CSR held several discussions this summer about how to address the disparities in NIH funding identified in Ginther et al 2011 and confirmed in Hoppe et al 2019. Their summary of these conversations has been posted. https://public.csr.nih.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09/CSR_July_2020_Racial_Disparities_in_Funding_comment_summary.pdf

“The overwhelming message CSR heard is that the extramural community is weary of slow progress and frustrated that NIH is not effectively using its power or leadership role to combat the effects of systemic racism on the scientific workforce. “

“There was majority consensus across the first two forums that the composition of committee membership and ad hoc reviewers should be broadened beyond people who have been awarded R01s.”

“ There was wide consensus among forum participants that SROs should intervene more often during meetings; currently SROs are perceived as extremely passive.”

“Participants stated that NIH’s efforts should not be entirely focused on pipeline projects and efforts to increase application rates from Black investigators. Participants stated that pipeline programs have existed for years and data have shown that these programs do not work”

“One statement that was made several times during this discussion was that the funding disparity is evidence that taxpayer dollars are not currently serving the people who pay them (underrepresented minorities).”

“Another popular request was for CSR to assess whether there is a correlation between Black/African American membership on peer review panels and scores for applications from minority investigators.”

“A request was made of CSR to articulate its benchmark for the number of individuals of color that should be in the room each time a study section met.”

(No, for those of you often subject to my views on these matters, the above are not exclusively from the points *I* was advancing in the zoom meeting I attended. I’m not the only one with these notions.)

You will notice there are a lot of issues in this summary. I certainly don’t agree with everything and I assume many of us would have our different priorities. One thing I think essential is to hold NIH and CSR to a path of walking and chewing gum at the same time.

They are going to resist. They like to isolate and distract. For example the much bandied “oh it is about chosen research topic!” of Hoppe et al 2019 only accounts for less than a quarter of the funding disparity suffered by apps with Black PIs.

A similar minority of the disparity was captured by CV metrics, as orthogonal as those are, in Ginther et al 2018.

I believe we are facing a “death of a thousand cuts” scenario and there is no such thing as a single cause. Which means the solutions need to be many and varied.

So we need to demand that NIH (CSR in this case) keep their efforts going on all fronts.