Summary
Several studies have demonstrated that multiple forms of diversity are beneficial to the creativity, innovation, and impact of science teams (Hong and Page 2004; Campbell et al. 2013; Freeman and Huang 2014a,b). Although social scientists continue to try to understand how specific forms of diversity (e.g., racial/ethnic, gender, career stage diversity) relate to various aspects of team performance, it is generally understood that, when engaged productively in an inclusive environment, diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds can strengthen teams and lead to better science (Sommers 2006; Diaz-Garcia et al. 2013; Page 2008, 2017). Accordingly, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Vision for Scientific Excellence notes, “diversity is a key driver of innovation and more diverse organizations are more innovative…. NASA believes in the importance of diverse and inclusive teams to tackle strategic problems and maximize scientific return” (NASA 2020b).
At the request of NASA, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a study committee with the task of recommending actions to increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the leadership of space mission proposals submitted to competed space mission programs in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). The expertise of the committee spanned a wide range of experience from both scientists involved in NASA missions as well as the social sciences. The Committee on Increasing Diversity and Inclusion in the Leadership of Competed Space Missions approached the task through meetings with representatives of different groups and institutions and extensive examination of relevant literature, as well as by commissioning a study involving structured interviews to evaluate what barriers a sample of mission principal investigators (PIs) experienced in putting together a mission proposal.
The role of a PI on a competed mission is substantial. The job requires considerable experience in the scientific research field, knowledge of mission design, building of hardware and concepts of mission operation, plus the ability to lead and manage a large team of scientists, engineers, and administrators. Currently, PIs tend to be at senior levels of their career and thus, the demographics of mission PIs most likely reflect the population at such senior levels of their career. Consequently, the committee needed to examine the full pathway into Earth and space sciences careers to identify opportunities for diversifying the pool of potential proposal leadership teams, starting with decisions by young people to engage with science and consider careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Additionally, exposure to Earth and space science research (e.g., via undergraduate research experiences), and subsequent training and mentoring at the PhD and post-PhD levels to develop mission-relevant leadership skills, position individuals on paths to pursue mission leadership should they desire to.
In the course of its work, the committee identified a number of ways in which NASA could make the opportunities to lead missions more accessible, inclusive, and equitable, from making the proposal process more
transparent and including DEIA as evaluation criteria, to NASA making consistent and intentional investments in education-career STEM pathways. Moreover, the committee determined that there were valuable lessons to be learned from other federal agencies.
The committee makes 15 recommendations that outline steps or activities that fall within NASA’s sphere of influence. The first of which reflects the need for change at the agency/organizational level alongside the specific recommendation actions within NASA SMD to fully realize DEIA in the context of competed missions. The remaining recommendations fall under four general themes: (1) Proposal Process and Review-Enhancing Opportunities, Mitigating Barriers; (2) Data System-Collection, Analysis, and Reporting Data on Proposal Teams, Proposal Pools, and Workforce; (3) Training and Mentoring Potential PIs; and (4) Investment in Career Pathways for Underrepresented Groups. These themes, and selected recommendations that best illustrate each theme, are included below to achieve brevity while also maintaining a comprehensive overview of the report’s main messages. Additionally, the recommendations are listed according to the timeframe for their implementation—from near term to long term. Chapter 7 of the report contains the full set of recommendations, and the corresponding recommendation numbers below refer to their order in that chapter. Since competed missions are managed by four divisions of the SMD—Heliophysics, Astrophysics, Planetary Science, and Earth Science—the recommendations are aimed at these divisions. Two other SMD divisions—Biological and Physical Sciences and Joint Agency Satellite Division—do not generate satellite missions. At the same time, most of the recommendations could also apply to all areas of NASA’s research, and if the suggested actions were carried out throughout the agency, it would lead to a more diverse workforce across NASA-funded research and training programs.
OVERSIGHT OF DEIA IMPLEMENTATION AT NASA
There are a number of promising practices used at other federal agencies to address DEIA goals. These include the use of internal and external independent committees charged with promoting and ensuring accountability for the implementation of stated DEIA policies. At the very highest level, the lack of a NASA Advisory Council (NAC) committee focused on DEIA misses a unique opportunity to both help set the tone at the top of the agency as well as ensure ongoing and critical focus on shaping NASA SMD’s broadening participation efforts in space missions.
