Research Funds Go Begging, As NIH Minority Plan Gets Feeble Response

While the agency's program to encourage recruitment of minority investigators is said to be `marvelous,' few grantees apply for it WASHINGTON--Nursing professors Irene Lewis and Faye Whitney think they can spot a good thing. And a program that gives scientists as much as $50,000 a year to add a minority investigator onto National Institutes of Health grants is, as far as they are concerned, one of the best deals around. NIH grantee Whitney, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has recruited investigator Lewis, an associate professor at San Jose State University, to Whitney's study of the effects of depression on stroke patients. The collaboration offers Lewis, an African American, a chance to do research at San Jose State, where "teaching, not research, is the priority." For Whitney, Lewis offers experience that will be invaluable in a study with a large number of inner-city minority subjects. The minority supplements program should not be viewed as the preferred way for minority investigators to enter the lab, say science administrators who have spent years trying to increase the number of minorities engaged in biomedical research. There's nothing wrong with additional research money and an extra pair of hands at the bench, they say, but those reasons aren't sufficient. "We must avoid telling minorities that the only way they can succeed is through a minority supplement," says Levon Parker, who coordinates several programs for underrepresented groups at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). "When I meet with a group of talented minority investigators, I make sure to tell them about all the programs that NIH offers, regardless of race. If I don't, they'll wonder why I'm trying to steer them into a minority track." Parker describes where minority supplements fit into a budding research career. "You can use them to get to first base," he says. "But to get to second base they'll need a research training grant. For third base they might apply for a career investigator development award. And to go home, they'll need their own R01 [investigator-initiated research project grant]." It's equally important to ensure that every minority supplement benefits both sides, says Dorothy Powell, dean of the college of nursing at Howard University. "The collaboration must be based on mutual respect, as well as offering a solid mentoring experience," she says. The payoff for both the grantee and the minority scientist must be large enough to overcome whatever obstacles stand in the way, Powell says. The two scientists must also form a personal bond, she says, that can withstand the bumps and scrapes of a research project. All in all, says Parker, a relatively low rate of participation in the program's first few years may not be so bad. "I'd rather have the 2 percent who really want to do it for the right reasons," he says, "than the 10 percent who are doing it just because we're telling them it's a good thing." --J.M. Lewis and Whitney aren't deterred by the 3,000 miles that separate them. But their collaboration is the exception. So few grantees have signed up for the two-year-old program that NIH has more money to spend than demand for those dollars. It's a situation that confounds scientists who have obtained the supplements, and it's a situation that troubles NIH officials who believe strongly in the program's goal of creating more minority biomedical researchers. "It's a marvelous program," says Michael Lovett, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His two-year supplement for a minority investigator expires this fall. "I wish I could think of someone [to hire under the program]," says Lovett, whose two NIH research grants run until 1995 and 1996. The program benefits both the grantee and the minority investigator, notes David Boykin, chairman of the chemistry department at Georgia State University in Atlanta. "We're always trying to recruit minority faculty," says Boykin, whose lab is searching for drugs to combat AIDS, "and the supplements program is a good way to give young people a fast start on research." Although collaboration like Whitney and Lewis's is the most common type of arrangement funded by the supplement, there are many scientists who have welcomed graduate students, undergraduates, and even high school students into their labs. But the total number who are participating is small. Only 2.5 percent of eligible grantees have participated in the minority supplements program during its first two years, according to NIH reports. The rate varies from more than 5 percent at the National Center for Nursing Research, which is funding Whitney and Lewis, to less than 1 percent at the National Eye Institute (NEI) and the National Institute for Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). A total of 376 supplemental grants, for $12.3 million, were made in the first 18 months of the program out of a pool of 17,873 eligible principal investigators. The low participation certainly isn't a result of inadequate support from NIH. Although few institutes have set aside a specific pot of money, choosing instead to see how many requests they receive, extramural program officials say that they have yet to turn away qualified applicants. That situation is a rarity at NIH during a