NIH Vows to Do Better in Countering Sexual Harassment

The agency gives an accounting of grantees and staffers penalized for their behavior last year.

Written byShawna Williams

| 2 min read

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Leaders of the National Institutes of Health are “concerned that NIH has been part of the problem” of sexual harassment in science, and are “determined to become part of the solution,” they write in a statement released today (February 28). While the document does not detail any policy changes on the part of the US’s largest funder of biomedical research, it lays out steps the NIH is taking to counter harassment, and makes public the numbers of grantees and NIH staff members who were investigated and penalized in 2018.

“To all those who have endured these experiences, we are sorry that it has taken so long to acknowledge and address the climate and culture that has caused such harm,” writes NIH Director Francis Collins on Twitter.

According to the statement, in 2018 NIH replaced 14 principal investigators on grants due to “sexual harassment-related concerns,” and removed the ...

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Meet the Author

Shawna Williams
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Shawna was an editor at The Scientist from 2017 through 2022. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Colorado College and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Previously, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, and in the communications offices of several academic research institutions. As news director, Shawna assigned and edited news, opinion, and in-depth feature articles for the website on all aspects of the life sciences. She is based in central Washington State, and is a member of the Northwest Science Writers Association and the National Association of Science Writers.
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