A federal government health agency is under fire for a $241 million taxpayer-funded plan to promote scientists from minority backgrounds who meet DEI checklists, rather than top candidates.
Conservatives are taking aim at the National Institutes of Health’s Institutional Recruitment of Colleges for Sustainable Transformation (First) plan, which pays universities to hire biomedical researchers in an effort to achieve “inclusive excellence.”
The right-leaning National Association of Scholars (NAS) accuses the NIH of putting an “ideological agenda” before quality research, and transparency watchdog Open the Books calls it a waste of taxpayer money .
The NIH did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Researchers work in a UT lab: Experts say DEI hiring now encroaches on hard science
Cornell University has participated in the Institutional Recruitment of Professors for Sustainable Transformation program
The case highlights diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts to get more underrepresented talent, such as women and minorities, into desirable jobs, which critics say hurts the prospects of straight white men.
In particular, it focuses on the controversial ‘DEI statements’ that have become mandatory for recruitment at many liberal universities, which conservative academics denounce as an ideological litmus test.
According to Open the Books, the first plan is expected to cost $241 million over nine years.
It has sent grants to 16 universities since 2021.
Its most recent funding round of four awards totaled $64 million.
Recent recipients include the University of South Carolina, which received $13 million, the University of New Mexico ($15.6 million) and Northwestern University ($16 million), the group said in a report Tuesday. .
Florida State University, Cornell University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Tuskegee University have also benefited from the plan.
NAS member John Sailer says the plan promotes scientists who pay lip service to DEI, rather than those who are the best in computational biology, genetics, neurobiology and other areas of research.
The National Institutes of Health says it wants to promote “inclusive excellence.” Pictured: Cancer researchers at Stanford University.
Adam Andrzejewski of watchdog Open the Books says taxpayers are spending $241 million on diversity hiring.
Applicants must submit “diversity statements,” and those who say they plan to “treat everyone equally” regardless of skin color are at a disadvantage, says Sailer, who obtained university rubrics.
It is claimed that those who use DEI buzzwords like “equity” and say they are pushing for racial justice are more likely to come out ahead.
Sailer highlights recruiting at Cornell University, where university documents show that an applicant’s “statement regarding contribution to diversity” was to “receive significant weight in the evaluation.”
“The information reveals how the NIH pursues an ideological agenda,” Sailer wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
The agency is “prompting universities and medical schools to vet potential biomedical scientists for their misconceptions about diversity,” he added.
The NIH plan and universities are recklessly promoting the wrong candidates at the expense of quality scientific research, he added.
“In medical research, lives depend on prioritizing excellence,” he wrote.
“The NIH distorts that value, subordinating it to political ideology and endangering those it is supposed to serve.”
John Sailer, a member of the National Association of Scholars, says anti-DEI “wrong thinking” is criminalized
The NIH did not respond to our questions, but says on its website that its goal is to maintain high standards while bringing more underrepresented groups into labs.
The project aims to “impact inclusive excellence in research environments and ultimately diversify the biomedical research workforce,” it says.
For some, DEI schemes are important and necessary, helping to overcome historical racism and sexism and making it easier for people from all backgrounds to get ahead in schools, universities and offices.
But critics say they are a form of reverse discrimination that harms straight white men.
DEI schemes face a backlash from conservative legal action groups, especially those funded by taxpayers.
Last month, the University of Florida canceled all DEI positions and closed diversity programs in the state’s publicly funded education system in compliance with new state regulations.
DEI staff now occupy more than 3.4 positions per 100 tenured faculty, according to nationwide research by The Heritage Foundation, stoking fears of a growing sector that some say is nothing more than a box-ticking exercise.