{"entity":{"id":"idea-fund-surgeon-scientist-pathway","kind":"idea","name":"Funded research pathways for surgeon-scientists and radiation oncologist-scientists","aka":[],"tldr":"Almost no surgeons or radiation oncologists have time or funding to do research. Dedicated training awards with protected time would build the workforce that surgical and radiotherapy trials need.","summary":"A funded career pathway: integrated research years within surgical and radiation oncology training, career-development awards on the model of NIH K08/K23 but reserved for these specialties, protected time in the first faculty years and mentorship networks linked to the surgical and radiotherapy trials infrastructure. Surgeon-scientists are a shrinking fraction of NIH-funded investigators, and radiation oncology, though research-rich relative to its size, lacks trialists and translational scientists. Awards prioritise trial methodology, health services research and technology evaluation, the skills these fields lack most.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"American College of Surgeons","url":"https://www.facs.org/"}],"tags":[],"related":["idea-fund-translational-fellowships","idea-fund-protected-time-physician-scientists","idea-fund-surgical-trials-network"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["asco","esmo"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":["kevin-harrington","michael-baumann"],"bottlenecks":["b-surgery-radiation-innovation","b-workforce"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Reserved career awards increase the number of surgeons and radiation oncologists holding independent research funding by at least half within eight years and increase the number of surgical and radiotherapy trials led by awardees.","rationale":"Analyses of NIH funding show surgeon-scientists declining as a share of investigators and reporting lack of protected time as the main cause; specialty-reserved awards in other fields (for example emergency medicine and anaesthesia K12 programmes) have measurably increased research output.","test":"Fund fifty awards over five years and compare independent funding, trials led and retention in academia against a matched cohort of trainees without awards.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"research","cost":"medium","horizonYears":6},"route":"/ideas/idea-fund-surgeon-scientist-pathway/","neighbours":{"idea":[{"id":"idea-fund-surgical-trials-network","kind":"idea","name":"A permanently funded international network for randomised cancer surgery trials","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-surgical-trials-network/"},{"id":"idea-fund-protected-time-physician-scientists","kind":"idea","name":"Hospital-funded protected time for clinician-scientists, repaid by trial revenue","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-protected-time-physician-scientists/"},{"id":"idea-fund-technique-innovation-prize","kind":"idea","name":"Prizes for unpatentable surgical and radiotherapy techniques proven in trials","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-technique-innovation-prize/"},{"id":"idea-fund-translational-fellowships","kind":"idea","name":"Two-year translational fellowships that pay scientists to develop their own discovery","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-translational-fellowships/"}],"institution":[{"id":"asco","kind":"institution","name":"American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)","route":"/institutions/asco/"},{"id":"esmo","kind":"institution","name":"European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)","route":"/institutions/esmo/"}],"person":[{"id":"kevin-harrington","kind":"person","name":"Kevin Harrington","route":"/people/kevin-harrington/"},{"id":"michael-baumann","kind":"person","name":"Michael Baumann","route":"/people/michael-baumann/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-workforce","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Not enough oncologists, nurses, pathologists, physicists","route":"/bottlenecks/b-workforce/"},{"id":"b-surgery-radiation-innovation","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least","route":"/bottlenecks/b-surgery-radiation-innovation/"}]}}