NHI awards US$64 million to diversify biomedical faculty

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States has announced a third round of awards to increase diversity and inclusion among the nation’s biomedical faculty. Funded by the NIH Common Fund FIRST programme, the awards provide funding to recruit diverse cohorts of early-stage research faculty and establish inclusive environments to help them succeed, writes Michael T Nietzel for Forbes.

The new set of awards totals more than US$64 million over five years, pending the availability of funds. In some instances, the recipients are investing their own funds to boost the total financial commitment to the effort.

For example, the University of Michigan indicated it will invest a total of US$79 million (US$15.9 million from NIH and US$63.7 million from the university) to recruit and support 30 new faculty members, as part of what it’s calling the Michigan Program for Advancing Cultural Transformation. The hiring will be focused on three interdisciplinary research clusters: social and behavioural research, basic biomedical research and clinical-translational research.
Full report on the Forbes site