Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Faculty Affairs Office

Investigator Career Track

Career advancement for faculty appointed on the Investigator Career Track occurs through developing an independent, extramurally-funded research program that results in a body of publications and scholarly work that achieves national recognition. Investigators are appointed on one of two pathways: 

  • Scientist
  • Physician-Scientist

Planning Your Journey

Select your current tenure status and rank to learn how to prepare for tenure and/or your next promotion.

Below are resources to help tenure-eligible faculty navigate their career and work toward promotion and the award of tenure (typically tenure is awarded at the time of promotion to associate professor). The milestones below are based on the standard nine-year tenure clock at Feinberg, so this timeline may need adjustment if your clock is a different length. If you transferred to Feinberg after beginning your faculty career at another academic institution, consider your start date at the assistant professor level (at any institution) as the beginning of your journey in marking the milestones identified below.

Key Focus: Develop an independent, extramurally-funded research program and resulting body of publications and scholarly work that is nationally recognized for its impact in your field of investigation

Early in Tenure Clock (Years 1-3)

  • Identify your formal mentoring committee (a suggested mentoring committee was likely outlined in your offer letter) and coordinate a meeting of the full committee at least annually; meet with individual mentors as needed.
  • Establish your research program, focusing less on teaching and service obligations in the early years of your tenure clock.
  • Seek out research career development support.
  • Become engaged with research and other professional activities that lead to recognition at the regional level. 
  • Become familiar with the Information Guide for Appointments, Promotion and Tenure.
  • Use the Feinberg Faculty Portal to maintain your faculty profile.
  • Maintain your Feinberg CV on an ongoing basis; consider using the Feinberg Faculty Portal to track your career activity for this purpose.
  • Use the annual performance review process to discuss your career plans with your department chair or division chief and obtain feedback on your progress toward promotion.

Interim Review (Year 3)

The Faculty Affairs Office will notify you when it is time for your first interim review by the school's Appointment, Promotion and Tenure (APT) Committee and deans. This process offers feedback intended to facilitate your success in obtaining tenure. For more information, see Interim Review for Tenure-Eligible Faculty.

Middle of Tenure Clock (Years 4-6)

  • Develop an action plan to address the feedback from your three-year interim review, and implement it throughout years 4-6.
  • Continue to meet with your full mentoring committee at least annually (and individual mentors as needed), and engage them in helping you to address feedback from your interim review.
  • Incorporate education, teaching and service activities into your portfolio of career activity along with your research (and clinical work, if applicable).
  • Work toward obtaining a second round of extramural funding, to secure a second round of funding in years 4-8 (i.e., the latter half) of your tenure clock.
  • Begin to identify external referees who hold the rank of associate professor or professor and think about how to build relationships. 
  • Grow your reputation nationally.

Interim Review (Year 6)

The Faculty Affairs Office will notify you when it is time for your second interim review by the school's Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure (APT) Committee and deans. This process offers feedback intended to facilitate your success in obtaining tenure. For more information, see Interim Review for Tenure-Eligible Faculty.

Late in Tenure Clock (Years 7-8)

  • Develop an action plan to address the feedback from your six-year interim review, and implement it in years 7-8.
  • Continue to meet with your full mentoring committee at least annually (and individual mentors as needed), and engage them in helping you to address feedback from your interim review.
  • Secure a second round of extramural funding by year 8.
  • Demonstrate that you have achieved national recognition for your work.
  • Solidify the list of external referees at the rank of associate professor or professor who could evaluate your work. 
  • Build a case to demonstrate the likelihood of your maintaining a high-impact research program into the future. The award of tenure recognizes not only achievement to date, but the likelihood of continuing to perform high-impact research throughout the remainder of your career. 

Apply for Tenure (Year 8)

Tenure-eligible faculty must submit an application for tenure in the calendar year prior to the expiration of their tenure clock. If your clock ends on Aug. 31, 2025, then your application is due to the Faculty Affairs Office by August 2024.

Tenure/promotion always take effect on Sept. 1 of a given year, and Feinberg has a structured annual review cycle that, in combination with your department's internal review process, may kick off as early as 20 months before the effective date of an approved promotion. In other words, plan to start the formal application process about 1.5 years before your tenure clock end date.

