Funding to Expand Inclusion and Diversity in Research

The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation is launching an initiative in 2023 to inspire its current research grantees to think more deliberately about how they can recruit people with spinal cord injury, as well as those from other disability and underrepresented communities, into their laboratories.

Beginning this month, the Foundation will provide Research Inclusion Supplements to encourage and support undergraduate and/or graduate students from groups that are historically underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, and social sciences.

 

Grantees who are part of the Foundation’s 2022 and 2023 Psychosocial Research (PSR) or SCI Research on the Translational Spectrum (SCIRTS) portfolios, with at least 12 months remaining on their grant, will be eligible to apply for this supplement. We hope this will incentivize our partners in SCI research to think more inclusively.

“Inclusion is one of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation’s five values and encouraging greater diversity in the scientific workforce allows us to put this value into action,” Executive Director Kym Eisner explains. “Expanding the participation of persons with disabilities in the design, conduct, and implementation of SCI research can accelerate progress toward fulfilling our values.”

Naomi Kleitman, Senior Vice President of Grants and Research, continues, “To build diversity within the field, as well as expand it within the laboratories that we support, it is important to attract and support students from diverse communities to SCI research.”

Stipends will support undergraduate and graduate students, who will be mentored by experienced SCI researchers, as well as some additional laboratory costs.

Invited grantees may submit a supplement request, via the Foundation’s ProposalCentral portal, by April 1, 2023, with a second deadline of October 1, 2023.

Working together, we can imagine a future that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.