A Reflection on Impact

It’s worth reflecting that it has been more than two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Let’s look back to the months of early to mid-2020 when the nation (and the rest of the world) faced a “novel” coronavirus, one which we knew could be fatal and for which there was little knowledge about how it spreads and no known effective treatment, limited diagnostic tests, and no vaccine. How did NIH make fast and meaningful contributions to respond to the pandemic?

Reminder: NIH Will Continue to Accept Preliminary Data as Post-Submission Material Through January 2023 Councils

NIH will continue to accept a one-page update with preliminary data as post-submission materials for applications submitted for summer 2022 due dates, ONLY if the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) used for submission allowed preliminary data in the application.

How Virtual Convenings Can Enhance Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

Our latest guest post describes the NIH Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity Office’s commitment to hold all seminars, conferences, and meetings entirely online throughout 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic-induced shift to online events has led to a growing body of research on the impact of virtual scientific convenings. A review of this literature suggests that an entirely or primarily virtual format can enhance meeting access, diversity, and climate.

Seeking Public Comment on CSR’s 2022 – 2027 Strategic Plan

The Center for Scientific Review (CSR) draft strategic plan is now open for public comment. This 5-year plan (for 2022–2027) will serve as our roadmap as CSR advances its mission of seeing that NIH grant applications receive fair, independent, expert, and timely scientific reviews—free from inappropriate influences—so NIH can fund the most promising research.

Inequalities in the Distribution of National Institutes of Health Research Project Grant Funding

This past September, my colleague and I published a paper in the journal eLife on inequalities in the support of scientists designated as Principal Investigators (PIs) of NIH Research Project Grant (RPG) awards. We found that funding inequality among PIs has increased over the past 25 years, but may have decreased modestly in more recent years. We also found greater levels of inequality across organizations.

Farewell 2021, Time to Bring in 2022

As the snow fell outside last week, I virtually sat down with Dr. David Kosub from the NIH Office of Extramural Research’s communications group to look back and reflect on 2021, and where we may be going in the new year. Please take a few minutes and join us for this conversation.