Dr. Tony Beck. Credit: NIGMS.

We’re greatly saddened to share that L. Tony Beck, Ph.D., died of natural causes on April 7, 2025, while on the NIH campus. He was heading to the job that defined the later part of his career, which was serving as the program director for the Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program. Tony also oversaw the STEM interactive digital media small business (SBIR/STTR) and IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) programs for NIGMS.

Path to a Scientific Career

Tony was born in Rancho Cucamonga, California. He earned a B.A. and an M.S. in biological sciences at the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside), and a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from the University of California, Irvine. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute for Cancer Research.

We’ve published a notice (NOT-GM-24-056) to inform the community about areas of special interest for our Institute-specific predoctoral basic biomedical training grant program (PAR-23-228). NIGMS encourages more applications with a focus on these priority areas, which are:

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is making a number of changes to the fellowship application and peer review process for due dates on or after January 25, 2025. For details, visit the Revisions to the NIH Fellowship Application and Review Process webpage. New funding announcements and application instructions will be released in the coming months.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is making a number of changes to predoctoral training grant applications for due dates on or after January 25, 2025. For details, visit the Updates to NIH Institutional Training Grant Applications webpage.

The funding announcements for our NIGMS institutional predoctoral National Research Service Award training grants (T32) ask grantees to report and disseminate training and career outcomes in a publicly available format. Training outcomes are relevant to both students and to the broader community to monitor the success of our evidence-informed training and mentoring activities. A website is an easy way to disseminate training and career outcomes.

UPDATE: The video for this webinar is now available.

Are you preparing a grant application for our B-INSPIRE: Research on Behavioral INterventionS That Promote Careers In the Biomedical Research Enterprise (R01) program? If so, please join our webinar to learn about the program and application components. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask us questions:

Wednesday, August 21, 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. ET
Zoom link
Join by phone
Meeting ID: 161 548 4309
Passcode: NIGMS

We’re pleased to announce that our Research on Interventions That Promote the Careers of Individuals in the Biomedical Research Enterprise notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) has been reissued under a new name: B-INSPIRE, short for Research on Behavioral INterventionS That Promote Careers In the Biomedical Research Enterprise (R01) (PAR-24-230). The new name better reflects the goal of this program: to test theoretically based behavioral interventions that enhance research-oriented individuals' interest, motivation, persistence, and preparedness for careers in the biomedical research workforce.

Applicants must propose an intervention that tests effectiveness using robust experimental designs, such as randomized control trial approaches, case controls, or matched pair design, appropriate to performing rigorous research on effective interventions aiming to increase success in the biomedical research workforce. Possible areas for the intervention include but are not limited to training, mentoring, and networking; navigating critical transition points; institutional factors that influence persistence; harassment; and barriers to participation. The intervention should be cost-effective, practical, realistic, scalable, and sustainable at a broad range of institutions.

We’re pleased to announce the creation of an online form for trainees to share feedback on NIGMS research education, training, and career development programs. We value this input as NIGMS refines its existing programs and develops new opportunities to meet emerging needs in biomedical research training.

The form, which can be completed anonymously, allows trainees to submit constructive comments—for example, to suggest program improvements or to recognize an outstanding program for its training and mentorship activities. NIGMS welcomes submissions from trainees across all educational and career stages.

As graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, you may find yourself searching for opportunities to support the current or next stage of your research training. NIGMS has a long history of fostering research training and developing a strong biomedical research workforce through a variety of programs at all education levels. Many of our research training grants are made to organizations, which in turn select the students or postdoctoral researchers who’ll receive support. This post focuses on programs individual graduate students and postdoctoral scientists can directly apply to, regardless of your institutional or organizational affiliation.  

UPDATE: The video for this webinar is available.

We’re pleased to announce our Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) has been reissued (PAR-24-128). This NOFO continues our support of eligible, domestic organizations to develop and implement effective, evidence-informed approaches to dual-degree training and mentoring that will keep pace with the rapid evolution of the biomedical research enterprise and lead to the completion of both a clinical degree (for example, M.D., D.O., D.V.M., D.D.S., Pharm.D.) and a research doctorate degree (Ph.D.). We expect that the proposed research training programs will incorporate didactic, research, and career development elements to prepare trainees for careers that will have a significant impact on the health-related research needs of the nation.