In both the public and private sectors there is ever-increasing awareness of the benefits of a diverse workforce. Increased diversity brings with it a more diverse array of perspectives and modes of thinking — both of which are integral to the scientific process. Simply put, an increased variety of ideas means an increased potential for solutions. While any organization would benefit from such increased potential, for NIH the benefit is critical to its mission of improving worldwide health.
An example of the importance of diverse perspectives in research appears in the June 2008 publication of the Harvard Business Review, The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering and Technology (Product No. 10094 at 5-6). When Dr. Sadaf Farooqui was a medical school student in the United Kingdom, a professor asked her to participate in research investigating the causes of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. What was known at the time was that crib death mortality rates were much lower in the South Asian communities in the UK than in the country in general. Dr. Farooqui thought, based on child-rearing practices in Pakistani families that the reason for the lower mortality rates was that these children sleep on their backs, not on their stomachs. Research shored up her hypothesis, and the results were published in the British medical journal, The Lancet. Not long thereafter, the UK initiated a national campaign to encourage caregivers to put children to sleep on their backs. In the first year of the initiative, the number of crib deaths in the UK was cut in half. This is a clear example of how one investigator’s unique skills and cultural background can make significant contributions to scientific research and policy, and yield tangible benefits to the public.
NIH has focused its diversity efforts on the following groups underrepresented in the sciences, based on available data and statistics from the National Science Foundation, and our own experiences in this area:
- Socially, culturally, or educationally disadvantaged populations
- Women at the faculty level and above
- Individuals with disabilities
- Underrepresented racial and ethnic groups
- Families with annual incomes below established low-income thresholds.
Each group faces unique challenges, and many individuals represent an amalgam of one or more groups. Because of these intricacies, we need to think “outside of the box” when continuing past efforts, and designing new approaches. For example, how do we identify persons with unique perspectives? Do we merely ask persons to check boxes on an application, or do we permit applicants to elaborate on their backgrounds? There are also more general questions that are applicable to any population, such as:
- How and why do people choose careers in science?
- What obstacles impede the progress of those pursuing a career in science?
- What is the best role NIH can play in helping create a more diverse scientific workforce?
A New Year brings not only renewed energy to continue work on ongoing projects, but also the potential to design new initiatives. In 2009 we will use our collective resources to better articulate the reasons that scientific workforce diversity is integral to NIH’s mission, how it can help to eliminate health disparities, and promote public trust and confidence in our activities. Some of this work has already begun, with sessions of the December 2008 NIH Summit: The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities dedicated to examining the nexus between eliminating health disparities and building the capacity of educational institutions to educate the next generation of research scientists at the undergraduate, graduate and post-doctorate levels. In addition, there are several NIH working groups evaluating various facets of scientific workforce diversity. In the coming months, you will learn more about these efforts.
The bottom line is that we have much work ahead of us in finding creative solutions to this issue. However, when our efforts bear fruit, as I strongly believe they will, the returns to the scientific community will be immeasurable. I look forward to the coming year and working with you in partnership to enhance opportunities for tomorrow’s scientific workforce.
– Sally Rockey, Ph.D.
Acting NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research
0 Comments