“Can I Get Funded Studying Race, Ethnicity, and Culture?”: Disparities in Federal Funding---Advancing Diversity

Session Type: Professional Development Session

Abstract

There is a significant disparity in the awarding of NIH R01 funding (Ginther, 2011; Hoppe et al., 2019). The funding rate for R01 applications from Black/African American scientists was “10 percentage points lower than for all other groups after controlling for an applicant’s educational background, country of origin, training, previous research awards, publication record, and institution characteristics.” (NIH, 2020). Research funding is an important part of the scholarly endeavor providing support for innovative research that often involves training graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and it is often part of the expectations for promotion to full professor. As such, the implications of these disparities are significant.
NIH has undertaken several initiatives that have resulted in a decreased disparity for K-Awards, but not for R01s, the most independent, highly esteemed, and well-funded of awards. SRCD obtained funding from the Doris Duke Foundation to address this issue. A program was launched to mentor early and mid-career scholars over the course of an academic year to work on research proposals. In the second generation of this work, that builds upon the knowledge of other historical initiatives, this panel will grapple with issues and approaches to help rectify disparities in research funding. In addition to addressing the disparity, such work will help to build a field of developmental science with normative racial-ethnic populations that incorporates an integrative model exploring individual, contextual and societal factors, thereby advancing more diversity in research funding and scholarship.
Organizer/Moderator: Emilie Smith
Participants: Eleanor Seaton, Martha Zaslow, Kimberly Updegraff, Velma Murray

Sub Unit

• Professional Development Sessions

Session Organizer

• Emilie Phillips Smith, Michigan State University

Participants

• Eleanor K Seaton, Arizona State University

• Martha Zaslow, Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)

• Kimberly Updegraff, Arizona State University

• Velma McBride Murry, Vanderbilt University