Key Dates

Related Announcements

PA-21-048 - Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (Parent F32)

NOT-MH-21-245 - Notice of Participation of NIMH in NOT-EY-21-001

Issued by

National Eye Institute (NEI)

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Purpose

The institutes participating in the Notice seek to promote diversity in all of our training and research programs and to increase the participation of underrepresented groups. As the US population becomes increasingly diverse, reflection of that diversity among the biomedical research workforce is vital to our science enterprise and the NIH research mission (See NOT-OD-20-031). Evidence from several reports demonstrates that an intervention designed to facilitate successful transitions along this pathway would benefit the research community (Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America's Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine 2011;and Advancing the Nation’s Health Needs: NIH Research Training Programs).

This Notice is being issued to highlight interest in receiving fellowship applications proposing candidates from diverse backgrounds, such as: :

1. Individuals from racial and ethnic groups that have been shown by the National Science Foundation to be underrepresented in health-related sciences on a national basis (see data athttp://www.nsf.gov/statistics/showpub.cfm?TopID=2&SubID=27) and the report Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering). The following racial and ethnic groups have been shown to be underrepresented in biomedical research: Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. In addition, it is recognized that underrepresentation can vary from setting to setting; individuals from racial or ethnic groups that can be demonstrated convincingly to be underrepresented by the grantee institution should be encouraged to participate in NIH programs to enhance diversity. For more information on racial and ethnic categories and definitions, see the OMB Revisions to the Standards for Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1997-10-30/html/97-28653.htm).

2. Individuals with disabilities, who are defined as those with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, as described in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended. See NSF data at, https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2017/nsf17310/static/data/tab7-5.pdf.

3. Individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, defined as those who meet two or more of the following criteria:
   1. Were or currently are homeless, as defined by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (Definition:https://nche.ed.gov/mckinney-vento/);
   2. Were or currently are in the foster care system, as defined by the Administration for Children and Families (Definition:https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/focus-areas/foster-care);
   3. Were eligible for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program for two or more years (Definition:https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/income-eligibility-guidelines);
   4. Have/had no parents or legal guardians who completed a bachelor’s degree (seehttps://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018009.pdf);
   5. Were or currently are eligible for Federal Pell grants (Definition:https://www2.ed.gov/programs/fpg/eligibility.html);
   6. Received support from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) as a parent or child (Definition:https://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/wic-eligibility-requirements).
   7. Grew up in one of the following areas: a) a U.S. rural area, as designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer (https://data.hrsa.gov/tools/rural-health),or b) a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services-designated Low-Income and Health Professional Shortage Areas(qualifying zipcodes are included in the file). Only one of the two possibilities in #7 can be used as a criterion for the disadvantaged background definition

Students from low socioeconomic (SES) status backgrounds have been shown to obtain bachelor’s and advanced degrees at significantly lower rates than students from middle and high SES groups (seehttps://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_tva.asp), and are subsequently less likely to be represented in biomedical research. For background see Department of Education data at,https://nces.ed.gov/;https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_tva.asp;https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/advancing-diversity-inclusion.pdf.

4. Literature shows that women from the above backgrounds (categories A, B, and C) face particular challenges at the graduate level and beyond in scientific fields. (See, e.g., From the NIH: A Systems Approach to Increasing the Diversity of Biomedical Research Workforcehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5008902/).

This NOSI utilizes the NIH parent NRSA F32 announcement to encourage highly promising postdoctoral fellows from diverse backgrounds to become productive, independent investigators conducting research in the missions of the NIH Institutes participating in this Notice. The long-term goal of this effort is to enhance diversity in the biomedical research workforce.

The applicants may not propose studies leading to an independent clinical trial, a clinical trial feasibility study, or an ancillary clinical trial.

Application and Submission Information

This notice applies to due dates on or after April 8, 2021 and subsequent receipt dates through December 9, 2023

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following funding opportunity announcement (FOA) through the expiration date of this notice

• PA-20-242 - Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (Parent F32)

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the funding opportunity announcement used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:

• For funding consideration, applicants must include NOT-EY-21-001 (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.

Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will not be considered for the NOSI initiative.

Inquiries