time when success rates stand at an all-time low of one in four applicants, when the average NIH grant is sliced by about 15 percent even after it is funded, and when biomedical researchers are lamenting the federal government's lack of support of investigator-initiated projects. Several NIH officials say they are disappointed by the level of response to date. "We're not where we want to be, that's for sure," says Ralph Helmsen, research training and resources officer at NEI. Adds Tony Rene, assistant director for referral and liaison at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), "most P.I.'s still haven't heard about it, and I don't know why. We announced it [in the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts] in April 1989 and again in November 1990, and we talk about it all the time at meetings." This spring Rene sent a letter describing the program to all 3,000 principal investigators being funded by NIGMS; it was the second such mailing by the institute. And it's not just the average investigator who's unfamiliar with the program. Michael Lockshin, NIAMS's director for extramural programs, broached the subject at the January meeting of his institute's advisory council, a policy-making body of top scientists from around the country. "To my horror, we discovered that many of them didn't know about it, either," he says. Shortly after the meeting, Lockshin also sent out a letter to all NIAMS grantees. NIH administrators, asked to interpret the low participation in light of current funding shortages, offer a number of explanations. They say that any new program takes at least a few years to become widely known. They claim there is a dearth of qualified minorities at many grantee institutions. And they point to the importance of finding the right match between the talents of an eligible scientist and the needs of the grantee. At the same time, those officials praise the program. And they foresee more applications in the months to come. "It's a can't-lose situation," says Lemuel Evans, who oversees the program for the National Cancer Institute. "We're talking about investigators who are not yet competitive but who bring a lot of understanding to the table on a variety of important issues." The program offers everything an academic scientist could want, adds NIGMS's Rene. "It's a good deal," he says. Included in the typical $50,000 grant, he notes, "are indirect costs at the going rate, up to $10,000 for supplies and travel, and a competitive salary." Both NCI and NIGMS run similar programs for minority investigators that predate the minority supplements program. In addition, NIGMS is the administrative home for several NIH-wide programs to attract and retain underrepresented groups in science, including the Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) and the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) programs. Officials at some of the smaller institutes say those additional programs give NIGMS and the larger institutes the resources to move ahead more quickly in the effort to attract minorities. "I am the sole contact for every funding mechanism at NEI, including the minority supplements," notes NEI's Helmsen. "But there's only so much one person can do [to stimulate interest and generate applications]. To do it right, I'd need several more people." One of the biggest obstacles that the minority supplements program must overcome, say NIH officials, is bringing together the two components of the program--principal investigators and minority scientists. Building up those ties is essential, they say--and a real challenge. "I would expect them to contact me if they wanted to work in my lab," says Johns Hopkins University molecular biology professor Daniel Nathans, a Nobel laureate in medicine or physiology who remarked last month that he had just heard about the program. "That's the way it's usually done--a postdoc seeks out a senior person in the same field." Even grantees who have received a minority supplement acknowledge that sometimes they don't have to look far to find an eligible candidate. "My colleague had seen an NIH brochure [describing the program] and knew that one of my best research people was Hispanic," says UCLA's Lovett. "And the reason he knew was because he had someone in his lab who knew David [Blanco] and told him. "Our department would love to attract more minority students with research experience, but there aren't many around." Thanks to the minority supplements program at NIH, Carmen Medina has been able to return to her first love--basic immunological research. That has helped to reawaken her desire to some day set up her own lab in her native Puerto Rico. Her boss, Judy Teale, says that she's glad to help expand the pool of minority researchers, as well as to profit from Medina's skills as a scientist. This arrangement grew out of a phone call from a colleague of Teale's in Michigan, asking Teale if she had a spot in her lab for a former postdoc now living in San Antonio. Teale, an associate professor in the microbiology department at the University of Texas Health Science Center in that city, was reminded of a new program she had heard about from the school's grants management officer. The two women joined forces on the supplement and, six months later, Medina was hard at work in Teale's lab, expanding the scope of