17 Comments
Welcome to my blog. I have to admit that I was a bit hesitant about starting it. Not that I’ve ever been accused of being the quiet, shy type! It was more being concerned about having enough material to write the types of commentaries and discussions that would generate a following and be most beneficial to you our partners, grantees, PIs and trainees. But, then it hit me. There is so much to discuss. So, here I am blogging!
I will make this blog as interesting and current as possible, helping you understand the NIH perspective, describing key events and policies, responding to concerns we are hearing from the extramural community, and allowing you to comment. My hope is that by broadening the avenues of communication to include a blog, I can enhance the dialog with the entirety of the research community. As you know, at NIH we make continual adjustments in response to the needs of the community, congress and others. These changes affect all of us—whether we are scientists, administrators, policy makers or the public—and I want to be talking about them with you as they happen.
Along with my blog posts, the NIH Extramural Nexus contains news and updates on extramural grant policies, processes, events and resources. We will be posting articles throughout the month to get the information out to you when you need it. If you are receiving this post via e-mail, each month you will receive a digest of news and articles posted the previous month. To receive information in a more timely way, subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter.
Finally, I’d like to mention that I am extraordinarily proud to be a public servant working for the biomedical research community and the NIH. I couldn’t ask for a more wonderful group of people to work with, and I’m excited to be part of this organization’s extraordinary mission to improve the lives of people everywhere. Talk to you soon!
Congratulations Sally! Happy blogging!
Alfonso R. Latoni
NIA
Hi! It must be awesome to be blogging to the biomedical community at the lowest point of NIH extramural funding! I hope all of your exclamation points will be uplifting to all those who have lost funding and jobs! I’m sure they appreciate the mission to improve lives everywhere!
there, there Temper Boy.
Temper? Actually no anger at all (I did use exclamation points and the word ‘awesome’!!!). Perhaps just a simple call for language that is a little more sensitive to the struggles many people in the biomedical research community are facing at this time.
Sally,
The more NIH info you have the better it will be….
Steve
It is exciting to be part of biomedical community and hear and share information.
very neat idea, thank you.
I look forward to reading your thoughts and views.
Awesome!
Thank you for opening this new avenue for NIH information.
Robert Aull
Indiana University
Sally:
Thanks for starting this blog. Looking forward to reading more. I am also proud of being a part of the extraordinary mission of NIH for improving people’s health everywhere.
Very good timing. A site that can debunk the rumors, provide tips for obtaining information, etc., is very welcome.
Sally-
Is this an appropriate forum to air frustratons with some of the mechanisms or policies set by the NIH?
Comments in response to blog postings should relate to the topic of the blog posting. As stated in the comment policy, off-topic comments will not be posted. However, behind the scenes, we will read comments on other NIH policies, and Sally may consider them for future blog topics.
Melanie,
The appropriate forum is, naturally, to start up your own blog and complain away to your heart’s content!
Slightly more seriously, there is a reasonably healthy online blog community of NIH-funded and not-yet-funded scientists that exists. As you can tell from the comment in Dr. Rockey’s second post, she reads some of it. So go forth and comment. Maybe you will find other voices reinforcing your complaints- strength in numbers and all that.
Thank you for starting this blog. I just shared the link with my labmates.
Megan Sullivan
Postdoc
Good to have another forum even though i have suspicions about information overload, but not something I would credit to NIH – so the more info the better