Modules for Enhancing Biomedical Research Workforce Training (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Topics for Training Modules for Enhancing Biomedical Research Workforce Training - 2024. See Notice NOT-GM-24-007.

The purpose of this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is to inform applicants of the topic areas for the 2024 application due date for PAR-24-040 “Modules for Enhancing Biomedical Research Workforce Training (R25 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)”.

Applications must address one of the topics below. Only one topic may be addressed per application.

1. Improving Mental Health and Well-Being through Organizational Change: Navigating the biomedical research training pathway can be overwhelming and lead to stress, anxiety, and self-doubt. Organizations are in a position to establish programs that support the mental and physical well-being of the biomedical research workforce. The U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being, intended to spark organizational dialogue and change in the workplace, establishes five essential components to help re-imagine workplaces as engines of well-being including: 1) protection from harm, 2) connection and community, 3) life-work harmony, 4) mattering at work, and 5) opportunity for growth. NIGMS encourages applications for the development and implementation of training modules that will effectively address one or more of these five essential components at different organizational levels, such as departments, divisions, offices, and laboratories and may span multiple career stages, from students to organizational leadership.
2. Addressing Structural Barriers and Discrimination: The scientific community has an increasing appreciation for the need to address the impacts of structural barriers and discrimination across career stages in the biomedical research enterprise. Applications are encouraged for the development and implementation of modules focused on addressing structural barriers and discrimination to reduce disparities in recruitment, retention, and success of trainees and other researchers, and to promote access, inclusion, equity, and accessibility in the biomedical research environment. Modules should focus on how to create research training environments optimized for productive learning and research - free from harassment, intimidation, and discrimination - where all participants feel safe and are treated in a respectful and supportive manner. Applications must specify the skills and knowledge that will be gained by the participants and how the module will help the participants address the structures and ways of thinking that are barriers to success.
3. Promoting Laboratory Safety in Research Environments: NIGMS will support the development of training modules that will help catalyze a strong culture of responsibility and obligation to maintain high standards for physical, chemical, and biological safety in research training environments. Specifically, environments in which physical, chemical, and biological safety is prioritized, and the core values and behaviors of leadership and the research and training communities emphasize safety over competing goals. Applications must specify the skills and knowledge that will be gained by the participants and how it will help the participants address physical, chemical, and biological safety in the research environment.
4. Strengthening Rigor, Reproducibility, and Transparency of Biomedical Research Techniques: Principles of rigorous biomedical research are cross-cutting concepts, processes, and practices that promote rigorous, transparent, and robust scientific experiments. These principles apply across a wide variety of scientific disciplines, techniques, and approaches. NIH defines scientific rigor as “the strict application of the scientific method to ensure robust and unbiased experimental design, methodology, analysis, interpretation and reporting of results". The proposed module should develop content that promotes rigorous, reproducible, and transparent execution of biomedical research techniques relevant to the NIGMS mission. For example, various forms of microscopy, mass spectrometry, immunodetection, genetic sequencing, cell culture, computational methods or tools, high throughput techniques, behavioral testing of non-human research organisms.  Approaches to proper controls, sample size, statistical analyses, transparent reporting, among others, associated with each method should be discussed.
5. Enhancing Program Evaluation Capacity: NIGMS encourages applications on the development of evaluation capacity at organizations with biomedical research training programs. The proposed modules should inform program directors and administrators about effective and practical approaches to evaluate biomedical research training programs. The modules are expected to be developed with input from a range of experts (for example, social scientists, statisticians, education professionals).