title: Race, ethnicity, and NIH research awards.
abstract: We investigated the association between a U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 applicant's self-identified race or ethnicity and the probability of receiving an award by using data from the NIH IMPAC II grant database, the Thomson Reuters Web of Science, and other sources. Although proposals with strong priority scores were equally likely to be funded regardless of race, we find that Asians are 4 percentage points and black or African-American applicants are 13 percentage points less likely to receive NIH investigator-initiated research funding compared with whites. After controlling for the applicant's educational background, country of origin, training, previous research awards, publication record, and employer characteristics, we find that black applicants remain 10 percentage points less likely than whites to be awarded NIH research funding. Our results suggest some leverage points for policy intervention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Center for Science, Technology & Economic Policy, Institute for Policy & Social Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. dginther@ku.edu
authors.forename: Donna K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Ginther
authors.forename: Walter T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Schaffer
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schnell
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Masimore
authors.forename: Faye
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Laurel L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Haak
authors.forename: Raynard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kington
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D035843:Biomedical Research; D044383:Black People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004500:Education, Graduate; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005257:Fellowships and Scholarships; D005380:Financing, Government; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.) / Q000191:economics*; D017712:Peer Review, Research; D011643:Publishing; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data