Inequalities in the Distribution of National Institutes of Health Research Project Grant Funding

Lauer, Michael; Roychowdhury, Deepshikha

Previous reports have described worsening inequalities of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding of principal investigators. We analyzed data through the end of Fiscal Year 2020, confirming worsening inequalities beginning at the time of the NIH budget doubling (1998-2003), but finding that trends have reversed over the past 3 years. We also find that career-stage trends have stabilized, with equivalent proportions of early-, mid-, and late-career investigators funded from 2017 to 2020. Women continue to constitute a greater proportion of funded principal investigators, though not at parity. Analyses of funding inequalities over time show that inequalities have consistently been greater within groups (i.e., within groups by career stage, gender, race, and degree) than between groups.