Objectives/Goals: CTSA hubs are developing career ladders for clinical research professionals (CRPs) to professionalize roles and provide consistency. While these ladders classify roles based on responsibilities, skill, and experience, requirements for demonstrating professional abilities and promotion vary widely among institutions. Methods/Study Population: At the ACTS meeting in April 2025, we conducted a panel session to encourage audience discussion regarding the role that career ladders and certification play in robust workforce development. Fifty-seven people attended, representing 34 universities and institutions. Audience members worked in small groups to identify the benefits and challenges of developing career ladders at their institutions. Each group included a facilitator to encourage discussion and take notes. Six open-ended questions were provided to guide discussion surrounding the topics of career progression, certification requirements, and standardized job descriptions. Attendees were also provided with a QR code to answer five additional online survey questions regarding the structure and hiring climate at their institution. Results/Anticipated Results: Content analysis was conducted by two reviewers, and survey summary statistics were generated. Discussion group analysis identified nine themes including working with human resources on career ladders, coordinating competencies with promotion, job progression for those not conducting clinical trials, decentralization of systems, certification requirements for promotion, employee turnover, choosing job titles, strategies to train CRPs, and transparency in career ladder expectations. Thirty-one people completed the online survey with 85% indicating their institution had a decentralized structure, 61% had a formal CRP career ladder, 54% considered certification but did not require it for promotion, and 63% did not provide financial assistance to CRPs to complete professional certification. Discussion/Significance of Impact: Analyses show that as institutions in the CTSA Consortium develop career ladder programs to professionalize the CRP role in the workforce, there continues to be wide variability in structure and requirements. These results can be used by hubs to help create roadmaps for career progression and to make decisions regarding their career ladder programs.
Eakin et al. (Wed,) studied this question.