Abstract
Biomedical science and federal funding for scientific research are not immune to the systemic racism that pervades American society. A groundbreaking analysis of NIH grant success revealed in 2011 that grant applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health in the US by African-American or Black Principal Investigators (PIs) are less likely to be funded than applications submitted by white PIs, and efforts to narrow this funding gap have not been successful. A follow-up study in 2019 showed that this has not changed. Here, we review those original reports, as well as the response of the NIH to these issues, which we argue has been inadequate. We also make recommendations on how the NIH can address racial disparities in grant funding and call on scientists to advocate for equity in federal grant funding.
Highlights
The death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in the US city of Minneapolis in May 2020 sparked protests across the world and kick-started numerous discussions about systemic racism in the US and elsewhere
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) must acknowledge that systemic and structural racism exists within its Institutes and Centers, and it must create a plan with actionable items that will have a real and lasting impact on the racial disparities discussed in this article
It is unacceptable that the racial disparities in the NIH grant funding system reported by Ginther et al in 2011 were still present during the period studied by Hoppe et al, 2019
Summary
The death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in the US city of Minneapolis in May 2020 sparked protests across the world and kick-started numerous discussions about systemic racism in the US and elsewhere During these conversations many industries, professions and workplaces have reflected on the fact that they are built within, by and on a white supremacist culture, which has the effect of assisting white citizens achieve success, while making it more difficult for Black citizens to do the same. These discussions have made it clear that systemic racism permeates nearly every aspect of American society; this includes biomedical research and many of the bodies that fund it, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A decade after the first report on the funding gap between African-American/ Black PIs and white PIs, it is unacceptable that the NIH has not acted more directly and forcefully to redress the problem
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