Working at NIH
In this section we tried to collect useful information regarding services that NIH
offers to its employees, scientists from all around the world, as well as patients.
1. About NIH (should link to appropriate paragraph below)
2. Visitors information (should link to appropriate paragraph below)
3. Postdocs/Researchers at NIH (should link to appropriate paragraph
below)
4. Scientists around the world (should link to appropriate paragraph
below)
5. Patients (should link to appropriate paragraph below)
1. About NIH
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is part of the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services and represents the primary agency for conducting and
supporting medical research. It is composed of 27 Institutes and Centers and
more than 17,000 employees on the main campus in Bethesda, MD and at
satellite sites across the country.
http://www.nih.gov/icd/
The NIH annually invests over $28 billion in biomedical research. More than 80%
of the NIH’s funding is awarded through almost 50,000 competitive grants to
more than 212,000 researchers at over 2,800 universities, medical schools, and
other research institutions in every state in the US and around the world. About
10% of the NIH’s budget supports projects conducted by nearly 6,000 scientists
in its own laboratories, most of which are on the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD.
The NIH’s own scientists, and scientists working with support from the NIH grants
and contracts, have been responsible for countless medical advances. More than
100 of these scientists have received Nobel Prizes in recognition of their work.
http://www.nih.gov/about/almanac/nobel/index.htm
For more information visit the NIH website:
http://www.nih.gov/
2. How to get to NIH
Commuting:
The closest metro station is the “Medical Center” stop on the red line
http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/systemmap.cfm
http://www.wmata.com/timetables/default.cfm
NIH campus map:
A map of the NIH campus including parking sites is provided:
http://parking.nih.gov/nihstreetmap.cfm
NIH campus shuttle:
A shuttle to the main buildings around campus is available from the Medical
Center metro station:
http://dtts.ors.od.nih.gov/NIHShuttle/scripts/shuttle_map_live.asp
Shuttle to/from Airport:
A free shuttle to Dulles International airport is provided from the Clinical Center
(Building 10) every 2 hours.
http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/ccc/visitor/DULLES10_29_01.pdf
Security measures and entrance requirements:
The National Institutes of Health has special security measures regulating access
to the campus as well as to certain buildings and facilities.
Visitors driving to the Bethesda campus can enter at the Metro entrance where
vehicle inspections, visitor screening and badge issuance take place at the
vehicle inspection station. Visitors can enter the campus on foot at two locations.
The NIH Gateway Center at Metro is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The NIH West Visitor Entrance at Old Georgetown Road and South Drive
(adjacent to the vehicle entrance) is available for entry and exit during normal
operating hours 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Visitor screening and visitor badges are issued
in the visitor centers. Visitors should be prepared to have their personal
belongings inspected and go through a metal detector inspection (wand,
magnetometer, etc). They must show one form of valid photo identification such
as Federal employee badge, driver’s license, passport, green card, etc.
Employees should present a DHHS-issued photo ID (for example, the NIHissued ID badge) to enter the campus as well as certain buildings, where guards
are posted. Employees and visitors should continue to wear their identification
prominently at all times while on campus.
