Being able to balance work and family life is important for everyone, including biomedical and behavioral researchers. Here are some of the ways in which NIH helps our grantee institutions foster family-friendly environments for the NIH-supported workforce.
NIH supports researchers taking time off to care for a family member or in the event of a personal disability. NIH grant awards allow for reimbursement of actual, allowable costs incurred for child care, parental leave, or additional technical support provided such costs are incurred under formally-established institutional policies that are consistently applied regardless of the source of support.
Early stage investigators (ESI) who have experienced a lapse in their research or research training during the 10-year ESI period can request an extension of their ESI eligibility. Generally, the period of extension is equivalent to the time away.
In 2011, NIH modified the biosketch guidelines for NIH grant applications to allow explanations of how personal circumstances may have delayed an individual’s transition to an independent career or reduced their scientific productivity.
This NIH-wide program provides administrative supplements to research grants to support individuals with high potential to re-enter an active research career after taking time off to care for children or parents or to attend to other family responsibilities.The program provides administrative supplements to existing NIH research grants for the purpose of supporting full-time or part-time research by these individuals in a program designed to bring their existing research skills and knowledge up to date.It is anticipated that at the completion of the supplement, the re-entry scientist will b
Dr. Sally Rockey, NIH’s Deputy Director for Extramural Research, serves as the principal scientific leader and advisor to the NIH Director on the NIH extramural research program. Dr. Rockey blogs about NIH policy, programs, activities and related issues at Rock Talk.
Here is the list of blog posts related to NIH’s Family-Friendly Policies: