Cal State Northridge received on Wednesday a $22 million grant to promote diversity in the nation’s biomedical workforce – the largest single grant the school has received. The money from the National Institutes of Health will fund the Build@CSUN program to create new strategies for recruiting and retaining minority researchers in the biomedical field. The grant is one of 12 given nationally by the NIH for those efforts. University President Dianne Harrison said the grant will allow the school to have a greater impact on the community. “CSUN is well positioned to address the glaring low numbers of underrepresented minority students pursuing careers in the biomedical field,” Harrison said in a prepared statement. CSUN and the other institutions awarded grants will establish a national consortium that will develop and implement methods for encouraging minorities to start and stay in biomedical research careers. CSUN said its involvement in the project stems from other existing study programs at the university that have high numbers of minority graduates. Ultimately, CSUN will create a Health and Health Disparities Research Center and develop a model that promotes minority involvement in biomedical careers that can be replicated across the country.