{"id":31576,"date":"2022-02-24T09:30:14","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T14:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/?p=31576"},"modified":"2022-03-24T16:09:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T20:09:15","slug":"promoting-diversity-in-biomedical-research-lessons-from-nih-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/2022\/02\/24\/promoting-diversity-in-biomedical-research-lessons-from-nih-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Promoting Diversity in Biomedical Research: Lessons from NIH Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, February 17, the Office of Research hosted representatives from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) UNITE Initiative, who highlighted opportunities for diversifying the biomedical research workforce and building new career pathways in the field. We were joined by Dr. Ericka Boone, the Acting Director of the Division of Biomedical Research Workforce within the NIH Office of Extramural Research, and Dr. Robert Rivers, a program director in the Office of Minority Health Research Coordination at the NIH\u2019s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.<\/p>\n

Here are the top takeaways from the talk:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Striving for inclusive excellence<\/strong>. NIH is working to \u201cidentify and address structural racism within the NIH-supported and greater scientific community.\u201d NIH\u2019s UNITE Initiative was established in 2021 to help the agency use its resources to diversify the scientific workforce and enhance research opportunities focused on health disparities, minority health, and health equity\u2014through funding opportunities<\/a>, program development, and more.<\/li>\n
  2. Normalize reaching out<\/strong>. Drs. Boone and Rivers emphatically recommend contacting a program officer prior to submitting an NIH proposal. Well before the submission deadline, send an email that includes a one or two-page document addressing the significance of the problem or question your project will address and your specific aims. If you don\u2019t hear back after a week or two, you can assume the program officer is simply overwhelmed by email and politely follow up.<\/li>\n
  3. Loan Repayment<\/strong>. To address one of the top barriers to sustaining a research career, the NIH has significantly boosted funding for its Loan Repayment Programs<\/a> (LRPs). The LRPs repay up to $50,000 a year in a researcher\u2019s educational debt in exchange for working on NIH-relevant research. The success rate<\/a> for LRP applications is currently at 51 percent!<\/li>\n
  4. Expand your network\u2026 with NIH support<\/strong>. NIH\u2019s R25 mechanism supports research education activities that enrich workforce training and \u201cenhance the diversity of the biomedical, behavioral, and clinical workforce.\u201d Consider submitting a proposal to one of the range of Research Education Programs<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  5. Diversity supplements<\/strong>. More than 360 NIH grants currently awarded to BU investigators are eligible for one of the NIH\u2019s \u201cResearch Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research.\u201d If you are a PI with an NIH grant and you haven\u2019t yet applied for one of these supplements, you are missing out.<\/li>\n
  6. MOSAIC<\/strong>. For postdoctoral researchers from underrepresented groups looking to launch an independent scientific career, the Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers<\/a> (MOSAIC) program may be just the opportunity for you.<\/li>\n
  7. Be a better mentor<\/strong>. NIH wants to support excellent mentors who \u201chave demonstrated compelling commitments and contributions to enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the biomedical sciences.\u201d You can apply<\/a> for up to $250,000 in supplemental funding to support the mentorship associated with your NIH-funded grant. As you bolster your mentoring skills or seek out a mentor, check out the resources at the National Research Mentoring Network<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On Thursday, February 17, the Office of Research hosted representatives from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) UNITE Initiative, who highlighted opportunities for diversifying the biomedical research workforce and building new career pathways in the field. We were joined by Dr. Ericka Boone, the Acting Director of the Division of Biomedical Research Workforce within the NIH Office of Extramural Research, and Dr. Robert Rivers, a program director in the Office of Minority Health Research Coordination at the NIH\u2019s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15731,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[225,426],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31576"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31909,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31576\/revisions\/31909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}