The AAMC sent a letter to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) on July 24 in response to its request for information (NOT-GM-20-034) on its 2021-2025 Strategic Plan Framework.
The AAMC supports the goals of the proposed framework, which take the right step toward investing in biomedical researchers from diverse backgrounds at every training and career stage.
The AAMC’s recommendations to NIGMS are:
- Promote public-private partnerships to assist in covering the costs of research.
- Expand efforts to support trainee-focused training environments beyond trainees funded through training grants.
- Lead the way in identifying and deconstructing exclusionary institutional practices, policies, and procedures that affect trainees and faculty who come from vulnerable communities.
- Collect and make available for analysis data on trainees funded by all types of funding mechanisms.
- Continue investing in providing trainees with professional development to prepare them for a variety of careers in the biomedical workforce, as well as tracking their outcomes.
- Engage with the public about science and provide them opportunities to participate in research.
- Create a set of cross-cutting principles that apply to all strategic plan goals, including examining how NIGMS may be forward-thinking on ways to encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Foster an institutional climate and culture that will positively impact a diverse biomedical workforce.