Over the past thirty years, NIH has initiated programs to increase diversity within the scientific workforce. The coming year will mark the beginning of renewed efforts to enhance our current activities, and to identify other opportunities to address diversity in the scientific research enterprise.

Transition to Adobe officially began on December 5, 2008, when NIH updated more than 500 active Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) with Adobe-based application packages and closed their PureEdge predecessors. The new Adobe forms are required for submission for most receipt dates in January and beyond.

The NIH will begin implementing changes in the Fiscal Year 2010 funding cycle.  Investigators submitting applications in January 2009 and later should be aware of these new policies.

CSR changed the chartered study section descriptions to make them more transparent and reflective of the types of applications actually reviewed by CSR study sections.

December 3, Acting Director, NIH Raynard S. Kington, M.D., Ph.D., announced the appointment of Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S., as Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).