More information on the current security measures can be found in the following
links:
http://www.nih.gov/about/visitorsecurity.htm
http://www.security.nih.gov
3. Postdocs/Researchers at NIH
Newcomer at NIH:
If you are about to start or just started working at NIH you probably have a
number of questions that you would like to have answered. We hope you find
these websites useful:
•
Fogarty International Center http://www.fic.nih.gov
•
Immigration/Visa issues: http://www.nih.gov/od/ors/dirs/isb/visas.htm
•
NIH housing list http://www.recgov.org/housing/housing.html
•
Training Fellowships depend on past experience
http://www.training.nih.gov/stipends.asp
•
Metro-ride tickets or parking validation:
http://dtts.ors.od.nih.gov/transhare.htm
•
Tax seminars http://www.nih.gov/od/ors/dirs/isb/taxassist.htm
•
Introductory courses on laboratory and radiation safety:
http://www1.od.nih.gov/oir/sourcebook/training/training.toc.htm
•
Dial-up access to NIH and Institute computing resources while working
with a home or mobile computer equipped with a modem is provided
http://remoteaccess.nih.gov/
•
Health Benefits Plans – Dental care – Prescription coverage
For Visiting Fellows: http://www.faes.org/health_insurance3.htm
For Federal Employees: http://www.fepblue.org/
•
NIH Work/life center provides consultation and help in several issues
including child care:
http://wflc.od.nih.gov/worklife-nih.asp
http://does.ors.od.nih.gov/childcare/index.htm
Scientific resources/training:
NIH library services
The services provided by the NIH library can be considered one of the greatest
advantages of the working experience at NIH (http://nihlibrary.nih.gov/). One has
immediate access to all scientific literature and the ability to order older articles
on-line and receive them as pdf files through the PubMed Document Delivery
system (http://nihlibrary.nih.gov/PubMedDocumentDelivery.htm) or the
Loansome Doc system (https://docline.gov/loansome/login.cfm?tool=loansome)
Moreover, you can obtain online literature updates weekly and borrow books
from a large online list. In addition, you can access:
•
UptoDate
http://www.uptodateonline.com/enterprise.asp?r=/enterprise.asp&bhcp=1
&app=utdol
•
Numerous on-line books
http://nihlibrary.nih.gov/ResearchTools/default.htm?srchType=OnlineBook
s
•
Various databases and protocols from the Current Protocols online.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?otool=nihlib,
http://isiwok.cit.nih.gov/portal.cgi
•
To find out more consider taking the library orientation tour
http://nihlibrary.nih.gov/ResourceTraining/TrainingDescription.htm?ID=94&
View=AllTraining
Calendar of scientific events http://calendar.nih.gov/cgi-bin/calendar
FAES graduate school. http://www.faes.org/
More than 180 courses are offered at both graduate and undergraduate levels as
well as hands-on laboratory courses on many contemporary techniques (biotrac
laboratory courses, see http://www.biotrac.com).
Special Interest groups
NIH Inter-Institute Interest Groups are assemblies of scientists with common
research interests. The interest groups sponsor symposia, poster sessions, and
lectures, offer mentoring and career guidance for junior scientists and help
researchers share the latest advances and information on their particular areas
of interest. You can choose from the lengthy list provided at
http://www.nih.gov/sigs/sigs.html.
Awards
There is an annual NIH-wide FARE competition which provides recognition for
outstanding scientific research performed by intramural postdoctoral fellows.
Fellows submit an abstract of their research, which is peer reviewed in a study
section competition and the winners get a $1000 stipend to attend a scientific
meeting at which they will present their abstract, either as a poster or a seminar
(http://felcom.nih.gov/FARE/).
Career development
The NIH Fellows' Career Network is an online resource exclusively for NIH
Fellows who are searching for career contacts
(http://felcom.nih.gov/careers/jobnet/).
4. Scientists around the world
Scientific resources:
• Entrez PubMed/NCBI website: is the integrated, text-based search and
retrieval system for major databases, including PubMed, Nucleotide and
Protein Sequences, Protein Structures, Complete Genomes, Taxonomy,
and others. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
•
NIH News and Events: http://www.nih.gov/news/
•
Videocast of events: The Center for Information Technology (CIT) makes
special NIH events, seminars, and lectures available to viewers on the
NIH network and the Internet from the VideoCast web site
(http://videocast.nih.gov/).
•
Conducting Research: The Office of Research Integrity monitors
institutional investigations of research misconduct and facilitates the
responsible conduct of research through educational, preventive, and
regulatory activities (http://ori.dhhs.gov/publications/handbooks.shtml).
•
Stem Cell Information: http://stemcells.nih.gov/index.asp
•
NIH Image Software is an image processing and analysis program for the
Macintosh: http://rsb.info.nih.gov/nih-image/Default.html
Jobs at NIH:
There are openings in a variety of positions, such as: postdocs, senior scientists,
clinicians, nursing staff and students (http://www.jobs.nih.gov).
Grants and Funding:
Funding announcement for grants relating to areas of increased scientific priority
are available at http://grants1.nih.gov/grants, and
http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/oer.htm
Applications are usually accepted on standard receipt dates on an on-going
basis.
5. Patients
Patients can find reliable health information or choose a clinical study they could
participate as volunteers. Many patients with rare conditions get referred from all
over the world to receive free medical care at the NIH clinical center. Ask you
doctor for more information.
Clinical trials:
This website provides information on the purpose of a clinical trial, who may
participate, and the locations and phone numbers so that those interested can
learn more (http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov/).
Health information:
http://health.nih.gov/
http://medlineplus.gov/