Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Vanderbilt University (VU) recently announced the launch of a $17 million program with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to “accelerate diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in the biomedical research community.”
Thanks to @DrCHWilkins and @ahasty4, @VanderbiltU and @VUMChealth have been awarded a $17 million from @NIHFunding to accelerate diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the biomedical research community.https://t.co/wqCFBKNM7r#DEI @VandyBasicScDEI
— VUSM Basic Sciences (@VUBasicSciences) June 21, 2023
The institutions were awarded $17 million in grant funds from the NIH’s Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) program, which is “designed to cultivate and sustain cultures of inclusive excellence in the biomedical research community,” in order to “diversify the biomedical research workforce.”
VUMC and VU will use the funds to “build on prior successes in recruitment to strengthen hiring, promotion and retention efforts for diverse, early-career investigators.”
Specifically, according to NIH, the institutions were funded specifically for their intention to improve diversity among its scientific research faculty by “hiring early-career scientists across clusters including research in immunology and infection, structural biology and imaging, genomics and health disparities, and neuroscience.”
The institutions are looking to “to speed up recruitment efforts” in order to “enhance” the diversity of biomedical graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, noting that the national “racial diversity” among research faculty remains low (4 percent Black, 4 percent Latinx, 0.2 percent American Indian, and 0.1 percent Pacific Islander).
With the NIH funds, Vanderbilt pledged to “recruit 18-20 tenure-track, early-career scientific faculty who are Black, Latinx, American Indian, and Pacific Islander, and establish a supportive and nurturing environment for their success,” in a series of three cluster hires.
“Securing this momentous multimillion dollar grant from the NIH allows us to create enhanced opportunities for individuals from underrepresented groups who have been historically absent from the STEM workforce. This collaborative effort between the university and VUMC empowers us to strengthen the scientific community, fuel innovation, and propel our nation forward,” Cybele Raver, PhD, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs said in a statement.
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
