Institute and Center Award Rates and Funding Disparities

In 2011, Ginther et al. first demonstrated that African American and Black applicants to the National Institutes of Health received grant awards at a lower rate than their white counterparts (Ginther 2011). Since then, multiple studies have reproduced and extended this finding (Ginther 2011; Ginther 2016; Hoppe 2019; Erosheva 2020). Recently we reported that African American and Black (AAB) PIs are more likely to propose research on topics that are less likely  to be funded (Hoppe 2019). We found that topic choice has little or no effect on whether an application is chosen for discussion, but after considering a number of confounders, it accounts for over 20% of the gap in funding success for applications that are discussed (Hoppe 2019). Why are applications linked to certain topics less likely to be funded?  Review is not the only determinant that considers whether any given application will be funded. At the same time that applications are assigned to a study section for review, they are also independently assigned to a funding Institute or Center (IC), based in large part on the topic of the work.  Figure 1 shows that ICs have widely varying award rates (the ratio of funded applications to all applications). These marked variations (from 9.1% to 26.9%) may explain funding differences, a possibility that we did not consider in Hoppe 2019. Figure 1. IC award rates for R01 applications, FY11-FY15. MD, Minority Health and Health Dispar...
Source: NIH Extramural Nexus - Category: Research Authors: Tags: blog Open Mike Funding data Source Type: funding