Key Considerations for the Award of Tenure

  1. Have you developed a robust independent, extramurally-funded research program and achieved a second round of funding?
  2. Have you published original peer-reviewed investigations as first or last author?
  3. Do you have evidence of a national reputation? 
  4. Can you list six to eight external referees at the rank of associate professor or professor (who are not close collaborators and who do not have a training connection to you) who could write letters of reference in support of your tenure application? 
  5. Can you demonstrate the likelihood that you will continue to perform high-impact research throughout your career? 

Initiate the Application Process

You must apply for tenure in the calendar year preceding your tenure clock expiration date. Applying for tenure earlier than that is possible, but is reserved for extraordinary achievement, meaning you have achieved the expectations of a nine-year clock in a timeline shorter than nine years. In other words, being "on track" to achieve tenure at the nine-year mark does not warrant applying for tenure early. Faculty who have received a tenure clock extension (e.g., for childbearing, COVID-19) are not required to use the extension, so can apply for tenure on the nine-year clock timeline even if their clock is longer than nine years.  

  1. Contact your department leadership to make them aware you wish to be considered for promotion.
    • It is a good idea to have a draft of your Feinberg CV and your referee list prepared at this stage for review by department leadership, who can advise you on readiness for promotion and let you know about your department's internal process for nominating promotion candidates.
  2. View the Annual Promotion Cycle page to understand the timeline, prepare your packet and access resources for the current promotion cycle. 

Below are resources to help current associate professors navigate their career and plan for promotion to full professor. At Feinberg, we expect that faculty hold the rank of associate professor for a minimum of five years before promotion to professor, but there is no deadline by which you must be promoted. The guidance below establishes milestones for those who aspire to obtain promotion by the five-year mark, but is just as useful for those whose journey is a different length.

Key Focus: Demonstrate a sustained impact in your field of investigation through continuation of your independent research program and accompanying body of publications and scholarly works, growing your national and international recognition.

I'm building toward promotion...
Years 1-3 (or later) as associate professor

  • Sustain your research program; obtain another cycle of funding beyond what you had in your tenure-eligible years and continue to publish in high-impact journals. An accelerating publication rate after tenure is favorable and speaks to the sustainability of your research program and your impact in the field. 
  • Maintain educational, teaching and service activities, with increasing demonstration of leadership through these roles.
  • Become familiar with the Information Guide for Appointments, Promotion and Tenure.
  • Use the Feinberg Faculty Portal to maintain your faculty profile.
  • Maintain your Feinberg CV and record of teaching on an ongoing basis; consider using the Feinberg Faculty Portal to track your career activity for this purpose.
  • Use the annual performance review process to discuss your career plans with your department chair or division chief and obtain feedback on your progress toward promotion.
  • Begin to identify external referees who hold the rank of professor and think about how to build relationships. 
  • Expand your reputation nationally and internationally.
  • Build a case to demonstrate the likelihood of your maintaining a high-impact research program into the future. Promotion to tenured professor recognizes not only achievement to date, but the likelihood of continuing to perform high-impact research throughout the remainder of your career.

I'm ready to apply for promotion
Middle of year 3 (or later) as associate professor

Promotions always take effect on Sept. 1 of a given year, and Feinberg has a structured annual review cycle that, in combination with your department's internal review process, may kick off as early as 20 months before the effective date of an approved promotion. In other words, plan to start the formal application process about 1.5 years before you are promoted.

Key Considerations for Promotion to Tenured Professor

  1. Will you have held the rank of associate professor for at least five years on the date your promotion becomes effective? (e.g., if applying for promotion effective Sept. 1, 2025, you should hold the rank of associate professor for at least five years by that date)
  2. Have you sustained an independent, extramurally-funded research program?
  3. Have you continued to publish original investigations in peer-reviewed journals as first or last author?
  4. Do you have evidence of a national/international reputation? 
  5. Can you list six to eight external referees at the rank of professor (who are not close collaborators and who do not have a training connection to you) who could write letters of reference in support of your promotion? 
  6. Can you demonstrate the likelihood that you will continue to perform high-impact research throughout your career? 

Initiate the Application Process

If you answered yes to all of the questions above, then you may be ready to apply for promotion. Here are the next steps:

  1. Contact your department leadership to make them aware you wish to be considered for promotion.
    • It is a good idea to have a draft of your Feinberg CV and your referee list prepared at this stage for review by department leadership, who can advise you on readiness for promotion and let you know about your department's internal process for nominating promotion candidates.
  2. View the Annual Promotion Cycle page to understand the timeline, prepare your packet and access resources for the current promotion cycle.