Teale's research on her grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and learning the latest techniques in her field. "It's difficult to find qualified minorities, and I didn't have a slot for her when Pam [Fraker, a microbiologist at Michigan State University] called," explains Teale, who is in the ninth year of an NIAID grant examining B-cell differentiation. "The supplemental grant made it possible for me to take her in, and she's very good in the lab. My program has certainly benefited from her presence." Medina, who received her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico, says that she had other employment opportunities when she and her husband, who is an Army physician, moved back to the United States after a two-year stint in Panama. But she held out for Teale's lab. "I wanted to get back into research," she says. "It's a very fast-moving area, and being here also gives me the chance to learn PCR [polymerase chain reaction] and other new techniques in molecular biology. It's been a great opportunity." In addition to honing Medina's skills as a scientist, Teale believes that the supplements program could give Medina and others an advantage in finding their next job. "If one postdoc isn't enough to find an independent faculty position, then this program should help by giving them the experience they need," says Teale. "Even in graduate school, this program should make it easier for an institution to take a risk on a promising student if that student comes with some research money." Medina sees her current job as an important step on the road to what she hopes will be a long and satisfying academic career. "Eventually I'd like to go back home, to teach and train students as well as continue my research," she says. "And my experience here is a big part of making that possible." --J.M. The question of who takes the first step in establishing a collaboration is a thorny one. While most agree that all parties must play an active and visible role, many NIH administrators say that the principal investigator must carry the heaviest load. "If they're not willing to make the effort," says NIAMS's Lockshin, "then they aren't in keeping with the spirit of the '90s." Others believe that NIH also needs to do more. "I have lots of minority faculty who would benefit from doing research, but I'm not sure that NIH has worked out the proper mechanism for P.I.'s to recruit these minority scientists," says Dorothy Powell, dean of the college of nursing at Howard University. "If NIH is really serious about increasing the number of minority biomedical researchers, then it's not enough to just announce a program and wait for people to respond." Janet Heinrich, director of extramural programs at the National Center for Nursing Research, didn't wait for the program's principals to find each other. Despite having the smallest extramural research portfolio of any NIH entity, the two-year-old center has been quite active in trying to achieve the goals of the minority supplements program. One useful approach, she says, are meetings at which P.I.'s and eligible minorities can get to know each other and discuss areas of mutual interest. That's how Lewis and Whitney first met. "I went to a research conference at which NCNR officials described these awards as part of a broader program on serving underrepresented groups," recalls Lewis, who works in gerontology and community health and who describes herself and Whitney as "mature women who have taught for a long time." She remembers that "over lunch Jan asked if any of us might be interested in the minority supplements, and I spoke up. Later she introduced me to Barbara Lowery [a professor at Penn's nursing school and director of the university's Center for Nursing Research], who put me in touch with Faye [Whitney]." "We spent a lot of time on the phone figuring out how to collaborate," Lewis says, "and I spent one weekend in Philadelphia working with her on the proposal. And then, once we got funded, I spent the winter break with her, training to use her instrument [assessment questionnaire]." Lewis also plans to spend two months each summer with Whitney, reviewing data and planning new areas of research. Not every collaboration poses such logistical problems, of course. Still, Whitney hopes she and Lewis have blazed a path that other scientists can follow to bring more minorities into research. "The supplements still aren't big enough to pay someone to leave their campus and work with a colleague at another university," Whitney says. "So we developed a research model that gets around that fact. If things work out, Irene and I will both have a bicoastal population, with each of us drawing on work being done by the other one." Too many of her colleagues, Whitney says, are put off by the obstacles of setting up such a collaboration and fail to see its strengths. "That's part of the problem, I suppose," she says, referring to the low rate of participation. "You have to be of a mind to help, and then be sufficiently creative to work out an arrangement that benefits both parties. "At the same time," she adds, "once we met we knew that we wanted to work together. And the minority supplements program offered us that chance."

Research Funds Go Begging, As NIH Minority Plan Gets Feeble Response

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