The National Institute on Aging (NIA) invites R36 applications to support senior graduate students with Aging Research Dissertation Awards to Promote Diversity. These awards provide funding to support graduate students from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, in finishing their dissertations. Specifically, the award supports dissertation research costs of students enrolled in accredited research doctoral programs in the United States (including Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories or possessions).
Background
The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) ability to ensure that the nation remains a global leader in scientific discovery and innovation is dependent upon a pool of highly talented scientists from diverse backgrounds who help to further NIH’s mission. Research shows that diverse teams working together and capitalizing on innovative ideas and distinct perspectives outperform homogenous teams. Scientists and trainees from diverse backgrounds and life experiences bring different perspectives, creativity, and individual enterprise to address complex scientific problems. There are many benefits that flow from a diverse NIH-supported scientific workforce, including fostering scientific innovation; enhancing global competitiveness; contributing to robust learning environments; improving the quality of the research; advancing the likelihood that underserved or health-disparity populations participate in, and benefit from, health research; and enhancing public trust. To promote the health of an aging and increasingly diverse U.S. population, it is important to diversify the pool of doctoral-level candidates engaged in research and practice on aging and aging-related health conditions to promote such diversity later in the pipeline. In spite of tremendous advancements in scientific research, informational, educational, and research opportunities are not equally available to all. Reports from NIH and the National Science Foundation provide strong evidence that low representation of certain groups in biomedical research remains an important problem. NIH encourages institutions to diversify their student and faculty populations to enhance the participation of individuals from groups identified as underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences, such as those groups outlined in the Notice of NIH’s Interest in Diversity (NOT-OD-20-031).
Purpose
This NOFO announces the availability of R36 dissertation awards to support individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, to promote a diverse pool of highly trained scientists in scientific disciplines related to the NIA mission. That mission includes research on the basic biology of aging; chronic, disabling, and degenerative diseases of aging, with a particular focus on Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and caregiving associated with those diseases; multiple morbidities; social, behavioral, psychological, and economic processes of aging at the individual and societal levels; longevity; and the consequences of an aging population on society. The purpose of this NOFO is in alignment with key elements of NIA’s Strategic Directions for Research on Aging, including fostering the development of researchers and clinician-scientists in aging and to work to recruit, train, and retain scientists from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. This program will support individuals at a particularly critical juncture in their doctoral training – a period during which institutional support often declines or terminates altogether – with support not readily or sufficiently available in Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) predoctoral (F31) programs, which limits support to stipends, tuition and fees, and institutional allowance. These awards are available to support predoctoral students, including those from backgrounds underrepresented in biomedical and behavioral sciences, who are enrolled, and in good standing, in accredited research-doctoral programs in the United States (including Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories or possessions).
For the purpose of this announcement, institutions are encouraged to recruit potential candidates who will enhance diversity on a national basis, such as those described in NIH’s Notice of interest in Diversity (NOT-OD-20-031). In addition, it is recognized that underrepresentation can vary from setting to setting; individuals from racial or ethnic groups that are underrepresented at the grantee institution also should be encouraged to participate in this program.
Foreign Organizations
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Organizations) are not eligible to apply.
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply.
- Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are not allowed.
Visit funding web page
(https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-24-130.html)
