NIH Releases New Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released its most recent Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA). The plan is intended to improve diversity and inclusion within the agency and the biomedical research community and builds off of stakeholder feedback collected last year (see previous COSSA coverage). NIH identifies key stages of implementation in the strategic plans’ framework, including the need to encourage the agency and community to become more people-centered and improve diversity and inclusion within their operations, workforce, and research. To this end, the NIH says it plans to implement sustainable practices to improve representation within biomedical and behavioral research in addition to prioritizing research focused on underrepresented populations.

In addition, the NIH has identified the need to improve transparency and communication, create change, and use data more effectively. The NIH is seeking to improve their ability to communicate with the research community and broaden their reach to find potential solutions from different populations. The NIH also plans to fully embrace DEIA and use data collection and sharing to hold the agency accountable to the public. The full report can be found here and a summary can be found here.