The NIH Research Education Program (R25) supports research educational activities that complement other formal training programs in the mission areas of the NIH Institutes and Centers. The overarching goals of the NIH R25 program are to: (1) complement and/or enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation’s biomedical, behavioral and clinical research needs; (2) encourage individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, to pursue further studies or careers in research; (3) help recruit individuals with specific specialty or disciplinary backgrounds to research careers in biomedical, behavioral and clinical sciences; and (4) foster a better understanding of biomedical, behavioral and clinical research and its implications.
The over-arching goal of this NHGRI R25 program is to support educational activities that encourage individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, to pursue further studies or careers in research. To accomplish the stated over-arching goal, this FOA will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on:
This FOA is explicitly intended to support the entry of master’s degree students in data science into the genomics workforce. Undergraduate or doctoral students will not be supported under this FOA. The following groups explicitly cannot be supported under this announcement:
- Research Experiences: For students currently enrolled in master’s degree programs in data science (including programs in statistics/biostatistics, mathematics, computer science or equivalent fields) to provide hands-on exposure to genomics data sets as a substrate for their analytical skills. Through this announcement, NHGRI hopes to attract such students to the genomics workforce. NHGRI also seeks to both encourage data scientists who plan to opt for a terminal master’s degree to join genomics research, as well as reinforce the intent of current master’s degree students who are considering entering a doctoral program with an eventual dissertation focused on genomic data science.
This FOA is explicitly intended to support the entry of master’s degree students in data science into the genomics workforce. Undergraduate or doctoral students will not be supported under this FOA. The following groups explicitly cannot be supported under this announcement:
- Data scientists who have completed an undergraduate degree but are not enrolled in a data science master’s degree.
- Data scientists currently with extensive genomics research experience.
- Master’s degree students currently enrolled in genomics programs who are interested in gaining exposure to data science.
For this FOA, “genomics research” is defined as biological investigation at the scale of the complete genome without having a focus on a single gene, a group of genes, a particular genomic locus, or a specific disease or organ system. “Genomics programs” are defined as research or educational programs that have a complete or substantial focus on genomics research, including both experimental and computational approaches towards genomics. Programs that focus on biological research or education with genetics topics included without a specific focus on genome-scale topics will ordinarily be considered outside the scope of “genomics programs”.
“Data science programs” are defined as those training students to obtain master’s degrees in statistics, mathematics, computer science or equivalent quantitative or analytical fields, but without an existing genomics component. Existing master’s degree programs which focus on bioinformatics (or more specifically, genome informatics) are outside the scope of this funding opportunity announcement, which is intended to bring more data scientists into the genomics community who have very little or no previous experience working with genomics data sets.
Interested applicants should upload the following documents in sequence in one PDF file (File name: Last name_NIH-PAR-21-075_2022) no later than 4:00 p.m. on the internal submission deadline:
1. Cover Letter (1 page, pdf):
- Descriptive title of proposed activity
- PI name, departmental affiliations(s) and contact information
- Co-PI's names and departmental affiliation(s)
- Names of other key personnel
- Participating institution(s)
- Number and title of this funding opportunity
2. Project Description (no more than two pages, pdf) identifying the project scope that addresses the key aspects and elements of the sponsor's solicitation, principal investigators, collaborators, and partner organizations. References may be included on an additional page.
3. 2-page CV's of Investigators
Formatting Guidelines:
Font/size: Times New Roman (12 pt.)
Document margins: 1.0” (top, bottom, left and right)
Standard paper size (8 ½” x 11)