NIH announces plan to confront structural racism

Saying structural racism is a chronic problem throughout biomedical research and within their own walls, leaders of the National Institutes of Health earlier this month unveiled a plan intended to eliminate a big gap in grants awarded to white and minority scientists and boost funding for research on health disparities (Source: “NIH releases a plan to confront structural racism. Critics say it’s not enough,” Stat News, June 10).

The agency, the largest funder of biomedical research in the United States, said its plan would be accompanied by an expansion of a program to recruit, mentor and retain researchers from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups and appoint diversity and inclusion officers at each of its 27 institutes and centers.

The report says NIH leaders failed to acknowledge numerous firsthand accounts of racism in the workplace and the organization has failed to attract, retain and promote scientists from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. Less than 2% of NIH senior investigators are Black.