The National Institutes of Health is releasing three new funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) to develop approaches to engage researchers, especially from backgrounds under-represented in biomedical sciences, and prepare them to thrive in NIH-funded research careers. The funding through the 'Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-Funded Workforce' program will establish a national consortium to develop, implement, and evaluate approaches to encourage individuals to start and stay in biomedical research careers.
Students from under-represented backgrounds enter early biomedical research training in numbers that reflect the general population but are more likely to exit the training pathways. Substantial research has been conducted to determine the reasons for this and to test interventions on small scales. The new FOAs provide the opportunity for transformation of the biomedical research workforce pipeline through institution-wide, and eventually nationwide, implementation of successful training and mentoring strategies.
The diversity program is backed by the NIH Common Fund, which supports programs with the potential to dramatically affect biomedical research by achieving a set of high impact goals within a defined time frame. The FOAs will establish a consortium of awardees from three integrated initiatives. Awardees will collectively determine hallmarks of success, including core competencies, at each phase of the biomedical career pathway and develop complementary training and mentoring approaches to enable young scientists to meet these hallmarks. Awardees will also test the efficacy of these approaches, and provide flexibility to adjust approaches during the course of the program to maximize impact. The consortium will disseminate lessons learned, so effective approaches can be adopted by other institutions across the nation.
It is anticipated that the program will fund up to 10 BUILD (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity) primary institutions, one NRMN (National Research Mentoring Network) and one CEC (Coordination and Evaluation Center), contingent upon the availability of funds and receipt of a sufficient number of meritorious applications. Applications for the FOAs are due March 18, 2014, with awards to be announced in September 2014. Additional information, including important eligibility criteria for applicant institutions and organisations, can be found in each FOA.
In fall 2013, the NIH issued six-month planning grant awards for the BUILD and NRMN initiatives. Planning grant awardees are assessing research resources and training programs already in place at their institutions and formulating plans to extend beyond those resources. Additionally, the planning grants are supporting capacity-building and infrastructure needs assessments. More than $2.7 million was given to 15 BUILD planning grant awardees and more than $1.3 million was given to seven NRMN planning grant awardees.
The Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-Funded Workforce program is funded through the NIH Common Fund, and managed by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities in partnership with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
