The effort, outlined in documents posted on the NIH web page and discussed in brief interviews with several academic leaders concerned with the low applicant success rate, envisions the agency investing millions of dollars into efforts to boost the number and grant-readiness of students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups and institutions. It commits the agency to starting a National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN).
The effort also envisions greater oversight and coordination of the grant application and approval process, especially in the critical peer study groups and the oversight councils. The NIH also plans to hire a chief diversity officer, a first for the agency. That person would have a rank in the bureaucratic agency that makes him or her a direct reporter to the NIH director.
