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Issued by

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Purpose

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is seeking information on how to enhance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) across NIAID activities to promote a diverse and inclusive scientific workforce and to enhance research outcomes and improve health in NIAID supported research areas. This request for information (RFI) is intended to inform NIAID on potential approaches to advance DEIA and to ensure that all available perspectives are considered as NIAID develops and implements DEIA strategies.

Review of this entire RFI is encouraged to ensure a comprehensive response is prepared and to have a full understanding of how responses will be used.

Background

For more than 60 years, NIAID supported research has led to new therapies, vaccines, diagnostics, and other technologies that have improved the health of millions of people in the United States and around the world. NIAID manages a complex and comprehensive research portfolio that aims to expand the breadth and depth of knowledge in all areas of infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases and develop flexible domestic and international research capacities to respond appropriately to emerging and re-emerging disease threats at home and abroad.

In achieving its mission to better understand, treat, and ultimately prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases, NIAID is committed to DEIA  through fostering a diverse and inclusive scientific research workforce, funding a research portfolio that serves the interests of the populations it serves, including NIH-designated populations experiencing health disparities, and prioritizing health equity in all research that NIAID conducts and supports. NIAID has long recognized that racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic differences affect the incidence of infection and disease and is committed to research that helps reduce health disparities.

A NIAID DEIA Council has been established to embrace, integrate, and strengthen DEIA across NIAID activities, including, but not limited to the NIAID extramural research workforce, and research focused on addressing health disparities, health equity, and the social determinants of health within the NIAID mission. These efforts to seek DEIA information in the context of the NIAID mission, are being done in parallel with other DEIA information gathering initiatives across the NIH. Through UNITE, the NIH recently issued a similar RFI and has since posted a report summarizing the responses. Similarly, UNITE conducted a series of 14 listening sessions with various groups seeking input on DEIA issues and posted summaries of these sessions. From the RFI responses that are received, and in conjunction with NIH's recent efforts, the NIAID DEIA Council will develop actionable recommendations and implementation strategies to sustainably support DEIA across NIAID activities.

Information Requested

NIAID invites information and recommendations to enhance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) across NIAID activities. NIAID is interested in comments from stakeholders throughout the scientific research, advocacy, clinical practice, and non-scientific communities, including the general public. In particular, NIAID is interested in comments from higher education administrators, undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scientists, biomedical faculty (especially early stage), community partners, academic institutions (especially Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and other institutions that have a historical commitment to educating students from underrepresented groups, including those identified in the Notice of NIH's Interest in Diversity, (NOT-OD-20-031)), and organizations that focus on racial or ethnic equity and the development of strategies to enhance equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility within the scientific workforce and advance health disparities research. 

NIAID seeks comments on any or all of, but not limited to, the following topics.

NIAID Research Areas

Identify or provide recommendations on strategies to:

• Endorse and enhance specific NIAID mission research areas
• Address health equity research, as related to the NIAID mission
• Address reduction of health disparities, as related to the NIAID mission 
• Target populations and/or disease areas with differences in incidence of infection and disease
• Better identify and characterize populations disproportionally impacted by infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases
• Increase community engagement and participation in research involving NIH-designated populations experiencing health disparities
• Mitigate implicit bias in the recruitment and inclusion of women and underrepresented populations, and individuals across the lifespan as participants in research to prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases
• Identify co-morbidities to consider in infectious disease research that disproportionately impact underrepresented populations and/or result in other NIH-designated populations experiencing health disparities
• Define how social and economic factors contribute to the burden of infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases in NIH-designated populations experiencing health disparities and impede success of interventions to improve effective countermeasures
• Inform identification, development, evaluation, and implementation of interventions and medical countermeasures to prevent or reduce the burden of infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases in NIH-designated populations experiencing health disparities

NIAID Organizational Practices

Identify or provide recommendations on strategies to:

• Address any systemic and structural barriers to receiving NIAID research funding that may exist
• Identify gap areas related to understanding, treating, and preventing infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases that can be addressed through NIAID funded research
• Address any conscious and unconscious biases that may exist in the NIH peer review process
• Identify means to promote more equitable communication
• Gather and report DEIA data that are of interest to the extramural community, including, but not limited to the areas of health disparities, minority health, and health equity research, as well as scientific workforce diversity
• Identify best practices to limit any accessibility barriers that may exist
• Enhance accessibility features to promote equal access to NIAID communications and web materials

Extramural Scientific Workforce Diversity

Identify or provide recommendations on strategies to:

• Enhance the development of a highly competent, diverse scientific research workforce, including those identified as underrepresented (NOT-OD-20-031), across all areas within NIAID's mission
• Enhance the development of a diverse scientific research workforce, including those identified as underrepresented (NOT-OD-20-031), to better address domestic and global health disparities and inequities
• Identify gaps and barriers to developing, diversifying, and sustaining a diverse extramural scientific workforce and building a scientific pipeline to support the NIAID mission
• Identify any accessibility barriers that may interfere with career development and/or limit training opportunities
• Prepare NIAID-supported trainees for scientific careers in research areas that are critical to advancing NIAID priorities
• Attract, retain, and foster diversity among trainees
• Attract, hire, retain, promote, and foster diversity among research faculty 

How to Submit a Response

All comments must be submitted electronically via the submission website.

Responses must be received by 11:59:59 PM (ET) on March 31, 2023.

Responses to this RFI are voluntary and may be submitted anonymously. You may voluntarily include your name and contact information with your response. If you choose to provide NIAID with this information, NIAID will not share your name or contact information outside of NIAID unless required by law. Responses will be reviewed by NIAID staff, and individual feedback will not be provided to any responder.

Other than your name and contact information, please do not include any personally identifiable information or information that you do not wish to make public. Proprietary, classified, confidential, trade secret, or sensitive information should not be included in your response. The Government will use the information submitted in response to this RFI at its discretion. Other than your name and contact information, the Government reserves the right to use any submitted information on public websites, in reports, in summaries of the state of the science, in any possible resultant solicitation(s), grant(s), or cooperative agreement(s), or in the development of future funding opportunity announcements.

This RFI is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation, grant, or cooperative agreement, or as an obligation on the part of the Federal Government to provide support for any ideas identified in response to it. The Government will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted or for the Government’s use of such information. No basis for claims against the Government shall arise as a result of a response to this request for information or from the Government’s use of such information.

We look forward to your input and hope that you will share this RFI document with your colleagues.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Email: NIAIDDEIARFI@mail.nih.gov