RECOMMENDATION 1: NASA should empanel an ongoing NASA Advisory Council (NAC) committee specifically focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA), whose committee chair serves directly on the NAC. This committee should have a broad charter and external world-class membership in this area to directly advise top NASA leadership and ensure an ongoing strong focus on NASA’s broadening DEIA efforts.
THEME 1: PROPOSAL PROCESS AND REVIEW—ENHANCING OPPORTUNITIES, MITIGATING BARRIERS
NASA’s competed space missions are selected from proposals that are submitted in response to a public announcement of opportunity (AO). The processes of mission team formation and concept development, which often takes place one or more years before an AO is made public by NASA, require significant resources from proposers and their institutions. This stage is often referred to as “the competition before the competition” and is idiosyncratic, organic, opaque, and often personality-driven. These informal and organic processes, influenced by “who knows whom” in the community, directly impact the diversity of the PI candidate pool.
For example, many proposals for competed missions are submitted by NASA centers. Thus, NASA is a leading force in the production and determination of the demographic composition of mission PIs. The process of PI selection for NASA center-led competed missions could be much more transparent and committed to supporting traditionally underrepresented PIs. A restructuring of this type would provide a roadmap for other proposing institutions to follow in their own PI selection processes. Moreover, across the range of institutions submitting proposals, the lack of uniformity in non-NASA, internal resources available for preparation and production of mission concepts, full proposals, and site visits may result in a disadvantaged position for some institutions compared to others.
RECOMMENDATION 2: NASA should work to make the pre-proposal “competition before the competition” process transparent and accessible. Additionally, NASA should use its own resources to expand support of pre-proposal and proposal efforts of diverse, external principal investigators through its field centers and encourage other institutions in the business of supporting and investing in Science Mission Directorate proposals and missions to do the same.
RECOMMENDATION 3: NASA should reconsider the requirements for site visits to emphasize the evaluation of technical and programmatic readiness, and eliminate any unnecessary elements. NASA should evaluate the benefit of providing uniform funding to each team that is preparing a site visit, disallowing supplemental funding and other contributions that may result in inequities across teams.
The steps of the NASA AO process for competed mission proposals are governed by detailed regulations and has become more transparent and uniform across NASA SMD divisions over the past decade. NASA has also taken steps to require and evaluate DEIA plans as part of its AOs for competed missions. However, a comparison with proposal review practices at agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) suggests there is room for scrutiny for sources of bias throughout the NASA AO process. Furthermore, the fact that bias review and DEIA criteria are not currently used in a consistent and systematic fashion results in a limited ability to identify barriers in the mission proposal process, and consequently the specific kinds of interventions that are needed to eliminate them and make progress toward the stated goal of effectively increasing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in the leadership of competed missions. Recommendation 4 outlines a process for tracking, identifying, and reducing bias in the review process for all proposals submitted for research funding.
RECOMMENDATION 5: In keeping step with its core values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA), NASA Science Mission Directorate should:
Recommendation 6 provides further ways that DEIA should be enhanced in the form of accountability measures for monitoring and assessing the execution of DEIA plans throughout the mission life cycle.
THEME 2: DATA SYSTEM—COLLECTION, ANALYSIS, AND REPORTING OF DATA ON PROPOSAL TEAMS, PROPOSER POOLS, AND WORKFORCE
Inadequate data gathering, monitoring, and reporting are key barriers to NASA’s understanding of the demographics of its proposer pool and to its ability to measure improvements. Specifically, the inadequate infrastructure for collecting demographic data on teams submitting mission proposals severely limits NASA SMD’s ability to accurately determine the relationship between the current mission proposal process and diversity in the pool of proposal leadership teams. For example, further study is needed to evaluate to what extent variations over time and differences between SMD divisions in the proportion of women among mission PI proposers compared to the proportion of women among doctorate recipients in the physical sciences are due to the mismatch between the
career-stage distribution of women in these various populations and the current seniority expectation for mission PIs. The current data gathered by NASA on the demographics of proposal teams, for both competed missions and grants, is also inadequate to inform NASA about the diversity in participation of Earth and space scientists from different demographic groups in research and activities funded by the agency. Furthermore, the promise of NASA’s existing best practices to address DEIA, both within the agency and PI-led mission opportunities, is limited by the lack of defined metrics to evaluate effectiveness and track progress resulting from these interventions.
