The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), one of the twenty-seven institutes and centers at the NIH, recently deployed Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) to automate the process by which it receives and internally refers grant applications. This new approach ensures efficient and consistent grant application referral, and liberates Program Managers from the labor-intensive and monotonous referral process.

Improving staff data skills allows agencies to better harness the power of data. This playbook provides advice and tools for assessing data skills and addressing gaps. Executing the activities contained in this document will help agencies progress in fulfilling requirements of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 and related guidance.