Chief Science Officer (CSO) Development Training Certificate Program Team “CSO Boot Camp”

In the Mid-Atlantic Region, Maryland is in an enviable position with regard to biotechnology-related resources that encourage and support entrepreneurial efforts. Academic institutions, a federal laboratory, a committed county department of economic development, and a unique small business have developed an effective consortium to leverage these resources. The potential for human capital to support this entrepreneurial growth is further augmented by the number of graduate and post-doctoral programs available in the region. Ironically, a significantly steady decrease in the availability of academic positions for new graduate and post-graduate-level scientists has created an additional talent resource pool for new and existing biotechnology companies. Despite these significant human capital resources, traditional academic graduate and post-graduate training do not focus on teaching the business leadership and management skills required to attain successful industry scientist-level positions. This confluence of circumstances was the catalyst for the formation of a unique and highly synergistic consortium to remedy this situation. 

Together, the NIH Office of Technology Transfer, Montgomery College, the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) Graduate School at NIH, Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, and Human Workflows, LLC, combined forces to develop a novel training certificate program focused on teaching academic scientists the business leadership and management skills necessary to be successful in industry. The program consists of a 36-credit house, 12-week course that teaches academic and research scientists the business skills valued by industry. 

Unlike more traditional generic business management offerings, the modules of this “CSO Boot Camp” on leadership, negotiation, line management, finance, project management and communication have been customized to emphasize how each of these skill sets impacts scientists functioning in industry. The result is the development of scientist leaders who can fast-track in industry positions regardless of whether they choose management or research, and a pipeline that provides the highly skilled workforce necessary to staff and propel important science and technology businesses into the future. 

With the first CSO course having been completed in 2011, it is too soon to definitively determine the practical impact of the Boot Camp on the careers of the participants and the companies that hired them. However, feedback from the students has been unanimously positive; in fact, their sole criticism was that the course was too short. Externally, there is significant interest in the program outside of Montgomery County, Md., where the course is currently being taught. As a result of this interest, efforts are underway to leverage leading-edge online technologies available at Montgomery College to further develop the CSO course into an online program that can be deployed both synchronously and asynchronously. The ultimate measure of the impact of the CSO programs will be the placement records of graduates of the program and their success in those positions.

Awardees

Montgomery County Development of Economic Development

• Fizie Haleem

Human Workflows, LLC

• Randall K. Ribaudo 

NIH - Office of Technology Transfer 

• Mojdeh Bahar 

Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences Graduate School at NIH 

• Steven Ferguson