The National Institutes of Health has several programs focused on improving diversity and inclusion at all levels of the biomedical research enterprise. Diversity in the professoriate is of significant concern, and a recent analysis suggests that the lack of faculty diversity is due to university hiring biases rather than a lack of qualified candidates. This […]
Improving support for young biomedical scientists: Some additional information
Today, members of Rescuing Biomedical Research published an article in Science proposing the expansion of the National Institutes of Health’s New Innovator (DP2) award. The DP2 award is available only to early-stage investigators and places an emphasis on novel scientific ideas without requiring significant preliminary data. The DP2 program has received a positive evaluation, and […]
The need to consolidate staff scientist titles
Expanding the ranks of staff scientists—Ph.D.-level, non-trainee, non-faculty researchers—has been a consistent recommendation in reports proposing reforms to the biomedical research enterprise. However, several roadblocks, including how the position should be compensated and how it should be structured—titles and career development opportunities, for example—have impeded full implementation of the recommendation. In a positive step toward […]
Transparency in Ph.D. career outcomes: The growing snowball
Improving transparency in Ph.D. career outcomes has been a consistent recommendation for more than 20 years-worth of reports on reforming the biomedical research enterprise. While some institutions have launched robust career outcome data collection and publication projects, these efforts have long been isolated to individual universities. However, a series of recent community-wide efforts suggest broad […]
Rescuing Biomedical Research receives grant to continue reform efforts
Rescuing Biomedical Research is pleased to announce the renewal of a grant from the Open Philanthropy Project that will allow the organization to continue its work to make reforms to the American biomedical research enterprise. “Thanks to our Open Philanthropy partners, we have been able to make substantial progress over the past two years in […]
Universities launch initiative to improve transparency around biomedical Ph.D. careers
Today, nearly a dozen university presidents announced the formation of the Coalition for Next Generation Life Sciences (publication; website), which is committed to collecting and publishing data on demographics and career outcomes of biomedical Ph.D.s and postdocs. Rescuing Biomedical Research has worked with many CNGLS members and members of the National Institutes of Health’s Broadening […]
Rescuing Biomedical Research statement on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
The provision in H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, that would allow graduate tuition waivers to be considered taxable income would significantly harm graduate students financially, slow the pace of American science and threaten our role as the global leader in research. Some estimates indicate Sec. 117(d)(5) of H.R. 1 could increase a […]
Bias in distribution of K99 awards and faculty hires
The biomedical research enterprise strives to be a meritocracy, but structural inequities and the reliance on nonscientific proxies such as journal impact and university prestige present roadblocks. Attempts to alleviate these problems are numerous— for example, ASAPbio, the grant-support index, the National Research Mentoring Network, and the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity—and have met with […]
Expanding support and implementing new teaching strategies to broaden diversity in biomedical research
An RBR Writing Program post by Sophia Kaska A sustainable biomedical research enterprise must be diverse along any number of axes, including racial, ethnic, gender and socioeconomic lines. The 2011 Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads from the National Academies laid out recommendations to improve diversity and inclusion in […]
21st Century Cures Act now law
Yesterday, President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act into law. The bill passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support. The 21st Century Cures Act is nearly 1,000 pages with 25 separate Titles, or sections. Titles I and II deal specifically with the National Institutes of Health and the conduct of basic research. […]
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