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

New approaches are needed to ensure the continued development of a scientific workforce of diverse disciplines and backgrounds, equipped with relevant skills, knowledge, and resources to tackle future HLBS challenges. This goal will require strategic interventions throughout the research career continuum, which spans across K to 12 education, collegiate and postdoctoral studies, and career development from early investigator to senior scientist. Collaborative partnerships will be crucial to successfully expanding the exposure of young students to the wonders of science and sustaining their interest through college and graduate education. Embracing research training as a lifelong exploration of scientific curiosity will also remain critical, as will the NIH’s continued promotion of new scientific disciplines, tools, and technologies that keep pace with an ever-changing biomedical and public health landscape.

Envision a future in which we can...
  • Enable innovative solutions to pressing health problems by promoting the use of multidisciplinary teams capable of leveraging diverse skills and perspectives from crosscutting research fields such as data science, computational biology, bioengineering, quantitative population sciences, behavioral science, and implementation science.
  • Build an NHLBI workforce and research portfolio that reflect the widest possible range of scientific thinking, perspectives, backgrounds, and lived experiences.
  • Continually train the research workforce across all career stages in evidence-based science, cutting-edge methodologies, and emerging areas of research.
  • Educate students from diverse backgrounds about biomedical research-related careers and encourage their pursuit of those careers through earlier introduction to research opportunities and scientific advancements.
  • Quickly identify and address the barriers facing the growth of the next generation of researchers, particularly in lung and sleep science and the data sciences.

Overarching Objectives

  1. Understand normal biological function and resilience
  2. Investigate newly discovered pathobiological mechanisms important to the onset and progression of heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders
  3. Investigate factors that account for differences in health status among populations
  4. Identify factors that account for individual differences in pathobiology and in responses to treatments
  5. Develop and optimize novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to prevent, treat, and cure heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders
  6. Optimize clinical and implementation research to improve health and reduce disease
  7. Leverage emerging opportunities in data science to open new frontiers in research on heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders
  8. Further develop and sustain a scientific workforce capable of accomplishing NHLBI’s mission