Benefits of HRA Membership

Dear HRA Member or Potential Member!

Thank you for your interest in the benefits of HRA membership. Below is a very detailed description of the perks of HRA membership – a self-guided tour if you will. But I am happy to walk you and/or other members of your team through all the perks that come with HRA membership.  If you want to schedule a zoom call with me to take a “virtual tour” of HRA Activities through the lens of www.HealthRA.org please send  an email to jenna[at]HealthRA[dot]org.  Otherwise, read on for  details enumerating the benefits of membership.

On the About tab, you can find documents like our 990, list of board members and staff, and the 2021 Strategic Plan.

The Members tab has information for potential members, but also profiles of all HRA members, and resources for members only, for which you need a login to access. This page has a link to a member directory that is only available to members.  There is also an organizational directory with info such as which GMS members use and if they have a hybrid/remote/in-person workplace. Those directories are only as good as the information in it, so we need members to keep their data current.  There is also a link to member-only documents, HRA’s Professional Development Program, and instructions for the indispensable listservs. You’ll also find a link to the HRA Bias Mitigation in Peer Review Training for Program Staff (available to HRA members). Links to upcoming (and past) Members Meetings can also be found on the Members tab.  Members Meetings and the listservs are two of the most valued perks of HRA membership. The general listserv is an invaluable resource – a place where members can share failures in addition to successes in a safe space.

The Communities (formerly Working Groups) are where most of HRA’s work gets done.  These groups meet by zoom, host webinars, create documents, and plan Members Meeting main sessions and breakout sessions. Their cochairs, descriptions, resources created, and other information can be found on each of their webpages.

These Communities are always looking for more member engagement. So members – please check out the Events tab and join any webinar that you think sounds interesting.  You are also encouraged to connect directly with me or the cochairs to volunteer to become more deeply engaged in the workings of the group.

On the HRA Platforms tab you can find links to the infrastructure in which we have invested to increase the impact of HRA members’ investment in biomedical research.

  • HRA Analyzer is a database of HRA members’ awardees in a Dimensions platform, free for HRA members only.  The fields in Analyzer are not only the Dimensions fields but we also have our own “offline” database with fields such as award purpose (research, training, etc), career stage (med student, postdoc, junior faculty, etc), eligibility (MD, PhD, etc), and demographics such as race and gender.  This offline database allows us to do longitudinal analysis as well other landscape analyzes.
  • HRA Open could be (and has been!) its own webinar. This is a very valuable but complex platform that enables HRA members to use the NIH’s Manuscript Submission System to deposit publications into PubMedCentral, thereby complying with an open or public access policy. But it also enables awardees to deposit other research outputs into Figshare, like datasets and abstracts, and link those outputs not only to a publication in PMC (if there is one) but to the grant that funded the work.  This is a great tool for tracking progress other than via publications in addition to facilitating Open Access.
  • ORCID Consortium We have also found a great option for HRA members who want to become premium ORCID members for a reduced cost and with robust support through an existing consortium called the ORCID US Community which is managed by Lyrasis.

There are other valuable tabs I’d like to highlight.

  • As mentioned above, the Events tab is where you can see what webinars or meetings are upcoming or have past, as well as details about and resources created for the events.  These events not only  include Members Meetings and webinars, but professional development workshops, and other special meetings.
  • The Resources tab is where you can find links to recordings, documents, guides, listserv summaries, etc.  Most of these resources are public but there are valuable HRA Member-only resources including Google docs that collect policies and practices with respect to DEI, Misconduct and Ethics, and training resources for grantees, for instance.
  • The News tab is where we post HRA Newsletters (which are posted to the listserv as well), our annual Impact Report.  We also post articles that feature the activities of HRA in the “HRA in the News” section.

HRA is also nimble and can create a program or a resource for the community quickly where there is member support. Please see the COVID-19 page as an example. Among other resources listed there is a report on the COVID-19 Impact Survey, which is extremely comprehensive and presents information about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HRA member organizations.

Please reach out to either of us if you would like more information or to schedule a more complete walkthrough of the benefits of HRA membership via zoom.

Best,
HRA

In accordance with the confidentiality guidelines approved by the HRA Board of Directors, please note that the username and password for the Members Only portion of the HRA website may not be shared beyond the HRA membership. Also, if you wish to share any documents from the Members Only portion of the website beyond the HRA membership, please first request permission from HRA.