105846 Department-Sponsored Research Mentorship: A Strategy for Facilitating Faculty Scholarship. Marjane B. Selleck*1; Laura Z. Gras1; Pamela K. Levangie2 1. The Sage Colleges, Troy, NY; 2. Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT UNIQUE: Partnering between the College administration and the physical therapy program leadership in this small, private liberal arts institution fostered conceptual and financial support for a 2+ year mentoring program targeted at and designed to engage the full physical therapy faculty in a series of interactive colloquia in research. PURPOSE: With only minimal scholarship and research experience within the faculty, CAPTE's Scholarly Activity Expectations of Physical Therapy Faculty required focused attention by faculty to the development of research skills and facilitation of faculty scholarship. FOUNDATION: The mentorship program engaged the full faculty in a common dialog on how to begin the process of imbedding a scholarhsip agenda within the existing commitment to teaching and clinical expertise. DESCRIPTION: The research mentorship program consisted of four 2-day colloquia over the course of 18 months conducted by an external consultant, and monthly presentations conducted by researchers at the College. Building on a foundation of common language and a common conceptual frame of reference, a system for peer review of proposed and ongoing scholarship work was set up that is augmented by financial support for individual development goals. OBSERVATIONS: The number of peer-reviewed publications and professional presentations by the faculty since the inception of the mentoring program provide some objective evidence of successful outcomes, as do the number of faculty now engaged in mentoring student projects and working with community based clinicians on their research endeavors. A focus group process was used to gather the faculty's perceptions of the value of the program in supporting increased scholarship. The focus group provided information on additional needs, as well as feedback for other programs that might wish to use a similar process. CONCLUSIONS: Other physical therapy programs who are trying to improve faculty scholarship may learn from our mentorship program, and from the feedback provided by our faculty. With the assistance of a research mentoring program we have been able to meet the expectations of CAPTE, our accrediting body. FUNDING SOURCE: None KEYWORDS: mentoring Copyright 2009 by the American Physical Therapy Association. Requests for reprints should be directed to the corresponding author of the article. Educators, students, and other academic customers may receive permission to reprint copyrighted material from Physical Therapy (ISSN 1538-6724) by contacting the Copyright Clearance Center Inc, 222 Rosewood Dr, Danvers, MA 01923. Other types of customers who want permission to reprint should contact the APTA Editorial Office, Attn: Physical Therapy.