and undergraduate students.
Samuels Family Latino and African American High School Internship Program (LA-HIP)
The Samuels Family LA-HIP was founded over 17 years ago, and has trained over 200 high school students from the Los Angeles area. LA-HIP is a comprehensive yearlong high school internship program that combines biomedical research with intensive college counseling guidance. Our interns have access to college level didactic instruction in biology, SAT prep classes, and college application workshops. Students perform cutting-edge biomedical research experiments under the mentorship of scientists at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles during the summer before their senior year.
The Chuck Lorre Research Scholars Program
Information coming soon.
Intramural Funding Program
Each year TSRI offers financial support aimed at developing the next generation of leaders in pediatric research. We fund awards that cut across career stages.
Training and Education Events
Our team organizes research seminars, poster sessions, symposia and other events, engaging the CHLA/USC research community around the most pressing child health issues, promoting our research learning environment and encouraging leadership.
Wednesday Research Seminar Series
TSRI’s weekly research seminar series features presentations by renowned experts on current basic, clinical and translational research topics.
At least once per year, we organize the Discovery and Innovation Speaker Series, to host distinguished speakers to present the most cutting-edge research pertaining to the developmental origins of health and disease.
Floyd H. Gilles Lecture in Neuroscience Research
Each year TSRI invites a preeminent speaker whose work embodies the distinguished career of Dr. Floyd H. Gilles who has dedicated more than 50 years to improving the lives of children by searching for innovative cures for neurodevelopmental diseases.
About Floyd H. Gilles, MD
Floyd H. Gilles, MD, has dedicated more than 50 years to improving the lives of children by searching for innovative cures for neurodevelopmental disease. Dr. Gilles holds the Burton E. Green Endowed Chair in Pediatric Neuropathology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and has served as professor of Pathology (Neuropathology), Neurosurgery and Neurology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC since 1983. His other leadership roles at CHLA include Chief of the Division of Pediatric Neurology (including Neuropsychology and Pediatric Psychiatry) from 1997 to 2008, and Director of the Children’s Brain Center since 1999. In addition, in 2005, Dr. Gilles was involved in establishing the Developmental Neuroscience Program of The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. From 2009 to 2012, Dr. Gilles was vice chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at CHLA.
Past Floyd H. Gilles Lectures
April 27, 2022: “Harnessing the Power of MRI to Understand the Fetal Origins of Neuropsychiatric Disorders” presented by Catherine Limperopoulos, PhD
April 3, 2019 – “One Brain, Many Genomes: Somatic Mutation and Genomic Diversity in Human Brain from Birth to Old Age” presented by Christopher Walsh, MD, PhD
March 14, 2018 – “Genetics and Genomics of Autism Spectrum Disorder” presented by Daniel Geschwind, MD, PhD
Dec. 6, 2016 – “Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Neuronal Migration” presented by Pasko Rakic, MD, PhD
Jan. 29, 2014 –"Development and Adult Connectomics of the Cerebral Cortex” presented by Larry W. Swanson, PhD
Annual TSRI Science Day
This event combined The Saban Research Institute Annual Symposium and the 25th Annual Poster Session into a full day of learning, discussing, and socializing with colleagues. The morning symposium portion featured renowned internal and external speakers. The afternoon Poster Session in the Saban Courtyard featured posters showcasing a variety of research topics.
National Postdoctoral Appreciation Week
Every year during the third week in September, TSRI celebrates our outstanding postdoctoral community during National Postdoctoral Appreciation Week by offering career development and networking opportunities as well as social events.
The Samuels Family LA-HIP Annual Science Symposium
Students participating in the Samuels Family Latino and African American High School Internship program (LA-HIP) present their summer research projects to friends, family, donors, and CHLA faculty/staff.
Responsible Conduct of Research
This course is designed to meet the basic educational requirements in scientific integrity and the responsible conduct of research as per "NOT-OD-10-019" (Update on the Requirement for Instruction in the Responsible Conduct of Research, November 24, 2009, released by the National Institutes of Health). The NIH requires that all trainees, fellows, participants and scholars receiving support through any NIH training, career development award, research education grant or dissertation research grant must receive instruction in responsible conduct of research.
The Training, Education, Career Planning and Development (TECPAD) team at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) hosts the Responsible Conduct of Research course twice per year (Spring/Fall) for trainees and faculty at all levels. The training is convened over 9 weekly sessions and entails 8-12 hours of directed discussion among attendees and faculty facilitators.
The purpose of the course is to:
- Facilitate awareness and application of established professional norms and ethical principles in the performance of scientific research across the institution
- Comply with requirements for NIH funding
- Demonstrate CHLA’s commitment to ethical conduct in research activities across the institution
Content areas include:
- Introduction to responsible conduct in research and basic ethics
- Human subjects protection
- Animal research
- Research misconduct and conflicts of interest
- Responsible authorship, publication and peer review
- Data acquisition (management, sharing, and ownership)
- Collaborative research
- Genetics and Genomics
- Contemporary ethical issues and responsibilities
Attendance and completion of assigned tasks result in the award of a certificate of completion which stipulates that the individual has met all the federal requirements for such education.
Learn more by visiting our internal SharePoint Resource Hub. For questions or additional information about our programs, please contact tecpad@chla.usc.edu.
Resources
myIDP Individual Development Plan
National Institutes of Health Office of Intramural Training & Education
