Racial Inequity in Federal Grant Funding

Circulation of videos showing the death of George Floyd, at the hands of police officers, in May of 2020 prompted renewed national conversations about systemic racism. Biomedical research in the USA, including that supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is not immune to the systemic racism that pervades American society. A groundbreaking analysis of NIH grant success revealed in 2011 that applications submitted by Black or African-American Principal Investigators (PIs) were less likely to be funded, compared with those submitted by white PIs. NIH efforts to respond have included attempts to attribute the effect to mediating variables other than PI race; attempts to fix the “pipeline” by funding more African-American trainees; and attempts to eliminate subconscious, or implicit, bias in peer reviewers. An updated report published in 2019 showed that nothing has changed and that topics of interest to African-Americans are less likely to be funded, even with white PIs. Here, we review the response of the NIH to these issues, which we argue are inadequate, and we issue a call to action for all participants in the tax-payer funded NIH system of research funding. It is unacceptable that NIH grant funding disparities based on the race of the PI continue to persist in the current system. It is unacceptable that health conditions and topics of interest to Black citizens are systematically overlooked for research funding. The NIH must create an actionable plan that permanently eliminates racial disparities in grant award.