Asian applicants are less likely than those of other races to receive National Science Foundation grants, according to a new study in the journal eLife. The study analyzed more than 1 million grant applicants from 1999 to 2019 and found that Asian researchers received grants at a rate 21.2 percent less than average. White scientists were funded most often, winning grants at a rate 8.5 percent greater than scientists overall for those two decades. Black researchers were funded 8.1 percent less often than the average, according to the review. But they were the least likely to win funding in five of the NSF’s seven scientific categories. In recent years, the gaps have grown. In 2019, NSF received 41,024 proposals and selected 11,243 for funding — an overall rate of 27.4 percent. Of those proposals submitted,
- 31.3 percent of white researchers received funding, four percentage points more than the average
- 29 percent of Hispanic or Latino researchers were funded
- 26.5 percent of Black researchers were funded
- 22.7 percent of Asian researchers were funded
If Asian and Black applicants were funded on par with the overall funding rate, 432 more Asian-led and nine more Black-led research proposals would have received awards. Why it matters: NSF is responsible for more than a quarter of federally funded basic research in the U.S. In 2021, it issued more than $8 billion in awards to researchers at American colleges and universities. In the world of scientific research, NSF’s funding disparities aren’t unique. The National Institutes of Health, the other major funder of scientific research in the U.S, was found to fund Black-led research at half the rate as white-led in a 2011 study. Disparities in funding have also been observed between male- and female-led research. “There’s a whole series of discoveries we haven’t seen because people have been excluded,” said Aradhna Tripati, one of the co-authors of the article and the founder of the Center for Diverse Leadership in Science. “We can’t afford to keep doing that.” NSF responds: Confounding variables, especially related to career stage and prior experience in grant writing, may be at play, said Alicia Knoedler, head of the NSF’s Office of Integrative Activities. “The more experienced you are at writing grants, the better able you are to obtain that funding,” she told Grace. But a 2018 study comparing NIH grant awards found experienced white researchers received more funding than Black scientists with similar experience. That study’s authors pointed to a phenomenon of “cumulative advantage.” White scientists likely received more mentorship and advice early on than Black scientists, they wrote, leading to their publications getting more citations. What NSF is doing about it: The foundation invests in capacity-building programs , early career outreach and minority-serving institutions to broaden participation among people of color. New initiatives include:
- Analytics for Equity , which will provide funding for researchers investigating equitable access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics research and education opportunities
“NSF is one part of the solution space,” Knoedler said, adding that K-12 education, companies and private foundations must also help to make scientific fields more equitable and diverse. The White House weighs in: On Monday, the White House announced a $1.2 billion initiative to improve equity in science, technology, engineering, math and medicine at its first ever summit on equity and excellence in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine.
| 
