OPEN Workforce Tracker (NINDS)

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Office of Programs to Enhance Neuroscience Workforce Diversity’s (OPEN) mission is to open opportunities and access to enhance the diversity of the neuroscience workforce. OPEN develops and implements specific funding opportunities (individual and institutional) and works across the NINDS, NIH Blueprint, and BRAIN Initiative scientific portfolios to promote inclusion. The scientific workforce landscape has changed in recent years, and individuals are pursuing a variety of career paths after completion of doctoral and/or postdoctoral training (NIH Biomedical Research Workforce Working Group Report 2012). The OPEN Workforce Tracker (OWT) database will gather and store information on neuroscience trainees who have received NINDS support. This information includes career stage, position, publications, degrees, and information related to NIH funding and external funding received. In addition, protected class identifiers, i.e., race and ethnicity, sexual identification/ gender, and disability, will be collected. These data will be used to assess factors that are shaping career choices and career pathways of diverse neuroscience trainees, and to what extent OPEN programs have supported their decisions. Protected information is necessary to understand whether and to what extent personal characteristics influence professional and career outcomes. The overall goal is to identify opportunities for OPEN to better analyze program outcomes, to build and foster a user-friendly community and to improve its diversity-targeted career development programs, so that they better emphasize key contextual factors and decision points along the trainees’ career trajectories. This database aligns with the NIH-wide strategic plan to advance DEIA through research and support analyses to identify and remove potential barriers to the implementation and expansion of promising and effective DEIA practices, policies, and procedures (Objective 3). In addition, NINDS will be able to better target and outreach information on opportunities participants may be interested in, such as relevant funding and career development opportunities. Overall, the information will be used to shape our diversity programs in order to better serve the dynamic needs of today’s neuroscience workforce.

The latest form for OPEN Workforce Tracker (NINDS) expires 2027-03-31 and can be found here.