NIH Discusses "Post-Doc"
Training and Other Issues
July 11, 2003 - The NIH is reexamining issues relating
to the support and career development of post-doctoral trainees,
one of several issues discussed by the NIH Advisory Council
to the Director (ACD) at its meeting on June 30. Dr. Ruth
Kirschstein, Senior Advisor to NIH Director Elias Zerhouni,
described the creation of an ACD working group to collect
and examine information on the career development of new biomedical
scientists, including the length of time spent in post-doctoral
training. NIH is planning a workshop on this topic for Sept.
11-12, 2003, with participation by the new National Postdoctoral
Association and other organizations to be invited. The NIH,
the Institute of Medicine, and the National Academies will
also hold a summit on these issues in the Spring of 2004.
Regarding the budget outlook, the committee asked about preparations
to sustain new and competing research awards given prospects
for tightly constrained agency budgets. Dr. Zerhouni remarked
that the institutes have been planning for such eventuality
during the period of accelerated growth, and he described
some of these preparations. Donald Poppke, acting associate
director for budget, noted also that, by FY 2005, NIH would
begin "recycling" funds as research projects begun
under the doubling period expire. On the Bush administration's
initiative to outsource various support services to competitive
firms, Dr. Zerhouni assured the ACD and the extramural community
that decisionmaking functions-such as affecting the management
of merit review panels and the award of research grants-are
inherently governmental activities and will remain within
NIH.
Information:
Stephen Heinig, Senior Research Fellow
AAMC Biomedical Health Sciences Research
sheinig@aamc.org
(202) 828-0488
Get Washington Highlights
in your Inbox!
|
