The National Institutes of Health awarded Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland State University a five-year, $1.2 million grant to recruit minority PhD students and students underrepresented in the science and tech workforce.
Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute and CSU will use the grant, titled "CD-Cavis: Cross-Disciplinary Cardiovascular Sciences Training to Diversify the STEM Workforce", to recruit students into their biomedical research programs. The $1.2 million will support education and laboratory training of five PhD students per year over the next five years.
African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans make up about 31 percent of the U.S. population but only represent 13 percent of those who receive doctorate degrees in science and engineering, according to the National Science Foundation.
The joint program is an example of how to incorporate more diversity into the medical research community, Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tom Mihaljevic, MD, said in the July 2 news release.
"By bringing together individuals with different experiences and perspectives, we can capitalize on the diversity of thought that can lead to innovative approaches to address complex scientific questions," he said. "Along with our academic partner, we can work toward building a more robust scientific workforce reflective of the community at large and address long-standing structural racism that leads to healthcare disparities."