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In March 2023, we showed that the number of Black and Hispanic mentored career development (K) applicants and awardees steadily increased from fiscal years (FYs) 2010 to 2022, though the overall numbers remained quite low. That said, the funding rates for Black applicants did increase in recent years. The data were generally promising because being awarded a K grant often precedes a larger NIH Research Project Grant (RPG). Here, we update some of these analyses with additional race and ethnicity data on designated principal investigators (PIs) from FY23 (the complete report is available here).
Please keep the following in mind when reading this post:
- The data represent K01, K08, K23, K25, and K99 career development awards.
- Demographic data on researchers were obtained from entries into the eRA Commons Personal Profile. These data are provided voluntarily and are not used to make funding decisions (read more here).
- Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders as well as American Indian or Alaska Native researchers were excluded from these analyses due to small cell sizes. We do not publicly report sample sizes that are sufficiently small (<12), which is considered as potentially identifiable.
- PIs are referred to as applicants or awardees for simplicity here. Please understand though that applicants and awardees are the organizations that designate PIs.
Below are award characteristics according to the race and ethnicity of scientists who were designated as a PI on at least one K application submitted in FY11 (Table 1), which is when the Ginther paper was published discussing race and ethnicity of NIH-supported principal investigators, and in FY23 (Table 2). Compared to White and Asian applicants, Black applicants in FY23 were more likely to submit a K01 application (a grant type that aims to enhance workforce diversity) as well as propose research that involves human participants.
Table 1: Characteristics according to race and ethnicity of scientists who were designated as a Principal Investigator on at least one K application in FY11.
| Characteristic | White | Asian | Unknown | Hispanic | Black | |
| Total N (%)* | 1257 (53.3) | 554 (23.5) | 282 (12.0) | 121 (5.1) | 103 (4.4) | |
| Female | 587 (46.7) | 227 (41.0) | 108 (38.3) | 68 (56.2) | 66 (64.1) | |
| Age (years) | Median (IQR) | 36.0 (33.0 to 39.0) | 36.0 (34.0 to 39.0) | 36.0 (34.0 to 40.0) | 37.0 (35.0 to 40.0) | 37.0 (34.0 to 42.0) |
| Degree | M.D. | 336 (26.7) | 162 (29.2) | 41 (14.5) | 33 (27.3) | 34 (33.0) |
| M.D.-Ph.D. | 158 (12.6) | 80 (14.4) | 26 (9.2) | 15 (12.4) | 9 (8.7) | |
| Other | 26 (2.1) | 20 (3.6) | 91 (32.3) | 4 (3.3) | 3 (2.9) | |
| Ph.D. | 737 (58.6) | 292 (52.7) | 124 (44.0) | 69 (57.0) | 57 (55.3) | |
| Submitted a K01 application | 215 (17.1) | 83 (15.0) | 51 (18.1) | 34 (28.1) | 44 (42.7) | |
| Submitted a K08 application | 244 (19.4) | 102 (18.4) | 41 (14.5) | 21 (17.4) | 6 (5.8) | |
| Submitted a K23 application | 341 (27.1) | 126 (22.7) | 46 (16.3) | 31 (25.6) | 37 (35.9) | |
| Submitted a K25 application | 37 (2.9) | 19 (3.4) | 18 (6.4) | 7 (5.8) | 1 (1.0) | |
| Submitted a K99 application | 424 (33.7) | 225 (40.6) | 126 (44.7) | 28 (23.1) | 16 (15.5) | |
| Submitted a K animal research application | 543 (43.2) | 272 (49.1) | 147 (52.1) | 44 (36.4) | 23 (22.3) | |
| Submitted a K human research application | 660 (52.5) | 261 (47.1) | 105 (37.2) | 71 (58.7) | 77 (74.8) |
* excludes researchers who identify as having more than one race, so percentages do not add up to 100%
Table 2: Characteristics according to race and ethnicity of scientists who were designated as a Principal Investigator on at least one K application in FY23.
