Dear NIH Family:

Over the past several months, you have heard from me and others about the actions we are taking at NIH to address harassment at our agency. As I’ve said previously, harassment in any form, including sexual harassment and bullying, is antithetical to our mission and strikes at the core of our shared values. With help from the NIH Anti-Harassment Steering Committee, we have developed a much more robust response to address this problem internally. But we have not done nearly as much to help effect change in the broader biomedical research community. Today, I have posted a statement that speaks to what we are doing to remedy this problem. While it is true that we do not have the same authorities outside our own agency, we are determined not to be stymied by the barriers that stand in the way of positive changes that are long overdue. We are, after all, the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to take the lead on helping to overcome this unacceptable behavior. Thank you very much for taking a moment to read the statement, and I encourage you to share it widely.

With gratitude for all the great work you do for NIH,

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.

Director