Objective 8: Further develop, diversify, and sustain a scientific workforce capable of accomplishing the NHLBI’s mission

Needed new approaches will ensure the continuing development of a diverse scientific workforce equipped with the relevant skills, knowledge, and resources to tackle future  heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) challenges. This goal will require strategic interventions all along the research career continuum, including K to 12 education, collegiate and postdoctoral studies, and career development from early investigator to senior scientist. While this is relevant in all areas of development, particular attention is warranted for under-represented groups in science. Collaborative partnerships will be critical to collectively work toward the challenge of expanding the exposure of young students to the wonders of science and sustain that interest through college and graduate education. It is also critical to embrace research training as a lifelong exploration of scientific curiosity in which the NIH promotes the adoption of new disciplines, tools, and technologies as the scientific and public health landscape continually undergoes dynamic change.

Envision a future in which we are able to...
  • Enable innovative solutions to pressing health problems by promoting the development of multidisciplinary teams capable of leveraging diverse skills and perspectives from crosscutting research fields such as data science, computational biology, quantitative population sciences, behavioral science, and implementation science.

Related Priorities

Compelling Question
What kinds of exposures, beginning in early education, would stimulate and maintain students' interest in and understanding of science, particularly students from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds? (8.CQ.01)
Compelling Question
How can we foster diversity among trainees and in the HLBS scientific workforce so that our research community reflects the makeup of the population at large and has ample participation of individuals from disadvantaged and medically underserved communities? (8.CQ.02)
Compelling Question
How can clinical research training programs increase cultural competency about diseases or conditions that disproportionately affect underserved populations and attract and retain researchers who better understand the populations affected? (8.CQ.03)
Compelling Question
What are the best strategies to develop a highly competent and diverse scientific workforce-across the spectrum from basic to population science-to address domestic and international health inequities? (8.CQ.04)
Compelling Question
How do we ensure that HLBS trainees across the career continuum are aware of and prepared for a variety of possible scientific career opportunities (e.g., careers in teaching, industry, government)? (8.CQ.05)
Compelling Question
How do we best develop a scientific workforce that is fluent in product development and commercialization issues, including regulatory, intellectual property, and business issues, in order to bring products for HLBS indications to the market? (8.CQ.06)
Compelling Question
How do we attract more students/trainees into traditional research fields (e.g., physiology, integrative biology) that are as critical to advancing science as emerging fields (e.g., "omics," big data), but do not have the same cache and are thus on the decline? (8.CQ.07)
Compelling Question
How do we add communication skills to our training programs to improve scientists' communication with the public? How do we also improve the ability of basic and clinical scientists to understand each other's scientific language and appreciate the importance of the other's research questions and findings? (8.CQ.08)
Compelling Question
How can we harness virtual learning technologies (e.g., immersive learning simulations, serious games) to address the needs of the modern and future biomedical workforce? (8.CQ.09)
Compelling Question
How can we better incorporate interdisciplinary and team science in our training and career development programs to prepare scientists for collaborative research and for using emerging technologies and resources? (8.CQ.10)
Compelling Question
How can senior scientists be encouraged to mentor young investigators and, in the later stages of their career, to entrust greater responsibility to emerging lab leaders (e.g., incrementally turning over their projects to more junior lab members)? (8.CQ.11)
Critical Challenge
Sufficient numbers of clinical scientists are needed, particularly those interested in pursuing translation of breakthroughs from basic science laboratories into clinical settings. (8.CC.01)
Critical Challenge
Programs of training, professional development, and mentoring are needed to help create a more diverse cadre of senior leaders in science and medicine. (8.CC.02)
Critical Challenge
Methods for encouraging medical students to choose research career paths are needed. (8.CC.03)
Critical Challenge
Training that emphasizes rigorous scientific methods in the biomedical, behavioral, and social sciences is required to increase reliability and reproducibility of research findings. (8.CC.04)
Critical Challenge
Better preparation of scientists for transitions between career stages (e.g., the graduate/medical education stage, the postdoctoral/fellowship period, the junior investigator stage) is needed. (8.CC.05)
Critical Challenge
There is a need to develop and improve skills to communicate science to the public as well as among scientists of different specialties. (8.CC.06)
Critical Challenge
Curricula and resources for education of health care workers in evidence-based care are needed. (8.CC.07)
Critical Challenge
Collection and analysis of education and employment data from HLBS scientists over the course of their careers is needed to define metrics and predictors of success at both individual and training-program levels. (8.CC.08)