| Characteristic | White | Asian | Hispanic | Unknown | Black | |
| Total N (%)* | 1773 (49.7) | 984 (27.6) | 290 (8.1) | 258 (7.2) | 177 (5.0) | |
| Female | 1018 (57.4) | 479 (48.7) | 144 (49.7) | 61 (23.6) | 120 (67.8) | |
| Age (years) | Median (IQR) | 36.0 (34.0 to 39.0) | 36.0 (34.0 to 39.0) | 36.0 (34.0 to 39.0) | 36.0 (34.0 to 39.0) | 38.0 (34.0 to 41.0) |
| Degree | M.D. | 343 (19.3) | 168 (17.1) | 39 (13.4) | 37 (14.3) | 30 (16.9) |
| M.D.-Ph.D. | 172 (9.7) | 110 (11.2) | 16 (5.5) | 21 (8.1) | 11 (6.2) | |
| Other | 197 (11.1) | 118 (12.0) | 56 (19.3) | 99 (38.4) | 30 (16.9) | |
| Ph.D. | 1061 (59.8) | 588 (59.8) | 179 (61.7) | 101 (39.1) | 106 (59.9) | |
| Submitted an F99-K00 application | 40 (2.3) | 30 (3.0) | 24 (8.3) | 9 (3.5) | 10 (5.6) | |
| Submitted a K01 application | 318 (17.9) | 122 (12.4) | 67 (23.1) | 35 (13.6) | 67 (37.9) | |
| Submitted a K08 application | 297 (16.8) | 141 (14.3) | 34 (11.7) | 52 (20.2) | 20 (11.3) | |
| Submitted a K23 application | 433 (24.4) | 129 (13.1) | 40 (13.8) | 42 (16.3) | 36 (20.3) | |
| Submitted a K25 application | 14 (0.8) | 14 (1.4) | 4 (1.4) | 0 (0.0) | 1 (0.6) | |
| Submitted a K99 application | 678 (38.2) | 550 (55.9) | 122 (42.1) | 120 (46.5) | 43 (24.3) | |
| Submitted a K animal research application | 559 (31.5) | 454 (46.1) | 135 (46.6) | 113 (43.8) | 42 (23.7) | |
| Submitted a K human research application | 1047 (59.1) | 418 (42.5) | 129 (44.5) | 117 (45.3) | 126 (71.2) |
* excludes researchers who identify as having more than one race, so percentages do not add up to 100%
Figure 1 shows the number of unique K applicants each fiscal year according to race and ethnicity. The numbers of Asian, Black/African American, and Hispanic applicants and awardees have steadily increased in recent years. Despite this growth, the overall number of Black/African American and Hispanic applicants remains quite low.
Figure 1: Number of K applicants according to race and ethnicity by fiscal year
Figure 2 shows K funding rates according to race and ethnicity. Funding rates for Black/African American and Hispanic applicants have generally increased over the past three years.
Figure 2: Funding rates for K applicants according to race and ethnicity by fiscal year
Table 3 shows data for two NIH programs that help postdoctoral scholars transition to independent faculty positions: the Pathway to Independence (K99) award and Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers (MOSAIC) (a program to support a cohort of early career, independent investigators from diverse backgrounds). In FY23, the total number of Black/African American awardees (including for K99 and MOSAIC programs) fell from the previous year. Fewer Hispanic K99 awardees were also seen when compared to last year, but there were more total awardees and MOSAIC recipients.
Table 3: Total number of applicants and awardees for K99 and MOSAIC programs in FY22 and FY23
| Applicants | Awardees | |||||||||||
| Total | K99 | MOSAIC | Total | K99 | MOSAIC | |||||||
| Race or Ethnicity | 2022 | 2023 | 2022 | 2023 | 2022 | 2023 | 2022 | 2023 | 2022 | 2023 | 2022 | 2023 |
| Black or African American | 195 | 177 | 54 | 43 | 24 | 26 | 88 | 73 | 28 | 18 | 16 | 13 |
| Hispanic | 284 | 291 | 133 | 122 | 38 | 40 | 104 | 129 | 46 | 43 | 18 | 23 |
We remain pleased that the number of applicants from underrepresented groups, and their funding rates, continue to trend upward. We will continue assessing these groups as part of our focus on strengthening and diversifying the future biomedical workforce.
We are grateful to our colleagues in the NIH Office of Extramural Research Division of Statistical Analysis and Reporting (DSAR) for their help with these analyses.
What does “unknown” race mean here? Is this people who do not provide a race and/or people who select “Other” and/or people who select more than one race?
The Unknown group includes researchers who did not self-identify a particular race or ethnicity on their eRA personal profile.
Great, thank you for the clarification.