Providing resource to hire “extra hands” as a strategy to retain funded research faculty during periods of significant caregiving responsibilities.

Tension between professional obligations and extraprofessional caregiving responsibilities is one reason physician scientists leave academic medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this challenge by increasing caregiving demands and decreasing time spent on research as much as 40%. <i>CARES at UAB</i> (Caregiving Affected Research Early-Career Scientists Retention Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham) provided "extra hands" awards to early-career physician and non-physician research faculty to hire personnel to expedite research projects already awarded but deleteriously affected by caregiving during the pandemic. Evaluation included tracking awardee publications and grants, surveying awardees, and conducting semi-structured individual in-depth interviews. <i>CARES at UAB</i> distributed 28 grants totaling $1,005,266. Twenty-six awardees (93% retention) remain in academia 2.25-3.25 years after award initiation. Awardees attribute over 200 manuscripts to the funding and have secured 15 new NIH K-, R-, and U-series grants. Surveys indicate improved awardee well-being and decreased caregiving burden since receipt of funding. Scientific productivity, feeling valued, sense of community, and lifeline emerged as themes from interviews. Group "listening sessions" yielded university-level recommendations around tenure and promotion, caregiving culture, and mentoring. Resource to hire "extra hands" holds promise to retain early-career physician and non-physician research faculty with extraprofessional caregiving responsibilities.