RECOMMENDATION 7: NASA Headquarters (HQ) should develop a systematic and transparent process that employs routine monitoring and tracking of proposal submissions and selections, and submit an annual report of these data to the diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility committee of the NASA Advisory Council as well as make the report publicly available. This report should include data on dimensions such as funding rates and diversity in team participation in principal investigator–led missions as well as research and analysis grants; but could also include data on other important dimensions of interest to the agency. NASA HQ should seek professional statistical expertise to set in place the needed infrastructure to support robust data collection, monitoring, and reporting including, but not limited to, adequate staffing, data collection standards of practice, monitoring and analytic systems, annual reporting capability, and external partnerships, to overcome the challenges of tracking participation in NASA’s Earth and space science activities.
Recommendation 8 addresses specific ways NASA should enhance its current data-gathering process, but the issue of the absence of data is not limited to NASA proposals. There is currently no strategy and methodology being employed to effectively gather demographic data on participation in the Earth and space sciences along the whole career pathway—from undergraduate and graduate programs to academic departments and the professional workforce. While NSF and the American Institute of Physics regularly gather information about academic departments (such as numbers and types of bachelor’s degrees, doctorate degrees, and faculty in different science fields), the workforce in the Earth and space sciences is usually categorized according to the type of object observed and therefore does not align directly with the disciplinary categories typically represented in such studies. Not only are the SMD divisions interdisciplinary in nature (e.g., Planetary Science comprises of geology, biology, atmospheric science, space physics, etc.), but there is also considerable overlap in the science covered by different divisions. Currently, both the total size of the U.S. post-PhD workforce in each of the disciplines associated with the four divisions of SMD with competed missions and the degree of the overlap between those disciplines are very poorly quantified.
RECOMMENDATION 9: To regularly assess the state of the profession, NASA Science Mission Directorate should provide funding for professional organizations (e.g., American Institute of Physics, American Astronomical Society, American Geophysical Union, American Physical Society, etc.) to employ the necessary professional expertise in survey methodology and statistical analysis to systematically carry out surveys of the workforce, within and across the four science divisions with competed missions, to inform NASA of the participation of different demographic groups as well as the barriers and opportunities for advancement along entire career pathways in the Earth and space sciences.
THEME 3: TRAINING AND MENTORING POTENTIAL PIs
Preparation for competed mission leadership starts early in an Earth and space science career. Training and mentorship opportunities are valuable tools to develop a diverse pool of future mission leaders. Acquiring the necessary information about proposing and navigating the informal pre-proposal process as described above in theme1 presents critical challenges to the aspiring PI, and especially PIs from small and less-resourced institutions. A small number of individuals and institutions are effectively “gate keepers” for selection of mission PIs, and non-PhD granting academic institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other
Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), where a high concentration of women physics faculty and Black and Latinx physics faculty are employed, experience inequitable access to opportunities that are helpful to scientists who go on to submit competed mission proposals.
RECOMMENDATION 10: NASA should expand and increase the frequency of training programs that are aimed at encouraging women and historically minoritized communities to become more involved in mission leadership.
Proposal development, preparation, and submission, including site visits, are resource-intensive processes. Given the concentration of women physics faculty and Black and Latinx physics faculty in less-resourced institutions, such resource-intensive processes usually disadvantage prospective PIs from these underrepresented populations. Diversifying the PI population will require investment in a range of institutions, particularly MSIs. Mentoring and access to collaborative networks that include experienced PIs are formative in preparing those who submit competed mission proposals. However, women and racially minoritized space scientists report less access to mentors and a lower quality of relationship with their doctoral advisors and senior colleagues. Inequitable access to high-quality mentoring relationships is a barrier to increasing diversity in the leadership of competed space missions. Recommendation 11 specifies ways for NASA to provide mission-related research, mentorship, and training opportunities at all stages of professional talent development (i.e., from first-year of undergraduate training through the profession).
