ABOUT THE RCMI PROGRAM
The Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program in the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) is congressionally mandated and was initiated at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1985. The program was developed in part as a vehicle to address some of the key disparities in health outcomes for minority Americans noted in the landmark report commissioned by the former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Margaret Heckler in 1985. The authorizing legislation for the RCMI program sponsored by both Congressmen Louis Stokes and William Natcher, appropriated funds to expand the nation's capacity for research in the health sciences by assisting, through competitive grant support, predominantly minority institutions that award doctorates in the health or health-related sciences to strengthen their research infrastructure. The primary goal is to enable these institutions to become more competitive in obtaining support to conduct biomedical and/or behavioral research relevant to the mission of the Public Health Service. Over the course of twenty-three years, the National Center for Research Resources has funded 21 academic institutions, including 10 graduate schools, 7 medical schools, 3 schools of pharmacy, and 1 school of veterinary medicine via the RCMI program. In addition, several Institutes and Centers at the NIH have facilitated the growth and success of the RCMI program via co-funding and other collaborative relationships including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; National Institute on Aging; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; National Institute on Drug Abuse; National Eye Institute; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; National Human Genome Research Institute; National Institute of Mental Health; and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. This critical funding has resulted in an increase in the number of minority institutions with funded research centers conducting cutting edge translational research addressing health disparities.