Our scientific enterprises in the United States are the world’s jealousy. Top scientists from around the world want to come here to work, especially because we have been supporting scientific innovation and intellectual freedom for decades. Investment in federal research is one of the main foundations for building this very successful system.
It’s not just one dollar of federal funding that makes the system so successful. It also has to do with how we allocate and allocate funds. Before “dei” is a common saying, we made strong efforts to allocate funds extensively. For example, instead of concentrating funds like many other countries, we created programs such as Epscor (1979) to guide funding to support R&D across the country, including rural areas. This is done to recognize that excellence in research can be found anywhere, and that universities and universities serving rural and impoverished communities should benefit and contribute to the economic and scientific engines that the federal government can provide.
The National Science Foundation also had a greater impact on its grant review process (originally originated in the 1960s and formalized in 1997). The goal of the NSF review criteria to broader impact is to ensure that every federally funded program brings some benefits to society. These broader impacts may take many forms, including but not limited to new tools and innovations, and efforts to develop the STEM workforce by supporting those historically and economically excluded from becoming scientists.
Diversity, equity and inclusion funding is one of the mechanisms in which we use this fair legacy in federal scientific research funding. This approach also helps reduce distrust of science and scientists, a distrust attributed to the abuse of science history, by ensuring the benefits of scientific progress are widely, equitably shared, and by making scientists’ work more transparent and accessible.
Until recently, science was an activity for the rich. Training as a scientist requires years of deferred salary due to the extensive educational and practical skills development required to conduct independent research and create laboratories. For those who have gone through this training, research may be small and not paid well, given the high demand for high specialization skills and jobs required. This economic reality excludes many of the best and smartest ideas from the scientific process. Federal funding provides important support for the development of the scientific workforce, mainly through allowances and salaries for undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral fellows. These allowances can be easily (but not eliminated) as an economic burden of training for scientists.
When you hear “DEI in the field of science”, that’s largely what we’re talking about. Most federal DEI funds in science directly support highly talented and accomplished trainees who delay personal economic progress in order to have the opportunity to contribute to science in the United States, and this wise investment helps ensure that our scientific workforce can recruit the most favorable trainees, regardless of economic background. Without these initiatives, our scientific workforce will be smaller and have a narrow range of perspectives. Our national investment in science training is not altruism, but the reason why the United States is a global leader in science and technology. This leadership contributes to the security and capacity of our country in response to the existing problems we are facing now.
The DEI framework recognizes that there is systemic economic and social injustice in our society due to historical and contemporary realities such as slavery, Jim Crow, genocide of indigenous peoples, dividends, breakdown of immigration systems, education and health care gaps, education and health care differences, and discriminatory practices in housing and nonwhite, discriminatory practices against nonwhite and lgbbtq+ communities. These differences have led to a lack of intergenerational wealth and resources in many communities in the United States, resulting in lack of access to scientific training and careers.
Now the claim made by our federal government that elite politics can be achieved by ignoring these injustices is wrong and illogical. Dei not only involves diversity training and recruitment practices. In science, the goal of developing the world’s most powerful, talented and highly skilled scientific workforce is essential.
The funding has been under attack with the Trump administration’s Executive Order No. 14151, and decades of progress have promoted the most talented and smartest minds of our time. Strict training programs have been cancelled, graduate students are losing funds, and the training of the entire scientist is under jeopardy. Due to this executive order, science will lose a lot of talent, which is necessary for our country’s industrial and economic leadership.
In addition, the withdrawal of such funds is being issued on the basis of identity, effectively recognizing the form of scientific segregation imposed by the government. Advances in science often depend on demographic decisions of those who work in science, and diverse perspectives and research questions are necessary for scientific innovation. For example, despite the severity of the disease, sickle cell disease has long been underfunded and underresearched, probably because it affects the offspring of people with higher instances of malaria, including many African Americans. Indeed, some scientific breakthroughs and technologies may never be achieved or largely delayed due to the identity of talented people. This is a fundamental threat to scientific progress and academic freedom.
The federal ban on DEI program is a slap in the face of everyone who strives to be a scientist facing system injustice. These past and present trainees missed economic opportunities, delayed building their own families and made many personal sacrifices so that they could create innovative solutions for the most pressing scientific and technological challenges of our country. The creation of these DEI programs comes from the extraordinary efforts of thousands of people, many of whom overcome their injustice themselves and work tirelessly over the decades, so the most meritorious and talented individuals have the opportunity to successfully become scientists.
As the Trump administration has done now, calling these efforts “shameful discrimination” is a cruel attempt to undermine the emotional well-being of all those created and supported by these fundamental plans. This is an example of the victims of past and ongoing injustice being blamed on their social dilemma rather than working to tear down systems of permanent inequality and limiting the pathways to truly elite politics in the field of science.
We believe that efforts to prohibit, reduce and false statements and diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs should be immediately stopped to avoid the worst negative impacts of these new policies. The removal of the DEI program will bring down the morale of the entire scientist in training. As the funding mechanism is demolished, this will greatly reduce the scientific workforce and remove top talent from our training programs.
Our graduate students, undergraduates, postdoctoral fellows and other early career scientists are the people who are most affected by the dismissal. This will seriously jeopardize the United States’ position as a global leader in science, and will feel disastrous effects for decades. We support those most affected by the DEI ban, especially our trainees, and we request immediate recovery of DEI funds.
We are using the freedom of speech and intellectuality provided by the American academic system and the U.S. Constitution. We call on our institutions to join us in defending science. Institutional and professional societies must reaffirm their commitment to DEI. Some institutions have issued strong statements reaffirming these values, but others have begun to pre-delete their internal and external DEI programs. We understand the need for institutions that protect their staff and students from adverse consequences, but we believe the consequences of demolition of diversity programs are much greater for our communities as these steps usher in a new era of segregation in science and academia.
We urge the public, our lawmakers and politicians to stand with us. We believe that DEI is the foundation of science, and the attack on DEI is an attack on the core of American science.
