Can $1.5 Billion Help Diversify the Sciences?
Chronicle of Higher Ed | Francie Diep
“The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is planning to spend $1.5 billion over the next 20 years on funding early-career academic scientists who say they’ll run diverse and welcoming labs.”
“ [While] U.S. law forbids employers from choosing workers based on their race, sex, and certain other characteristics…the institute plans to pick scholars using a two-step process. First, reviewers with expertise in diversity and inclusion will read applicants’ answers to questions about how they plan to recruit and retain diverse lab members. Only after applicants have made that first cut will scientific reviewers evaluate the candidates’ research proposals. The institute hopes to choose about 30 new scholars a year, every other year…”
“One potential pitfall that McGee [professor at Vanderbilt University who studies systemic discrimination in science] identified was in the selection process. ‘People are really becoming very sophisticated in knowing what to say,’ she said. ‘Nobody in 2022 is going to say that they are not for diversity’ — but that doesn’t mean they’ll be effective advocates. McGee would want to see that Freeman Hrabowski scholars have a demonstrated history of working on diversity issues. HHMI’s policy of having experts in diversity, equity, and inclusion review applications will help, she said.”
