On Dec. 15, 2023, Tara Schwetz, PhD, deputy director for Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Shelley Berger, PhD, Daniel S. Och University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, co-chairs of the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) Working Group on Re-envisioning NIH-Supported Postdoctoral Training presented the working group’s recommendations to the committee. The working group was tasked with developing recommendations to address the recent decline in postdocs and to support a sustainable and diverse workforce.
The recommendations include raising pay and benefits for all NIH-supported postdoctoral scholars, promoting training and professional development of postdoctoral scholars and their mentors, supporting international scientists, and requiring that institutions support safe and diverse perspectives and research environments within institutional research programs. The full report of the working group, linked as a PDF, includes details on the recommendations.
The ACD accepted the recommendations, and the NIH will consider which recommendations to endorse and how to implement them. Jodi Yellin, PhD, AAMC director of Research Workforce, Training, and Science Policy, served on the working group.