NAMHC Workgroup on Research Training Charge
| Roster |
This Council workgroup is asked to advise the National Advisory Mental Health Council on NIMH's investment in research training and to provide strategic recommendations about how NIMH could better achieve its goals of recruiting, training, and retaining a diverse workforce capable of integrating novel technologies and approaches across multiple levels of analysis in their NIMH-relevant research. The workgroup is charged with answering the following questions:
- Recognizing that resources to support research training are limited, what portion of the budget should be dedicated to research training, and how many individuals should NIMH support as trainees to ensure that the Institute has an adequate cohort of new R01 investigators? To what extent should research training be supported collaboratively with other Institutes, through the Neuroscience Blueprint, or other cooperative efforts? What "best practices" for institutional training programs could be adopted both to increase our return on investment and to anticipate workforce needs in the next one to two decades? With the goal of recruiting an outstanding workforce by the year 2020 that can integrate novel technologies and approaches across multiple levels of analysis, what innovative strategies might NIMH use to stimulate interest in research careers among individuals who have not yet chosen a research career path?
- How can NIMH most effectively increase the diversity of its research workforce? With limited resources, where should NIMH place emphasis in its efforts to diversify its research workforce? Are particular funding mechanisms most appropriate/effective for increasing diversity? Are new research training programs needed to optimally increase the diversity of the NIMH research workforce? How can NIMH partner with other Institutes, other federal agencies, and with the private sector/foundations to diversify the research workforce?
- How can NIMH most effectively stimulate the recruitment, training, and retention of MD-PhD scientists as NIMH researchers? Are there unique issues that the Institute must address with this cohort of future investigators, e.g. a leakier pipeline or significant retention issues? How can NIMH partner with other Institutes, other federal agencies, and with the private sector/foundations in this endeavor?
