NIH releases plan to ‘prioritize’ minority grant applicants

The National Institutes of Health unveiled a plan to address “structural racism” by increasing the diversity of grant recipients.

The NIH is spending $60 million to “support innovative investigator-initiated projects aimed at reducing health disparities and inequalities” — a process in which “institutions that serve minority populations will be prioritized for select awards.”

[RELATED: Echoing campus leftists, CDC director says racism is a ‘public health’ crisis]

Charlene Le Fauve — Senior Advisor to the Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity at the NIH — referred Campus Reform to a resource clarifying that the agency defines “minority health populations” as “American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander,” as well as “Latino or Hispanic.”

The agency has also created a framework entitled “UNITE” — “understanding stakeholder experiences through listening and learning,” “new research on health disparities, minority health, and health equity,” “improving the NIH culture and structure for equity, inclusion, and excellence,” “transparency, communication, and accountability with our internal and external stakeholders,” and “extramural research ecosystem: changing policy, culture, and structure to promote workforce diversity.” Each portion of the framework is managed by a designated committee.

Campus Reform has frequently reported on federal agencies adopting diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as other left-leaning sociological tools.

For instance, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Head Start program hosted a group of professors to discuss “anti-racism” in early childhood education.

[RELATED: Federal government hosted professors’ talks on anti-racist education for young children]

Le Fauve pointed Campus Reform toward the agency’s 2019 “diversity statement,” which asserts that “diverse teams working together and capitalizing on innovative ideas and distinct perspectives outperform homogenous teams.” 

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft