October 5, 2020
NIH has been working diligently to support the extramural research community since the pandemic began in March. We are now preparing to reach out with surveys to gather data on how COVID-19 is impacting our extramural researchers and their institutions. If you receive such a survey, we hope that you will take the time to provide us with your perspective. The results of the surveys will be extremely valuable to inform policy and program decisions as NIH seeks to identify ways to continue to support the biomedical research enterprise as we move forward.
October 1, 2020
In this post, we would like to remind you of some of the important cybersecurity policies that apply to your NIH-supported research. These policies are designed to protect not only the NIH, but also you, your coworkers, your study participants, your institution, and your research. As healthcare and research institutions continue to face mounting threats from cyberattacks, it’s important that we all not only know how to protect sensitive information, but also make a personal commitment to keeping data safe.
September 2, 2020
What would you do if, as the Dean of Research at a major university, a group of students, postdocs, and junior faculty reported that they had been pressured into writing reviewer critiques for a senior faculty member?
August 13, 2020
Did you know that the NIH’s small business programs (SBIR and STTR) invest over 1 billion dollars into life science and healthcare companies each year? The newly-created Small business Education and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) office provides grantees with many of the valuable entrepreneurship and commercialization services we have discussed in previous blogs to help them thrive.
August 12, 2020
In 2011, Ginther et al. first demonstrated that African American and Black applicants to the National Institutes of Health received grant awards at a lower rate than their white counterparts (Ginther 2011). Since then, multiple studies have reproduced and extended this finding (Ginther 2011; Ginther 2016; Hoppe 2019; Erosheva 2020). Recently we reported that African American and Black (AAB) PIs are more likely to propose research on topics that are less likely to be funded (Hoppe 2019). We found that topic choice has little or no effect on whether an application is chosen for discussion, but after considering a number of confounders, it accounts for over 20% of the gap in funding success for applications that are discussed.
July 31, 2020
Opportunity knocks for NIH researchers, who will be able to leverage clinical data from electronic health record (EHR) systems with increased frequency and consistency. The recently published final rule, which went into effect on June 30, 2020, and requires electronic health record (EHR) systems to provide the clinical data necessary for nationwide, interoperable health information exchange through the adoption of the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) standard.
July 28, 2020
It has been four months since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered laboratories and clinical studies across the country and the world. On April 10, only a few weeks into the pandemic, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) published a report describing the consequences of social distancing and other pandemic mitigation measures. These consequences included laboratory closures, de-prioritized projects, cancellation of meetings and conferences, loss of revenue, disrupted personnel processes, supply-chain interruptions, and, overlying all of these, a great deal of uncertainty. Since the CRS report was issued, we have learned more about the pandemic’s effects on non-COVID research and on the research workforce.
July 20, 2020
As we continue to address the effects of COVID-19 and as some states and institutions are considering reopening, we would like to share some administrative flexibilities that NIH is providing to research institutions with laboratory animal programs. These flexibilities are meant to assure personnel safety and animal welfare while enabling research personnel to prioritize and preserve research efforts. Some of these can be useful in reducing administrative burden, too.
July 8, 2020
On Tuesday, June 23, Dr. Kelvin Drogemeier, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), gave a presentation to the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) on “Enhancing the Security and Integrity of America’s Research Enterprise.” Dr. Drogemeier articulated five “key takeaway” messages. I’d like to take this opportunity to summarize Dr. Drogemeier’s presentation and how it fits within the context of NIH extramural research.
June 24, 2020
If there are concerns that sexual harassment is affecting an NIH-funded project, we want to know about it. NIH takes the same rigorous approach to addressing allegations involving sexual harassment as we do other integrity issues. We have added a web page that highlights the detailed steps NIH takes when we receive notification of a concern.
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