National Institute of
General Medical Sciences

This program is intended to enable and encourage the scientific community to create and disseminate training modules that will effectively contribute to the advancement of the biomedical research workforce. NIGMS intends to fund training modules in distinct subject areas that are currently relevant to biomedical scientists. The subject topics are described through “Notices of Special Interest (NOSI)” found in the “Related Notices” section of the notice of funding opportunity PAR-24-040.

The NOSI NOT-GM-24-039​​​ describes the five topic areas for the 2025 receipt date. Applicants must focus on one of the topics below and may address only one topic per application.

1. Improving Mentorship Experiences: Effective mentorship is critical to the development and retention of scientists and the advancement of research. Studies have shown that effective mentorship has positive effects on mentees, mentors and the overall research environment (for example, improved academic achievement, retention, and degree attainment, career satisfaction, career commitment, and integration of trainees from underrepresented groups [see, e.g., Notice of NIH's Interest in Diversity]) into the biomedical academic community; see National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2019, The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM). Formal training and ongoing professional development in effective mentoring practices has been shown to improve the knowledge and skills of research mentors across career stages. However, the 2019 NASEM report highlights the need to address ineffective mentoring experiences due to a lack of structure and purpose, poor mentor matching and preparation, lack of leadership support, and low engagement and participation. NIGMS encourages applications for modules that address the barriers and challenges to effective mentorship. Potential topics may include but are not limited to general mentorship education for departments, divisions, colleges, etc., including how to address negative mentoring or ineffective mentorship methods; mentor education for the needs of a broad range of scholars to avoid ineffective mentoring; mentee education about how to guide their mentoring relationships and careers to mitigate ineffective mentoring, among others.
2. 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. Oganizations 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.
3. Addressing Equity in the Biomedical Research Enterprise: The scientific community has an increasing appreciation for the need to address equity across career stages in the biomedical research enterprise. Applications are encouraged to develop and implement modules focused on addressing disparities in recruitment, retention, and success of trainees and other researchers, and how to identify and eliminate barriers to participation 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 practices and ways of thinking that contribute to broad participation in the biomedical enterprise.
4. 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.
5. 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. Approaches to proper controls, sample size, statistical analyses, transparent reporting, and evaluation of the effects of biological variables such as sex and age, among others, associated with each method should be discussed.
6. Enhancing Program Evaluation Capacity:​ NIGMS encourages applications for modules to enhance 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).

Modules can take many different formats and approaches. In general, NIGMS will support modules that:

• Create educational activities with a primary focus on either (1) courses for skills development or (2) curriculum or methods development.
• Assess the current training needs of the intended audience, specifying the skills and knowledge that will be gained by the audience and how the module will enhance the biomedical research workforce.
• Fill a gap in the existing educational resources and ensure the content is relevant and broadly useful for audiences that include biomedical researchers at one or more professional levels including students, postdoctoral scientists, staff scientists, clinical researchers, research faculty, etc.
• Result in meaningful, sustained change in the biomedical research workforce and cover material not typically included as part of the current institutional coursework.
• Are timely, informative, engaging, easily accessible, and free to the biomedical research community.

Because of the complex nature of these topics, expert(s) in the subject areas are highly encouraged to be part of the investigator team. Members of the PD/PI team may hold a professional role other than professor or research faculty.

Finally, applicants should note that this funding opportunity is not intended to support stipends or salaries of trainees or participants in organizational training programs. However, individuals serving as training module development participants may receive compensation for giving feedback on the content. The funding is intended to create educational modules to be used in biomedical research environments, not to provide financial support to institutional training programs.

For the benefit of the scientific community, the training module end products are posted on the NIGMS website as they become available. For examples, see previously funded initiatives to enhance data rigor and reproducibility.

For more information about this program,​ read the Answers to Frequently Asked Questions or contact Kalynda Gonzales Stokes and Joyce Stamm​​.

Funded Modules for Enhancing Biomedical Research Workforce Training GrantsTraining Modules for Enhancing Biomedical Research Workforce Informational Webinar

Training Modules for Enhancing Biomedical Research Workforce Training Answers to Frequently Asked QuestionsTraining Modules for Enhancing Biomedical Research Workforce Informational Webinar Slides​​