NIH Announces Plans to Update Harassment Policies

The agency also declares its intent to better educate the scientific community about sexual harassment.

Written byJef Akst

| 2 min read

Save for Later

Listen with Speechify

0:00

2:00

ABOVE: WIKIMEDIA, NIDA(NIH)

The National Institutes of Health plans to update its sexual harassment policy, strengthen its system for reporting allegations of harassment by its researchers, and initiate training campaigns to prevent such issues, NIH Director Francis Collins announced this week (September 17).

“The National Institutes of Health (NIH) does not tolerate pervasive or severe harassment of any kind, including sexual harassment, whether it is within the agency, at research organizations that receive NIH funding, or anywhere else NIH-funded activities are conducted,” the agency posted on its new anti-sexual-harassment website.

Collins says that the new policies will be published this week, and that the agency intends to conduct surveys this winter to get feedback from researchers and staff about harassment issues. “Personally, I find this to be a matter of extreme importance,” Collins tells Science. “NIH recognizes that we need to increase our transparency on this issue,” he adds in ...

Interested in reading more?

The Scientist ARCHIVES

Become a Member of

Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!

Join for free today

Already a member? Login Here

Meet the Author

Jef Akst
Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
View Full Profile