NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for DEIA

In April, ATS filed comments in response to a Request for Information: Inviting Comments and Suggestions on a Framework for the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA). The purpose of the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for DEIA is to articulate NIH’s vision for embracing, integrating, and strengthening DEIA across all NIH activities to achieve the NIH mission.

The scope of the plan covers accomplishments, needs, opportunities, and challenges related to DEIA within the NIH workforce, its structure and culture, and NIH supported research. The main objectives are to:

• Implement organizational practices to center and prioritize DEIA in the workforce.
• Grow and sustain DEIA through structural and cultural change.
• Advance DEIA through research.

The ATS comments addressed the NIH’s ongoing efforts to diversify its intra- and extramural workforce, as well as its efforts to expand support for NIH research training and mentor incentives, diversity in clinical trial principal investigators and clinical trial participants, and ensure underrepresented minority participation and reviewer bias training within NIH Study Sections.