NIH Seeks Proposals to Increase Diversity in Science

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering three new funding opportunities which will be distributed through a newly established Diversity Program Consortium and are designed to address the lack of diversity in the scientific research community. The initiatives will include and be targeted toward serving the behavioral, biomedical, clinical, and social sciences.

Following the announcement from the National Institutes of Health, the Association for Psychological Science has joined a consortium of science organizations and universities to submit a grant proposal for The National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN). NRMN will pair experienced mentors with mentees from the undergraduate level to the early-stage faculty level. This program is designed to offer mentees increased access to high-level research mentorship, networking opportunities, and job openings. NRMN combines with two other funding opportunities to work to address the issue of diversity in all science disciplines. APS’s participation in this consortium helps to ensure that the needs of the behavioral science community are considered.

The consortium funding opportunities also include The Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) awards, which will focus on innovative and comprehensive training methods for biomedical students, with a special concentration on research opportunities, and The Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC), which will oversee consortium-wide activities and will help assess the progress of the NRMN and BUILD initiatives.

Applications for all three opportunities are due March 18, 2014.