How the NIH is building its own diversity

Abstract

Like most institutions, the US National Institutes of Health struggles with issues of diversity and inclusion. The NIH employs more than 1,000 scientists in its in-house research program. Of those, just 24% of senior investigators were women and merely 5% were black, Hispanic, American Indian, or Native Alaskan in 2018. That same year, more than half of US biomedical PhD graduates were women and around 12% were underrepresented minorities. “Even though we have increased significantly the representation of groups that are receiving PhDs, it is not translating into them being hired,” says Hannah Valantine, the NIH’s chief officer for scientific workforce diversity. “We have got to do something in that transition from training into academic positions.” That’s why NIH leaders have started a program to help more minority scientists land tenure-track positions at the NIH and to keep them once they get there. The NIH Distinguished Scholars Program (DSP) brings