Enhancing the Diversity of the NIGMS Community

Message From the Director

At NIGMS, key parts of our mission include training new scientists, broadening participation in the biomedical research workforce, and increasing research capacity throughout the country. We invest in places that historically haven’t had substantial NIH funding to conduct research and support researcher training and career development with a goal of creating a more diverse and inclusive scientific workforce. We’re committed to using every strategy we can to enable and incentivize institutions to develop structures, policies, and cultures that are inclusive, safe, and supportive of all community members.

We at NIGMS believe that a biomedical research workforce richly diverse in perspectives, skills, and experiences best serves the scientific enterprise. We are heavily invested in networking and mentorship, and our programs span the entire pathway of science career development, starting with early childhood education and going all the way to helping early career scientists establish independent laboratories. But to use these programs to broaden the biomedical research workforce, we need a diverse applicant pool. We hope that by providing these resources here, you can more easily identify funding mechanisms that best fit you and your research needs and find the tools to submit successful grant applications.

Jon Lorsch, Ph.D.


Internal Workforce Diversity Activities

NIGMS provides research training support to institutions and individuals to advance the development of a strong and diverse biomedical research workforce through a variety of programs at the undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and early stage faculty levels. Links to resource pages and blog posts provide extra information and highlight scientists that have received funding through NIGMS’ diversity-related programs.

NIGMS supports a strong research workforce with diverse perspectives, skills, and experiences while building research environments that are equitable, safe, and inclusive. Our notices of funding opportunities aim to attract and support individuals from a broad range of backgrounds and multiple institution types, and through critical career transition points. NIGMS also supports scientists who contribute to communities with outreach efforts that emphasize mentoring in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Blog posts highlight scientists who have received funding through NIGMS’ programs and underline the Institution’s commitments to strengthen the scientific enterprise by engaging people with different experiences, interests, and backgrounds.

NIGMS provides support to help institutions develop their research capabilities, to promote training and development of a broad biomedical workforce, to advance technological innovation, and to create and disseminate tools to assess the effectiveness of research training in the biomedical sciences.

Internally and externally, NIGMS is committed to efforts that promote diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. Here we’ve highlighted some of the activities we are working on that are focused on enhancing the workplace experience for all NIGMS staff and all NIH staff as a whole.

Feedback Loop and Biomedical Beat Blog Posts