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6 Examining Best Practices at the Federal Level for Advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Principal InvestigatorLed Missions
Pages 92-111

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From page 92...
... in the leadership of competed space missions. A growing body of literature, as well as an increasing number of examples from other institutions and organizations have put forth strategies and practices that NASA SMD can either adopt or adapt to make progress in a number of areas that can aggregately lead to the desired outcomes for principal investigator (PI)
From page 93...
... FOSTERING DEIA IN PROPOSAL REVIEW FOR SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING RESEARCH ACTIVITIES In Chapter 2 of this report, we described the comprehensive process through which proposal review for competed space missions occurs as governed by section 1872.4 of the NASA Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Supplement.
From page 94...
... . The committee could not find any documented evidence of direct impact as a result of requiring this criterion, because NSF's merit review process considers intellectual merit and broader impacts together when evaluating the impact of its federal investments.
From page 95...
... Emerging Practices for Proposal Evaluation At the time that the work of this committee began, considering diversity on mission proposal teams was encouraged, but no specific evaluation criteria for diversity existed in the context of proposal review. In September 2021, NASA released a request for information (RFI)
From page 96...
... Thus, this data collection strategy provides important information across virtually every dimension of the proposal review/award process, but more importantly, demonstrates transparency and visibility into investments for all stakeholders. Promising Practices for Data Collection Although PI-led missions as we know them today began in earnest in the 1990s, information on PIs and team composition began to be collected for the first time by NASA SMD more than a decade later.
From page 97...
... SOURCE: Adopted from NSF's Merit Review Process: FY 2019 Digest. Current Workforce Diminishing Representation for Women and URG Scientists 100% Biological/Biomedical Sciences and Medicine, 90% 80% 70% Percent Representation in 60% 2017 - 2018 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Associate's Bachelor's Master's Doctoral Instructor Assistant Associate Full Department Professor Professor Professor Chair Women - Underrepresented Women - Well-represented Men - Underrepresented Men - Well-represented diversity.nih.gov www.diversity.nih.gov 7 FIGURE 6.1  Snapshot of the biological/biomedical workforce in 2017-2018, disaggregated by (binary)
From page 98...
... Yet, the agency does not currently have much of the needed infrastructure, including adequate staffing, standardized data collec tion practices, monitoring and analytic systems, annual reporting capability, and external partnerships that other agencies like NSF and NIH have leveraged to overcome the challenge of tracking participation in S&E research activities via demographic information acquired on a voluntary basis. Conclusion 6-1: Both the lack of a transparent, systematic process for assessing proposal reviews and the inadequate infrastructure for collecting demographic data on proposers severely limit NASA SMD's ability to accurately determine the relationship between the current mission proposal process and diversity in the pool of PIs.
From page 99...
... operationalized accountability for programs focused on broadening participation and for the agency itself; and (3) increased support for place-based implementation research projects that are grounded in and engage local communities, as well as increased attention to broadening the participation of diverse community members across its research and education portfolios through community-driven projects.4 Promising Practices for Accountability Through Independent Advisory Bodies Since 1977, the NASA Advisory Council (NAC)
From page 100...
... Of the list of regulations, the most germane to the scope of this report are Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,8 which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in federally assisted programs, and Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972,9 which prohibits sex discrimination in federally assisted educational programs. Upon further examination of the operational role of compliance reviews in the context of federal funding, we found limited, available data associated with the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; therefore, we focus our discussion on Title IX compliance reviews.
From page 101...
... Act data reports submitted to Congress. Promising Practices for Accountability Through Compliance Reviews In the case of NSF, the Office of Equity and Civil Rights (OECR)
From page 102...
... Therefore, NASA SMD has an important role to play in bolstering STEM pathways. In the final section of this chapter, we discuss best practices for advancing DEIA along STEM pathways based on our review of the research literature and a range of STEM-related programs, research, and activities in the federal landscape.
From page 103...
... . Over the last two decades, some government-funded interventions to broaden participation in STEM have evolved to focus on establishing flexible and relevant STEM pathways that connect education and workforce opportunities, and accommodate students' diverse interests and backgrounds.
From page 104...
... Guiding Principle 3: Intentionally Recruit from Historically Underrepresented Groups A critical driver to ensuring that the provision of flexible and relevant STEM pathways actually yield an inclusive STEM workforce is intentionality -- a calculated and coordinated method of engagement used by institutions, agencies, organizations and the private sector to effectively meet the needs of a designated population (NASEM 2019a)
From page 105...
... -- This program facilitates the transition of promising postdoctoral researchers from groups underrepre sented in the biomedical research workforce, into independent, tenure-track or equivalent research intensive faculty positions. The related, MOSAIC Institutionally-Focused Research Education Award, provides support to scientific societies to equip MOSAIC scholars with professional skills, mentoring, and professional networks to support this transition.
From page 106...
... program provides authentic research experiences in STEM fields and ongoing mentorship and professional development to high school and undergraduate students, K-12 teachers, faculty, and veterans. Guiding Principle 5: Foster Career-Life Balance As discussed earlier in this chapter, workplace climate can either be a facilitator or a significant barrier to realizing DEIA in STEM, as well as the well-being of all types of workers (Cech and O'Connor 2018; López et al.
From page 107...
... Figure 6.2 illustrates where along education-career pathways select federal agencies have made sustained, intentional investments at any funding level toward advancing DEIA in STEM fields. This snapshot also highlights where purposeful investments are still needed at the federal level more broadly, and more specifically where there are opportunities for NASA to bolster its investments in order to leverage the potential of PI-led missions in space sciences.
From page 108...
... , but it is important to note that more than one of these goals may be prioritized in a given intervention. The committee also acknowledges that education-to-career STEM pathways are not universally linear and so the respective placement of the different stages of education-to-career pathways (top)
From page 109...
... The lack of consistent and intentional investments post-PhD, may in part contribute to the underrepresentation of women of all races and men of color in the pool of leaders for competed space missions.
From page 110...
... . The mission proposal opportunities are not on a fixed schedule, but a planning document that extends out a number years is available, such as https://soma.larc.nasa.gov/ StandardAO/doc_files/Planning%20List%20for%20SMD%20Solicitations%2020210308-for-publication.docx.
From page 111...
... IV. The NSF Merit Review Process A. Merit Review Criteria B. Description of the Merit Review Process C. Program Officer Recommendations D. Review Information for Proposers and the Reconsideration Process E. Methods of External Review F. Data on Reviewers G. Reviewer Proposal Ratings and the Impact of Budget Constraints H. Program Officer Characteristics


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