Automated Trainee Diversity Report Required with RPPRs for Most T, K and Research Education Awards Beginning October 30, 2020

Posted on October 23, 2020 by NIH Staff

An automatically generated Trainee Diversity Report will replace the manual report that signing officials are required to submit with RPPRs for most institutional training, career development awards and research education grants, effective October 30, 2020. The automated report will leverage existing electronic demographic data entered by trainees in the Personal Profile of eRA Commons to minimize the need for manual data entry by recipients and reduce their burden. Continue reading →

Anonymizing Peer Review for the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award Applications

Posted on May 27, 2020 by Mike Lauer

NIH is seeking applications for the 2021 Transformative Research awards through a new funding opportunity (RFA-RM-20-013) recently released on Friday, May 21, 2020. And, as a way to address concerns about bias in peer review while also enhancing diversity, this High Risk, High Reward program is going to anonymize the review of Transformative Research Award applications. Continue reading →

Where Can I Find Diversity Related Funding Opportunity Announcements?

Posted on February 26, 2020 by NIH Staff

NIH offers an aggregated listing of diversity related announcements on our Diversity in Extramural Programs page. Browse the list, or filter by participating organization and/or grant type (aka activity code). Continue reading →

New “All About Grants” Podcast on NIH’s Interest in Diversity and Diversity Supplement Programs

Posted on February 19, 2020 by NIH Staff

In our next installment of the NIH’s All About Grants podcast series we sit down with the Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Dr. Jon Lorsch, to chat about diversity. Continue reading →

Expanding NIH’s Definition of Socio-Economic Disadvantaged to be More Inclusive and Diversify the Workforce

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Mike Lauer

NIH has considered a different approach to defining scientists from disadvantaged backgrounds. We reviewed a wide variety of criteria, looking for those that are relatively easy to self-evaluate and that capture a large proportion of affected people. Continue reading →

Delving Further into the Funding Gap Between White and Black Researchers

Posted on October 10, 2019 by Mike Lauer

In a paper recently published in Science Advances, we delved into the underlying factors associated with the funding gap between white and black researchers. We identified three decision points where disparate outcomes arose between white and black researchers: 1) the decision to bring applications to discussion during peer review study section meetings; 2) impact score assignments for those applications brought to discussion; and (3) a previously unstudied factor, topic choice – that is what topic the investigators chose to study. Continue reading →

Achieving Gender Equity at Conferences

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Mike Lauer

Inviting women to speak at conferences matters for many reasons – it’s a matter of fairness; it gives eminently qualified women a level playing field; it is just the right thing to do. In essence, it’s about changing the fundamental culture of the biomedical research enterprise to allow full participation from people of all backgrounds. In that vein, I’d like to remind you that if you are applying for an R13 conference grant from NIH, please be sure to read the requirements in the Funding Opportunity Announcement, where meeting diversity is a long-standing expectation. Continue reading →

NIH Wants Your Input on Increasing Diversity Among Biomedical Research Faculty

Posted on May 1, 2019 by NIH Staff

Promoting scientific environments that can encourage and benefit from a full range of talent is necessary in biomedical research today. The NIH Common Fund is conducting strategic planning for a potential new program exploring ways to create a route of entry and advancement for talent from diverse backgrounds into independent academic faculty positions. NIH is seeking broad input on this approach from academic institutional leadership, biomedical faculty, and interested members of the public. Continue reading →

Trends in Diversity within the NIH-funded Workforce

Posted on August 7, 2018 by Mike Lauer

As highlighted in many previous blog posts and the recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report, promoting a strong biomedical workforce is a top priority for the NIH. In 2017, NIH launched the Next Generation Researchers Initiative, which is a multi-pronged approach to increase the number of NIH-funded early stage investigators. An important component of this initiative is the call for increased transparency and availability of data about the make-up of the biomedical research workforce. More complete data will allow NIH leadership to best understand and address the needs of our emerging workforce. Continue reading →

How Would You Address Diversity in the Physician-Scientist Workforce?

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Mike Lauer

As part of a wider initiative to shape the future direction of research training for the biomedical workforce as a whole, we at the NIH are actively pursuing ways to examine the physician-scientist workforce and to optimize training for clinicians seeking research careers. Physician-scientists face some challenges and career transition pathways unique to being in a clinical career track, hence the need for a specific focus on this workforce. Continue reading →

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