Interim Review for Tenure-Eligible Faculty

Feinberg's standard tenure probationary period (or "tenure clock") for faculty appointed to the Investigator career track is nine years, typically beginning with your first appointment as an assistant professor (whether at Northwestern or a prior institution). To facilitate success in achieving tenure, Feinberg conducts a periodic interim review to offer actionable feedback from the school's Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure (APT) committee and deans on your progress towards tenure.

  • Faculty who start their nine-year tenure clock at Feinberg can expect to receive two interim reviews, one at three years and one at six years into their tenure clock.
  • Faculty whose tenure clock at Feinberg is shorter than nine years due to starting their faculty career at a prior institution may have an altered interim review schedule or only receive one interim review, dependent on the number of years remaining on their tenure clock.  

2025 Interim Review Timeline

Winter: Notification of Review
Tenure-eligible faculty invited for interim review in 2025 have already been notified.

In the winter, the Faculty Affairs Office (FAO) notifies tenure-eligible faculty who will be included in the interim review process in the spring. 

April 1: Interim Review Packets Due to FAO

One of the goals of the interim review process is to make you familiar with documents that go into your promotion and tenure application later. The interim review packet is shorter than the promotion and tenure packet, but includes some of the same documents.

Faculty notified to do so should send an interim review packet containing the following documents to fao@northwestern.edu by April 1, 2025.

For help in using the Feinberg Faculty Portal, consult Managing Your Online Presence.

  1. Interim Review Supplement
    • This document is only used in the interim review process and serves as an introductory cover sheet.
    • This must be prepared using the Feinberg Faculty Portal; within the Portal, navigate to the Profile page and complete these sections:
      • Biographical Narratives: This is the same bio that appears on your public faculty profile. If there is additional context you wish to provide that shouldn't display publicly, you may add a bio in this section tagged as "Other." 
      • Mentor(s) or Mentoring Committee
    • Next, go to Vitas & Biosketches and scroll down to Interim Review Supplement. Click on the eye at the right of the page to generate the supplement. Once on that page, Export/Share as PDF (it exports even without entering dates).
    • Save your file using this file naming convention: LastName Interim Review Supplement (e.g., Simpson Interim Review Supplement).
  2. TE Interim Review Progress Report
    • This document is prepared manually using the template at the link above and is a short narrative summary (about one page) of your career progress, focusing especially on the last three years
    • Save your file using this file naming convention: LastName Progress Report (e.g., Simpson Progress Report).
  3. Feinberg Standard CV
    • This is the same CV format used for the promotion and tenure application.
    • You may prepare it manually or using the Feinberg Faculty Portal.
    • Save your file using this file naming convention: LastName CV (e.g., Simpson CV).
  4. Record of Teaching
    • This document is also included in the promotion and tenure application.
    • You may prepare it manually or using the Feinberg Faculty Portal.
    • Save your file using this file naming convention: LastName Teaching Record (e.g., Simpson Teaching Record).

Sept. 1: Receive Summary of Feedback

During late spring and summer, your interim review materials will be reviewed by FAO (for completeness), the APT Committee and deans. Two APT Committee members independently review each candidate and evaluate the following areas, considering strengths and weaknesses:

  1. Scholarly / academic accomplishments
  2. Teaching
  3. Service
  4. External recognition
  5. Assessment of progress to date, including suggestions for addressing identified weaknesses

The committee members' evaluations are shared with the full APT committee and the Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs for discussion and additional comments.

By Sept. 1, you will receive a summary of feedback from the interim review process. The feedback will be sent to you and your department chair as well as the mentoring committee chair named in the Interim Review Supplement document that you submitted as part of your packet.

September: Meet With Chair/Chief and Mentors to Align on Action Plan

During September, meet with your department chair or division chief and mentoring committee chair to go over the interim review summary report and the action plan it recommends.

  • If your action plan is in response to your three-year review, implement and monitor your action plan throughout years 4-6 leading up to your six-year review.
  • If your action plan is in response to your six-year review, implement and monitor your action plan in years 7-8 in preparation for applying for tenure.