Award rate inequities in biomedical research

TL;DR

This study reveals significant racial and ethnic disparities in proposal submission and award rates in biomedical research at a major university, highlighting systemic inequities and strategic differences among researchers.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of race/ethnicity-based disparities in research proposal success and submission strategies within a medical school, offering a replicable framework for other institutions.

Findings

Black/African American and Asian researchers face lower award rates across categories.

Researchers from different racial/ethnic groups adopt distinct submission strategies.

Disparities suggest systemic inequities in biomedical research funding.

Abstract

The analysis of existing institutional research proposal databases can provide novel insights into science funding parity. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between race/ethnicity and extramural research proposal and award rates across a medical school faculty and to determine whether there was evidence that researchers changed their submission strategies because of differential inequities across submission categories. The authors performed an analysis of 14,263 biomedical research proposals with proposed start dates between 2010-2022 from the University of Michigan Medical School, measuring the proposal submission and award rates for each racial/ethnic group across 4 possible submission categories (R01 & Equivalent programs, other federal, industry, and non-profit). Biomedical researchers from different racial/ethnic groups follow markedly different proposal submission strategies within the University of Michigan Medical School. There is also a clear relationship between race/ethnicity and rates of proposal award. Black/African American and Asian researchers appear disadvantaged across all submission categories relative to White researchers. This study can be easily replicated by other academic research institutions, revealing opportunities for positive intervention.