Systemic racial disparities in funding rates at the National Science Foundation

Concerns about systemic racism at academic and research institutions have
increased over the past decade. Here, we investigate data from the
National Science Foundation (NSF), a major funder of research in the
United States, and find evidence for pervasive racial disparities. In
particular, white principal investigators (PIs) are consistently funded at
higher rates than most non-white PIs. Funding rates for white PIs have
also been increasing relative to annual overall rates with time. Moreover,
disparities occur across all disciplinary directorates within the NSF and
are greater for research proposals. The distributions of average external
review scores also exhibit systematic offsets based on PI race. Similar
patterns have been described in other research funding bodies, suggesting
that racial disparities are widespread. The prevalence and persistence of
these racial disparities in funding have cascading impacts that perpetuate
a cumulative advantage to white PIs across all of science, technology,
engineering and mathematics.