RECOMMENDATION 12: Principal investigator (PI)-led missions present opportunities for aspiring PIs to gain invaluable experiences. NASA should expand resources (e.g., instructional materials, seminars, workshops) for aspiring PIs to gain leadership experience and connect with individuals with mission experience for mentorship opportunities. This may include:
Recommendation 13 highlights the need for a broader set of skills and expertise beyond scientific competencies to be considered by NASA in PI training and evaluation.
THEME 4: INVESTMENT IN CAREER PATHWAYS FOR UNDERREPRESENTED GROUPS
The very low overall retention (~11%) in space science disciplines during undergraduate training, and the accompanying racial/ethnic disparity, is currently a major “pinch point” that restricts the size and diversity of the pool of PhD scientists for future NASA mission leadership. Interventions to improve the diversity and inclusion of STEM students—the ultimate source of proposer pools—are needed at the high school and college levels, where studies show that much of the diversity in relevant fields is lost. NASA needs long-term, sustained investment in effective activities that inspire, educate, train, and mentor, to ensure that the currently small pool of scientists of color have every opportunity to engage in NASA mission-related work and leadership. NASA is uniquely positioned
to provide individuals with research experiences that are relevant to future mission roles, and there is arguably nothing more authentic than experiences linked to actual NASA missions.
Informed by the existing knowledge base and recognized exemplar interventions, several guiding principles were identified to inform NASA’s investment in these career pathways. The committee found it more important to recommend an intentional strategy through guiding principles to inform NASA’s future investments for bolstering STEM pathways rather than prescribing specific interventions. The guiding principles include (1) promoting the development of identities; (2) establishing flexible and relevant STEM education-to-career pathways; (3) intentionally recruiting from historically underrepresented groups; (4) providing access to diverse mentorship; (5) fostering career-life balance; and (6) promoting systemic change around diversity, equity, and inclusion, and are discussed in depth in Chapter 6.
Lastly, the historical underinvestment in the space science research and development infrastructure at HBCUs and other MSIs has in effect limited the capacity at these institutions to compete for a NASA space mission. Moreover, given the racialized patterns of where today’s faculty are employed and where degree earners in SMD-related fields are educated, historical underinvestment leads to a disproportionately negative impact on faculty members of color in SMD-related fields and limits access to early-career mission experiences for students of color at MSIs. A previous NASA SMD-funded program, the Minority University and College Education and Research Partnership Initiative, did afford students with training in state-of-the-art research methods and preparation for future NASA leadership, specifically through partnerships with MSIs, but it has been defunded. Currently, the Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) and MUREP Institutional Research Opportunity through NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) provide specific engagement to underrepresented and underserved communities in STEM and develop the research capacity and infrastructure of MSIs in areas of strategic importance and value to NASA’s mission and national priorities. Further partnership among NASA SMD, OSTEM, and MSIs, leveraging NASA’s unique assets, and making NASA-led opportunities more perceptible to individuals and organizations would strengthen participation of underrepresented groups in missions. Likewise, NASA’s current investments in STEM education and STEM-related training programs and activities in the United States appear to be concentrated during the K-graduate years of STEM pathways, with very little intentional interventions employed during the post-PhD stages, where attrition continues to be observed. Thus, NASA’s influence on the growth and development of a more diverse and inclusive Earth and space sciences workforce is potentially minimized by limited investments along the career path at the post-PhD stage.
RECOMMENDATION 14: In order to ensure a vibrant, next generation pool of excellent and diverse talent for leadership in competed space missions, NASA Science Mission Directorate, in collaboration with the Office of STEM Engagement, should provide consistent and adequate funding for STEM initiatives that are explicitly centered on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, address recruitment and retention challenges in the Earth and space sciences, and support and expand opportunities for individuals from underrepresented groups. These investments should reflect a pathways approach spanning the academic and career continuum from post-secondary through post-PhD years in order to establish flexible and robust education-to-career trajectories into the Earth and space sciences workforce, and ultimately into principal investigator–led missions. A systematic process should also be in place to document measurable impacts of these investments.
RECOMMENDATION 15: Recognizing the critical role that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) play in educating and employing women and racially minoritized populations in the Earth and space sciences workforce, NASA leadership, specifically the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and Office of STEM Engagement Associate Administrators, should charter a joint team to examine and strengthen the historic and current relationship between the two organizations with respect to investments in MSIs. NASA’s investments should also redress the historical inequities in NASA supported research and training at these institutions. Specifically, NASA should:
