NIH nixes funds for several pre- and postdoctoral training programs that developed talent from underserved communities

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https://www.thetransmitter.org/funding/exclusive-nih-nixes-funds-for-several-pre-and-postdoctoral-training-programs/

Exclusive: NIH nixes funds for several pre- and postdoctoral training programs
Many of the axed grants support scientists from underrepresented communities.




Over the past two weeks, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has canceled a slew of institutional and individual grants awarded by the Division of Training and Workforce Development at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), among many other federal grants. The rationale for the cancellations is unclear in most cases, but many of the axed grants support scientists from underrepresented communities.

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One of the training programs, at the University of Texas at San Antonio, served students and researchers from diverse backgrounds for more than 40 years, producing high-caliber scientists, says Edwin Barea-Rodriguez, professor of biology at the institution. These programs have been “transformational.”

Kenneth Gibbs, director of the Training and Workforce Development Division at the NIH, declined The Transmitter’s request for comment.

Without the programs, the scientific workforce will weaken, says Jonathan Levitt, professor of biology at the City College of New York, who ran a U-RISE program there, which was canceled last week. “You’re basically closing off a trajectory for a whole sector of the American population to go on to become our next generation of STEM workers in academia, in industry, in everything,” he says. “The country is losing a lot of talent.”