UCSD - University of California - San Diego

05/12/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/12/2026 10:12

UC San Diego Receives $5 Million Renewal for Prestigious Faculty Recruitment and Training Program

Published Date

May 12, 2026

Article Content

The University of California San Diego has been awarded a $5 million renewal for its Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) program, part of a nationwide initiative from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund to enrich the biomedical workforce by recruiting promising early-career researchers and creating an environment that maximizes their success. Since it began in 2022, the FIRST program has enabled UC San Diego to hire 12 new faculty in life sciences disciplines across campus, who have collectively brought in $16 million in new research grants since their arrival.

"Despite the challenges we've faced in the last year related to federal funding, the FIRST program has been a great success," said FIRST principal investigator JoAnn Trejo, PhD, professor of pharmacology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and assistant vice chancellor of Health Sciences Faculty Affairs. "This cohort model of faculty recruitment provides a strong foundation of mentorship and early career development for faculty, and we look forward to continuing this important work."

A program that persevered

After a strong start in 2022, the UC San Diego FIRST Program was terminated by the NIH in early 2025, then reinstated following a multi-state lawsuit later that year. Despite these setbacks, FIRST has made significant strides in promoting scientific excellence at UC San Diego. The program's innovative cohort model and evidence-based faculty development initiatives have created a supportive community for newly hired faculty, fostering a culture that enables faculty to excel and do their best work. One of the key features of the FIRST Program was its centralized search process for the new faculty hires, which allowed for a more streamlined and inclusive approach to faculty recruitment.

"This was a truly cross-campus search," said Trejo. "We involved faculty from across the university, including medicine, pharmacy, engineering, biology, physical and social sciences, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. This kind of interdisciplinary collaboration is a hallmark of UC San Diego, and it allowed us to identify and recruit talented faculty who can tackle complex biomedical challenges from multiple angles."

In addition to recruiting faculty, the FIRST program at UC San Diego implemented and strengthened a range of evidence-based faculty development initiatives, including a grant writing course, mentorship training, and a program to build a more respectful scientific culture. The new funding will help keep these programs operational.

"Addressing the world's most complex health problems requires a wide range of experience, perspective and creative solutions, and we strive to follow this principle in our faculty recruitment," said John Carethers, MD, vice chancellor for Health Sciences at UC San Diego. "Through the collective impact of the FIRST Program, we are strengthening our research community with incredible faculty who are driven to push the boundaries of biomedical science and improve health for all."

These initiatives have been shown to be effective in enhancing faculty recruitment, retention and success. For example, a peer-reviewed study published earlier this year found that 79% of faculty who participated in UC San Diego's Health Sciences Grant Writing Course from 2017 to 2021 received grant funding as a principal investigator. In contrast, only 19% of NIH grant applications from early-career faculty were funded in 2023.

Once the initial NIH grant is completed in 2027, Trejo's goal is to institutionalize the programs developed through FIRST so they can become permanent parts of the recruitment and faculty affairs landscape at UC San Diego.

"Addressing the world's most complex health problems requires a wide range of experience, perspective and creative solutions, and we strive to follow this principle in our faculty recruitment. Through the collective impact of the FIRST Program, we are strengthening our research community with incredible faculty who are driven to push the boundaries of biomedical science and improve health for all." - John Carethers, vice chancellor for Health Sciences

"Our vision is to make these programs part of UC San Diego's long-term identity," said Trejo. "FIRST has given us the foundation. Now we're working to embed these practices into the fabric of UC San Diego so that every new faculty member has the support they need to thrive from day one until retirement."

On-the-ground impact

For the faculty hired through the FIRST program, the most significant benefits have been intangible. Several members of the cohort describe the experience as transformative - both personally and professionally - because of the community and structured support the program provides.

"As a new faculty member, you're often the most junior person in a department, and it's easy to feel isolated," said Melissa Campbell, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine and member of the FIRST cohort. "Because we're all in the same phase of our careers, it's very different from being the lone junior hire. Here, we can talk openly about what we're dealing with and help each other through challenges that are unique to this moment in science."

Campbell said the program fills critical gaps that new faculty frequently experience - especially when navigating the transition to independence.

"Being in FIRST means there are people thinking about you and making sure you have what you need to succeed," she said. "You get peer mentorship, which is invaluable, and then you get formalized senior mentorship where people are really paying attention. I feel incredibly well set up."

These benefits extend to the lab as well. Adrian Jinich, PhD, an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said the program's support has already shaped the trajectory of his research group.

"I was the first person recruited through FIRST, and thanks to the support network and startup resources, I was able to hire my ideal senior research associate right away," he said. "We were also able to collaborate with campus researchers to build a GPU computing cluster that's now central to our AI-driven infectious disease research. That infrastructure exists because of FIRST."

Above all, Jinich emphasized that the program's design - pairing cohort-building with structured professional development - are central to its positive impact on faculty.

"You feel surrounded by this cocoon of support in every direction," he said. "The leadership is outstanding, the peer community is outstanding, and the whole thing is clearly designed to help us succeed."

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