Instructions to Reviewers for Preparing the Note on Recruitment of Underrepresented Minority Students or Postdoctoral Fellows

In preparing the note on minority recruitment, only those groups considered to be underrepresented in biomedical research (i.e., African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans including Alaska Natives, and natives of the U.S. Pacific Islands) should be included.

Achievements

• Give the number of underrepresented minority students actually appointed to the training grant during the past funding period.
• If the training program goes beyond the training grant, give the number of underrepresented minority students who participated in the parent program but were supported via other mechanisms.
• The admissions and completion data for underrepresented minority individuals (numbers of applicants, offers, matriculations, and graduations/program completions) should be specified and compared to the corresponding numbers for all students/fellows.
• For new applications, information from pre-existing and relevant departmental training programs is helpful.
  

Past, Current, and Proposed Efforts and Activities

• Give a brief description of:
  1. the minority recruitment activities that have been and are being undertaken specifically by this training grant program, and
  2. institutional recruitment activities that contribute to the pool of minority candidates for this training program.
• Retention activities that support minority students or fellows once enrolled and increase their completion rates are also important and should be described.
• If achievements have been limited during the previous award period, it is especially important to indicate whether the past experience has been incorporated into the formulation of the plan for the next award period and if promising new recruitment or retention activities are planned.

Conclusion

• Rate the underrepresented minority recruitment plans and efforts as "Acceptable" or "Unacceptable" and justify your rating.
• The relative merit of the recruitment plans and efforts (e.g., marginal or commendable) may be indicated in your written comments.